Japanese double folio clock (Wadokei)

A Tale of Two Times: Edo Japan Encounters the European Clock

In country that followed a time-keeping system with variable hours, the fixed-hour clock of the Europeans had only symbolic value.
Students of an engineering course in training in Japan, 1915

When Scientific Management Came to Japan

Japanese workers, many of them women, worked up to 17 hours a day in the early 20th century. Yet experts still wondered why they “wasted” time.
Samurai battle on old vintage Japanese screen

Whatever Happened to the Samurai?

Warriors rarely give up their power, but the samurai of Japan dwindled away rapidly after the Meiji Restoration and the modernization of the country.
Hellen Keller and Mark Twain in side by side black and white photographs

History’s Other Odd Couple: Mark Twain and Helen Keller

Helen Keller and Mark Twain's unusual friendship.