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Touching Sentiment: The Tactility of Nineteenth-Century Valentines

Sentimental or “fancy” valentines, as they were called, were harbingers of hope, fondness, and desire.
by Christina Michelon via Commonplace on December 1, 2016

"Nature’s Nation": The Hudson River School and American Landscape Painting, 1825–1876

How American landscape painters, seen as old-fashioned and provincial, gained cultural power by glorifying expansionism.
by Linda Ferber via Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History on May 1, 2016

How the Military Waged a Graphic-Design War on Venereal Disease

"Fool the Axis—use Prophylaxis!"In many ways, such a coordinated public effort to alter sexual behavior was unprecedented.
by Hunter Oatman-Stanford via Collectors Weekly on February 11, 2015
Graphic of NRA Blue Eagle, circa. 1933.

The Other NRA (Or How the Philadelphia Eagles Got Their Name)

Before it ubiquitously meant the National Rifle Association, the NRA had a very different meaning.
by Rebecca Onion via Slate on May 22, 2013
Paul Philippoteaux's cyclorama of the Battle of Gettysburg depicting the Union and Confederate armies fighting.

The Great Illusion of Gettysburg

How a re-creation of its most famous battle helped erase the meaning of the Civil War.
by Yoni Appelbaum via The Atlantic on February 6, 2012

How Poverty Was, and Was Not, Pictured Before the Civil War

Images were important in defining the Republic between the Revolution and the Civil War and they distinctively both did and did not show Americans in need.
by Jonathan Prude via Commonplace on April 12, 2010
Sports Illustrated cover featuring a model in a swimsuit.

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue

An intellectual history.
by Bryan Curtis via Slate on February 9, 2010
Illustration of a faceless Virgin Mary and Elizabeth, holding sonograms of the unborn Christ and John the Baptist.

How an American Film in 1984 Shaped the ‘Fetal Personhood’ Movement

The success of the movie ‘The Silent Scream,’ made by onetime abortionist Bernard Nathanson, continues to influence the pro-life narrative.
by Diane de Vignemont via New Lines Magazine on October 25, 2024
Ella Watson in American Gothic, photographed by Gordon Parks.

She Was No ‘Mammy’

Gordon Parks’s most famous photograph, "American Gothic," was of a cleaning woman in Washington, D.C. She has a story to tell.
by Salamishah Tillet via The Atlantic on May 8, 2024
Two American soldiers in UCP uniforms with an Iraqi man in the background.

Universal Failure

Universal Camouflage Pattern became a symbol of an unpopular war. Today, it’s being reappraised by those too young to remember the invasion of Iraq.
by Charles McFarlane via The Baffler on January 4, 2024
AR-15 with the American flag attatched.

The Curse of the AR-15

How the gun became a cultural icon—and unmade America.
by Colin Dickey via The New Republic on October 23, 2023
Park ranger looking at slides
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The Case of the Missing Park Posters: Ex-Ranger Hunts for New Deal-Era Art

A former park ranger is on the hunt to complete a collection of posters by artists commissioned by the government celebrating national parks.
via Retro Report on October 11, 2023
Collage of people in "preppy" clothing.

We’re All Preppy Now

How a style steeped in American elitism took over the world.
by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela via The New Republic on August 14, 2023
A photograph of a bouquet flowers with the center of the image intentionally cut out.

Nothing to See Here

For centuries the study of optics and the use of invisibility in science fiction have developed side by side, each inspiring the other.
by James Gleick via New York Review of Books on July 27, 2023
Typewriters on table at Milwaukee QWERTYFest

How Milwaukee Is Celebrating the Typewriter’s Long, Local History

150 years of typewriter history in the city that invented the QWERTY keyboard.
by Jennifer Byrne via Atlas Obscura on July 5, 2023
A Trump supporter carries a Gadsden flag during a rally at the Michigan Capitol in November 2020.

The Disgraced Confederate History of the ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ Flag

The Gadsden flag has reemerged as a provocative antigovernmental symbol, including at the Capitol riot and on license plates. Confederates once loved it, too.
by Laura Brodie via Retropolis on June 14, 2023
Collage of BuzzFeed logo and people using electronic devices.

They Did It for the Clicks

How digital media pursued viral traffic at all costs and unleashed chaos.
by Aaron Timms via The New Republic on April 18, 2023
Flag of the Confederacy

The United States of Confederate America

Support for Confederate symbols and monuments follows lines of race, religion, and education rather than geography.
by David A. Graham via The Atlantic on October 4, 2022
Black and white lithograph drawing of a white man dragging away a Black woman as another white man holds her baby.

Maternal Grief in Black and White

Examining enslaved mothers and antislavery literature on the eve of war.
by Cassandra Berman via Nursing Clio on September 22, 2022
Headstones in Mount Auburn cemetery. Photograph by Daderot at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18003519.
original

A Tour of Mount Auburn Cemetery

Two centuries of New England intellectual history through the lives and ideas of people who are memorialized there.
by Kathryn Ostrofsky on September 7, 2022
Side-by-side presidential portraits of George Washington, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush

The Presidents Who Hated Their Presidential Portraits

Theodore Roosevelt said his made him look like “a mewing cat.” Lyndon Johnson called his “the ugliest thing I ever saw.” Ronald Reagan ordered a do-over.
by Ronald G. Shafer via Retropolis on September 7, 2022
Vintage photograph of two little girls sitting on a mid-century television set.

The Lost Art of Striking a Pose With Your TV Set

In midcentury America, the machine itself became a character.
by Lynn Spigel via Slate on August 14, 2022
Political cartoon with Nixon and his inner circle tied up with wires, each pointing the finger at another.

8 Cartoons That Shaped Our View of Watergate — And Still Resonate Today

Herblock, Garry Trudeau, and others created memorable cartoons that skewered Nixon and Watergate, making the era a boom time for political satire.
by Michael Cavna via Washington Post on June 16, 2022
Image of an older, decorative ash tray.

Mementos Mori

What else is lost when an object disappears?
by Sophie Haigney via The Baffler on January 27, 2022
Comic of a boy inside an atom structure while a man looks on.

The Surprising History of the Comic Book

Since their initial popularity during World War II, comic books have always been a medium for American counterculture and for nativism and empire. 
by J. Hoberman via The Nation on January 25, 2022
Last ride: A statue of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson is trucked away from Charlottesville, Virginia, in July — and bound for a museum exhibition in Los Angeles in 2022.

The Hot Market for Toppled Confederate Statues

Artists, museums and other groups are vying to claim fallen monuments from the Jim Crow era — but for very different reasons.
by Kriston Capps via CityLab on December 9, 2021
Jewish actress and filmmaker Ellen Richter, striking a pose on screen while two men give her suspicious looks.

The Silences of the Silent Era

We can’t allow the impression of a historical lack of diversity in the art form to limit access to the industry today.
by Pamela Hutchinson via Current (The Criterion Collection) on November 30, 2021
Regulus, painting by J.M.W. Turner, c. 1828.

It’s Time for Some Game Theory

Experiencing history in Assassin’s Creed.
by Caroline Wazer via Lapham’s Quarterly on November 8, 2021
The cover of the book Her Stories by Elana Levine

Guiding Lights: On “Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and US Television History”

Annie Berke reviews Elana Levine's book on a pivotal genre and its diverse fandom.
by Annie Berke via Los Angeles Review of Books on October 19, 2021
A Black family of four in front of their suburban home.
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The ‘Wonder Years’ Remake Resurrects a 1970 Tactic to Diversify TV Viewing

Putting Black characters in situations familiar to White viewers aims to build empathy and interest.
by Kate L. Flach via Made By History on October 1, 2021
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