Collage of American Prison Newspapers

Introducing American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside

This overlooked corner of the press provided news by and for people who were incarcerated. A newly available archive shows it worked hard to reach outside audiences too.
Governor William Burnet of New York meets with the Iroquois in 1721

The Native American Roots of the US Constitution

The Iroquois, Shawnee, Cherokee, and other political formations generally separated military and civil leadership and guarded certain personal freedoms.
Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson and American Empire

After World War I, it looked like President Wilson's ideas about preserving democracy would mean decolonization. But the age of empires wasn't quite over.
Join or Die

The Serpents of Liberty

From the colonial period to the end of the US Civil War, the rattlesnake sssssssymbolized everything from evil to unity and power.
President Richard Nixon Starting the 1973 American League Season by Tossing a Baseball

Richard Nixon’s Fantasy Baseball Team

It might have been a ploy to garner Democratic votes, but the president took his dream team seriously.
Berea College sends its extension workers into remote communities

How a Southern College Tried to Resist Segregation

The founder of Kentucky's Berea College was an abolitionist. While he was alive, the school offered a free education for both Black and white students.
Dr. Schreiber of San Augustine giving a typhoid innoculation at a rural school

Do Schools Make Good Vaccination Sites?

The influenza virus is a problem student, but vaccinations get extra credit.
James McCune Smith

For James McCune Smith, Racism Was All Over Anthropology

What if the creation story of anthropology isn't exclusively about white men classifying people as primitive?
Blind men working on boxes for Elizabeth Arden cosmetics at the Lighthouse, an institution for the blind in New York

How Blind Activists Fought for Blind Workers

The National Federation of the Blind was the first major group of its kind to be led by visually impaired people.
Bob Moses at Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964

How the Freedom Vote Mobilized Black Mississippians

When civil rights activists needed new tactics, they came up with a strategy that would get national and international attention.