Mary Oyama

Dear Deirdre: The Japanese American Agony Aunt

Using the nom de plume Deirdre, California-born writer Mary “Mollie” Oyama Mittwer offered advice on changing gender roles and cross-ethnic relationships.

From Oriental Riviera to Global Asia: Hong Kong in Travel Posters

A collection of travel posters shared via JSTOR by Hong Kong Baptist University highlights Hong Kong’s unique place in the global imagination over the decades.
The Canada Lumberman, 1882

French Canadians in the New England Woods

Immigrants from Quebec held a distinct position in an American labor landscape in which experts viewed different “races” as being suited to different kinds of work.
Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson: A Vote for Cutting Off Your Nose

To reduce Virginia’s use of the death penalty, Thomas Jefferson proposed using permanent disfigurement as a punishment for rape, polygamy, and sodomy.
A set of dummies propped up in the Sahara Desert awaiting a third atomic bomb explosion during the French nuclear testing.

Nuclear France’s Empire of the Bomb

The first French nuclear bomb test took place in the Sahara in 1960 in the midst of the Algerian War, but French history doesn’t connect the two events.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, bottom left, speaks during the Opening Ceremony of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at The Great Hall of People on October 16, 2022 in Beijing, China.

Autocratic Capitalism: An Introduction

Americans are taught that capitalism and democracy go together like motherhood and apple pie. It may be time to unlearn that lesson.
San Pier Maggiore altarpiece

When the Bishop Married the Abbess

When a new bishop was installed in the see of medieval Florence, he was also expected to marry—at least symbolically—the abbess of San Pier Maggiore.
Vannevar Bush

Science in War, Science in Peace: The Origins of the NSF

The 1950 establishment of a federal agency devoted to space, physics, and more belied a cross-party consensus that such disciplines were vital to national interest.
Negril, March 11, 1982

Mashup at the Intersection of Deco and Hip-Hop

Archived at Cornell University, a collection of flyers promoting dance-inspiring DJ sets in the Bronx established the visual identity of a new cultural era.