“It Doesn’t Have To Be Perfect”: Honoring the Julia Child Centennial

French cooking was considered strange, fussy, and exotic—but that was before Julia Child. As we approach her centennial, we’re remembered to forget our fears and self-doubts in the kitchen. ... More

Regarding “The Boy In The Box”

By: Jeff Nilsson

Back in February, when “The Boy in the Box” was posted, a reader responded with the suggestion that the victim was homeless. This explained, he wrote, why the child lived and died without leaving any trace, “invisible, unknown, unrecorded, and un-missed.” Recently, another reader took exception to the first reader’s assumption. According to Katie Sneeds, ... More

Regarding “A Voice From A Truly Violent Year”

By: Jeff Nilsson

Commenting on this article, Mary A. Berger said, “We need to keep being reminded of the way things were a few years back, as well as the horror of more recent catastrophes . It’s amazing how the American spirit seems to gain strength after such terrible events. As the song says . . . ‘proud ... More

A Turning Point in the Solomons

By: Jeff Nilsson

Guadalcanal held nothing but “mud, coconuts, and malaria mosquitoes” and a precious airfield. Here, the U.S. finally regained the offensive in the Pacific War. ... More

A Voice From a Truly Violent Year

By: Jeff Nilsson

If you think the country seems violent and dysfunctional today, take a look back at 1968, when our society faced greater problems. ... More

What The Operators Overheard in 1907

By: Jeff Nilsson

Eavesdropping with “a Human Spider in the Web of Talking Wires”—a “Hello Girl” from telephone’s earliest years. ... More

Why Your Great Grandparents Were A Bunch of Spoiled Kids

By: Jeff Nilsson

American parenthood fell into decay 100 years ago, according to this Post article. ... More

Losing Touch: The Evolution of Remote Controls

By: Jeff Nilsson

Remote controls are largely unremarkable today, but going wireless was considered a great luxury in the 1930s. ... More

The Vast Wasteland

By: Jeff Nilsson

Television programming had never been worse. The quality of TV shows had been declining for years, but now it had reached an intolerable level. The decline had to stop said the FCC. The year was 1961. ... More

The Non-Combatant Hero: Emil Kapaun

By: Jeff Nilsson

As we remember and honor those Americans who lost their lives in our country’s wars, we take note of an exceptional American. ... More

Undiscovered Poe? Early Works Before ‘The Black Cat’

By: Jeff Nilsson

Did the Post print several anonymous pieces by Edgar Allan Poe before we printed his classic short story, The Black Cat? ... More

Big Money and Women Voters: Who Really Chooses the President?

By: Jeff Nilsson

In the 1940s, George Gallup tested his theory that presidential elections are decided long before they even begin. ... More

The Assassin’s Mummy; or, John Wilkes Booth’s Second Career

By: Jeff Nilsson

More audiences may have seen the infamous actor in 1938 than when he was alive. ... More

Titanic survivors, photographed from the Carpathia.

The Inevitable Tragedy of the Titanic

By: Jeff Nilsson

100 years after the Titanic sank, we explore the Post’s 1912 editorial on the great tragedy. Were the British and American governments to blame for the 1,500 deaths? ... More

Women of the Roller Derby: Morals, Manners, and Muscle

By: Jeff Nilsson & Rusti Keen

A look back at the early days of roller derby, and the women who made it such a tough sport. ... More

Relativity: Einstein’s Explanation

By: Jeff Nilsson

“Relativity” is a term that everyone uses but few people understand, so—just as we did in 1959—we’re letting Einstein explain it in his own words. ... More