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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.

Pressed chestnut leaves

When Chestnuts Ruled Our Forests

Once plentiful, chestnuts were virtually extirpated from the forests of eastern North America by WWII.
An older black and white headshot of Nelly Bly beside the cover of Round the World with Nelly Bly

Nellie Bly, Girl Reporter

A look back on Nellie Bly and the era of "stunt-reporting."
City Hall Station in New York with a symmetrical tiled pattern on the arches and ceiling

Rediscovering the Guastavinos

Rediscovering the Gustavinos contributions to architecture.
Kurdistan

Kurds: In the Middle of the Middle East

A brief history of Kurds and Middle Eastern politics.
A small bird on a thin tree branch

Winter Coping Strategies for Animals – and for Us

The winter coping strategies of birds and humans are not so different.
Families walking beside the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Escapist Humor in East and West Berlin

Humor in East and West Berlin before the wall came down.
Black and white illustration of the Battle of Orleans

The Influence of Wars on American Politics

What does war do to domestic American politics?
A Gall Wasp on a horizontal stalk

Alfred C. Kinsey On Gall Wasps and Edible Plants

Alfred Kinsey was a professor of entomology before becoming a sexologist.
An open pack of graham crackers

A Hell of a Cracker

The unusual origin of the graham cracker
A skeleton-costumed child holding out a pumpkin bowl of Halloween candy

The Origins of Halloween

Halloween history and ethnography.
Close-up of a voting machine lever

The Early American Origins of Political Terms

What does stump speech and pork barrel mean? A short lexicon of American political terms.
A Polio Quarantine Card outlining the Act of Assembly Act from 1909

The Origin of Quarantine

Such forms of enforced isolation are referenced as far back as the Old Testament, while the word "quarantine" itself dates to the late medieval Plague.
A stamp depicted the first earthling in space, Laika, a dog.

Laika: The First Earthling in Space

The first Earthling was Laika, a Russian mongrel found on the streets of Moscow.
Slate statute of Alan Turing at Bletchley Park.

Remembering and Representing Alan Turing

A 1955 obituary of Turing from the Royal Society is fascinating for what it leaves out of the first draft of history.
Stuffed Passenger Pigeon atop a wooden perch

Passengers Long Gone

Martha, last of the passenger pigeons. 
An overhead perspective of a Common Green Darner on a green leaf

Long-Distance Migration: Everybody’s Doing It

The birds do it. The butterflies do it. And now we know that the dragonflies do to it, too: long-distance migration. 
Low angle view of government buidling

The Origins of the Secret Service

Where did the Secret Service come from?
Orange and rust autumn leaves, illustrated

Why Do Leaves Change Colors in the Fall?

Why do leaves change colors in fall?
A black and white portrait photograph of Herman Melville.

Melville Reborn, Again and Again

A scholar traces Herman Melville's reputation in American and British literary circles.
Illustrated imagining of American and Soviet spacecrafts docking from 1973.

Space Is The Place: The US, USSR, and Space Exploration

Even during the Cold War, US and Russian cooperation succeeded in space exploration.
Grassy Lake in the John Muir Wilderness

The Wilderness Act Celebrates its 50th Birthday

The federal Wilderness Act was signed 50 years ago.
Planet Earth from Space

A Historic Look at Climate Change Research

Plant ecologist Charles F. Cooper wrote prescient and succinct words on the topic of climate change back in 1978.
Tami Bond, Photographed at University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois, September 6th, 2014.

MacArthur Fellow Tami Bond studies the “Dark Horse” of Climate Change

Environmental engineer and newly-minted MacArthur Fellow Tami Bond is an expert on "black carbon."