An illustration of Charivari by Jean-Jacques Grandville, 1831

Ye Olde Morality-Enforcement Brigades

The charivari (or shivaree) was a ritual in which people on the lower rungs of a community called out neighbors who violated social and sexual norms.
Vintage image of a baseball game in the late 19th century.

Baseball History and Rural America

Baseball's creation myth is bunk, and historians have shown how important cities were to the game's development. But it was still a rural passion.
Sake Deen Mahomed by T. M. Baynes

Dean Mahomet: Travel Writer, Border Crosser

The author of what is considered the first English-language book by an Indian writer was neither a rebel nor an accommodationist.
indian Mulligatawny soup in a brass bowl

The Soup of British Colonialism

Mulligatawny soup started as a simple South Indian broth but was changed to appeal to British palates.
From a 1920s poster from the National Agricultural Library highlight the connection between good eating habits and overall health

The Surprising Backstory of Victory Gardens

In World War I, the Victory Garden movement encouraged people to grow their own food to conserve home-front supplies. But kids' gardens had planted the roots.
Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc, for Fascists and Feminists

As Catholics mark the centennial of her canonization, it’s clear that there is more than one Joan of Arc. How did that happen?
Louis XIV, King of France by Hyacinthe Rigaud

Doctors Have Always Been Against High-Heeled Shoes

Every generation of medical professionals has issued the same warnings about high heels. For hundreds of years.
Lillian Smith, noted author and lecturer, congratulating Mrs. Mabel Keaton Staupers, winner of the 36th Springarn medal, for outstanding work in the integration of African American nurses into the American nursing profession

The Black Nurse Who Drove Integration of the U.S. Nurse Corps

In World War II, Mabel Keaton Staupers tirelessly fought for the integration of the Army and Navy Nurse Corps—and eventually won.
A graduate nurse and student nurses in isolation uniforms, early 1900s

Nurses Have Always Been Heroes

Nothing drives that home more than this amazing photo collection from the Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing.
Girls' Beating the Bounds' at a fence near St Albans in Hertfordshire, 1913

“Beating the Bounds”

How did people find out where their local boundaries were before there were reliable maps?