A monthly roundup of Gilded Age and Progressive Era news articles and blog posts from around the web.
The myth and mystery of La Milagrosa, Havana’s “Miraculous One”
A “habitual drunkard” in the eyes of the law: asylums and conservatorship
How the Union lost the war of remembrance
Twelve failed constitutional amendments that could have changed U.S. history
Lost for decades in a Soviet vault, a 1919 film featuring Nez Perce tribal members is screening again
Streetlamps and oil spills: how lighting technologies have damaged avian ecologies and what we can do to heal the violence of artificial illumination
At New York City’s Tenement Museum, students examine American history through the life of one Black family in the 1860s
Podcast episode covering the long history of the American murder ballad
A 1918 battle and the story of one of the first border fences between the United States and Mexico
Over a century ago, Woodrow Wilson re-segregated the federal government
The agricultural origins of the word “broadcasting” and how it made its way into media
What happens when the Supreme Court forgets the past? Look to Plessy v. Ferguson and the years after Reconstruction
Misinformation about Tylenol in pregnancy reflects a long history of blaming pregnant people and expecting maternal sacrifice
How Long Island’s longstanding social divides and the tensions between old and new money helped create the world of The Great Gatsby
Book review of Steering the Senate, exploring the roots of party leadership and organization from the nineteenth century to the present
Ghost stories from seven historic sites
Talks from a symposium revisiting the Scopes Trial 100 years later
A history of White House renovations
The man who conceived the idea of Mt. Rushmore to diversify South Dakota’s economy
How political agendas are shaping history classrooms
A Confederate statue in D.C. that was pulled down in 2020 has been reinstalled
Off-year gubernatorial elections came about as a means of voter suppression
Tracing the idea of creepy clowns through history
In 1907, Charles Oldrieve, wearing custom-made floating wooden shoes, walked on water for 1,600 miles in 40 days
Approaching queer history through horror-themed museum programming
Interview with the director of Sex Radical, a new docudrama about Ida Craddock, a feminist, spiritualist, and sex educator (or read about the film and where to watch it on the SHGAPE Blog)
Alternative histories and the New Lost Cause
Cover Image
Election day, November 4, 1913, in New York City. John Purroy Mitchel was elected (on a fusion ticket) to succeed Acting Mayor Ardolph Loges Kline. Bain News Service. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Andrew Varsanyi is a doctoral candidate in History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His forthcoming dissertation explores transnational populism and agrarian political movements in North America, analyzing cross-border connections between U.S. and Canadian farmers. He has taught history at Mount Royal University and the University of Calgary.
Laura Crossley is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the SHGAPE Blog. She is a history PhD candidate at George Mason University, specializing in digital history and Indigenous histories. Her dissertation examines how political debates over land, statehood, and Native sovereignty in the American West played out at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition.