Imag(in)ing the Brain
Nobel winner Santiago Ramón y Cajal preferred to draw his own renderings of neurons rather than avail himself of photomicrography's wonders.
The Mystery of Crime-Scene Dust
In the late nineteenth century, forensic investigators began using new technologies to study minute details—such as the arrangement and makeup of dust.
The Mesmeric Dr. James Esdaile
The acceptance of mesmerism in colonial Bengal depended on the public performance of Western medicine couched in the wonders of a supposed “native” magic.
The Manifesto of the 343
In a dramatic act of civil disobedience, more than three hundred French women publicly confessed to having had an illegal abortion.
The Visual Medium Has a Message
How does the medium in which an image is rendered, its materiality, shape our perception of the subject matter?
Street Harassment in Victorian London
Middle- and upper-class women complained about “so-called gentlemen” who stared at them, blocked their paths, and followed them as they tried to shop.
Who Was the Little Girl in Las Meninas?
A Spanish princess who became a German queen, Margarita Teresa lived a life structured by Catholicism and cut short by consanguinity.
Teaching Comics: A Syllabus
So you want to teach The Sandman? Or William Blake? Or Art Spiegelman’s Maus? A guide to using comics and graphic novels in the classroom.
Whence the White Horse of Uffington?
A white horse of chalk both defines and defies a common understanding of what English heritage is, and is not.
Plant of the Month: Fuchsia
Too popular for its own good? The career of a flower so powerfully beautiful, fashion would inevitably declare it over.