Synthetic Fabrics Inspired a Cultural Revolution
The advent of synthetic fabrics played a surprising role in bringing women into the workforce, as Mercury 13 trainee Geraldine Sloan’s story illustrates.
Knowledge and Nostalgia at the Museum: From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler imagines the museum as a site of hands-on learning and intimacy with the past.
What Time is it When You Pass Through A Wrinkle in Time?
Do we need two distinct conceptions of time, chronos (clock time) vs. kairos (real time), to understand Madeleine L’Engle’s classic novel?
How to Recreate Palestine: Researching Salt Houses
Debut novelist Hala Alyan on how she researched her new, much-buzzed-about novel Salt Houses, with a little help from JSTOR.
The Devastation of Black Wall Street
Tulsa, Oklahoma. 1921. A wave of racial violence destroys an affluent African-American community, seen as a threat to white-dominated American capitalism.
Caroline Louisa Daly Is Finally Getting Her Due
The works of the Canadian painter Caroline Louisa Daly were for years incorrectly attributed to Charles Daly, a municipal bureaucrat turned artist.
Book Club Made Me Gay
Book clubs and reading groups have long been important to marginalized communities.
What Makes a Glass House the Ideal Home for a Communist Gynecologist?
Paris’s Maison de Verre is a marvel of modernist architecture whose rarely seen interior was constructed to foster sociality.
The Clash Over Water in Waukesha, Wisconsin
A town that once thrived on tourism around its famed natural springs is seeking water from faraway Lake Michigan.
Unearthing a Forgotten Edith Wharton Play
Before she created her masterpieces like The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton had a brief (unsuccessful) stint as a playwright.