The emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. took place over a protracted period. The articles in this curated list dig into the complicated history.

Reports in the underground press demonstrate how Juneteenth has been celebrated as both a social and political gathering in the twentieth century.

Lindsy Van Gelder—author of that famous New York Post article about bra-burning feminists—reflects on the alternative LGBTQ+ press of the 1970s.

In “trick films,” women were shown literally exploding over kitchen accidents—the early 1900s way of mining humor out of human tragedies.

Widespread market failure and unemployment triggered by the coronavirus pandemic have set off a crisis of domestic migration in India.

A Vickers Wellington plane was submerged for decades in the Loch Ness, till a group of Nessie hunters stumbled across mysterious sonar readings.

In 1803, nearly two dozen orphan boys endured long voyages and physical discomfort to transport the smallpox vaccine to Spain's colonies.

Gloves, masks, and other personal protective equipment have kept us safe during the pandemic. Now they're washing up on beaches around the world.

Well-researched stories from The Conversation, The New York Times Magazine, and other publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Four major theories of disease transmission dominated scientific discourse in the nineteenth century. As one scholar writes, all were political.