Photos from the American Library in Paris reveal how librarians brought books to US troops during World War I.

With actual samurai sidelined as Japan modernized in the nineteenth century, Italians were able to cherry-pick the aspects of the samurai’s image that they found most relevant. Some Fascists admired ...

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

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

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 ...

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

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

The University of Wyoming is home to an archive of undergarments. And its collection of unmentionables—from the simple chemises of the Civil War era to the neon nylon stockings of the go-go years—is ...

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

Boredom is a fact of everyday life. It may strike when we’re reading a dry philosophy text, watching a Disney movie with our kids for the millionth time, or filling out repetitive paperwork.