Kate Wheeling

Kate Wheeling is a former staff writer at Pacific Standard.

Stories from this author

The Santa Marta sabrewing, a highly elusive bird, showed itself in 2022, in Colombia, giving hope to conservationists.

Dedicated Scientists and Birdwatchers Tracked Down These Five ‘Lost’ Birds

A worldwide search party is using 21st-century tools to uncover long-unseen species, one of which hadn’t been found since the 19th century

Left, a 1932 self-portrait by Lee Miller. Right, a 1943 portrait of Miller by American photojournalist David Scherman.

How Lee Miller, a Magazine Model and Muse, Became a Daring World War II Photographer

The bold journalist, who made a splash on both sides of the lens, is the subject of a new biopic starring Kate Winslet

Robert W. Bowles of Long Island competes at the first Sunfish World Championship in the U.S. Virgin Islands, in 1970. Bowles placed ninth that year. 

How the Most Popular Sailboat Ever Was Invented

The Sunfish taught millions of Americans to seize the breeze

Frances F. Denny (b. 1984). Shine, (New York, New York), 2017, from Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America series. Archival pigment print.

What Does It Mean to Be a Witch Today?

A new exhibition on the Salem witch trials explores how the meaning of the word “witch” has evolved through the centuries

Veteran food critic Florence Fabricant has called peanut butter “the pâté of childhood.”

A Brief History of Peanut Butter

The bizarre sanitarium staple that became a spreadable obsession

Lucretia Mott’s signature Quaker bonnet—hand-sewn green silk with a stiff cotton brim—from the collection of the National Museum of American History.

What Made Lucretia Mott One of the Fiercest Opponents of Slavery and Sexism

Her humble Quaker upbringing taught her how to stand up for her beliefs

When Michigan Students Put the Car on Trial

In a famous 1970 teach-in demonstration, prosecutors hammered away at the nation’s most powerful defendant