Smart News Arts & Culture

Mata Hari (Malay for “eye of the day”) captivated European audiences with her spiritual yet sexually charged performances

Revisiting the Myth of Mata Hari, From Sultry Spy to Government Scapegoat

One hundred years after her death, a new exhibit is putting the spotlight on the dancer’s life and legacy

A hasty 1900 pigeongram sent to H. Winkelmann by Charles Werner, a great Barrier Island resident. "Dear Mr Winkelmann," it reads, "Charlie Soborne has smashed his arm last night from the wrist to the elbow by a rifle bullet. His father says that the arm will have to be amputated at once so Ernest asked me to send you this... send a steamer at once to the Barrier... also if possible a lawyer."

This New Zealand Island’s Pigeon Mail Stamps Are Still Prized

Pigeons carried correspondence between Great Barrier Island and the New Zealand mainland for about a decade in the early 20th century

The DuSable Museum was originally located in the main floor parlor of this house.

America's Oldest Museum of Black Culture Started in a Living Room

The DuSable Museum of African American History was founded by Margaret Taylor-Burroughs, born on this day in 1915

The new edition of Vita Sackville-West's story features art deco-style illustrations

Now You Can Read the Stamp-Sized Story That May Have Inspired Virginia Woolf's "Orlando"

Vita Sackville-West's hero predates and mirrors Woolf's androgynous time-traveler

Holmes and Watson have had years of adventures together, but the first time they ever appeared in print was in a story Arthur Conan Doyle set in Utah.

The Creator of Sherlock Holmes Was, Like Many Victorians, Fascinated by Mormons

The first story featuring iconic detective Sherlock Holmes, 'A Study in Scarlet,' was published on this day in 1887—and set in Mormon Utah

Cool Finds

Portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots Found Hidden Beneath Another Painting

The politically dangerous work was painted over by Adrian Vanson two year after the queen's execution

American Indian Movement leader Dennis Banks

Dennis Banks, Native American Civil Rights Warrior, Has Died

He rose to national attention after spearheading a 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota

Two millennia after it served as a floor on a Roman emperor's ship and decades after it disappeared mysteriously, this mosaic returns to Italy

Roman Mosaic, Long Used as a Coffee Table, Returned To Italy

The mosaic hails from a “pleasure ship” built by the notorious emperor Caligula

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Understanding the Doping Controversy That's Hit Sled Dog Racing

Four-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey's dogs tested positive for banned substances, but Seavey claims it was sabotage

Kathleen Gilje, Linda Nochlin in Manet’s Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 2006, oil on linen, 37 x 51 inches.

Linda Nochlin, Pioneering Feminist Art Historian, Has Died

Nochlin is best known for a 1971 essay theorizing that social institutions—and not a lack of talent—held women back in the art world

Lee receiving the Medal of Freedom in 2007

Cool Finds

Unpublished Harper Lee Letters Purchased at Auction Share Intimate Reflections

The letters from the <i>To Kill a Mockingbird</i> scribe include remembrances of Hollywood celebrities, a bit of history and some sass

Eeek!

Zombie Movies Are Never Really About Zombies

Zombies have offered a way to work out cultural fears about everything from race to climate change

A woodcut from a 1720 history of "witches and wizards"

How New Printing Technology Gave Witches Their Familiar Silhouette

Popular media helped give witches their image

Even the venus fly trap, which takes an active role in catching its prey, is almost nothing like us.

Getting to the Roots of "Plant Horror"

From the serious—pod people—to the farcical—”feed me, feed me!”—this genre has produced some strange stuff

"Crack!"

The Comic Artists Who Inspired Roy Lichtenstein Aren't Too Thrilled About It

Lichtenstein's use of comic art and styles made him one of America's most famous pop artists, but some have comic artists have a bad taste in their mouths

This paper log for Interface Message Processor shows the very first online communication.

These Two Small Letters Heralded the Beginning of Online Communication

Their message is far more profound in retrospect than it was at the time

The Boston Public Library Is Digitizing 200,000 Vintage Recordings

With the help of the Internet Archive, the recordings from the Sound Archives Collection will one day be available for free streaming and download

Cool Finds

Einstein's Maxims on Life Fetch $1.8 Million at Auction

The notes were given as a tip to a Tokyo bellboy in 1922

This Artist Is Crowdsourcing "Singing" Sand From Around the World

Amsterdam-based artist Lotte Geeven is making sand symphonies for a public artwork debuting next spring

"MonstroCity," the outdoor section of St. Louis' City Museum

American South

A Look Inside an Iconically Quirky St. Louis Museum

A veritable playhouse of salvaged materials and crafted objects, the City Museum has entertained the young and young at heart for two decades

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