A large group of Native Americans stage a protest over land rights by occupying the Bureau of Indian Affairs building and steps in front, Washington DC, November 6, 1972.

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month

A collection of our recent stories in celebration of American Indian Heritage Month.
A soldier in shadow, holding a gun

How Veterans Created PTSD

Now a cultural staple, PTSD is a newer diagnosis. How have conceptions of trauma morphed and what does it mean for US institutions and society?
dogs in WWI

Dogs in the Trenches of World War I

While the history of pigeons and horses in the military is widely known, canines have gotten less attention.
An illustration of a dating app with Victorian women's photographs

The “Dating Apps” of Victorian England

They didn't have smartphones back then, but they still had personal ads.
A male janitor stands and bends over a urinal in a bathroom, scrubbing the porcelain with a detergent.

A Short History of the Public Restroom

How come it's so hard to go in sweet privacy when you're out and about?
A portrait of Italian philosopher, writer and politician Niccolo Machiavelli

Machiavelli, Prince of…Democracy?

The other side of the Renaissance man, known today for promoting autocratic power.
A scientist with staring eyes pours liquid from one test tube to another in

The Evolution of the Mad Scientist

The crazed caricature of genius was largely inspired by now-debunked late-Victorian ideas about how species change.
Two sharply dressed women modeling both looks for home and at work from the late 1970's

The History of the Power Suit for Women

As women entered the white-collar world, experts told them to dress like men, without being too threatening.
A Man And Woman Showing Ink-Marked Finger And Voter Card in Calcutta, India

Why Vote? Lessons from Indian Villages

The voters one scholar studied didn't necessarily think they would benefit materially from being on the winning side. But turnout was over 90 percent.
Tobacco sharecropper's wife cleaning up table after washing breakfast dishes. Person County, North Carolina, 1939, by Dorothea Lange

How the New Deal Documented Southern Food Cultures

Photographers and writers hired by the US government presented the foodways of the South to a wide audience.