Elizabeth Keckley’s Memoir Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four in the White House
Keckley’s decision to write about her employers from the viewpoint of a household laborer—she was seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln—enraged audiences.
Philanthropy and the Gilded Age
As the HBO series The Gilded Age suggests, charity allowed wealthy women to play a visible role in public life. It was also a site of inter-class animosity.
1929 Women’s Air Derby Changed Views On Women Pilots
Women pilots were seen as oddities, opportunists, and "too scatterbrained" to fly. The 1929 All-Woman Air Race set out to change that.
Lviv: Open to the World
The history of the Ukrainian city of Lviv is long, complex and mirrors some of the larger conflicts of the Eastern European region.
Race and Gender Under the Big Top
The circus provided opportunities to some in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but could not avoid the racism and misogynoir of the "outside world."
Crime Waves and Moral Panics
From train robberies to organized retail theft to murder, are we really gripped by a crime wave?
Feminism, Self-Defense, and (Not) Calling the Cops
The feminist movement of the 1970s worked to raise awareness of violence against women, but diverged on the role of law enforcement in fighting it.
The Nimatron
The world’s first video game made its debut at the Westinghouse pavilion at the New York World's Fair in 1939. Read all about it!
Black Woman Correctional Officer Graduates at Age 62
Segregated schools, cotton, SNCC, and more. A 2004 essay in Long Line Writer, Arkansas DOC Cummins Unit, reveals the perils of life in the Delta.