Three men on deck of the H.M.S. Challenger studying Medusae jellyfish

HMS Challenger and the History of Science at Sea

Sailing ships were once used as scientific instruments themselves, but in the 1800s, ships like the Challenger were transformed into floating laboratories.
A gay couple and their children attend a rally on the steps of the California Supreme Court March 11, 2004 in San Francisco.

“Protecting Kids” from Gay Marriage

Leading up to a 2004 debate about same-sex marriage, conservatives shifted their focus away from moral issues and toward arguments about children’s welfare.
The interior of a Nootka house

Seeing Cannibals in the Enlightenment

The responses British and Spanish explorers had to the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) people and their alleged cannibalism came down to imperialist goals.
A shot taken in front of a concert stage lit in the night, people are visible waving and clapping, but no one is recognizable.

Japanese Tourists at the Dancehall

For some young, working-class Japanese men and women, Jamaican reggae clubs offer an escape from cultural norms and a way to gain currency in the music world.
White Pines in Cathedral Woods, Intervale, White Mountains, N. H

Tree of Peace, Spark of War

The white pines of New England may have done more than any leaf of tea to kick off the American Revolution.
A flat boulder raised on a pinnacle of ice, by Louis Haghe after J.D. Forbes

How Sports Shaped Glacier Science

The heroic masculinity that governed early glacial science had its roots in nineteenth-century British sporting culture.
Employees of Ottenheimer on strike for poor treatment

Labor Day: A Celebration of Working in America

Our best stories about workers' rights, labor unions, and international movements to improve working conditions, from the factory to the farm.

A Selection of Student Confessions

Did you break a campus rule? Let the students of Millersville Normal School show you how to confess to the administration.
Thurgood Marshall, 1976

Thurgood Marshall

In a speech marking the bicentennial of the US Constitution, Marshall argued that its framers intentionally inscribed slavery into the American economy.
A Catalogue of the Severall Sects and Opinions in England and other Nations: With a briefe Rehearsall of their false and dangerous Tenents.

The Bawdy House Riots of 1668

Though so-called bawdy house riots were common in seventeenth-century London, the disorder of 1668 revealed the city’s deep political and religious resentments.