Electrical Fashions
From the light-bulb dress to galvanic belts, electrified clothing offered a way to experience and conquer a mysterious and vigorous force.
Making Steel All Shiny and New
When it seemed that steel had lost its gleam with American consumers, the industry turned to marketing to make it shine again.
The Punk Rock Linguistics of Cottagecore
So you want to borrow a concept from another culture but don’t know what to call it? Try a morpheme!
The Forgotten Radicalism of Black Light Posters
Fluorescents have fascinated artists for millennia, but the 1960s and '70s saw a generation of revolutionaries experiment with black light.
The D-I-Y Fallout Shelter
In the 1950s and 1960s, families planning for the apocalypse often took a homespun approach.
Remaking Betty Boop in the Image of a Housewife
Betty Boop was literally designed to be a bombshell, but around 1935, her creators decided to change her appearance.
The Revolutionary Past of Plastics
When plastics were first invented, they seemed to promise a utopian future.
Cutex Hooked Americans on Manicures
How a company that started off selling cuticle remover convinced American woman to paint their nails.
How Masks of Mutilated WWI Soldiers Haunted Postwar Culture
In the age before plastic surgery, masks were the best option for veterans with faces scarred by war. The end results, however, were somewhat uncanny.
What Gloves Meant to the Victorians
According to one historian, the year 1900 was “the zenith of glove-wearing,” when any self-respecting Victorian (British or American) wouldn’t be caught dead without covered hands.