What constitutes historical truth is often subject to change. Joe Nickell demonstrates the techniques used in solving some of the world's most perplexing mysteries, such as the authenticity of Abraham Lincoln's celebrated Bixby letter, the 1913 disappearance of writer and journa…
"In this compelling story about one of the nineteenth century's most famous Americans, Benjamin Reiss uses P.T. Barnum's Joice Heth hoax to examine the contours of race relations in the antebellum North. Barnum's first exhibit as a showman, Heth was an elderly enslaved woman who…
Reiss uses P. T. Barnum's Joice Heth hoax to examine the contours of race relations in the antebellum North. Barnum's first exhibit as a showman, Heth was an elderly enslaved woman said to be the 161-year-old former nurse of the infant George Washington. Seizing upon the novelty…
"What kind of person is curious? What makes a person or thing an object of curiosity? From Gulliver to Frankenstein, from detectives to hot air baloonists, curious and inquiring characters have been portrayed as themselves curiosities, as social upstarts, and as spectacles to be…
"What kind of person is curious? What makes a person or thing an object of curiosity? From Gulliver to Frankenstein, from detectives to hot air balloonists, curious and inquiring characters have been portrayed as themselves curiosities, as social upstarts, and as spectacles to b…
"In Curiosities and Texts, Marjorie Swann examines the imperatives behind the craze for collecting physical objects and discusses its relationship to the literary culture of the period. Through a wide-ranging series of case studies, she addresses two important questions: How was…
An edited collection of essays focusing on topics of 'curiosity' and 'wonder' in relation to the history of art, science and society.
An edited collection of essays focusing on topics of 'curiosity' and 'wonder' in relation to the history of art, science and society.
