Laurence Fishburne reads a former slave’s incredible letter to his old master
In 1864, Jourdon Anderson and his wife escaped a life of slavery and moved to Ohio. A year later, he received a desperate letter from the man who used to…
“Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art”
By John Keats Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art— Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature's patient, sleepless…
Where the 1960s “psychedelic” look came from
When you picture hippies, you probably picture bell bottoms, long hair, and LSD. You might also think of a very specific graphic design and illustration style, seen on concert posters…
Did a 1912 Newspaper Article Predict Global Warming?
A newspaper clipping from 1912 that anticipates the global warming potential of burning coal is authentic and consistent with the history of climate science.
Touring Emery Walker’s House: A Captivating Arts & Crafts Treasure Trove | Visitors’ Book
The World of Interiors presents Visitors’ Book from Emery Walker’s House at 7 Hammersmith Terrace. Together with William Morris, Emery Walker was a trailblazer of the arts and crafts movement…
A Whale-Oiled Machine – 99% Invisible
In the 1800s, whaling was a vast and brutal industry–sometimes as deadly for the sailors involved as it was for the whales. And the global epicenter of whaling could be…
The Pain Reliever – PoetryNow
After an artist residency at Chicago’s International Museum of Surgical Science, Carrie Olivia Adams celebrates the lives of pioneering women in medicine during the nineteenth century.
The Berlin Conference on the Breakdown
with dara tucker
Confession of a Feminist
A serialized biography of Jane Grant (1892-1972), first woman reporter at The New York Times and co-founder of The New Yorker {read}
Subversive, queer and terrifyingly relevant: six reasons why Moby-Dick is the novel for our times
But it is Moby-Dick’s premonitory brilliance that continues to make it relevant. Melville predicts mass extinction and climate breakdown, and foresees a drowned planet from which the whale would “spout…