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 ...
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

How A Gambling Duchess Changed British Politics

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, won and lost fortunes, giving into a compulsion that pitted her against some of society’s most notorious ne’er-do-wells.
Grover Cleveland cartoon

The Venerable Tradition of the Presidential Sex Scandal

Americans have been obsessed with the sexual character and moral rectitude, or lack thereof, of politicians from the beginning. 
Cars in 1920s LA

How the Women of Los Angeles Protected Their Rights to Drive

In the 1920s, women's love of driving in auto-obsessed Los Angeles created traffic jams and a battle over women’s rightful place.
Johnny Appleseed

The Real Story Behind “Johnny Appleseed”

Johnny Appleseed was based on a real person, John Chapman, who was eccentric enough without the legends.
Catherine Howard

Did Materialism Lead to the Death of a Tudor Queen?

The very things that made Catherine Howard's time as Henry VIII's queen so pleasant became a cudgel with which to beat her.
John Aubrey

Archiving the Inventor of the Archive

Scholarship traces the birth of the archive to natural philosophers like John Aubrey.
Bobby Seale and Cesar Chavez

The Black Panthers’ Unlikely Ally

Cesar Chavez's non-violent United Farm Workers and the militant Black Panthers aligned politically throughout the 60s and 70s.