Finding Krao Farini
Public discourse on the bearded lady, a staple of circus sideshow, revealed the racial biases underpinning Darwinian theory.
Women in the Age of Polar Exploration
Opportunities were restricted during the so-called Heroic Age, but women still dreamed of exploration...and sometimes managed to reach the polar regions.
The Rise and Fall of Fanny Cradock
Cradock was one of Britain's first celebrity chefs, but in what her viewers called “the Gwen Troake Incident,” she fell from her pedestal—hard.
On Your Mark, Get Set… Print!
The Boston Typesetting Races of 1886 demonstrated the speed of women compositors, helping to lower the barriers to workplace equity for female “swifts.”
Fighting for the Right to Party at Christmas
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Reformed Kirk of Scotland tried to shut down holiday celebrations. The Scottish people didn’t give up easily.
Onna-Bugeisha, the Female Samurai Warriors of Feudal Japan
In 1868 a group of female samurai took part in the fierce Battle of Aizu for the very soul of Japan.
Eleanor of Aquitaine’s “Court of Love”
Allegedly, the noblewomen of Poitiers solved the problems of love, lost and found. But was the court real, or was it just the fanciful invention of historians?
Fair Housing: A Church Against Itself?
A ballot measure aimed at overturning California’s 1963 Fair Housing Act revealed some serious divisions within the Episcopal Church.
Toxic Legacies of WWII: Pollution and Segregation
Wartime production led directly to environmental and social injustices, polluting land and bodies in ways that continue to shape public policy and race relations.
Origins of Child Protection
Legend has it that the campaign to save abused children in New York was driven by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The truth is more complicated.