SHGAPE Blog

Ghost stories from historic sites, creepy clowns, murder ballads, asylums and conservatorship, the New Lost Cause, the origins of off-year gubernatorial elections, and much more.

Bowling and women’s rights, public history at the Gilded Age mansions of Newport, playing with fire in turn-of-the-century New York City, the long history of political violence in the U.S., the return of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Podcast, and much more

Spun-glass fabrics, Robert La Follette, convict labor in Florida’s swamps, dying before germ theory, the “pansy craze,” the legacy of the Scopes “Monkey Trial” 100 years later, and much more.

Juneteenth historic sites, “female husbands,” a ghost fleet in the Potomac, the “convict clause” and the Panama Canal, the 19th-century origins of criminalizing abortion, a brief history of miasma theory, “human zoos,” and much more.

“Wellness farms” and the eugenic history of confining young people with disability, how the U.S.-Canada border was shaped, parallels between the SAVE Act and the 1907 Expatriation Act, the real history behind the film “Sinners,” the historical significance of Pope Leo XIV’s name choice, and much more.

Golden Age or new Gilded Age, the Statue of Liberty, a historian’s family history, pedestrianism and politics, documenting Black dance history, the Teddy Bear’s failed possum rival, and much more.

The life of Black feminist activist Dr. Anna Julia Cooper, a covert government agency in the Progressive Era, coercive tariffs under McKinley, marriage records of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the origins of Black financial institutions, and much more.

Rereleasing an 1891 country song recording, evolving depictions of Santa Claus, historical holiday drinks and the history of punch, Black self-publishers, acrimonious elections of the past, investigating deaths at Indian boarding schools, and much more

The fight for Native American voting rights, witches in the Wizard of Oz, “catvertising,” Thanksgiving memories from the 1800s, and much more.

Preserving LGBTQ+ history, Teddy Roosevelt pillow covers, mining history in Colorado and Michigan, the Pinkerton detective agency, Detroit’s Mexicantown, and much more.

Rhubarb recipes, designing Times Square, presidential age concerns of the past, violence against elected officials in historical context, keeping cool before air conditioning, centuries of the “cat lady” trope, and much more.

“Forty Acres and a Lie,” the life of Nellie Bly, Coca-Cola and racism, a dangerous flying machine, a new database for African American genealogy, historical cat photos, and much more.