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Articles

Cypress Swamp. Middle Mississippi, 2014

Photographer Reconstructs 1,400-Mile Route Along the Underground Railroad

‘Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad’ traces a plausible path a freedom seeker could have taken North

A late 19th century photograph from Antwerp, Belgium shows a typical milk cart pulled by dogs.

Four Weird Ways Dogs Have Earned Their Keep

From pulling milk carts to herding reindeer, dogs have had some odd jobs

The recipes in late 19th-century American cookbooks—precise and detailed—met the needs of cooks in a highly mobile and modern country. Image from "Recipes: cards with text; depicting a woman in a kitchen reading, a server, meat, fish and a scale."

The Making of the Modern American Recipe

Scientific methods, rising literacy and an increasingly mobile society were key ingredients for a culinary revolution

The weight of record-setting giant pumpkins has ballooned nearly 500 percent since 1975.

Why Is America Losing Ground in the Contest to Grow the World’s Biggest Pumpkin?

Our most symbolic squash is now taking over the world

Calder, c. 1931

How Alexander Calder Became America’s Most Beloved Sculptor

In an exclusive excerpt from his new book, Calder: The Conquest of Time, Jed Perl reveals a hidden side of the artist

Fertility apps promise to help women both get pregnant and avoid pregnancy. But how reliable are they?

New Research

What’s Actually New About Today’s Newfangled Birth Control Apps?

These futuristic-sounding apps are on the rise, but it’s key to separate the data from the hype

None

Freer|Sackler: Reopens

Freer|Sackler: Reopens October 14

Stories and updates for the upcoming celebrations at the Freer and Sackler Galleries

Everyone sees them all, but we don’t all give them the same distinct names.

The World Has Millions of Colors. Why Do We Only Name a Few?

Cognitive scientists suggest that we name the colors of things we want to talk about

A page from a New England Primer printed in Massachusetts in 1811, with the text "Life and the Grave two different lessons give/Life shows us how to die, death how to live."

Children Used to Learn About Death and Damnation With Their ABCs

In 19th-century New England, the books that taught kids how to read had a Puritanical morbidity to them

Gokstad ship at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo

Seven Must-See Museums in Norway

Each institution celebrates a different aspect of this Scandinavian country’s history

The Tulip Folly

There Never Was a Real Tulip Fever

A new movie sets its doomed entrepreneurs amidst 17th-century “tulipmania”—but historians of the phenomenon have their own bubble to burst

Manasi Kulkarni on her farm in Nandgaon, Maharashtra, India

The Intrepid Teachers Bringing Internet Access To Women In Rural India

The gender disparity among internet users in the country’s small villages is staggering. A program called Internet Saathi aims to help

The compound eyes of a robber fly

The Innovative Spirit fy17

These New Solar Cells Are Modeled After a Fly’s Eye

Stanford University researchers may have found a way for perovskites to compete with silicon in the solar panel market

Parlor scene of G. Burk, Warwick, New York

When the Idea of Home Was Key to American Identity

From log cabins to Gilded Age mansions, how you lived determined where you belonged

The Ship of Tolerance, Zug by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, 2016

This Former Soviet Art Duo Crafts Worlds of Whimsy and Delight

Miniature models, the wellspring of the celebrated large installations of Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, are at the Hirshhorn

Sunita Narain has been working for climate justice with the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment since 1982.

How an Environmental Activist Became a Pioneer for Climate Justice in India

Reducing India’s emissions will take more than science—it will take a new paradigm of de-colonialism, says Sunita Narain

Austria

This Austrian Ossuary Holds Hundreds of Elaborately Hand-Painted Skulls

Step inside Europe’s largest intact collection of painted remains

1879 football match between Yale and Princeton

Turn-of-the-Century Kid’s Books Taught Wealthy, White Boys the Virtues of Playing Football

A founder of the NCAA, Walter Camp thought that sport was the cure for the social anxiety facing parents in America’s upper class

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