Amelia Soth
JSTOR Daily
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Past articles by Amelia:
Marshall Islands Wave Charts
Charts constructed of carefully bound sticks served as memory aids, allowing sailors of the Marshall Islands to navigate between the islands by feel. → Read More
Victorians Mourned with Vulcanized Rubber Jewelry
Nineteenth-century Anglo-American mourning rituals called for a period of sentimental sadness, but they also demanded an investment in clothing and jewelry. → Read More
Cairo’s Zabbaleen and Secret Life of Trash
In Egypt's capital, members of an impoverished Coptic population strengthen community ties while making a living as ragpickers. → Read More
Walking Streetlamps for Hire in Seventeenth-Century London
Much in the same way we hail cabs in cities today, a medieval Londoner could hail a torch-bearer (a link-boy) to light their way home from a night on the town. → Read More
A Tale of Two Times: Edo Japan Encounters the European Clock
In country that followed a time-keeping system with variable hours, the fixed-hour clock of the Europeans had only symbolic value. → Read More
Keeping Time with Incense Clocks
As chronicled by Chinese poet Yu Jianwu, the use of fire and smoke for time measurement dates back to at least the sixth century CE. → Read More
Gold Weights and Wind Scales in the Asante Empire
The ornamented tools used to ensure fair market transactions also conveyed the stories and values of the Akan peoples. → Read More
Paintings Made of Stone
Renaissance painters incorporated the inherent qualities of stone to produce works of art that revealed the beauty of nature and hand of God. → Read More
Electrical Fashions
From the light-bulb dress to galvanic belts, electrified clothing offered a way to experience and conquer a mysterious and vigorous force. → Read More
Lacebark as a Symbol of Resilience
For the enslaved people of Jamaica, the lacebark tree was a valuable natural resource and a means of asserting one's dignity. → Read More
The Drama of Point d'Alençon Needle Lace
In its heyday, lace was beautiful, expensive, and handmade. Naturally, lace smuggling became the stuff of legend. → Read More
Hot Air Balloon Launch Riot!
In the early days of ballooning, launches were prone to failure. When failure looked imminent, the crowd’s mood would begin to turn. → Read More
The Cabarets of Heaven and Hell
In 1890s Paris, cabarets in bohemian Montmartre gave visitors a chance to tour the afterlife. → Read More
Venus of the Sewers
The Roman sewer, the Cloaca Maxima, was presided over by a goddess whose shrine stood near the Forum. → Read More
How Wet-Nursing Stoked Class Tensions
“o man can justly doubt, that a childs mind is answerable to his nurses milk and manners.” → Read More
In the 1800s, This British Isle Was Covered in Groves of 12-Foot-Tall Kale
Until relatively recently, it was a common sight. → Read More
For Centuries, England's Go-To Apple Utensil Was a Sheep Bone
No dentures? No problem! → Read More
Peter the Great’s Beard Tax
Why did the Russian tsar seek to ban beards? → Read More
The Anatomical Machines of Naples’ Alchemist Prince
Rumor had it that these machines were once the Prince’s servants, whom he murdered and transformed into anatomical displays. Scholars showed otherwise. → Read More
Joanna Koerten's Scissor-Cut Works Were Compared to Michelangelo
And then, snip by snip, she was cut out of the frame of Renaissance art history. → Read More