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Black and white headshot of author Erin Blakemore

Erin Blakemore

Erin Blakemore is a Boulder, Colorado-based journalist Her debut book, The Heroine’s Bookshelf (Harper), won a Colorado Book Award for Nonfiction and has been translated into Italian, Korean and Portuguese. Erin has written about history and culture and other topics for Smithsonian.com, The Washington Post, TIME, mental_floss, NPR’s This I Believe, The Onion, Popular Science, Modern Farmer and other journals. You can find more of her work at erinblakemore.com.

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Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap, by George Caleb Bingham (1811–1879)
Arts & Culture

Who Was Daniel Boone?

Who was the man who became an American icon? Daniel Boone was a frontiersman, pioneer, political figure, ally of Native Americans, and more. 
Left: Laura Ingalls Wilder, circa 1885 Right: Rose Wilder Lane, journalist and writer
Arts & Culture

Politics on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane

A new collection of letters sheds light on the fraught relationship between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter.
Amadeus(1984) Tom Hulce Credit: Warner Bros./Courtesy Neal Peters Collection
Arts & Culture

Is ‘Amadeus’ Worth Rewatching?

Archivists have finally located a long-lost co-production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, a find that ought ...
Colonial kitchen
Arts & Culture

What “Colonial Kitchens” Say About America

We've been fantasizing about colonial kitchens since soon after the Colonial era itself was over. What's that about?
Mrs. Reagan hosts the First Ladies Conference on Drug Abuse, 1985 in the White House East Room
Politics & Government

Nancy Reagan and the Paradox of Being First Lady

The role of the First Lady is undefined and dependent on the woman in the role, but it's a politically fraught one for all of them. 
Chasing Rainbows Museum
Arts & Culture

The Sinful Allure of Southern Theme Parks

Southern theme parks have their roots in sin, regional patriotism, and sideshow culture.
Sex Ed
Education

The Battle Over Sex Ed in Anaheim in the 1960s

The fear of communism seemed inextricably tied to protests over Anaheim's sex ed program in the 1960s. 
Siri
Arts & Culture

Could Siri Change the Course of Human Evolution?

Siri is changing the way people speak by homogenizing how things are spoken. Which begs the question: Why do we have accents?
This March 14, 1963 file photo shows Harper Lee, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "To kill a Mockingbird." The head of a group for Alabama writers says the new book by Harper Lee will help other state authors. Alabama Writer’s Forum executive director Jeanie Thompson says the attention being given to Lee’s long-awaited second novel reflects on other writers in the state. (AP Photo, File)
Arts & Culture

To Debate a Mockingbird: The Literary Legacy of Harper Lee

Is To Kill a Mockingbird a literary juggernaut or a failed book?
Burning of Barges during Homestead Strike
Politics & History

Should Archivists Document Collective Memory?

Collective memory can be a useful addition to the documentation of history. 
A box of antique jewelry.
Art & Art History

What Love Tokens Can Tell Us About Poor Women in Early Modern England

Poor English women imbued everyday objects with an emotional power that they gave and received. These were known as love tokens. 
Photograph of Septima Clark, ca. 1960, Avery Photo Collection, 10-9, Courtesy of the Avery Research Center.
Politics & History

How Septima Poinsette Clark Spoke Up for Civil Rights

The daughter of a slave, Septima Clark graduated from college, became a teacher, and became a fierce advocate for social and cultural change.  
Island of the Blue Dolphins written by Scott O'Dell.
Politics & History

Stranded on the Island of the Blue Dolphins: The True Story of Juana Maria

Juana Maria, the lost woman of San Nicolas island, is as famous for her namelessness as for the lonely adventure she endured.
A mother breastfeeding her child.
Arts & Culture

The Cultural Expectations of Breastfeeding

Society constructs women’s bodies as sexual, but mothers’ bodies as asexual—a quandary that presents a dilemma for women who nurse in public.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Arts & Culture

Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning Was Both a Celebrity and a Superfan

As celebrity culture developed in nineteenth-century England, authors were at turns celebrated and celebrators of artists they admired. 
Andy Warhol and Tennessee Williams
Arts & Culture

Understanding Andy Warhol’s “Screen Tests”

The "screen tests" can be viewed as an exploration of glamor and the gaze.
Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. "<a href="http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/5e66b3e8-fccf-d471-e040-e00a180654d7" target="_blank">DuPont - Building - Sketch</a>" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1935 - 1945.
Arts & Culture

How DuPont Transformed Fashion With Stretchy Synthetics

DuPont invented the stretch synthetic fabric that revolutionized fashion in the mid-twentieth century. 
Reprint of engraving by Martin Droeshout
Art & Art History

The Artist Behind Shakespeare’s Most Famous Portrait

Though considered a limited artist, Martin Droeshout engraved the only portrait of Shakespeare, which appeared on the cover of the first folio.
Vintage Maidenform ad.
Arts & Culture

This Lingerie Company Transformed Postwar Commercial Beauty Culture

Maidenform was the first company to bridge female beauty standards with workplace culture
Illustration of a homeless man.
Education

Can Academics Help the Homeless?

Anthropologists have been studying the habits of the homeless to better understand and improve their condition and needs. 
Female dentist with patient, 1960.
Politics & History

How Women Dentists Were Perceived in the 1960s

A look at how women dentists were perceived in the 1960s, emphasizing the overall professional entrance of women in the workplace.
Popular dress among meteorologists.
Arts & Culture

Outfits, Graphics, and the News Room: Why the News Looks the Way It Does

The evolution of the way TV news looks has much to do with principles of modernity and design.
African-American students at North Carolina A&T College participate in a sit-in at a F. W. Woolworth's lunch counter reserved for white customers in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Copyright Bettmann/Corbis / AP Images)
Politics & History

How the Body Can Shape Social Protest

By using the body to resist and respond to violence and social injustice, protesters literally embody their cause.
Kwanzaa
Arts & Culture

What is Kwanzaa?

A look at the history of Kwanzaa and how it has evolved since it was founded by Maulana Ronald Karenga.
Meet Me In St Louis Poster
Arts & Culture

The Genre-Bending Brilliance of “Meet Me In St. Louis”

Meet me In St. Louis was the first film to blur the lines between a drama and a musical.

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