Happy holidays! It’s that special time of year to gather with cousins, nephews, and in-laws, as we wear ironic sweaters, drink mulled wine, and reinforce traditional gender roles. “You could call it ...

What did Hadrian’s Wall actually do? Its history challenges the idea that walls simply separate one side from another.

The first criminal conviction based on fingerprint evidence took place in 1892. This was in Argentina a decade before such uses of fingerprints and convictions occurred in the UK and France. It wasn’t ...

Laser guns have long been a staple of science fiction. Now Chinese researchers claim to have developed a portable laser rifle. It sounds truly horrific; it does not kill, but can set fire to clothes ...

In 1829, hundreds of spinners and weavers had gathered at the Norfolk Arms Hotel when the floor collapsed under them. In the tumble, the crowd fell two stories, all the way into the cellar. Thirty ...

After genocide decimated the country’s musicians, old recordings helped a new generation reconnect with Cambodia’s musical past.

Today internet porn is the subject of constant argument and frequent media attention. Yet, outside of specific venues like sex advice columns and some religious communities, there’s an odd lack of ...

Three nineteenth-century memoirs reveal the risks and rewards of life on the road as a traveling bookseller.

Women have mined for centuries, but laws barring them from the industry helped cement the idea that mining was men’s work.

Trees of the genus Pisonia are not your average tree. They seem like something that would be at home in Middle Earth, or maybe Harry Potter’s wizarding world. The genus is not fully understood, even ...

On the Scottish island of Iona, two saints were trying to found a monastery. Every day, the workmen would lay the stones of the foundation. Every morning, they would return to find the last day’s work ...

Hofstra University’s historic photographs capture Hempstead’s shops and streets before postwar development transformed Long Island.