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Category / Conversation Starters

Churches and their Hidden Basement Bowling Alleys

Churches have bowling alleys? Yes, they do, but they’re a dying breed. There are thought to be less than 200 churches with bowling lanes left in America today, but as early as the 1860s, they were quite common across the Midwest and parts of the Northeast. It’s not the kind of thing you expect to find…

What’s Up with all the Lady Parts in Medieval Prayer Books?

Let’s say you’re flipping through a medieval Christian prayer book (as you do), and suddenly you come across a curious illustration amongst the prayers and psalms of something that looks unmistakably like female genitalia. A scolding voice in your head tells you to get your mind out of the gutter. But you wouldn’t be alone.…

The Hushed History of Sex Workers on the Battlefield

Sex and war are seemingly the uneasiest of bedfellows, nonetheless, they’ve have had a most intense relationship over centuries of conflict. As early as the Third Crusade, Philip II of France, horrified with the rampant rape and sodomy in his armies, instructed boatloads of “girls of joy” to be dispatched from France to “re-focus” his…

Sweeney Todd de Paris: The Original Demon Barber

Could it be that the original Sweeney Todd was not actually from Victorian London, but from Medieval Paris? Legend has it that the City of Lights and Love had its very own demon barber during the 14th century. And in fact, Paris was quite possibly the first home of cannibalistic pastries from a murderous barber-butcher relationship.…

Her Tarot Cards Came to Life

Poking out of the treetops in Tuscany, and spread across Etruscan ruins, is the sparkling masterpiece of French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle, Il Giardino dei Tarocchi — The Tarot Garden. De Saint Phalle acquired the land in the 1979 through a close friend, and from the get-go her intent was to transform its 14-acres…

Uncovering Hollywood’s 1920s “Antichrist” Photo Shoots

Somewhere in a dark room almost a century ago, an image emerges of a woman with her skeleton lover. Beside it, another of a gyrating goblin, a pin-up worthy witch, or some other creature from the wonderfully twisted mind of photographer William Mortensen. Today, Mortensen is praised as a pioneer of his profession, a Tim…

The Extraordinary Guests of Charles Babbage’s Saturday Night Soirées

Forget your standard 19th-century dinner parties, where everyone sat around sipping sherry and discussing the weather. If you were lucky enough to snag an invite to Charles Babbage’s Saturday night scientific soirées, you were in for a wild ride through the brainiest and most bizarre conversations that Victorian London had to offer. Picture a mad…

An Educational Haven at Harlem’s Little Black Book Shop turned B&B

Kurt Thometz’s bookshop was not the norm. Harlem’s white-owned all-Black bookstore almost seemed like a glimpse into an alternate universe where blackness dictates the principle narrative of society. It was “provocative”, “dangerous” even, to be confronted by such an unfamiliar dynamic. Rare book collector, Kurt Thometz, opened Jumel Terrace Books on the lower ground floor…

The Original Ghostbusters

As the 19th century came to a close and the 20th century picked up speed, people were absolutely held in thrall by the paranormal. Psychics and mediums sprang up everywhere as part of a movement called Spiritualism, and they promised to put people in touch with their departed loved ones. Mostly, they charged a fee,…

The 1930s Rooftop Aviation School of Galeries Lafayette, Paris

I came across these curious photographs from the French National library, dated to 1932 and labelled, “École d’aviation sur le toit des Galeries Lafayette” – Aviation school on the roof of the Galeries Lafayette. A rooftop flight school above one of Paris’ most famous department stores, smack in the middle of the city’s busiest shopping district? I had…

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