Ploughman painting

The Toadmen, Masters of Equine Magic

A strange initiation ritual involving a toad was required for members of a secret caste of nineteenth-century horse mystics.
Lichtenstein Crying Woman

What Really Made 1950s Housewives So Miserable

Where did the image of the quietly desperate stay-at-home mother come from?
Cover of "Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village" by Ronald Blythe

The Re-Release of a Classic

A new American edition of Ronald Blythe's Akenfield reminds us why it became one of the founding texts of oral history.
Wooden Spoons

Why We Keep Our Utensils

They're more than just cooking tools.
Portrait of Noah Purifoy. Photo credit: Jim McHugh, courtesy of Noah Purifoy Foundation.
www.noahpurifoy.com

Salvage and Savior: Noah Purifoy’s Assemblage

Noah Purifoy transformed the wreckage from the 1965 Watts riots into art, and in doing so, he transformed much more.
circa 1955:  American humorist and author John Henry Faulk (1913 - 1990), narrates the history of early America in a still from the television program,'They Call It Folk Music.'  (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Hearing Harriet Smith

In the University of Texas library, our writer found a previously unknown audiotape of an interview with a woman who'd been born into slavery.