Category: Culture
The Working Lives of America’s Gravediggers
The Battle of Calvary Cemetery November, 1883. 8:00 PM. Calvary Cemetery, Long Island. The air is thick with the smell of turned soil and the…
What Women Wore to Clean: The Surprising Dress Code Behind 1910 Housekeeping
In 1910, even a routine sweep of the parlor came with a dress code. Housekeeping guides of the era didn’t just tell women how to…
When Sleep Paralysis Was Blamed on Night Hags
Imagine waking up, completely paralyzed, with a crushing weight on your chest and a shadowy figure looming over you. What if I told you our…
Weather Wisdom of the Texas–Mexican Border
On the ranches that stretch along the Rio Grande, weather is not small talk. It is food for cattle, grass for sheep, and the boundary…
The History of April: Month of Venus and Awakening Earth
The month of April brings with it the warm breath of spring, a time when the earth stirs from winter’s slumber and bursts open with…
Dances, Pilón, and the “Evil Eye”: Everyday Life on the Texas–Mexico Border, c. 1900–1923
On the lower Rio Grande in the early 20th century, Mexican and Mexican-American families kept close to traditions brought north long before the railroad and…
The Old-World Ways of Gillespie County’s German Texans
Set in the Texas Hill Country, Fredericksburg grew from a mid-1840s German settlement into a town where old customs met a changing frontier. By the…
Cowboy Dances: How the Plains Threw a Party
Before highways, neon dance halls, and coin-operated jukeboxes, the rural West made its own fun. A cowboy dance was not a ticketed event with posters…
Old World Lore of Foundation Sacrifices
Across Europe and well beyond, builders once believed that a structure needed more than timber and stone. It needed a guardian. To make a new…
The History of March: The Month of Mars
March, once the first month of the year in the Roman calendar, is named for Mars, the powerful Roman god of war. As the season…
