Category: Culture
Pennsylvania Woman Tied Up, Covered in Molasses and Feathers by Four Women
In the early 1900s, “whitecap” attacks were acts of vigilante intimidation, often carried out by groups who believed they had the right to punish or…
San Francisco Judge Backs Handshake Marriage
A judge was asked to decide whether a marriage could begin with nothing more than a handshake back in 1915 San Francisco. Frank Wells said…
D.C. Children Warned Not to Drink From Horse Troughs
In the summer of 1907, Washington, D.C. officials faced a public health problem that seems almost unthinkable today: children drinking from horse troughs in the…
Wilkes-Barre Mayor Says Jazz and Frankfurters Are Ruining America
In the roaring twenties, few cultural trends spread faster or stirred more controversy than jazz. To its fans, the new music was exciting and full…
Doctor Claims Jazz Life Is Breaking Women
In 1924, jazz was more than music. To its critics, it was a symbol of everything fast, restless, and dangerous about modern life. The dances…
Wilmington Workhouse Prisoner Gets 40 Lashes
At the Newcastle County Workhouse in Wilmington, Delaware, James Dudley Major, also known as Earl White, was fastened to the whipping post and given 40…
Was Edgar Allan Poe’s Dark Reputation Partly His Brother’s?
Edgar Allan Poe has always been difficult to separate from his legend. To many readers, Poe is remembered as the haunted genius of American literature….
The Collapse of America’s Stage Queens
In 1902, newspapers reported what they called an “epidemic” of sudden illness and nervous collapse among some of the most celebrated actresses of the day. …
Newark Judge Fines Couple for Kissing in Park
In 1902, a few kisses in a Newark park were enough to land one couple before Judge Herman Schalk and cost them $10. The story…
Mysterious Numbers on Child’s Eye Spur Occult Speculation
In the small fishing village of Île-Tudy, France, a four-year-old girl named Marie Le Guen became the center of an unsettling mystery. Visitors came to…
