From our modern vantage point, the culinary options of bygone cultures are sometimes difficult to comprehend. It seems that hungry people gobbled down anything they could get their hands on, including dormice (rodents), beaver tails, and fish bladder jam. But while some of t...
Victorian fashion, like many aspects of British society during Queen Victoria’s reign, was defined by order, structure, and formality. Though styles evolved throughout the decades, from the voluminous bell skirts of the 1850s to the bustle-heavy silhouettes of the 1880s, som...
The Bronze Age was a period of extraordinary transformation that unfolded across many parts of the world between roughly 3300 and 1200 BCE. During this time, people mastered the process of smelting copper and tin into bronze, a durable metal that reshaped how humans farmed, ...
Strolling through an old European city or colonial American village, one structure often draws the eye before anything else: the clock tower. Often reaching high above rooftops and marketplaces, these architectural timekeepers have marked the passage of hours for centuries. ...
Today, sailing vessels and naval fleets use reverse-osmosis desalination systems to get drinking water right from the ocean. But before the modern age, sailors had one major preoccupation beyond storms, scurvy, shipwreck, and pirates: the need for fresh water. Surround...
The icons and symbols we use every day can feel like products of the modern world. Your phone connects via Bluetooth, your doctor’s office displays a snake-wrapped staff, and your computer is covered in tiny pictograms that tell you where to plug things in. But many fa...
Upper-class society in Victorian England was governed by strict social rules, and dining was no exception. This included, perhaps surprisingly, a correct way of eating asparagus. Etiquette guides often made a point of specifying that picking up a spear with your fingers was ...
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Tens of thousands of years before skin care routines started popping up on social media, Neanderthals — our supposedly brutish, decidedly unglamorous evolutionary cousins — were wearing makeup and even jewelry. This discov...
During the First Barons’ War in 1216, King John of England was on the move as rebel barons challenged his rule. With him was a convoy carrying the king’s goods and valuables, including his royal regalia. As John and his entourage attempted to cross the Wash, a wide tidal est...
Ancient Egypt has fascinated people for centuries — its towering pyramids, mysterious mummies, and richly decorated tombs have inspired everything from Hollywood blockbusters to bestselling novels. But beyond the legends and larger-than-life stories, historians now know more...
Since most of us walk into a grocery store with our minds fixated on the items needed to fill up the fridge and pantry, it’s rare that we take the time to marvel at the wonders of modern food shopping. Whether it’s a small neighborhood mart, a chain supermarket, or a gargant...
When we say we’re buying eggs at the grocery store or having eggs for breakfast, we’re almost always talking about one specific kind: chicken eggs. The average American eats more than 270 chicken eggs each year, making them one of the most common foods in the modern diet. Th...
“History is, in its essentials, the science of change.” So wrote the French historian Marc Bloch in 1949, and it’s true: History is indeed inextricably linked with change, and in some cases, the change is so fast and so monumental that just a single year can alter the trajec...
You might remember your mother or grandmother hosting a Tupperware party in the living room, with neighbors gathered around, sipping coffee and nibbling on dessert while someone demonstrated the magic of an airtight seal. Or maybe you still have a few pastel bowls of your ow...
If you’ve ever tried putting on a shirt that was designed for someone of the opposite gender, you may have noticed something peculiar: The buttons are on the “wrong” side. Men’s shirts button left over right, with buttons running down the right side and buttonholes on the le...
Have you ever wondered if your last name might have royal connections? Whether, through the centuries, your surname has traveled through the noble bloodlines of ancient empires and medieval kingdoms? Today, with genealogy websites and online surname databases, it’s easier th...
When French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville set sail on the first French voyage around the world in 1766, one member of the crew wasn’t supposed to be there. French naval regulations prohibited women from sailing aboard navy ships, but botanist Philibert Commerson was...
When Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” vanished from the Louvre in August 1911, police cast a wide net in search of suspects. One of the names they included was that of a young Spanish artist: Pablo Picasso. The trail began with a Belgian adventurer and petty thief named Honor...
If you dropped into a typical classroom today, you’d likely see flexible seating, group work, and active discussions between students and teachers. Compared to even a few decades ago, the contrast is striking. Many practices that are now considered outdated — or even unaccep...
Theodore Roosevelt is the only U.S. president with a national park named after him, but Roosevelt never actually worked as a park ranger — in fact, the only U.S. president to do so was Gerald Ford. In the summer of 1936, Ford worked a seasonal job as a ranger at Yellowstone ...
In the 1960s, New York City’s Greenwich Village — the Manhattan neighborhood located roughly between Houston and 14th streets, from the Hudson River to Broadway — was a hub of American counterculture. Once an upscale residential area in the 1800s, the neighborhood had change...
Before modern anesthesia, surgery was an agonizing experience. Procedures were done quickly and often with alcohol, opium, or nothing at all. That began to change in 1799, when 20-year-old English chemist Humphry Davy started experimenting with nitrous oxide — better known a...
Step into an average American bedroom in the mid-1920s and you’d find a room caught between two eras. The traditions of the 19th century hadn’t completely disappeared, yet many of the conveniences associated with modern homes were only beginning to spread. At the same ...
If you take a walk through some of the older neighborhoods in the United States, you might spot a slightly odd configuration on some of the houses: two front doors sitting side by side on the same facade. It’s easy to assume these homes must have been converted into du...
You’ve probably never heard of Decimus Junius Brutus Pera, but the prominent aristocrat’s death inspired one of ancient Rome’s most famous attractions: the gladiator. When he died in 264 BCE, his sons Marcus Junius and Decimus Junius took it upon themselves to honor hi...
Few things are as refreshing as an ice-cold drink on a hot day. Indeed, ice is an essential part of the beverage industry today, with the global ice maker market valued at more than $5 billion. In the United States alone, the average person consumes nearly 400 pounds of ice ...
It’s hard to surpass the romance and adventure embodied by hidden treasure. The allure of lost riches has lived with us throughout human history, and the interest in such fables has never wavered — hence the enduring popularity of fictional works such as Robert Louis Stevens...
Along with the Cyclops and Odysseus’ confrontation with the many would-be suitors of his wife, the Trojan horse is one of the famous narratives people often associate with the Odyssey. There’s just one problem: It’s barely even mentioned in Homer’s epic poem, and never by na...
Today, it’s hard to imagine a president traveling without a motorcade. But when automobiles first appeared in the late 19th century, many Americans considered them loud, dangerous contraptions that frightened horses, terrified pedestrians, and seemed unlikely to replace the ...
At the turn of the 20th century, the U.S. was in the midst of a significant and rapid transformation. Industrialization was creating new wealth for those it favored, sprawling cities were replacing rural towns as the centers of American life, and an entirely new layer of soc...
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