Just Like Us, Part 1

“Stars—They’re Just Like Us!” Long before tabloid magazines started catching the rich and famous eating sandwiches and getting haircuts, the newspapers of yesteryear were already following them around. In an era when celebrity culture was just taking off, the subjects of these hard-hitting exposés were more often than not European royalty. It turns out they Read More

A Boring Page of the Gilded Age

One who reads this book through will have as rough a mental journey as his physical nature would undergo in riding over a corduroy road in an old stage-coach. It makes no pretension to either scholarship or elegant diction. – Ward McAllister, Society as I Have Found It, 1890 No, dear readers, that is not Read More

Too Much Time on Their Hands

♪ Yeah, I’m sitting by my computer, clicking like a damn fool, Got the 20th-century newspaper blues. And I’ve given up hope for an interesting headline And an amusing story. Is it any wonder I have eye strain? Is it any wonder I have carpal tunnel syndrome? ♪ Well, I’m so tired of reading—I got Read More

History’s Forgotten Fashion Fad

Americans living in the early 20th century had much to be concerned about: a world war, an influenza pandemic and most frightening of all, women neglecting their homes in pursuit of the vote. However, alongside these worries was another terror that could strike anywhere at any time: You’d think an army of pickpockets was mounting Read More