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Black and white headshot of author Matthew Wills

Matthew Wills

Matthew Wills has advanced degrees in library science and film studies and is lapsed in both fields. He has published in Poetry, Huffington Post, and Nature Conservancy Magazine, among other places, and blogs regularly about urban natural history at matthewwills.com.

George Washington's teeth
Politics & History

Were George Washington’s Teeth Taken from Enslaved People?

We know a surprising amount about the dental history of the nation’s first president.
A developing Gall on a Quercus pubescens caused by the insect Cynips quercusfolii.
Plants & Animals

Are Galls Miracle Cures or Just Weird Growths on Plants?

For millennia, humans have exploited galls for medicine, fuel, food, tanning, and dyeing. Some people have considered them miraculous.
Judi Bari speaks at an Earth First! forest rally in 1990 before she was bombed on the eve of Redwood Summer.
Science & Technology

How Judi Bari Tried to Unite Loggers and Environmentalists

The radical environmentalist had a background in labor organizing and wanted to end the misogyny of the movement and the logging industry alike.
Vicente Guerrero
Politics & History

Black Mexico and the War of Independence

The president of Mexico who finally issued the decree ending slavery was of African descent himself.
Burning of an 80 ft. cross by the KKK, 1925
Politics & History

How 1920s Catholic Students Fought the Ku Klux Klan

There are few traces today of college students' resistance to anti-Catholic threats, but the ones that remain are powerful.
1881: Champion racehorse Iroquis, winner of the 1881 Derby under Fred Archer and property of P Lorillard.
Plants & Animals

The Myth of the Noble Racehorse

Despite all the whips and spurs involved, nineteenth-century Americans believed racehorses loved a little manly competition.
A protest of Gone With the Wind organized by the D.C. chapter of the National Negro Congress
Arts & Culture

White Hollywood’s Romance with the N-Word

It would have been easy for censors to just ban the racist epithet during the classical era of film. Here's why it didn't happen.
The 24th U.S. Infantry at drill, Camp Walker, Philippine Islands, c. 1902
Politics & History

The Jim Crow Army in the Philippine-American War

Some African American soldiers of the conflict thought fighting against fellow people of color was unjust.
World map showing the zoogeographical regions by Alfred Russel Wallace
Plants & Animals

The 1876 Map of the World’s Ecozones That Still Holds Up

The 19th-century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace created a visualization that tied different species to specific regions of the world.
A woman carries a baby wearing a protective mask as they exit the arrival hall at Hong Kong High Speed Rail Station on January 29, 2020 in Hong Kong, China.
Health

The Law and Coronavirus

Can environmental law help contain viruses that spill over from animal to human populations?
A town hall event in Iowa.
Politics & Government

Just How Unrepresentative Are the Iowa Caucuses?

There's no denying the whiteness of the state. But scholars cite other qualities that make Iowa more like the rest of the country.
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
Plants & Animals

Bulldozers Versus Biodiversity, Then and Now

Trump's border wall threatens habitats in Arizona's Sonoran Desert. What happened when the area was bulldozed in the 1950s?
The Bloody Massacre, perpetrated in King-Street, Boston, on March 5th, 1770 by Paul Revere
Politics & History

Crispus Attucks Needs No Introduction. Or Does He? 

The African American Patriot, who died in the Boston Massacre, was erased from visual history. Black abolitionists revived his memory.
Hernan Cortes, Spanish Conquistador meeting Moctezuma II Aztec Emperor
Politics & History

The Mexica Didn’t Believe the Conquistadors Were Gods

The indigenous Mexica (Aztec) people were overwhelmed by a superior technological force ruthlessly used against them.
Thick Billed Parrots
Plants & Animals

The Thick-Billed Parrot Is Not Extinct–Not Yet

But one hasn't been seen in the U.S. since 1995, not long after the end of the last reintroduction program.
Mexican film star Raquel Torres, circa 1930
Politics & History

La Pelona: The Hispanic-American Flapper

Flapperismo was no more appreciated by Hispanic guardians of traditional femininity than it was by Anglo-American ones.
An unknown paleontologist, 1860
Politics & History

The Dinosaur Bone Wars

1877 was a banner year for American dinosaurs: three major finds in the West turned the region into a "paleontologist's El Dorado."
Peasants Before Their House by Louis Le Nain
Education & Society

Quiet Struggle Means Resistance without Protest

A lone resister is easy to take down, but there is safety in numbers, in conspiracies of silence, in refusals to testify against one's neighbors.
Photograph: Donald Trump addresses his impeachment after learning how the vote in the House was divided during a Merry Christmas Rally at the Kellogg Arena on December 18, 2019 in Battle Creek, Michigan. Source: Getty
Politics & Government

What Does It Take to Survive Impeachment?

A look at impeachment proceedings in foreign nations sheds light on when a sitting president is likely to remain in office.
Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins, American Museum of Natural History, Upper West Side, New York, NY
Politics & History

Sewing Saved Us from a “Cold Snap” 13 Thousand Years Ago

Sewing a full winter outfit from animal hides took 105 hours. And we needed lots of them to survive the Younger Dryas Cold Event.
Parmelia Lichen
Plants & Animals

Lichens as Sensors for Air Pollution

Lichens often go unnoticed, living on the ground, on tree trunks, or on rocks. They're hearty, but remarkably sensitive to air pollution.
An illustration by James Gillray, 1807
Arts & Culture

Vulgarity: An Alternative Language of the People

Was Francis Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue the font of all popular culture studies?
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cigar_box_Peggy_O%27neal.jpg
Politics & History

The Mrs. Eaton Affair

A story of petticoats and power.
A Christmas Carol
Arts & Culture

Pirating Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, in the 1840s

When Parley's Illuminated Library published a pirated version of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens decided he had had enough.
Portrait of Alexander von Humboldt by Friedrich Georg Weitsch
Natural Science

Who Was Alexander von Humboldt?

Remembering the work of the great naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, on the 250th anniversary of his birth.

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