Margaret Fuller

How Early Feminist Writer Margaret Fuller’s Memoirs Were Rewritten

Margaret Fuller was one of the most-read Americans of the mid-nineteenth century, but then men started to edit her for posterity.
Civil Rights Marchers

Does Street Protest Matter?

Americans have turned to street protests to achieve their political goals—while critics have warned that this kind of public action won’t change anything.
Couple at Niagara Falls

Falling for Niagara Falls

How did Niagara Falls become the Honeymoon Capital of the World?
Benjamin Franklin

How Benjamin Franklin’s Almanac Appealed to the Common Man

Why did Benjamin Franklin become an American patriot when he was such a loyal son of the Crown for so long?
White House

How Do White House Transitions Actually Work?

How do presidential transitions really work? Political science scholarship on White House staffers provides some insight.
Sheet music from Barnum's Baby Shows

Babies on Display

In the mid- to late nineteenth century, people showed off their infants at baby shows.
Laura Bridgman

Before Helen Keller, There Was Laura Bridgman

Before Helen Keller, there was Laura Bridgman, the first blind and deaf woman who learned to communicate through language.
Piltdown man

Whatever Happened To Piltdown Man?

Piltdown Man was once considered the missing link between apes and humans. What happened?
voter fraud

Creating the Voter Fraud Myth

Although in-person voter fraud is close to nonexistent, it’s a big concern for many voters.
Smithsonian Institution Building

Why America Went Medieval

In the middle of the nineteenth century, upper-class America went gaga over a vision of the medieval. Carpenter’s Gothic ...