Oberlin College was founded by religious idealists committed to abolitionism and integration. Then public attitudes began to shift.

Spiritualist medium Helen Duncan was photographed emitting ectoplasm, supposedly proof of her ability to contact the dead.

What our emotional reaction to jargon reveals about the evolution of the English language, and how the use of specialized terms can manipulate meaning.

The history of obstetric forceps shows the dangers of privatizing important medical know-how.

Charlotte Gilman wrote her famous short story in response to her own experience having her pain belittled and misunderstood by a male physician.

Once polluted and abandoned, back alleys have sprouted into flourishing rain gardens.

Well-researched stories from GQ, NPR, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

The U.S.A.'s founders focused on the rights of white men to vote, own property, and govern. The idea that women should have similar rights came later.

Arthur Munby was an upper-class man of letters who "collected" working class women, including his servant Hannah Cullwick, whom he married in 1873.

During the Korean War, North Korea suffered widespread epidemics of typhus and smallpox. The Communist party blamed US germ warfare.