How Civil Rights Groups Used Photography for Change
As one activist said, “If our story is to be told, we will have to write it and photograph it and disseminate it ourselves.”
In The Gay Cookbook, Domestic Bliss Was Queer
Chef Lou Rand Hogan whipped up well-seasoned wit and served a gay take on home life during the early-1960s craze for camp.
How to Gather the Oral Histories of COVID-19
The Federal Writers’ Project offers vital lessons for capturing the oral histories of ordinary Americans living through the coronavirus pandemic.
The Bizarre Theories of the American School of Evolution
The paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope condemned women's suffrage and Black Americans through an evolutionary lens.
Racism and the Fear of “Voodoo”
During Reconstruction, lurid tales of African-derived religious practices in Louisiana made news all over the country—especially when worshipers included white women.
Marian Anderson Photo Archives
The African American opera singer made history with a stirring concert at the Lincoln Memorial. But there was much more to Marian Anderson.
The Linguistic Evolution of Taylor Swift
If Taylor Swift shifts her accent in her transition from country to pop, does she lose the personal authenticity important to country music?
When Black Celebrities Wore Blackface
A Black Bohemia flourished in New York before the Harlem Renaissance and with it a new type of self-determined, contradictory Black celebrity.
The Newport Rebels and Jazz as Protest
In 1960 a group of jazz musicians organized an alternative to the Newport Jazz Festival, which they saw as too pop and too white.
How DIY Home Repair Became a Hobby for Men
It was only in the 20th century that toolboxes became staples in the homes of middle-class men.