JSTOR Daily published more than 580 stories in 2024, with topics ranging from disaster tourism to the Delhi Durbars, legal personhood to lunar science, and peer review to Paul Revere Williams. Here are a few of our favorites. As always, each includes links to free, relevant scholarship on JSTOR. Happy reading!
What Is Punctuation For?
January 29, 2024
Between the medieval and modern world, the marks used to make writing more legible changed from “pointing” to punctuation.
Vulture Cultures
April 10, 2024
By turns worshipped and reviled, the bird frequently associated with death has appeared in art works for thousands of years. Here’s a short history.
The Case of the Volcano on the Moon
August 3, 2024
In 1958, Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai A. Kozyrev claimed there was an active volcano on the Moon. Dutch American astronomer Gerard P. Kuiper begged to differ.
The Death of Jack Trice
July 29, 2024
On October 6, 1923, Iowa State tackle Jack Trice lined up for the second half of a college football game. No one’s sure what happened in that third quarter.
A Flood of Tourism in Johnstown
March 1, 2024
Days after a failed dam led to the drowning deaths of more than 2,200 people, the Pennsylvania industrial town was flooded again—with tourists.
A Selection of Student Confessions
August 30, 2024
Did you break a campus rule? Let the students of Millersville Normal School show you how to confess to the administration.
Legal Personhood: Extending Rights to Nature?
July 11, 2024
The idea of awarding legal personhood to nature has received renewed attention in the contemporary environmental justice movement, but much contention remains.
Can Intellectual Humility Save Us from Ourselves?
January 24, 2024
Intellectual humility is defined as a willingness to admit you’re wrong. It could be just the idea for our self-righteous times.
The Power of Pamphlets in the Anti-Slavery Movement
March 25, 2024
Black-authored print was central to James G. Birney’s conversion from enslaver to abolitionist and presidential candidate.
The Development of Central American Film
May 1, 2024
A new collection of essays examines the reasons behind the recent boom in feature and documentary film-making from Belize to Panama.
The Tiny House Trend Began 100 Years Ago
February 9, 2024
In 1924, sociologist and social reformer Caroline Bartlett Crane designed an award-winning tiny home in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Lai Teck, International Man of Mystery
July 13, 2024
A Vietnamese double agent who infiltrated and led the Communist Party of Malaya in the 1930s, Lai Teck also spied for the British and the Japanese.
Webster’s Dictionary 1828: Annotated
April 19, 2024
Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language declared Americans free from the tyranny of British institutions and their vocabularies.
The Magical Furniture of David Roentgen
July 25, 2024
Cabinetmaker to Marie Antoinette, Roentgen designed “surprise furniture,” bureaus and desks that appeared to magically transform at the push of a button.
What Do Gardens and Murder Have in Common?
March 6, 2024
Writers have long plotted murder mysteries in gardens of all sorts. What makes these fertile grounds for detective fiction?
Ghost of the Forest: Monotropa uniflora
October 25, 2024
Look for this other-worldly plant in moist, shaded areas of mature forests throughout much of North America, East Asia, and northern South America.
A Purrrrfect Political Storm
September 25, 2024
Crazy cat ladies have come to dominate this election season. It’s hardly the first time.
The Delhi Durbars
January 14, 2024
Elaborate demonstrations of British royal ceremony fused with Indian tradition, these assemblies were meant to assert political dominance over Indian subjects.
Jura: George Orwell’s Scottish Hideaway
November 15, 2024
Discover the austere island retreat where Big Brother was born.
Paul Revere Williams: An Architect of Firsts
February 13, 2024
The first African American architect licensed in the state of California, Williams blazed a trail to the (Hollywood) stars.
Attacking Italians in Louisiana
July 15, 2024
Italian immigrants had no qualms about working and living alongside Black Americans, which made them targets for violence by white vigilantes in Louisiana.
Nate Salsbury’s Black America
January 25, 2024
The 1895 show purported to show a genuine Southern Black community and demonstrate Black cultural progress in America, from enslavement to citizenship.
The History of Peer Review Is More Interesting Than You Think
July 21, 2024
The term “peer review” was coined in the 1970s, but the referee principle is usually assumed to be as old as the scientific enterprise itself. (It isn’t.)
Who Can Just Stop Oil?
April 13, 2024
Groups such as Just Stop Oil are calling for change, but their aims need to be considered with respect to more than a reductionist slogan.
Up the Junction: A Place, A Fiction, A Film, A Condition
March 13, 2024
In addition to a New Wave hit, Nell Dunn's 1963 book about young women in a poor London neighborhood inspired a Ken Loach adaption that helped shift British attitudes toward abortion.
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