President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 while Martin Luther King and others look on

The Voting Rights Act 1965: Annotated

The passing of the Voting Rights Act in August 1965 prohibited the use of Jim Crow laws and discriminatory tests to disenfranchise Black voters.
Chinese incense clock that measures time by burning powdered incense along a pre-measured path, with each stencil representing a different amount of time.

Keeping Time with Incense Clocks

As chronicled by Chinese poet Yu Jianwu, the use of fire and smoke for time measurement dates back to at least the sixth century CE.
Miss Charmion, 1904

The “Trapeze Disrobing Act”

Strongwoman Charmion used Thomas Edison’s experiments with moving pictures to encourage women to embrace strength and physical activity.
Broadway and Third Street, looking east on Third Street from Olive Street, Los Angeles, 1890-1900

How Los Angeles Started Its Sprawl

Victorian values and Anglo(phile) aesthetics shaped the city’s infrastructure and architecture in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Bill Russell during a basketball game

How Bill Russell Changed the Game, On and Off the Court

NBA player and coach Bill Russell was a leader and legend, fighting for civil rights even as racists harassed him from the sidelines.
Queen Jadwiga's Oath by Józef Simmler

The Marriage Myths of Jadwiga of Poland

Crowned rex Poloniae, King of Poland, as a ten-year-old, Jadwiga soon had a decision to make: should she marry for love, or should she marry for politics?
A woman holding a speculum

See Jane Use a Speculum

In the pre-Roe era, a collective of women known as The Janes took reproductive health into their own hands.
Approximately 1000 young music fans gathered at the Pandora's Box club on Sunset Strip to protest a 10pm curfew imposed by local residents during the "Sunset Strip Curfew Riots" aka "hippie riots" on November 12, 1966.

“Everybody Look What’s Going Down”: The Sunset Strip Riots

In 1966, tired of being harassed by the police for their counterculture ways, the teens of Sunset Boulevard fought back through protests and music.
Eugene Debs speaking at Canton, Ohio, 1918

In The Debs Archive

The papers of American labor activist and socialist Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) offer a snapshot of early twentieth-century politics.
Hot pink feather fan with celluloid sticks and guards

Staying Cool with Hand Fans

Fans are much more than convenient cooling devices. They make fashion statements, serve as status symbols, and silently spread political propaganda.