If Indiana Jones was real, he’d be a woman. More specifically, he’d be this woman: Aloha Wanderwell. Aloha was quite unlike anyone else of her time. An explorer, vaudevillian, filmmaker, wife, and mother, she visited...
Tag - history
Sarah Simonovich
A Look at Some of History’s Most Toxic Colors
Can you paint with all the colors of history? No, because a lot of them are just too toxic. Unless you exist in a very bland, Twilight Zone-like universe, you live surrounded by color. Even if you’re surrounded by a...
Popular Pastime: History of the Board Game Industry
When I was younger, we used to have an RV parked out behind my home. When the weather was nice, I would drag my siblings out to the motorhome and pull down an old box of Clue, then Scrabble. We’d spend hours out there...
Kayleigh DeMace
Understanding The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919
Ninety-nine years ago, on an unseasonably warm January day, 2 million gallons of black, sticky molasses flooded the streets in Boston’s North End neighborhood. This deadly wave resulted in 21 people dead and 150 injured...
The Lumière Brothers: Projecting the Future of Cinema
Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière were pioneers in the photography industry and were among the first filmmakers in history. As the sons of a well-known portrait painter-turned-photographer in Lyon, France, it didn’t...
What in Tarnation are the La Brea Tar Pits?
Where else can you find a Dire Wolf outside of Westeros? California, of course. If you ever find yourself cruising around Hancock Park in Los Angeles, California, you might find yourself very close to some fascinating...
How Howard Hughes Revolutionized Oil Well Drilling
This man was Howard Hughes before Howard Hughes was Howard Hughes You might know Howard Hughes as the American Hollywood producer, businessman, real estate mogul, and pilot, but what about the other businessman Howard...
Oil & Blood: the Mysterious Murder at the Greystone Mansion
The Greystone Mansion isn’t your typical 46,000 sq. ft. 1920s Tudor Revival located in Beverly Hills, California. If you were to take a tour of the house, though, you might find it recognizable—it’s been used a lot in...
Life in 1908: A Snapshot of the US the Last Time the Cubs Won the World Series
Just about everyone has been talking about the Cubs finally winning the World Series. And with good reason, too–the last time they won was 1908. That’s 108 years. A century (and some change) is a really long time...
For the Love of Human Ingenuity: Understanding the Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894
Once upon a time we wrote about the whale oil myth—the mythical notion that due to the free market/exchange, the discovery of petroleum directly saved the whales! This rather romantic notion simply isn’t true; not as an...