Mesa Verde National Park

Why Did They Leave the Pueblos?

The Ancestral Puebloans were driven from their homes in the American Southwest by a combination of factors rather than a single cause.
Harper's Weekly, October 17, 1874 issue. Illustration by John A. Randolph of the scene of "A Colorado Tragedy."

The Colorado Cannibal

Prospector Alferd Packer, stranded in the San Juan Mountains, was forced to eat his companions to survive the brutal winter conditions. Or was he?
The Liberty Tree in Boston, where the Committee of Correspondence often gathered. It was chopped down by the Loyalists in 1775.

The Letter That Helped Start a Revolution

The Town of Boston’s invention of the standing committee 250 years ago provided a means for building consensus during America’s nascent independence movement.
Cook County jail detainees cast their votes after a polling place in the facility was opened for early voting on October 17, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois

Voting Rights for People Convicted of Felonies

Formerly incarcerated people comprise the largest group of disenfranchised American voters. The American Prison Newspapers collection offers fresh insight into the issue.
A painting of Osceola by George Catlin

Ghost Stories at Flagler College

Telling a spooky story around a campfire—or in a dorm room—may be the best way to keep a local legend alive.
Anita Bryant is hit in the face with a pie during a press conference on October 14, 1977

Proposition 6 (The Briggs Initiative): Annotated

Proposition 6, better known as the Briggs Initiative, was the first attempt to restrict the rights of lesbian and gay Americans by popular referendum.
A child being taught how to shoot a gun by his father

American as Apple Pie

How marketing made guns a fundamental element of contemporary boyhood.
Reverse Freedom Riders in Hyannis, MA in 1962

The Reverse Freedom Rides

The White Citizens’ Councils used the transportation of Black Americans to Northern states as a way to embarrass liberal critics and rally segregationists.
Close-up Vintage Wooden Hourglass on Wooden Background, Sand running through the bulbs for measuring the passing time

The Meaning of Time in The Hour Glass

Writings from a women's prison in the 1930s grapple with philosophical questions on time and life. “The mere lapse of years is not life.”
A farm, Bethel, Vt.by John Collier, 1943

J. B. Jackson and the Ordinary American Landscape

Jackson’s creative mind analyzed the landscapes of everyday life to understand the modest worlds—present and past—of regular people.