![Travels through Virginia. [From Theodor de Bry's 'America', Vol. I, 1590, after a drawing of John White].](https://daily.jstor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/the_construction_of_america_in_the_eyes_of_the_english_1050x700-600x400.jpg)
The Construction of America, in the Eyes of the English
In Theodor de Bry’s illustrations for Thomas Harriot’s Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, the Algonquin are made to look like the Irish. Surprise.
The Lumpy Pearls That Enchanted the Medicis
There’s a specific term for these irregular pearls: “baroque,” from the Portuguese barroco.
Wild Rice’s Refusal to Be Domesticated
The reality of wild rice defeated the best efforts of Europeans to domesticate it.
The Question of Race in Beowulf
J.R.R. Tolkien’s seminal scholarship on Beowulf centers a white male gaze. Toni Morrison focused on Grendel and his mother as raced and marginal figures.
How to Teach with JSTOR Text Analyzer
JSTOR Text Analyzer provides students with an additional resource for finding scholarly material.
Women’s Rights in the Early Republic
The U.S.A.'s founders focused on the rights of white men to vote, own property, and govern. The idea that women should have similar rights came later.
Funerals Once Included Swag
In eighteenth-century New England, funeral attendees went home with funeral tokens–usually a pair of gloves or a ring that declared their sorrow.
The First Ugly Election: America, 1800
The 1800 election saw America's first contested presidential campaigns: Thomas Jefferson vs. John Adams.
The Mystery Man in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Life
Gilbert Imlay already had a bad reputation before his biographer discovered he was a slave trader.
A Formerly Enslaved Woman Successfully Won a Case for Reparations in 1783
In one of the earliest examples of reparations, an ex-slave named Belinda petitioned the government and was granted an annuity.