How Tyrus Wong Spent 106 Years Making the World More Beautiful
Artist Tyrus Wong, with kites of his own design, at California’s Santa Monica Beach Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times / Getty Images Tyrus Wong arrived in San Francisco from…
How the Hirshhorn Museum Went From Iconoclast to Icon
From inside of the Hirshhorn, the museum’s circular design creates an oculus effect. Richard Barnes Immediately after the 1969 groundbreaking for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.,…
The Stratocaster Became Rock Music’s Most Iconic Guitar 70 Years Ago
To celebrate the guitar’s 70th birthday, Fender has released a Limited Edition 1954 Hardtail Deluxe Closet Classic, complete with gold hardware, for more opulent collectors. Fender Musical Instruments Corporation The…
Back in the 19th Century, Your Election Ballot Could Double as a Work of Art
A selection of ballots from the 1860s shows a variety of the persuasive flourishes then in vogue. Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Allen County Public Library In the…
How Fallingwater Gave Frank Lloyd Wright a Second Wind
The proudly jutting—and sometimes-imperiled—terraces above the cataract that gave the world-famous house its name. Ezra Stoller / Esto In 1995, when Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater was less than 60 years…
Blackface Is Older Than You Might Think
This drawing of a performance of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus has given scholars an understanding of how blackface was used in Elizabethan England. Collection at Longleat House (Marquess of Bath) When…
The Vibrant History of Lowrider Car Culture in L.A.
Nili Blanck; Photographs by Kristin Bedford Correspondent Candy paint jobs with glimmering specks of metallics. Custom upholstery of magenta velvet. Bouncing hydraulics cruising low and slow. The names “Purple Rain”…
Can Climate Fiction Writers Reach People in Ways That Scientists Can’t?
Iran’s Lake Urmia, once one of the largest saltwater lakes in the world, is vanishing due to climate change. Massimo Rumi/Barcroft Media via Getty Images Sci-fi is full of lasers…
This American Monk Travels the World to Rescue Ancient Documents From Oblivion
Joshua Hammer Contributing writer When Columba Stewart, a 63-year-old Benedictine monk based in Minnesota, arrived at the Kaiser Library, a government-affiliated archive in Kathmandu, Nepal, he stared up at the…
The Fight to Legalize Gay Marriage, the Woman Who Couldn’t Be Silenced and Other New Books to Read
This month’s book picks include The Engagement, How the Word Is Passed and Drunk. Illustration by Meilan Solly / Photos via Amazon When Hawaiian broadcast engineer Genora Dancel fell in…