As the U.S. Supreme Court considers a case that may result in vastly expanded rights to carry firearms in public, I argue in this op-ed that we need a “common vocabulary and a shared metric for quantifying the lethality of firearms in historical terms when approaching Second Amendment policy and Read more
Wax figures have been around for centuries and were very popular around the western world prior to mass media. I was interviewed on the Jobsolete podcast (iHeartRadio) about the wax sculptors who brought celebrities and others to life. “Wax was used over the centuries… for death masks, for making wax Read more
In the 18th century, “balloon mania” swept across Europe, encouraged by the circulation of writings, lithographs, balloon fashion, and memorabilia. I spoke on the Jobsolete podcast about aeronauts—the adventurers, entertainers, and self-trained scientists who built and flew balloons.
I was interviewed by The New York Times about a trend among some police departments and news outlets to end the practice of releasing and publicizing mug shots of people accused of crimes, absent an immediate public safety reason to do so. I discussed how these mug shots have been Read more
In this opinion piece co-authored with Peter Rutland, I reflect on the National Archives’ censoring of the messages on protest signs in a photo taken at the Women’s March in January 2017. This action was swiftly and universally condemned by professional historians and curators. It both transpired in our era Read more
