Initially supportive of Belgian King Leopold II’s claim to have created a “free state” of Congo, Williams changed his mind when he saw the horrors of empire.

Inside the trunks of trees lies a wealth of data on climate that goes back generations.

The gay men's magazines QQ and Ciao! were unabashedly liberated, but they still catered to an exclusive audience.

They’re big in elementary school, but unicorn tableaux also have a complex iconographic history that combines religious and secular myths.

These rare creatures have by turn—and somewhat paradoxically—been associated with purity, fertility, seduction, healing, sacrifice, immortality, and divinity.

The debate over what counts as authentic Mexican food may be moot when there are 7,000 Taco Bells around the world.

Well-researched stories from Atlas Obscura, The Guardian, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

According to one scholar, the military sees training in this obsolete weapon as helpful on the modern battlefield.

When Rome burned in 192 CE, the city's vibrant community of scholars was devastated. The physician Galen described the scale of the loss.

Created in Victorian England, the earliest public parks were on a civilizing mission.