How Lizzie Bennet Got Her Books
In Regency England, a novel cost about $100. Subscription-based circulating libraries became a way for women of modest means to gain knowledge.
Preparing Libraries for Nuclear War
During the Cold War, America's libraries helped patrons prepare for nuclear war, from stocking reference materials to providing fallout shelters.
Pregnant Pioneers
For the frontier women of the 19th century, the experience of childbirth was harrowing, and even just expressing fear was considered a privilege.
The Last Silent Film Star
The silent film star once known as Baby Peggy reminisces about how, decades before #TimesUp, children and women were exploited by Hollywood.
American Film’s Disappearing Lesbians
In the 1990s, lesbian characters were repeatedly transformed into "close friends" in film adaptions of LGBTQ-themed books.
How Female Singer-Songwriters Taught Us to Love in the 70s
Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon offered a way to imagine more modern ideals of romance and sexual relationships.
The Soaring Symbolism of Moscow’s Subways
Lofty ceilings, massive slabs of marble, and colorful mosaics celebrated Soviets in all their incarnations, from military leaders to collective farmers.
England’s Obsession with Queen Victoria’s Wedding Cake
Queen Victoria's wedding, and its spectacular cake, caused a frenzy.
The Same-Sex Household That Launched 3 Women Artists
The "Red Rose Girls"—Violet Oakley, Jessie Wilcox Smith, and Elizabeth Shippen Green—met at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in the 1880s.
The Unbearable Sadness of Toast
One scholar sees the toaster as a symbol of a modernized, industrialized society—the culprit of bread’s mechanization and a perpetrator of assimilation.