The Killer Mobile Device for Victorian Women
Adrift in a sea of digital apps for every imaginable function, we often feel our needs are met better today than in any previous era. But consider the chatelaine, a device popularized in the 18th century that attached to the waist of a wo…
If These Shirts Could Talk: The Tantalizing Tales Behind Used Clothes
The mysterious packages kept arriving, some from eBay, others from the Home …
Gloriously Grotesque 19th-Century Pipes
The meerschaum pipes carved in Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th century are among the most bizarre and improbable concoctions in decorative art. Some feature …
In the Hot Seat: Is Your Antique Windsor a Fake?
While researching her book, "Killer Stuff and Tons of Money," Maureen Stanton came across all sorts of characters. For years, she shadowed her antiques-dealer friend …
Bizarro Beauty Products, from 1889 to Now
We tend to think of the union of vanity and technology as a particularly modern affliction. It's only recently that science brought the world botox and collagen injections, skin peels, liposucti…
Love at First Kite: How Pizza and Pente Led to One Oklahoman's High-Flying Obsession
Vintage kites from all over the world hang from the ceiling and walls of Richard Dermer’s popula…
Pin-Up Queens: Three Female Artists Who Shaped the American Dream Girl
It’s easy to think of pin-up art as a charming relic of the old boys’ club—images that might line the walls …
Say Ahhh: An Oral Surgeon's Quest to Reimagine the Garage-Band Guitar
It’s not unusual for men of a certain age to have a soft spot in their hearts for the look of vintage guitars and the sound…
Tokens for Sweethearts, in Times of War
A keepsake, an item that recognizes a loved one, strikes a deep, sentimental chord in each of us—particularly that of a sweetheart. The popularity of keepsakes grew in the United States during the period from 1917 to 1919 as our country ent…
American Picker Dream, Part I: Mike Wolfe On His Love Affair With Bikes
I was walking to school one day and saw all these bikes in the garbage. I was just amazed because I didn't have one and I found it incredible that anyone was throwing them out. So I gathered…
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9/29/12 “Seven of the week’s best reads”
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8/23/12 “The Awkward History of Americans Talking About Contraception”
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8/17/2012 “Condoms as American as Apple Pie”

11/12/12 Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
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8/12/12 “Baby’s First Butcher Shop”

11/11/12 “Mental Baggage”

10/7/11 “Where Hard Rock Meets Pop Art”
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7/6/12 “Love Boats: The Delightfully Sinful History of Canoes”
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8/3/12 “As costly collectibles, Olympic torches are on fire”
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7/2/12 “Story of Jaws, the painting”

7/25/12 “Beauty Inspiration Journal”
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7/26/12 “5 Things To Know This AM”
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8/6/12 “Butchery For Boys and Girls: Victorian-Era Meat Market Playsets”

8/8/12 “Is It Burning Man Yet?”

8/21/12 “The Covert History of the American Condom by Collectors Weekly”

9/12/12 “Surprising Products ‘For Women’ As Ridiculous as Bic Cristal Pens”

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2/2/12 “Punch Box Valentines From Leafcutter Designs”
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8/31/12 “Neil Armstrong Couldn’t Afford Life Insurance, So He Used a Creative Way to Provide for His Family If He Died”

11/10/12 The Ipod’s 4,000-Pound Grandfather