The Paris Morgue Provided Ghoulish Entertainment
With its huge windows framing the corpses on display, the morgue bore an uncomfortable resemblance to a department store.
The Long History of Comet Phobia
Even the invention of the telescope couldn't convince all people to put aside superstitions about comets.
Isinglass; or, The Many Miracles of Fish Glue
Isinglass comes from the swim bladders of certain kinds of fish and can be found in everything from beer recipes to illuminated manuscripts. Ew? No way.
This Is How They Wiped Themselves in Ancient Rome
A very gross but extremely informative look at the archaeology of toilet hygiene.
How Trading Card Collectors Have Fought Stereotypes
By making what may have been unseen visible, trading cards have often provided an opening into larger conversations on race, gender, and representation.
Bomber Plane or the Loch Ness Monster?
A Vickers Wellington plane was submerged for decades in the Loch Ness, till a group of Nessie hunters stumbled across mysterious sonar readings.
Martin Luther’s Monsters
Prodigies, or monsters, were opaque and flexible symbols that signaled that God was sending some message.
“Beating the Bounds”
How did people find out where their local boundaries were before there were reliable maps?
The Study of Human Anatomy and the Corpses of Vienna
For cultural and geographical reasons, the city was a great place to find bodies to dissect. But there was also the matter of one well-connected doctor.