Hormel Girls

The Singing, Dancing Hormel Girls Who Sold America SPAM

SPAM was introduced 80 years, but it was a military-style corps of singing women that helped the canned meat skyrocket in the years after World War II.
Hala Alyan Salt Houses

How to Recreate Palestine: Researching Salt Houses

Debut novelist Hala Alyan on how she researched her new, much-buzzed-about novel Salt Houses, with a little help from JSTOR.
Refugee child reading Superman

Why Art Historians Still Ignore Comics

In recent history comic art has crossed boundaries to enter other mediums. So why aren't art historians paying more attention?
Declaration drafting

When Did Colonial America Gain Linguistic Independence?

By the time the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, did colonial Americans still sound like their British counterparts?
Ruth Mazo Karras

Ruth Mazo Karras

Ask a Professor offers an insider’s view of life in academia. Up this month: Ruth Mazo Karmas, Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.
Marina Abramovic

How Virtual Reality Could Change the Art World

Acute Art is a kind virtual reality marketed directly to artists. Marina Abramović, Olafur Eliasson, and Jeff Koons have been the first to try it out.
Source: Confederation Centre Art Gallery

Caroline Louisa Daly Is Finally Getting Her Due

The works of the Canadian painter Caroline Louisa Daly were for years incorrectly attributed to Charles Daly, a municipal bureaucrat turned artist.
Illustration of Delaney flowers

An 18th-Century “Sapphist”’s Sexy Garden

The 18th-century "sapphist" gardens of Mary Granville Pendarves Delany were piquant places that expressed same-sex desires.
Mae West

How The “Fag Hag” Went From Hated to Celebrated

At its core, the relationship between single women and gay men has longstanding historical roots.
Giovanni's Room, Philadelphia

Book Club Made Me Gay

Book clubs and reading groups have long been important to marginalized communities.