When Shoes Were Fit with X-Rays
Fluoroscopes were used in shoe stores from the mid-1920s to 1950s in North America and Europe -- even though the radiation risks of x-rays were well-known.
Makeup in the Technicolor Age
When Technicolor changed the face of the film industry, it also altered the cosmetics industry, sparking the great Hollywood Powder Puff War of the 1930s.
Austen Fans, Modern Belief, and Environmental Politics
New books and scholarship from Oxford University Press, Princeton University Press, and the University Press of Colorado.
What Does History Smell Like?
Scholars don't typically pay that much attention to smells, but odors have historically been quite significant.
Our Long Relationship with Leather
A recently-discovered skeleton wearing leather boots inspires a walk through our history of wearing animal hides.
Ten Poems about Travel
Poetry about all kinds of travel—from grand adventures to family vacations—by Elizabeth Bishop, Rita Dove, and more.
Finding the Value of Housework
Can housework be anything other than drudgery? Maybe part of the problem is that we consistently devalue unpaid work.
How the Brownie Camera Made Everyone a Photographer
Eastman Kodak used folklore to sell a modern technology, and ended up creating new communities and forms of expressions along the way.
Why Champagne?
We use champagne to celebrate New Year's Eve and other major events. But how did the sparkling wine get such cultural cachet? (Hint: marketing helped.)
Saturn’s Rings, Anger, and Snowmen
Well-researched stories from Forward, Wired, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.