Marshall Islands stick chart, Meddo type

Marshall Islands Wave Charts

Charts constructed of carefully bound sticks served as memory aids, allowing sailors of the Marshall Islands to navigate between the islands by feel.
A lichen in a paper coffee cup

Lichen Latte, Anyone?

Irrigation and antibiotics might be appropriate treatments for an animal bite—but maybe you’d prefer to sip a steaming lichen-and-pepper latte instead.
Samuel Delany at the St. Mark's Poetry Project in New York

Ode to Samuel Delany

Composed half-a-century ago, The Ballad of Beta-2 was a science-fiction vision of the future that speaks directly to our present.
A large poster for the film Ebony Parade with a blue background and an off-white border. Across the blue background are red musical notes and stars outlined in white. At the top center in red lettering is "20 Great Stars". Printed in the center in small black type is "Astor Pictures presents" followed by "EBONY PARADE" in large yellow letters over a red background. Surrounding the title are color photographic portraits of the stars of the film. At the top left are the faces of Mantan Moreland, Dorothy Dandridge and Ruby Hill, followed by a full portrait of a seated Mabel Lee and in the bottom left corner is an image of the Mills Brothers gathered around two microphones. On the right side are the faces of Cab Calloway, Vanita Smythe, Francine Everett, and Count Basie. At the bottom right is a yellow box bordered in black with red text that reads "featuring / Cab Calloway * Count Basie / His Band His Band / Mills. Bros. * Vanita Smythe / Mantan Moreland * Mable Lee/ Ruby Hill * Francine Everett / Dorothy Dandridge * Pat Flowers / and / Day, Dawn, and Dusk * Jubilaries".

Mills Panoram and Soundies

In the 1940s, these short films set to music transgressed Hollywood’s racial mythology to create space for Black artists to experiment—and have fun.
Rowers lift their oars in sign of salute ahead of the traditional regatta on the Grand Canal which officially opens the Venice Carnival on February 16, 2014 in Venice, Italy.

Venice’s Carnival, Brain Tech, and African Energy

Well-researched stories from Atlas Obscura, Yale Environment 360, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Six young men riding on a horse-drawn wagon filled with corn at the Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youth in Bordentown, NJ, 1935

Even the Best Jim Crow School…Was Still a Jim Crow School

Before Brown v. Board of Education, Black activists split between integrationist and separatist factions, particularly at New Jersey’s Bordentown School.
Title page for Sinners in the hands of an angry God, 1741

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God: Annotated

Jonathan Edwards’s sermon reflects the complicated religious culture of eighteenth-century America, influenced not just by Calvinism, but Newtonian physics as well.
An advertising card for White, Warner & Co. Stoves and Ranges

How Stovemakers Helped Invent Modern Marketing

Most people in the United States have a stove in their kitchen. But how did this “must-have” come to be?
Fireworks and shouts of joy emanate from Tahrir Square after a broadcast by the head of the Egyptian military confirming that they will temporarily be taking over from the country's first democratically elected president Mohammed Morsi on July 3, 2013 in Cairo, Egypt.

An Overview d’état: Are Coups Democracy in Action?

Coups in autocracies are frequently followed by elections, which are then followed by new coup attempts. Why do elections increase coup risk?
John Addington Symonds, 1889

Putting Gay Men Back Into History

In the late nineteenth century, historian John Addington Symonds fought back against his colleagues’ refusal to acknowledge historical same-sex relationships.