Darling or Degrading? Baby Shows in the Nineteenth Century
A stunningly popular form of entertainment, baby pageants promoted the cult of domesticity, showcased maternal pride, and opened a path to fame and wealth.
Imag(in)ing the Brain
Nobel winner Santiago Ramón y Cajal preferred to draw his own renderings of neurons rather than avail himself of photomicrography's wonders.
The Mystery of Crime-Scene Dust
In the late nineteenth century, forensic investigators began using new technologies to study minute details—such as the arrangement and makeup of dust.
Parthenogenesis, Medieval Whales, and Debating Science
Well-researched stories from Slate, Knowable Magazine, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
From Handcuffs to Rainbows: Queer in the Military
The US military has done an about face on LGBTQ+ rights in just over a decade.
Kwame Brathwaite Showed the World that Black is Beautiful
Photographing everyone from musicians to athletes to the person on the street, Brathwaite found the beauty in Blackness and shared it with the world.
Monique Truong’s The Book of Salt
Centered on the Stein-Toklas household and written from the point of view of their gay Vietnamese cook, Binh, this novel tells a story of converging queer diasporas.
The Habshi Dynasty of India
Amongst the hundreds of minorities within the Subcontinent, Black Indians of African origin stand out.
Declaration of Conscience: Annotated
In June 1950, Senator Margaret Chase Smith criticized Joseph McCarthy's anticommunist campaigns. She was the first of his colleagues to challenge his Red Scare rhetoric.
Deimos: A Chip Off the Old Martian Block?
A new space probe suggests that the moonlet Deimos isn’t a captured asteroid after all.