Choctaw woman

How 19th Century Women Were Taught to Think About Native Americans

In nineteenth-century American women's magazines, Native American women were depicted as attractive, desirable, and pious.
Old movie theater

Weirdly Enough, Movies about TV Prepared America for TV

Ironically, it was movies that helped accustom American viewers to television in the first place, writes Richard Koszarski.
Blue Black gallery view

Glenn Ligon’s “Blue Black” Exhibits the History of Race in America

Artist Glenn Ligon grounds his work in American history, addressing the inextricable link between history of slavery and the black experience in the U.S.
Harpsichord

Why We Will Never Hear What Mozart Heard

Modern pianos are the product of a 600-year evolution—from Hermann Poll's 1397 clavicembalum, to clavichords, harpsichords, and the modern grand piano.
Victoria wedding

A Natural History of the Wedding Dress

The history of the wedding dress is shorter than the history of weddings, and even shorter still than the history of marriage.
Lourdes Grobet

Mexico’s Radical Women Artists

Art by Mexican "Radical Women" artists capture the turbulent times of the feminist movement in Mexico in the 1970s and still ring true today.
White Rabbit banned books

Celebrate Banned Books Week

The last week of September is Banned Books Week, when the American Library Association calls our attention to works that have been censored.
Jim Henson

How Jim Henson Changed Early Education and Brought Puppets Back

Jim Henson, born September 24th, 1936, died at the young age of 54 after changing the way American children learn and how their parents are entertained.
Winnetou

Why East Germany Loved the Wild West

During the Cold War, both the West and East Germany film industries made popular westerns. Yes, westerns. What was that all about?
"Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias" by Masaccio

How Buon Fresco Brought Perspective to Drawing

Buon fresco, perhaps the best-known kind of wall painting, is the result of a chemical reaction turning paint and wet plaster into a single, solid surface.