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Category / Obscure history

When Victorians Embraced Same Sex Marriage for Women Over A Century Ago

It’s not widely known that same-sex unions were recognised in Ancient Greece and Rome, Mesopotamia and some regions of China, ranging from informal relationships to highly ritualised unions. Perhaps even more surprising, is that that those notoriously tight-lipped Victorians were open to it as well. There was a loophole in the 19th and early 20th century, when…

What Lies Beneath: The Curious Underworld Of Hobby Tunnelling

In 1924, a truck accidentally sank into a backlot in Washington DC, opening a sinkhole and revealing a labyrinth of tunnels. People were aghast at what had been found; there was talk of bootleggers and spies that would later make the front page of the Healdsburg Tribune, but no one had any answers. Eventually, a…

We Should Probably Talk About L’Oréal’s Dark Past

Beauty is only skin deep. But what if it’s actually even shallower than you think, only a few microns of spray tan thick? The global cosmetics conglomerate L’Oréal has devoted over a 100 years to the titivation of our precious bodies and telling us ‘we’re worth it’ from billboards and glossy magazines. L’Oréal has also…

Fashion History’s Most Flustering Flex: The Codpiece

You only need to have a gander at the armour that Henry VIII used to wear to see how proud he was of his nether regions. Indeed, during his reign, one of the most important fashion items in a gentleman’s ensemble was a designated pouch that protruded from the crotch of men’s trousers, enclosing the genital area. This…

Harvard’s Secret Court: A Cloak and Dagger History of the Ivy League’s Anti-Gay Purges

Secret college societies have lurked in the shadows of the Ivy League since the 19th century, and the rumours and whispers about what happens behind closed doors only adds to the mystery and allure, but there was one secret faction in particular which managed to keep itself hidden behind Harvard’s prestigious reputation. For over 80…

All the Sneaky Tricks of Prohibition Bootleggers

I found this photograph floating around on the internet today of a truck ingeniously camouflaged by bootleggers during the Prohibition, being inspected by authorities in Los Angeles, California. You can tell even those inspectors are impressed by the level of artful deviousness. It got me curious to see what other tricks these bootleggers tried. The crazier the caper,…

Discovering Black Outsider Art in a Whitewashed World

Their abilities don’t come from any artistic establishment. They didn’t have any formal training and they were not influenced by other mainstream artists. Hailing from places like Mississippi, Tallapoosa, and other rural pockets of the deep south, they’re the African American Outsider and Folk artists whose voices and colour palettes explored a world that wasn’t…

Forget Count Dracula, Meet History’s Most Prolific Female Serial Killer

Every year, nearly a million people flock to Romania’s famous Bran Castle, a medieval fortress in Transylvania often referred to as the home of Dracula. Us mere mortals have a morbid fascination with the seductively taboo tales of vampires from deepest Transylvania and the immortal be-fanged and be-cloaked Count Dracula – but what of the Countess Dracula?…

Declassified: That Time the US Military made Flying Saucers

Every once in a while, we unearth a story so out-of-this-world it deserves its own tacky sci-fi movie. Today’s story turns the clock back to 1959, when the Cold War was hot and a scientist named Jack Frost was breaking a sweat over a top-secret military project: the flying saucer. As in, an All-American UFO-level…

Once Upon a Time in a Real “Westworld” Hoax Town

The American West has had a reputation of being wild since the continent was first colonized, but the inhabitants of one Nevada town, Palisade, made sure they really embodied the sentiment. During the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, Palisade (named for the valley that obstructed the railroad’s construction) was the site of an elaborate hoax during the…

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