The “Trapeze Disrobing Act”
Strongwoman Charmion used Thomas Edison’s experiments with moving pictures to encourage women to embrace strength and physical activity.
Philanthropy and the Gilded Age
As the HBO series The Gilded Age suggests, charity allowed wealthy women to play a visible role in public life. It was also a site of inter-class animosity.
1929 Women’s Air Derby Changed Views On Women Pilots
Women pilots were seen as oddities, opportunists, and "too scatterbrained" to fly. The 1929 All-Woman Air Race set out to change that.
The Emancipation Proclamation: Annotated
Abraham Lincoln proclaimed freedom for enslaved people in America on January 1, 1863. Today, we've annotated the Emancipation Proclamation for readers.
Erasing Women from Science? There’s a Name for That
Countless women scientists have have been shunted to the footnotes, with credit for their work going to male colleagues. This is called the Matilda Effect.
Lydia Maria Child and the American Way of Censorship
Facing ostracism by literary elites and attacks from pro-slavery mobs, an abolitionist blunted her politics.
How Cremation Lost Its Stigma
The pro-cremation movement of the nineteenth century battled religious tradition, not to mention the specter of mass graves during epidemics.
Cracking the Malaria Mystery—from Marshes to Mosquirix
It took science centuries to understand malaria. Now we’re waiting to see how the 2019 vaccine pilot works.
Anti-Asian Racism in the 1817 Cholera Pandemic
We should learn from, instead of repeating, the racist assignations of the past.
An Early Review of On the Origin of Species
"Darwin openly and almost scornfully repudiates the whole doctrine of Final Causes. He finds no indication of design or purpose anywhere..."