Glee Mandolin, 1900

The Nineteenth-Century Banjo

Derived from an instrument brought to America by enslaved Africans, the banjo experienced a surge of popularity during the New Woman movement of the late 1800s.
The Roman Countryside by Pietro Barucci

Ride ’em, Butteri! 

Long before spaghetti westerns, Italians were turned on to an image of the American West by Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show.
A painting of Elizabeth Hamilton

Redeeming the Old Maid

Scottish-born novelist Elizabeth Hamilton used her characters to anticipate a future for herself in middle age as a confident and intelligent woman.
Gerda Wegener and Lili Elbe

What Actually Happened to “The Danish Girl” and Her Wife

Lili Elbe, a Danish-born transgender woman, famously transitioned in the early twentieth century. What did her spouse, Gerda Wegener, think about it?
A map that shows mountains and roads in Xigu Cheng

Maps, Power, and Identity

The Ancient East Asian Maps Collection at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology demonstrates the power held and discursive work done by mapmakers.
William Carlos Williams, 1921

A Centennial Celebration of Spring and All

William Carlos Williams's hybrid work of poetry and prose both upended narrative conventions and delighted in the wondrous, unifying force of imagination.
Joseph Durham looking at an urn

The Care of the Dead: A Reading List

An interdisciplinary bibliography exploring the care of the dead and how our final choices are shaped by culture, religion, economics, technology, and war.
Young Negro, 1935

Black in the USSR

Soviet artworks that featured Black Americans tended to trade in stereotypes. The paintings of Alexsandr Deineka were an exception.
The covers of two books, Not Out of Hate by Ma Ma Lay and Irrawaddy Tango by Wendy Law-Yone.

Burmese Women Novelists Speak Out

The novels of Ma Ma Lay and Wendy Law-Yone challenge the limits placed on the voices of Burmese women in the twentieth century.
Musician Little Richard performs onstage with his band as his saxophone player Grady Gaines stands on the piano in circa 1957 in scene from the movie 'Mister Rock And Roll.'

It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me

Rock and R&B have been considered separate genres for decades. But why?