Men in striped pants removing dirt or gravel from a ditch, 1911, Panama Canal Zone

Exporting the Convict Clause: Slaves of the State in the Canal Zone

The criminalization of Blackness enabled by the Thirteenth Amendment brought chain gangs to the construction projects of the Panama Canal Zone.
An aerial view of an open pit phosphate mine

Life According to Phosphorus

Phosphorus is essential for fertilizing high-yield agriculture. The US domestic supply, restricted to Florida, is expected to run out in a couple of decades.
A satirical print depicting the height of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, 1788

Of Heights and Men

Given its strong gendered associations, it may be surprising that height hasn’t been well studied by historians.
Indian Coffee House, Mohan Singh Place

Coffee for the Resistance

During Indira Gandhi’s autocratic Emergency in 1975, one New Delhi coffeehouse became a key gathering place for opponents of her politics.

Juneberry: A Summer Sweet for People, Pollinators, and Birds

For millennia, Indigenous peoples in North America derived sustenance from the juneberry, known also as the misâskwatômin, serviceberry, shadbush, or saskatoon.
Emil Nolde, Red Clouds, watercolour on handmade paper, 34.5 x 44.7 cm.

How a Postwar German Literary Classic Helped Eclipse Painter Emil Nolde’s Relationship to Nazism

While Nolde was one of the many victims of the Third Reich’s repressive responses to “degenerate art,” he was also one of Nazism’s great admirers.
Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama (2nd R) stands with Congressman Jerrold Nadler at a dedication ceremony officially designating the Stonewall Inn as a national monument to gay rights on June 27, 2016 in New York City.

Stonewall National Monument Declaration: Annotated

In June 2016, President Obama proclaimed the first LGBTQ+ national monument in the United States at the site of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City.
A demonstration of Radiovision in Charles Francis Jenkins’ laboratory in Washington, D.C., 1925

Phantoscopes, Radiovision, and the Dawn of TV

After creating a projector called the Phantoscope in 1895, C. Francis Jenkins successfully tackled the problem of transmitting motion pictures through radio.
The "Hungaria Skins" group on the 1997 Day of Honour demonstration, Budapest, Hungary

How Hungary’s Hard Rock Became Hard Right

Punk and hard rock—or at least extremist, right-wing versions of them—are alive and well in post-Cold War Hungary.
Color lithograph advertisement showing the interior of a Pullman dining-car, 1894

Walking the Race Line on the Train Line

Investigators never reached a conclusion about the death of Pullman porter J. H. Wilkins, but his killing revealed much about the dangers of his profession.