Slaves waiting for sale, Richmond, VA, 1861

Chains of Credit: The Entrepreneurial Advantage of Slavery

As the financial history of Maryland shows, slavery represented extraordinarily liquid wealth and outsized political power.
Antique wood truncheon club from the 1920s

The Rise of Police Torture in New Orleans

Even as crime rates dropped in the 1930s, the police of New Orleans stepped up their use of torture to obtain confessions from Black Americans accused of crimes.
Wilbert Hunt, 97, the oldest member of the Pueblo of Acoma, casts his ballot at the Acoma Tribal Center in Acoma, New Mexico, 2004

The Fight for Native American Voting Rights

Despite the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924, Native American activists have had to repeatedly take their fight for voting rights to Congress.
Internees at the barracks of the internment camp in Boven-Digoel

Boven Digoel, the Prison Camp in the “Siberia of Indonesia”

The number of ethnic Chinese incarcerated in Boven Digoel in the 1920s was low, but the New Guinea colonial prison nonetheless shaped Sino-Malay literature.
Concert of Apollo and the Muses on Mount Helicon by Maerten van Heemskerck

A Brief History of the Muses

Scholar Alison Habens tells us more about the Greek goddesses who provided divine inspiration for ancient poets.
Woman lighting the candles for Diwali in India

A History of Diwali

Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is observed across the length and breadth of India as well as among the large Indian diaspora around the world.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22A_Thrilling_Hallowe%27en.%22_(Three_black_cats_flying_through_the_air_with_Jack-o-lanterns).jpg

Halloween Stories

Why are Victorians the default haunted house, what do ghosts have to do with the imagination, and why do we like to be scared?
Rabbis Chant On Capitol Steps, Washington, D.C., 1945

Jews vs. the “Judeo-Christian Tradition”

Since the 1930s, the idea of a “Judeo-Christian tradition” has been used in American politics, but some Jews have always taken issue with the entire concept.
Print advertisement for an electron microscope and other electronics manufactured and sold by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) for various scientific and industrial applications. The advertisement features an illustrated depiction of a bacteriologist viewing samples of the influenza virus under magnification. The accompanying text details the electron microscope's ability to make the infinitesimal visible through the use of electrons instead of light for illumination.

Viruses Through the Looking-Glass

The electron microscope brought about a paradigm shift in virology in the middle of the twentieth century.

Can You Photograph a Ghost?

William Hope claimed to be able to document the visitations of ghosts. The controversial images he produced add to our understanding of the history of photography.