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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.

First Ellis Island wooden structure
Politics & History

The Curious History of Ellis Island

Ellis Island celebrates its 125th anniversary as the federal immigration depot. From 1892-1954, more than 12 million immigrants passed through the island.
Katz's Deli
Education & Society

The Genealogy of the Jewish Deli

The Jewish deli is a New York City tradition that has spread far beyond the city's limits. It's a tradition worthy of its own history.
Poinsettia
Politics & Government

What Poinsettias Have to do with U.S.-Mexico Relations

Poinsettias were named for the first US diplomat to Mexico. The flower was more successful than he was. How it went from Aztec dye to Christmas decoration.
George Washington inauguration
Politics & Government

Why the Presidential Inauguration is in January

The Presidential Inauguration is January 20th as a result of a twentieth century change to the U.S. Constitution. Originally, it was March 4th.
Marquis de Lafayette
Politics & History

Foreign Intervention… in the American Revolution

Foreign powers have been interfering in our politics since day one, when we welcomed it from France, Spain, and the Netherlands.
Santa at chimney
Education & Society

What Santa Claus Looks Like

Where does the figure of Santa Claus come from? Turns out the answer is not "the North Pole." And he's not just about Christianity, either.
2012 Cartogram
Politics & Government

Time for Reform of the Electoral College?

Is it finally time to reform the Electoral College after 2000 and 2016? If so, how could this be done?
USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor
Politics & History

Pearl Harbor at 75

Seventy-five years ago on the morning of December 7th, 1941, the Japanese attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaii Territory.
NSA operations center
Politics & Government

The National Security Advisor: A Primer

Presidents have appointed National Security Advisors since 1953. Since the 1960s, they've become increasingly powerful within the Executive Branch.
Fidel Castro
Politics & History

Why Did Fidel Castro Infuriate the U.S. So Much?

Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary and leader who dominated his small island nation's history for half a century, is dead at 90.
Kirchner, Berlin Street Scene
Politics & History

The Weimar Republic: Gone But Not Forgotten

The Weimar Republic is famous for failing, but considering its turmoil and crisis, it's surprising how long it actually lasted.
Hasty Pudding
Education & Society

Hasty Pudding: The Original American Comfort Food

Puddings can be surprisingly nationalistic.
Margaret Fuller
Politics & History

How Early Feminist Writer Margaret Fuller’s Memoirs Were Rewritten

Margaret Fuller was one of the most-read Americans of the mid-nineteenth century, but then men started to edit her for posterity.
Couple at Niagara Falls
Politics & History

Falling for Niagara Falls

How did Niagara Falls become the Honeymoon Capital of the World?
Benjamin Franklin
Politics & History

How Benjamin Franklin’s Almanac Appealed to the Common Man

Why did Benjamin Franklin become an American patriot when he was such a loyal son of the Crown for so long?
Old Books
Arts & Culture

Melvil Dewey’s Attempt at a Spelling Revolution

Melvil Dewey, of the Dewey Decimal system, thought we should have spelling reform.
Hannah Höch. German, 1889-1978 Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany
Art & Art History

DADA at 100, or, I Zimbra!

The anti-art art movement Dada was born in 1916 in Zurich's Cabaret Voltaire. 
Piltdown man
Politics & History

Whatever Happened To Piltdown Man?

Piltdown Man was once considered the missing link between apes and humans. What happened?
Arts & Culture

The Spy Novelist Who Was Actually a Spy

The author John le Carré, who real name is David Cornwall, is the subject of both a recent biography and his own brand new memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel.
Smithsonian Institution Building
Politics & History

Why America Went Medieval

In the middle of the nineteenth century, upper-class America went gaga over a vision of the medieval. Carpenter’s Gothic ...
Helena Blavatsky
Education & Society

Spiritualism, Science, and the Mysterious Madame Blavatsky

Madame Helena Blavatsky was the 19th century's most famous and notorious occultist. She was also the godmother of the New Age movement. 
Grover Cleveland cartoon
Politics & Government

The Venerable Tradition of the Presidential Sex Scandal

Americans have been obsessed with the sexual character and moral rectitude, or lack thereof, of politicians from the beginning. 
Johnny Appleseed
Politics & History

The Real Story Behind “Johnny Appleseed”

Johnny Appleseed was based on a real person, John Chapman, who was eccentric enough without the legends.
Beach Pneumatic Train
Science & Technology

The Pneumatic Subway That Almost Was

New York almost had a pneumatic subway system, but political, legal, and financial reasons kept the system from expanding.
John Aubrey
Politics & History

Archiving the Inventor of the Archive

Scholarship traces the birth of the archive to natural philosophers like John Aubrey.

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