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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.

New River Gorge Bridge

Why There’s A West Virginia

West Virginia declared its independence from the secessionist state of Virginia in the middle of the Civil War and became the 35th state.
Freshwater Mussels

America’s Imperiled Freshwater Mussels

Freshwater mussels were once found in astonishing numbers and diversity in North America. Then came the button fanciers, and then the pearl-makers.
Pico Bolívar

The Last Glacier of Venezuela

Glaciers are retreating around the world. The Andes are no exception: in Venezuela, the ice has mostly already disappeared.
Jefferson Davis

What Is the Jefferson Davis Highway?

The Jefferson Davis Highway was project of the United Daughters of the Confederacy intended to portray Davis as an American hero.
enslaved women illustration

Two Women of the African Slave Resistance

African women, always a minority in the slave trade, often had to find their own ways of rebellion against slavery if they could.
Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis: French Film Master

Jerry Lewis was lionized in France as a film auteur, a genius of movie-making. What did the French know that Americans didn't?
Victorian eclipse

Solar Eclipse Tourism: The Victorians Were the Pioneers

People have been planning for this month's total solar eclipse for years. They aren't the first to do so: the Victorians pioneered eclipse tourism.
Cahokia mounds

The Mysterious Pre-Columbian Settlement of Cahokia

Cahokia was the largest pre-columbian settlement north of Mexico. It collapsed centuries before Europeans arrived in the region. What happened?
NYC movie theater air conditioning

Can We Live Without Air Conditioning?

Air conditioning is a profoundly paradoxical technology: the hotter it gets the more we use it, and the more we use it the hotter it gets.
Guam Beach

Guam For Beginners

How did the island of Guam, over 5,000 miles from the West Coast, get to be the closest piece of US territory to North Korea?
New York skyline

The Real Reason Why NYC’s Skyscrapers Are Where They Are

Why does Manhattan have two business separate districts? Turns out that it's not because of the usual story about bedrock depth.
Carrie and Emma Buck

When Forced Sterilization was Legal in the U.S.

The 1927 case of Buck v. Bell set the stage for forced sterilizations for eugenics, but it turned out to based on complete falsehoods.
Jeanna Moreau

Jeanne Moreau and the Birth of Cool

The French actress Jeanne Moreau worked with directors Truffaut, Duras, Buñuel, Renoir, Antonioni, Fassbinder, and Orson Welles.
Earthworm in soil

Maybe Earthworms Aren’t So Great For Soil After All

Earthworms are often portrayed as beneficial to the environment, but in North America's temperate forests, they are a disaster in action.
Bronte Sisters

Branwell: The Other Brontë

It's the 200th anniversary of the birth of Branwell Brontë, who isn't nearly as famous as his three sisters but remains a key player in the family drama.
Puritan Book Burning

What Links Religion and Authoritarianism?

The connections between religiousness and authoritarianism, studied for decades, depend upon the kind of religious belief.
Sugar Beet Field

Did Youth Farming Programs Really Fight Juvenile Delinquency?

Summer jobs for teens are becoming a thing of the past, but considering these beet farm jobs, maybe we shouldn't romanticize them too much.
Mad Magazine

How Mad Magazine Informed America’s Cultural Critique

When Tales Calculated to Drive You MAD—Humor in a Jugular Vein first erupted onto the streets in 1952, it was like nothing ever seen before.
Plastic Pink Flamingos Flock together on Lawn

How the Plastic Pink Flamingo Became an Icon

The ubiquitous pink flamingo lawn ornament is 60 years old, a product of the age of suburbs and plastic. It has a surprising natural history.
Stalingrad flag

How the Nazis Created the Myth of Stalingrad

The battle of Stalingrad was the first major defeat of the Nazis in World War II, and presented the Nazis with a propaganda quandary.
Roswell NM mural

Roswell, Sacred Shrine of UFO Enthusiasts

Seventy years ago, something happened in Roswell, New Mexico, that put the place on the map and embedded it into the culture. What was it?
Ballooners

Why Hot Air Balloons Never Really (Ahem) Took Off

More than two centuries after the invention of ballooning, Steve Fossett became the first person to solo circumnavigate the world in a balloon.
Trafalgar Square

London Has Always Been Multicultural

The conventional story is that "black Britain" came about after World War II, but London has been a multicultural capital for centuries.
Stonewall Inn

Why Stonewall?

The Stonewall riot in June, 1969 is generally remembered as be the beginning of the gay liberation movement. But there was precedent for the event.
Chelsea Manning

How The Espionage Act Became a Tool of Repression

The Espionage Act of 1917 marked the beginning of the one of the most repressive periods in American history, with 2000 dissenters prosecuted.