Bill Clinton plays the saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show, 1992

The Late-Night Circuit: Why Do Politicians Do It?

With a captive audience of millions and a relaxed atmosphere, the late-night talk show offers a good opportunity to make policy discussions more memorable.
Lady Arbella Stuart

The Lady Who Might Have Been Queen of England

The failed campaign to put Lady Arbella Stuart in the line of succession began with a matchmaking scheme between her two grandmothers.
Royal Air Force bombers, 1938

The RAF on Speed: High-Flying or Flying High?

Drug use during World War II, especially by Nazis, was typically viewed as immoral. But what about when it was approved by leaders of the Royal Air Force?
A still from "Both Sides Now" by Kandy Fong

The Feminist Art Roots of Fan-Made Videos

Though vidding is now generally a part of online culture, it originated in the grassroots editing efforts of female television fans.
A View of the Pearl-Fishery, created for George Henry Millar's The new and universal System of Geography, 1782

African Swimmers in American Waters

Although most enslaved people worked in the fields, captive workers with strong swimming and diving skills were also exploited by plantation owners.
The lid of K'inich Janaab' Pakal's sarcophagus

From Mud to the Sun: The World Tree of the Maya

Cosmic trees, found around the globe and throughout history, may represent a primeval fount of creation or a vegetal axis mundi that connects life and death.
Jean-Paul Sartre in front of a swirling background of red crabs

That Time Jean-Paul Sartre Got High on Mescaline

The French existentialist got more than he bargained for when he went in search of drug-induced inspiration for his philosophical writings.
Factory chimneys pumping out pollution in the Ruhr, Germany, 1970

A Precautionary Tale

West Germany’s “do no harm” approach to environmental protection—which became known as the precautionary principle—was revolutionary in its time.
A photograph of George Leslie Stout, Langdon Warner, and Japanese officials at Nishi Honganji temple in Kyoto, Japan, May 1946

The Other Monuments Men

The men and women who tracked down looted art after WWII didn’t just go after stuff stolen by the Nazis. They also searched for treasures stolen by the Japanese. Sort of.
Leonard de Koningh, Self-portrait as a painter, 1864-73

Did Photography Really Kill Portrait Painting?

While some viewed photography as a competitor for their customers, Dutch portrait painters reaped the benefits of the emerging medium.