Frank Capra’s Not-So-Sunny Vision of American Life
Capra's films are known for being upbeat and sometimes cheesy, but beneath the surface are rather dark stories of American corruption.
The Font Detectives
For typography experts like Thomas Phinney, the history of the printed word is crucial to weeding out fraud.
The Delicate Science-Art of the Blaschka Invertebrate Collection
The Cornell Collection of Blaschka Invertebrate Models includes hundreds of glass models of sea creatures, making it both a teaching tool and a metaphor.
The Posthumous Mystique of Thomas Chatterton
He died young of suicide and became the quintessence of the tormented poet. But his death may have been an accident, and his greatest work, forgeries.
These Gravity-Defying Sculptures Provoked Accusations of Demonic Possession
Demons and artists, it seems, pull from the same bag of tricks. They take ordinary matter and transform it into something more wondrous, more terrifying.
Woodstock: Sex, Drugs, and Zoning
It's the 50th anniversary of the famous Woodstock festival, which was fraught with controversy before it even happened.
What The Great Gatsby Reveals About The Jazz Age
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel embraced jazz, while also falling prey to the racist caricatures associated with it.
The Rise and Fall of Hologram Art
Major artists like Roy Lichtenstein and Louise Bourgeois have experimented with holography, but it has yet to be taken seriously as an art form.
Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, “The Black Swan”
Born into slavery, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield broke barriers with every note she sang.