Labor Day: A Celebration of Working in America
Our best stories about workers' rights, labor unions, and international movements to improve working conditions, from the factory to the farm.
Anne Shakespeare: Toward a Biography
Let’s check in with Anne Shakespeare, née Hathaway, about whom so little is known.
The Wonderful World of the Water Ski
Invented in 1922, water-skiing quickly became shorthand for American ideas on beauty, athleticism, and affluence.
Mad Men and Its Obsession with Frenchness
Mad Men’s in-universe fascination with Frenchness was so frequent and important to the plot(s) that it might as well have been a main character.
10 Villanelles by Modern and Contemporary Poets
Read these recursive, nineteen-line poems by Elizabeth Bishop, Paisley Rekdal, William Logan, Agha Shahid Ali, and more.
Send in the Clowns
Lulu Adams came from a long, illustrious line of circus performers and was credited—even if wrongly—with being the world’s first female clown.
(Re)discovering Minerva Parker Nichols, Architect
The first American woman to establish an independent architectural practice, Minerva Parker Nichols built an unprecedented career in Philadelphia.
Cher’s Vocoder Is the Sound of Both Y2K and Camp
Released on the global stage by Cher, the vocoder effect speaks for the millennium and for queer subculture.
William Merritt Chase, the Accidental Ally
Painter William Merritt Chase opened an art school for a new generation of women, teaching them how to draw as well as how to advocate for themselves.
Blackface on Stage in “Old Japan”
The use of blackface may seem out of place in a Japanese-inspired stage production—until you think about the money to be made by dealing in stereotypes.