Wood: The Best “New” Building Material?
A 2017 study for an 80-story wooden structure in Chicago was an opportunity to examine the potential for the building material's future.
How American Consumers Embraced Color
Vivid hues in everyday products became eye-popping reality in the early twentieth century.
The Philosophy of Posthumous Art
For some creators, death isn’t the end of their career. How should we think about completing and releasing their work afterward?
Five of the Best R. Cobb Drawings in the Underground Press
The artist turned a critical eye toward American society, but he didn't want to be called a political cartoonist.
The Soap Bubble Trope
Throughout the history of philosophy, literature, art, and science, people have been fascinated with the shimmering surfaces of soap bubbles.
The Hunt of the Unicorn Tapestries Depict a “Virgin-Capture Legend”
They’re big in elementary school, but unicorn tableaux also have a complex iconographic history that combines religious and secular myths.
The Unicorns of JSTOR
These rare creatures have by turn—and somewhat paradoxically—been associated with purity, fertility, seduction, healing, sacrifice, immortality, and divinity.
Fall in Love with Fabric Samples
Donald Brothers was a storied Scottish firm that produced amazing fabric designs. Feast your eyes on a selection today.
Album Cover Artwork Was Super Boring before Alex Steinweiss
Inspired by the Bauhaus and WPA posters, the midcentury designer all but invented the modern record-album cover.
The Benin Bronzes and the Cultural History of Museums
What an 1897 exhibition at the British Museum can tell us about how African artworks were perceived in an era of imperialism.