The Painting That Changed New York City
Classical nudes were once reserved for learned men in elite spaces. Then a hotelier hung Nymphs and Satyr in a public bar, shaking up NYC's bourgeoisie.
“Mad Meg,” the Poet-Duchess of 17th Century England
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, shocked the establishment by publishing poems and plays under her own name.
The Wonderland Awaits: Researching The Good Echo
Author Shena McAuliffe describes how she used JSTOR to research her debut novel, The Good Echo.
Frida Kahlo’s Forgotten Politics
Museum exhibitions of Frida Kahlo's work tend to focus on her personal style and persona. But Kahlo was intensely political, as were her paintings.
How Mary Colter Made the Grand Canyon an Experience
Architect Mary Colter created buildings that incorporated local materials and indigenous motifs, blending with the environment rather than dominating it.
Sorry, but Jane Eyre Isn’t the Romance You Want It to Be
Charlotte Brontë, a woman whose life was steeped in stifled near-romance, refused to write love as ruly, predictable, or safe.
The History of African-American Casting in Ballet
Ballet has been slow to accept African-American dancers in major companies, and those who make it tend to be offered limited roles.
Love, Obsession, and Sophie Calle
The conceptual artist Sophie Calle creates art that urges us to ask, is attention the same as love?
James Joyce’s NSFW Love Letters
The often explicit letters James Joyce wrote to Nora Barnacle contain the same mass of contradictions as his famous literary works, like Ulysses.