Who was Agent 355? The Mystery of America’s First Female Spy

You probably heard about Mata Hari, the infamous courtesan and female spy who beguiled the men around her into allegedly betraying national secrets to Germany during WWI. She became an icon of feminine seduction, Greta Garbo played her on the silver screen in 1931, and her story has inspired countless tales of romance and espionage.…

Here’s what we know about Egypt’s New and Yet Unnamed Futuristic Capital City

Did you hear? Egypt’s capital is on the move. Though Cairo has been the official capital of Egypt for over a thousand years, a brand new metropolis – under construction since 2015 – is almost finished and ready to take centre stage as the country’s brand new capital. They just haven’t picked a name yet. The…

History Conveniently Forgot to Tell us about the Transgender Roman Emperor

His reputation has suffered at the pens of historians for centuries – a suspected revisionist attempt to hide the fact that a powerful Roman Emperor was among the first persons in history to seek a sex reassignment surgery. Emperor Elagabalus (or Heliogabalus) came from a prominent Arab family in present-day Syria, where he served as…

Manhattan’s Long Lost Era of Loft Jazz

Once upon a time, before Manhattan priced out its young talent, you had to be an artist to live in SoHo. And in the late 1960s and 70s, a cultural phenomenon known as “Loft Jazz” came into existence in downtown Manhattan’s abandoned industrial spaces. Eclectic, edgy and often Black musicians turned Soho’s neglected lofts into…

The Rare Jewels Salvaged from America’s Old Auto Factories

What’s more finite and limited than diamonds? Surely not something found on the skids of an old car factory? Well get this: in the 1940s, the American automobile industry started painting cars with a hand-spraying technique that would accumulate overspray, which would build up and be baked repeatedly in ovens to cure the paint on…

Baby Farming, A Victorian Horror Story

Even the most sheltered among us have heard horror stories of foster care and adoption, but back before there were arms of government to protect wards of the state, there were orphanages. And before orphanages, there was baby farming. “Baby farming” was a term coined during the Victorian Era to describe the practice of taking…

Not Just a Scandalous Heiress, She’s a Forgotten Early Ally of Black Lives Matter

When we think of an heiress, we tend to picture an overdressed spendthrift sipping a top shelf cocktail from an expensive crystal glass; her eyes mischievously peering over the rim telling stories of glamour, sex and scandal. Heir to the Cunard shipping dynasty, Nancy Cunard was known for all of that too; her paramours included Ernest…

Hollywood’s Beguiling Queen of Pre-Code Cinema

If Norma Shearer doesn’t ring a bell like other legendary names of the silver screen might, then you too, have fallen victim to the Hays Code. Before we even knew it as “Hollywood”, the American film industry was producing a surreal amount of extraordinarily liberal and racy movies dominated by strong unapologetic female characters, homosexual…

Another Reason to Check Your Attic: Priest Holes

Once upon a time in ye olde England, it was illegal to be Catholic. In case you need a quick refresher: King Henry VIII needed a male heir to the. He blamed Catherine of Aragon (his brother’s widow and the first of his six wives) for not bearing him a son. On these grounds, he…

Men Wore Corsets, History Says

Pink for girls, blue for boys. Heels for women, flats for men. Corsets for ladies, burly silhouettes for gents? Turn back the clock and you’ll find history is full of contradictions. In fact, until the 20th century, pink was a boy’s colour, high heels were invented for men and yes, they also wore corsets. The…