Browse Items (292 total)

The argument over the practice of using reproductions was particularly poignant amongst art history scholars and professors at the turn of the century. Clarence Kennedy’s Harvard University Ph.D. dissertation focusing on Greek Sculpture and the…

Under Mayor Jimmy Walker, the New York City legislature passed the Cabaret Law, preventing three or more persons from dancing in any given club or bar at one time. Establishments could apply for a license, but these were hard to come by. Purported to…

These popular models are called “automatic” because the sheet feeder is automatic, which both reduces the amount of work the printer (human) has to do and increases the number of impressions to 2 to 3 times the amount the Gordon Jobber could produce.

The first modern American comic book, Famous Funnies, demonstrates that there is a widespread consumer market for text and fixed image media. Marketing of comic books begins in earnest, and is primarily directed at young men and boys. In the 1940s…

Alan Blumein experimented and succeeded in recording two-tracks of sound to create a sound-scape, or stereo sound by utilizing both a single groove’s alternate walls to record both signals. Stereo-sound is far more accurate in rendering a recording…

Based on the invention of the recovery boiler, which allows pulping to take place as a closed-cycle system, the Kraft Process for pulp paper making becomes more efficient than other chemical processes. The recovery boiler collects the used chemicals,…

Often coupled with the Social Security Act of 1935, which prohibited domestic servants and agricultural workers (at the time predominantly African American, Mexican, and Asian) from benefiting from social security, the Wagner Act was passed a month…

Initially developed for motion pictures, color film experienced its commercial birth in the form of Kodachrome (“Milestones”). The 35mm photographic film allowed amateur photographers to take color photographss through three emulsion layers, invented…

The WWB was created upon request by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. It paired writers with government and non-government agencies to write propaganda that would aid the Allied forces during World War II. The Pulp Writer's Committee created…

During World War II, there was large influx of black migrants from the South taking jobs in defense plants, which in turn caused a housing shortage and intense competition for jobs between Black Americans and whites in the North. This racial tension…

Also known as Operation Overlord, the amphibious D-Day invasions at Normandy began at 6:30am. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis had occupied northwestern France since May 1940, and subsequent plans to liberate France from Nazi rule were devised. Allied…

A year after the conclusion of World War II, a group of journalists founded the National Press Photographers Association, an entity that is still active today. Their mission statement is as follows: “The National Press Photographers Association is…

With the end of WWII came a new class of consumers. Young people began to benefit from a time of great economic prosperity, particulalry as a result of the Employment Act of 1946. The act provided the opportunity for employment to anyone "able,…

Bing Crosby is approached by engineers from AMPEX who successfully market magnetic tape as a way to record, and splice segments of radio performance to create pre-recorded versions of what had typically been broadcast live.

Mail is reduced to once-a-day delivery in the U.S. While this seems at first to be adverse to timeliness, the introduction of this policy organizes sender and receiver expectations and makes time management easier for everyone.

The Supreme Court overturns the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision, which allowed for state-sponsored segregation, with the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka case. While Brown vs. Board declared the segregation of public schools as unequal,…

In 1955, Chuck Berry was signed to major label Chess Records. He recorded a version of "Ida Red" that would then become "Maybellene," which reached #5 on Billboard's overall chart and #1 for R&B. But R&B would prove retrospectively to be a misnomer:…

“To Fulfill their Rights” published by the White House. This pamphlet, which plays on an earlier conference called “To Ensure Their Rights” documents the speeches that occurred at the white house in June of 1966, when groups from around the U.S. came…

Neighborhoods have long had wealthy area and poor areas. The zip code gave these different areas explicit labels, and effectively introduced new communities based on location. The political pamphleteer had a whole new level of “local” to interact…

No history of musical influence, cliche be damned, would be complete without the Beatles. Their influence on youth culture in Britain and in America, politicized rock music, and (somehow) seemingly universal appeal revealed a shift in the way young…