Top portion of a "Letter from Heaven," produced in England, 18th century

Himmelsbriefe: Heaven-Sent Chain Letters

For more than a thousand years, people have used letters allegedly written by Christ as both doctrinal evidence and magical charms.
Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28550903

How American Librarians Helped Defeat the Nazis

Recruited to the war effort thanks to their deft research skills and technological know-how, librarians used microforms to gather and share intelligence with Allied forces.
Glee Mandolin, 1900

The Nineteenth-Century Banjo

Derived from an instrument brought to America by enslaved Africans, the banjo experienced a surge of popularity during the New Woman movement of the late 1800s.
The Roman Countryside by Pietro Barucci

Ride ’em, Butteri! 

Long before spaghetti westerns, Italians were turned on to an image of the American West by Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show.
Beached Whale by Ida Bagus Nyoman Rai

Balinese Art, Worm Consciousness, and Exoplanets

Well-researched stories from Aeon, Nautilus, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
A black preacher addressing his mixed congregation on a plantation

When Enslaved Virginians Demanded the Right to Read

In 1723, a group of enslaved African Americans petitioned the Bishop of London to ensure that their children could attend school and learn to read the Bible.
A doctor in the Philippines checks a patient’s blood pressure assisted by Filipina Nurse C.P. De Batan, 1963

Who’s Afraid of the Filipina Coed?

Cultural depictions of the "transpacific Filipina" reflected anxieties about the changing education and social roles of women in the Cold War Philippines.
A painting of Elizabeth Hamilton

Redeeming the Old Maid

Scottish-born novelist Elizabeth Hamilton used her characters to anticipate a future for herself in middle age as a confident and intelligent woman.
The School of Athens (detail) featuring Euclid by Raphael

Data: Not Just Another Four-Letter Word

For early modern theologians, data were assumptions of truths for which there was no need for explanation. How things—and data—have changed.
Two boys studying in a dormitory room at Carlisle Indian School, Carlisle, PA, 1901

Subversive Student Writing at Carlisle Indian School

In the early twentieth century, some Anishinaabe students turned writing assignments meant to showcase assimilation into celebrations of resistance.