Quirky History Archives - Page 22 of 22

Side-by-side black and white photographs from the mid 1800's of two ladies sitting across from each other and dabbling in divination as a specter-like presence hovers between them

Waking the Spirits: The Diaries of John A. Clark

During the fall and winter of 1861-1862, Clark and many other officials in Santa Fe attended at least eight séances.

A Hell of a Cracker

The unusual origin of the graham cracker

Robert Newton plays the infamous Blackbeard against Linda Darnell's Edwina Mansfield, another pirate's daughter.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day: Anarchy in the Arrrchives

The political science behind pirates.

Hot Dogs: America’s Fast, Cheap Meat

With all due respect to hamburgers and apple pie, hot dogs are arguably the most American of foods.

Editors' Picks

Politics & History

Thurgood Marshall

In a speech marking the bicentennial of the US Constitution, Marshall argued that its framers intentionally inscribed slavery into the American economy.

Politics & History

Building the Olympic Games

A close connection between architecture, athletics, and the urban fabric is central to the idea of the modern Olympic Games.

Politics & History

Policing the Holocaust in Paris

Unlike in the rest of Nazi-occupied Europe, the arrest of Jewish people was largely in the hands of ordinary policemen in France, especially in Paris.

Arts & Culture

Dorothy Richardson and the Stream of Consciousness

Though often associated with Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, “stream of consciousness” novels spilled first from the pen of British modernist Dorothy Richardson.

Education & Society

Endangered: North American Cricket

Cricket was played and cheered in the United States and Canada in the nineteenth century. Why did it fall out of favor with sports fans?

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