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Blackstrap molasses

Four Deadly Disasters Caused by Food

There are things you can do to prepare for a hurricane, but what about the London Beer Flood or the Boston Molasses Disaster?

The skeleton of Xiaotingia (head is to the left)

An Ode to Archaeopteryx

The many fuzzy and feathery dinosaurs that have been discovered reveal one of the most magnificent evolutionary transformations in the history of life

I love ketchup

What Ever Happened to Homemade Ketchup?

By the mid-1800s, some cookbooks listed as many as 20 recipes. Today the homogenized condiment is due for a paradigm shift

Visitors walk in the shadow of a reconstructed Tyrannosaurus at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Dinosaurs for Experts, or for Everyone?

Mounting a full dinosaur skeleton, some paleontologists believed, had more to do with art and architecture than with science

The patron saint of cooks, St. Lawrence

To Grill or Not to Grill: Commemorating a Saint’s Martyrdom

If the stories about him are true, St. Lawrence would probably appreciate this bit of perverse humor

When Bad Things Happen to Good Food

It may be no use crying over spilled milk, but the loss of certain other foods might merit a handkerchief

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This Month in History

Momentous or Merely Memorable

Richard Nixon's last meal at the White House. Photo by Robert L. Knudsen

How to Eat Like the President of the United States

See Kennedy’s chowder, Eisenhower’s vegetable soup, Reagan’s jelly beans and Nixon’s last White House meal

The bones of Giraffatitan as discovered in Tanzania.

Tendaguru’s Lost World

The African fossil sites preserve dinosaur fossils that are strangely similar to their North American counterparts

School lunch program poster

What’s Cooking Uncle Sam: A Must-See Show at the National Archives

The show was a revelation for exhibiting the breadth of the government’s involvement in our food

Barnum Brown, showing off his paleo pick in an August 1932 Popular Science

Barnum Brown’s Paleo Pick

Does “Mr. Bones” really deserve credit for inventing an essential field tool?

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Introducing New History Blog: Past Imperfect

Three historians bring their expertise together to provide history with all the interesting bits left in

A delicious and gooey practice.

S’mores: More American Than Apple Pie

Marshmallows are from Egypt; chocolate is Mesoamerican. But Graham crackers were invented—or at least inspired—by a Connecticut Presbyterian minister

Bananas have been cultivated for thousands of years. But are the days of the familiar Cavendish numbered?

Taming the Wild Banana

When and where did people learn to cultivate one of our favorite snacks?

One of the many dinosaur tracks figured in Edward Hitchcock's Ichnology of New England.

South America’s First Dinosaur Tracks

Tracks now readily recognizable as belonging to dinosaurs were once attributed to prodigious birds and other creatures

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The Rickey Declared D.C.’s Native Cocktail

Lobbyist and Confederate army veteran Colonel Joseph Rickey—or possibly his bartender, George Williamson—invented the concoction in 1883

The estimated sizes of several Allosaurus specimens, including "Epanterias."

A Truly Exceptional Allosaurus

Cope did not know it at the time, but he had described an especially large representative of a species his rival had named just a year before

The formidable hand claw of Dryptosaurus

Dryptosaurus’ Surprising Hands

This enigmatic tyrannosauroid may have had the novel combination of short arms with big hands

Cannons at Valley Forge

The Food that Fueled the American Revolution

A steady supply of preserved meats and flavorless flour cakes played a vital role in American patriots defeating the British during the American Revolution

What foods can't you get on a stick these days?

Insects as a Food Source

Entomophagy—the fancy Latin term for eating insects—is beginning to catch on in the Western Hemisphere

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