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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.

A preserved specimen in a glass jar

Preserving the Past: Natural History in North America

A look at early natural history collection methods.
Pen on a white background

Ballpoint Pen CSI

A short history of the ballpoint pen and early debates about its impact on handwriting.
American flag

James Truslow Adams: Dreaming up the American Dream

Background on James Truslow Adams, who coined the phrase The American Dream.
Fire Salamander

Earth, Wind, and Fire Salamanders

Fire Salamanders' unusual connection to pharmacy
A swimming beaver

Beavers, Hats, and the Fur Trade

Origins of the North American fur trade.
The Lusitania at sea

The Lusitania Effect

How the Lusitania Effect impacted German-American relations in pre-World War I German.
PEN International logo

Politics and PEN

Some prominent writers have withdrawn from the PEN American Center's annual gala because of the organization's decision to give Charlie Hebdo an award.
Scuffed military boots

On Military Desertion and Executions

Military desertion is not as rare as one would think.
Wall St. street sign

Wall Street’s Slave Market

New York City will unveil a plaque today marking the location of the city's slave market at Wall Street.
View of the Tambora volcano across the water

Tambora: The Volcano Felt Around the World

Tambora's explosion was one of the largest volcanic events in recorded history.
Framed photograph of a woman in red

Historian Elizabeth A. Fenn on the Mandans

Early work from historian Elizabeth A. Fenn.
Black and white drawing of a busy street from the 1800's in Chicago

The Religious-Irreligious Divide in Working Class Chicago

The struggle for the standard eight-hour workday in Chicago was a bitter one.
Poet Claudie Rankine

Claudia Rankine Nominated for Poetry and Criticism Awards by National Book Critics Circle

Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric, was the first book to be nominated by the National Book Critics Circle for both poetry and criticism.
Statue of Alexander Wilson

Alexander Wilson’s Birds

Before Audubon (1785-1851), there was Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) the "father of American ornithology"
Eduardo Galeano

Eduardo Galeano 1940-2015

A historian of Latin America, and a victim of two dictatorships, Galeano was also inevitably a historian of the colossus to the north.
A landscape of dust with sparse patches of grass

Revising Dust Bowl Myths

Charles J. Shindo attempts to revise common myths about the "Dust Bowl"
Franz Mesmer

Mesmerizing Jonathan Miller

Read a 2001 Keynote Address from comedian and scholar Jonathan Miller from the Social Research conference on Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815).
Backgammon game in progress

The Erotics of Backgammon

James E. Doan reveals the sexual innuendoes and double-entendres based on Backgammon.
Sketched concentric circles on a textured cream background

The Solar Origins of Dendrochronology

Historian George E. Webb recounts the intertwined relationship between solar physics and dendrochronology
Preserved corpse of Jeremy Bentham in a glass cabinet

No Foolin’: Jeremy Bentham’s Auto-Icon

There is a curious display in a glass-fronted cabinet at University College London. It's Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) .
Outhouse in the forest

Privies: Vaults of the Past

Privies were the standard urban and rural toilet right into the 20th century in the U.S.
A gloved hand reaches out for a falcon

F is for Falconry

Since so few do falconry in the U.S. today, and hawking hasn't made it to the wide world of TV sports, some background is probably in order here.
W.E.B. DuBois

W. E. B. Du Bois Sets The Stage

A brief communication is revealing window into the life of thinker W. E. B. Du Bois.