The First Black Woman to Perform at the Grand Ole Opry
Linda Martell made the switch from R&B to country music in the late 1960s. Her star then shined on country's biggest stage.
How Trading Card Collectors Have Fought Stereotypes
By making what may have been unseen visible, trading cards have often provided an opening into larger conversations on race, gender, and representation.
The Satanic Foreign Film That Was Banned in the U.S.
Benjamin Christensen's Häxan was part documentary and part fantasy—and considered too disturbing for public viewing.
ONE: The First Gay Magazine in the United States
ONE is a vital archive, but its focus on citizenship and “rational acceptance” ultimately blocked it from being the safe home for all that it claimed to be.
What Drove Buster Keaton to Try a Civil War Comedy?
“Someone should have told Buster that it is difficult to derive laughter from the sight of men being killed in battle.”
Diorama, qu’est-ce que c’est?
Before his daguerreotype, the French inventor Louis Daguerre unveiled a new kind of “virtual reality” on a British stage.
Media Literacy & Fake News: A Syllabus
Ten lessons from the past and steps we can take now to educate ourselves and our students about how to be a thoughtful consumer of information.
All You Need Is Live
The very first international TV simulcast was 1967's Our World, which featured performers from around the globe—including the Beatles.
Recalling City Sounds During a Quarantine
The New York Public Library presented the city with the gift of its own "missing sounds" during the coronavirus crisis.
The Exploding Women of Early 20th Century “Trick Films”
In “trick films,” women were shown literally exploding over kitchen accidents—the early 1900s way of mining humor out of human tragedies.