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Lauren Davila, standing in front of a historical marker for slave auctions, in Charleston, South Carolina.

How a Grad Student Uncovered the Largest Known Slave Auction in the U.S.

The find yields a new understanding of the enormous harm of such a transaction.
by Jennifer Berry Hawes via ProPublica on June 16, 2023
The 1622 Hessel Gerritsz map of the Pacific Ocean.

Asians In Early America

Asian sailors came to the west coast of America in 1587. Within a century they were settled in colonies from Mexico to Peru.
by Diego Javier Luis via Aeon on June 13, 2023
1903 postcard depicts two Black actors, one of whom is dressed in drag, performing a cakewalk in Paris.

The First Self-Proclaimed Drag Queen Was a Formerly Enslaved Man

In the late 19th century, William Dorsey Swann's private balls attracted unwelcome attention from authorities and the press.
by Cari Shane via Smithsonian on June 9, 2023
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist testifies to a House Financial Services subcommittee about minting coins in commemoration of former Chief Justice John Marshall on March 10, 2004.

There’s Unsettling New Evidence About William Rehnquist’s Views on Segregation

The Supreme Court Justice's defense of Plessy v. Ferguson in a 1993 memo continues to influence the court's interpretation of the 14th amendment.
by Dahlia Lithwick, Richard L. Hasen via Slate on June 1, 2023
Collage of archival documents, map and landscape photo of homestead site, contemporary homestead site and tree photographs.

The Many Legacies of Letitia Carson

An effort to memorialize the homestead of one of Oregon’s first Black farmers illuminates the land’s complicated history.
by Jaclyn Moyer via High Country News on June 1, 2023
A rainbow over a waterscape.

Queer History Detective: On the Power of Uncovering Stories from the Past

With more queer history detectives, what could our future look like?
by Amelia Possanza via Literary Hub on May 30, 2023
Henderson Thigpen, Deanie Parker, Bobby Manuel, and Eddie Floyd, the songwriters of Stax.

The Secret Sound of Stax

The rediscovery of demos performed by the songwriters of the legendary Memphis recording studio reveals a hidden history of soul.
by Burkhard Bilger via The New Yorker on May 29, 2023
Skull and Bones Society building, Yale University.

Did a Yale Secret Society Steal a Famous Apache Leader's Skull? New Documents Raise Questions.

The alleged thieves included one of Connecticut's most prominent sons — former Sen. Prescott Bush, whose son and grandson would both one day be president.
by Joshua Eaton via CT Insider on May 24, 2023
Illustration of a person reading, sitting on a giant stack of books.

Is Writing History Like Solving a Mystery?

Why historians like to think of themselves as detectives.
by Carolyn Eastman via Slate on May 21, 2023
A lithograph of Phillis Wheatley and the first page of her book, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral."

Phillis Wheatley’s “Mrs. W—”: Identifying the Woman Who Inspired “Ode to Neptune”

Who was that traveler? And what did she signify to the poet?
by J. L. Bell via Commonplace on May 16, 2023
Martin Luther King Jr., left, and Malcolm X, right.

MLK’s Famous Criticism of Malcolm X Was a ‘Fraud,’ Author Finds

Alex Haley’s transcript of his famous 'Playboy' interview with Martin Luther King Jr. does not match what was published.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on May 10, 2023
Boxing great Joe Louis stands in a gymnasium boxing ring as if ready for a match.

How Racist Car Dealers KO’d Joe Louis

A never-before-published tranche of letters reveals the white-collar racism that prevented the world’s most popular athlete from selling Fords.
by Silke-Maria Weineck via The Nation on May 8, 2023
Vaishno Das Bagai (top right), Ramesh Chandra, Abnashi Ram, and other early South Asian immigrants, early 1920s.

United States of America vs. Vaishno Das Bagai

One-hundred years ago, the U.S. government waged a deliberate and organized campaign against South-Asian Americans.
by Erika Lee via South Asian American Digital Archive on February 19, 2023
Two unnamed Black officers in the Union Army.

Richard Wright’s Civil War Cipher

Archival records of Black southerners' military desertion tribunals can be read as a distinct form of political action.
by Jonathan Lande via Process: A Blog for American History on February 14, 2023
Wilbert Lee Evans (left) and Alton Waye (right).

NPR Uncovered Secret Execution Tapes From Virginia. More Remain Hidden.

Four tapes mysteriously donated reveal uncertainty within the death chamber—and indicate the prison neglected to record evidence during an execution gone wrong.
by Chiara Eisner via NPR on January 19, 2023
People walk amid the destruction in Rosewood.

How History Forgot Rosewood, a Black Town Razed by a White Mob

A century ago, a false accusation sparked the destruction of the Florida community.
by Craig Pittman via Smithsonian on January 4, 2023
A blue sign reads "It's Time to Vote Y'all"

'Y'all,' That Most Southern of Southernisms, is Going Mainstream – And It's About Time

The use of ‘y'all’ has often been seen as vulgar, low-class and uncultured. That’s starting to change.
by David B. Parker via The Conversation on November 29, 2022
Lutiant LaVoye

Searching for Lutiant: An American Indian Nurse Navigates a Pandemic

A 1918 letter sent a historian diving into the archives to learn more about its author.
by Brenda J. Child via Perspectives on History on November 21, 2022
Diorama of a cluster of houses and people along a waterfront, with a ship in the foreground.

On the Rich, Hidden History of the Banjo

The banjo did not exist before it was created by the hands of enslaved people in the New World.
by Kristina R. Gaddy via Literary Hub on October 24, 2022
A crowd of Japanese Americans behind the barbed wire of an internment camp.
partner

How a 1944 Supreme Court Ruling on Internment Camps Led to a Reckoning

An admission of wrongdoing from the U.S. government came later, but a Supreme Court ruling had lasting impact.
via Retro Report on October 18, 2022
1851 map showing Mexico and Texas

The Dentist Who Defrauded Two Governments—and a Historian, Part I

What happens when forged documents enter the historical record?
by David McKenzie via Contingent on September 26, 2022
Photograph of Hugh Ryan.

Liberating the Archives: Hugh Ryan’s “Women’s House of Detention”

An interview on the queer history of a forgotten prison.
by Hugh Ryan, Eric Newman via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 16, 2022
An Equestrian Statue of King George III, Bowling Green, New York City prior to the Revolution.

Interpretations of the Past

How the study of historical memory created a new reckoning with the creation of “American history."
by Michael D. Hattem, Max Pierce via Public Seminar on July 25, 2022
Painting of Liberian leaders and Americans deliberating

How One Historian Located Liberia’s Elusive Founding Document

The piece of paper went missing for nearly 200 years, leaving some scholars to question whether it even existed
by Amy Crawford via Smithsonian on July 7, 2022
A cemetery with a dusting of snow.

Safer Than Childbirth

Abortion in the 19th century was widely accepted as a means of avoiding the risks of pregnancy.
by Tamara Dean via The American Scholar on March 4, 2022
Children learning about Thanksgiving, with model log cabin on table, Whittier Primary School, Hampton, Virginia circa 1900.

Fugitive Pedagogy

Jarvis Givens rediscovers the underground history of black schooling.
by Lydialyle Gibson via Harvard Magazine on February 11, 2022
Photograph of Chinese man in Sierra County with his name and description next to him.

The Dark Purpose Behind a Town Constable’s Journal

Why did a local official, at the turn of the twentieth century, maintain a ledger tracking Chinese residents?
by Michael Luo via The New Yorker on January 28, 2022
Side-by-side portraits of Lincoln, Rockwell, and Garfield

This Man Was the Only Eyewitness to the Deaths of Both Lincoln and Garfield

Almon F. Rockwell's newly resurfaced journals, excerpted exclusively here, offer an incisive account of the assassinated presidents' final moments.
by Jason Emerson via Smithsonian on January 7, 2022
Soldiers of the U.S. 7th Army march past the entrance of the Burgerbraukeller, site of Adolf Hitler's 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, in Munich on May 3, 1945, five days before the formal end of the World War II in Europe.

‘Greatest Generation’ Survey on Race, Sex and Combat During World War II Runs Counter to Its Image

Virginia Tech project finds forgotten Army surveys that reveal World War II lingo and “the good, the bad, the ugly, heroic, not heroic” attitudes of soldiers.
by Michael E. Ruane via Retropolis on December 20, 2021
An old water tower stands near abandoned outhouses on the former site of a Firestone plantation in Liberia.

Corporations Are Hiding Vast Troves of History From the Public

You can work around some of the holes this lack of access creates, but it takes years.
by Gregg Mitman via Slate on November 2, 2021
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