The Governess, 1855

The Governess, in Her Own Written Words

Although few women were employed as governesses in Victorian Britain, their potential for social and class transgression left Britons awash with worry.
USS Nautilus arriving at New York City in 1958

Eisenhower and the Real-Life Nautilus

The voyage of the USS Nautilus under the North Pole in August 1958 was a strategic use of technological spectacle as propaganda under Eisenhower.
Cricket in the United States, 1920

Endangered: North American Cricket

Cricket was played and cheered in the United States and Canada in the nineteenth century. Why did it fall out of favor with sports fans?
Manuscript Illumination with Singing Monks in an Initial D, from a Psalter

Monastic Chant: Praising God Out Loud

For medieval monks, chant was often a crucial part of worship, but theologians had different ideas about how the words and sounds helped evoke piety.
Hydraulics: six different kinds of waterwheel, used for lifting weights. Engraving c.1861

The Scientists, the Engineers, and the Water Wheel

In the eighteenth century, a mathematician, an astronomer, and an engineer each tried to apply their expertise to increasing the efficiency of water wheels.
Pennsylvania coal miners, 1942

Reclaiming a Coal Town

When the coal business tanked in the 1930s, the company town of Pardeesville, Pennsylvania, briefly transformed itself through collective action.
Freedom, A Journal of Anarchist Socialism, Volume 1, Issue 1, October 1886

Printing Anarchy

The stock figure of the “anarchist” is a bomb-thrower or assassin, but political scientist Kathy E. Ferguson argues it should be a printer.
Bangsawan, Malay opera Penang, circa 1895

Gonna Make You a (Bangsawan) Star

The bangsawan theater in early twentieth-century Malaya offered women a chance to build a public identity beyond marriage and motherhood.
A chivalrous gentleman helps his lady friend onto the towpath from a punt at Richmond, London, 1925. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Complex History of American Dating

While going out on a date may seem like a natural thing to do these days, it wasn't always the case.
Richard Nixon photoshopped to be wearing a "Pardon Me! Gerald..." button.

Richard Nixon Redux

On the fiftieth anniversary of US President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation from office, we offer a collection of stories to contextualize his decision.