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katrina gulliver

Katrina Gulliver

Katrina Gulliver is a historian and freelance writer. Her articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and TIME.

A Ford crash test dummy is shown at the Crash Barrier Dearborn Development Center March 10, 2014 in Dearborn, Michigan.

Designing the Dummies

The science behind using crash test dummies to determine the effects of car crashes on the human body only dates to the 1960s.
A young woman stands in the glow of a multicolored Juke box in the late 1960's.

Juke in the Box

The jukebox turned listening to music into a performative act. With a single coin, listeners could share their musical taste with everyone in the place.
A Pattern of Various Shaped Water Drops on A teflon Frying Pan

The Stickiness of Teflon

From excitement about its potential to revelations of its possible toxicity, Teflon has taken a wild ride through American science, manufacturing, and marketing.
A woman gently applying skin cream to her face with the tips of her fingers, circa 1955

The Coldest Cream

Cold cream has been around since ancient Greek times. But what’s it actually for?
Striking women machinists from the Ford plant at Dagenham are interviewed upon their arrival at Rainham for a meeting with the National Union of Vehicle Builders, 18th June 1968.

Ford’s Striking Dagenham Women

The women sewing machinists of the Dagenham plant received a raise after they went on strike against Ford. But was this a victory?
Map of the Bahamas, 1680

Eleutheria: A Lost Utopia in the Caribbean

The Eleutherian Adventurers departed Bermuda for the Bahamas in 1647, hoping to create the first democracy in the Americas.
Sheep are seen while being transported in Fremantle Harbour on June 16, 2020 in Fremantle, Australia.

The Long History of Live Animal Export

The practice of live animal export from Australia is controversial and complex, and it has a longer history than you might realize.
Postcard photo of the lunchroom of the Santa Fe Hotel at Canadian, Texas, 1913

Harvey Houses: Serving the West

In 1875, Fred Harvey had an idea for improving dining on passenger rail lines. He changed the face of food service in the West forever.
An illustration depicting how to write certain characters in cursive from Art of Writing by John Jenkins, 1818

Before Palmer Penmanship

The creation and propagation of standard penmanship in the American education system is almost as old as the United States itself.
The Westinghouse Time Capsule at the 1939 New York World's Fair

Time in a Box

Humans like to seal collections of ephemera in containers that they then hide in soon-to-be-forgotten places. Whither the time capsule?
Ostrich farm in the desert

Ostrich Bubbles

The birds aren’t the only ones with their heads in the sand.
Three female animals posing for photograph on an alpaca farm in Central Oregon

The Alpaca Racket

Why are alpacas everywhere, and why are they so expensive?
Continental Currency $20 banknote with marbled edge (May 10, 1775)

Marbled Money

Marbled paper was a way to make banknotes and checks unique—a critical characteristic for a nascent American Republic.
An advertisement for Gale Borden Eagle brand condensed milk, 1887

The Sweet Story of Condensed Milk

This nineteenth-century industrial product became a military staple and a critical part of local food culture around the world.
Picture of Kerria lacca from the book, Indian Insect Life: a Manual of the Insects of the Plains by Harold Maxwell-Lefroy

As You Lakh It

How did an oleoresin produced by insects in Asia become a standard part of European furniture manufacture and conservation?
American Mink in Surrey, England.

Take Back Your Mink

Could lab-grown fur be an ethical alternative to fur farming?
A woman kneels at the headstone in the Detroit Canine Cemetery in Michigan

An Epitaph for Fido

Pet cemeteries document how humans’ relationships with their pets—and their deaths—have evolved since the Victorian era.
The interior view of the North Pneumatic Tube Station of the Merchandise Building of the Sears Roebuck and Company Mail Order Plant, Chicago, IL

Something Old, Something Pneu

Pneumatic tubes offered a leap forward in business and communications, in the office and across the city.
Kudzu taking over forest

Coming Up Kudzu

Employed as a symbol of the American South or used as shorthand for unchecked growth, kudzu has demonstrated a tenacity beyond all imagination.
Woman pushing shopping trolley on red background, smiling, portrait

Free Wheeling: Shopping Carts and Culture

The invention of the shopping cart changed our purchasing patterns, but the way we use it also reflects how we live life on the streets.
Fruitlands in 1915

The Alcott Anarchist Experiment

The failures at Fruitlands showed that anarchist and vegetarian ideals weren’t enough to sustain a community—spiritually or nutritionally.
Many hands make light work of the washing up at Grasmere Youth Hostel in the Lake District, 1941

Yay for the Youth Hostel!

In the early twentieth century, hostel organizations helped young people to get out into the country and travel independently—with a bit of overnight supervision.
Child's shoe discovered in a wall, probably put there to protect a child from evil spirits, Lancashire, 1704

Hidden Charms

Why is there a shoe in your wall?
A row of British women sitting under hairdryers in a Paris salon

A Short History of Hairdryers

The beauty parlor became a place of sociability for women in the twentieth century, partly aided by modern technology of hair drying.
Two women throwing hoops circa 1960

Reaching New Spiritual Heights Through Hula Hooping

The post-World War II hula hooping craze is back...and this time it's got religion.