A woman sunbather covers her face as she tans, June 1949 at Sea Island Resort, Georgia

The Meaning of Tanning

The popularity of tanning rose in the early twentieth century, when bronzed skin signaled a life of leisure, not labor.
Analog time clock isolated on white. Time set to 9 AM.

Working Against the Clock: Time Colonialism and Lakota Resistance

Resisting Western conceptualizations of time and productivity, the Lakota peoples have maintained a task-oriented economy based on kinship and relationships.
Illustration of women fighting from 19th century.

How to Fight Like a Girl

Women have been punching each other in the face (during boxing matches) since the early 1700s.
Young Boy with Hat, 1990s

Divorce, Gen-X Style

By clinging to a one-dimensional view of selfish parents and ignored kids, GenXers missed the chance to empathize with their (heading-for-a-divorce) parents.
Baby Drew, 1913

Boys in Dresses: The Tradition

It’s difficult to read the gender of children in many old photos. That’s because coding American children via clothing didn’t begin until the 1920s.

The Sweet Sixteen of Sneakers on JSTOR

Why should basketball fans have all the March Madness fun? We're running a basketball sneaker bracket. Play along on Twitter.
The tennis shoes of William and Ernest Renshaw, 1880

The Dawn of Kicks

Invented for a faddish game in the 1880s, tennis shoes became fashionable when manufacturers, fearing the tennis boom would go bust, pushed them off the lawn.
Seven-year-old Luz Clarisa Pacco shows huatia, potatoes cooked in a traditional Andean way in a whole on the ground on June 21, 2022 in Pisac, Peru.

Respecting the Potato

Cuzco’s Potato Park conserves biodiversity and strengthens food sovereignty, all while emphasizing respect for this important and charismatic crop.
Olivier salad in a red plate on the table

The USSR’s “Invisible Cuisine”

Unofficial cookbooks—handwritten recipes passed from kitchen to kitchen—provided their owners with social and cultural capital within the Soviet system.
Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28039240

Daughters of Bilitis

The first lesbian rights organization in the United States originated as “a social club for gay girls.”