Skip to content
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.

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.
Battle of Hastings tapestry
Politics & History

The Battle of Hastings and the Ongoing Fight for Britain

Nine hundred and fifty years ago, Normans sailed across the English Channel, landing on England on September 27, 1066. The Norman Conquest had begun.
Ford Model T, 1908
Politics & History

Henry Ford’s Anti-Semitism

Henry Ford's newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, published years of anti-Semitic articles, prompting Hitler to call him the "single great man."
Ocean Floor Map
Natural Science

The Mother of Ocean Floor Cartography

Marie Tharp's contribution to ocean-floor mapping and the acceptance of plate tectonics wasn't recognized at the time. 
French trench in WWI
Politics & History

The Power of Deterrence

The First World War witnessed the first major use of chemical warfare, but by the Second World War deterrence seemed to work. 
African American Civil War soldiers
Politics & History

Early Photographs of African American Soldiers at The National Museum of African American History and Culture

The Prickitt album in the NMAAC is a rare coincidence of names and photographs of Colored Troops fighting for the Union in the Civil War. 
Indian Haggadah
Politics & History

High Holy Days in Mumbai

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, are the "High Holy Days" of the Jewish calendar. 
Thomas Jefferson
Politics & Government

Is the “Alt-Right” The Grandchild of the Old Right?

The political term "alt-right" is all the rage now, but it's not so clear what it means. Looking at one of its antecedents may help.
Oklahoma panhandle
Politics & History

Why Oklahoma Has a Panhandle

The long, strange story of why Oklahoma has that panhandle.
Fort McHenry Flag, 1873
Politics & Government

Why Do We Have National Anthems?

How can a single song represent an entire nation? A closer look at national anthems.
Georgetown University in 1850
Politics & History

Slavery and the Church

It wasn't just educational institutions like Georgetown University that profited off of slavery; churches, too, were complicit in the system.
Anders Leonard Zor, portrait of Grover Cleveland
Politics & Government

History’s Biggest Presidential Health Cover-Up

How important is a President's health? Should the public know all? History suggests that full disclosure is better than not.
coffee
Politics & History

Why Coffee is Sometimes Called Mocha

Coffee. Everybody's favorite stimulant has many nicknames, and every one of these words has a story to tell. Consider "mocha."
Bison herd
Plants & Animals

Was America’s Wildlife Ever As Abundant As We Imagine?

Once the bison covered the plains. But how many were there really? Turns out historical animal abundance figures are tricky.
Immigrants Arriving in New York City, 1887 Engraving
Politics & History

Constructing the White Race

How race is historically and culturally defined. 
Spock and Kirk
Arts & Culture

Star Trek’s 50th Star Date Anniversary

September 8 marks the 50th anniversary of the first season of Star Trek, the NBC science-fiction series produced by Gene Roddenberry.
Thomas Edison with lightbulb
Politics & History

Thomas Edison and the War of the Currents

Thomas Edison had a big stake in the AC/DC war of the currents and would say anything to win. 
Tintype portrait
Science & Technology

Fast, Cheap, and Totally Popular: Tintypes

Tintypes were an early, accessible, cheap form of photography, just the thing for on-the-go Americans.
Pages from the Voynich Manuscript
Arts & Culture

The Voynich Manuscript: Crowd-Sourcing An Uncrackable Cipher

The Voynich Manuscript has mesmerized people ever since the man it's named after, bibliophile Wilfred Voynich, brought it up for sale in 1912.

Support JSTOR Daily

Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news.