grave week
Union Soldiers Buried Their Dead in Robert E. Lee’s Garden
Before Arlington was a national cemetery, it was the Lee homestead, and then a tent city for occupying troops.
All Stories
curry
How Curry Became a Japanese Naval Tradition
Ships and submarines have their own unique recipes.
grave week
The Hidden History of African-American Burial Sites in the Antebellum South
Enslaved people used codes to mark graves on plantation grounds.
grave week
A Year Gardening the Grave of a Stranger
At Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia, green-thumbed volunteers participate in a unique program.
wool
Why England Once Forced Everyone to Be Buried in Wool
Transgressors had to pay a heavy fine.
world series
The Library of Congress Has an Incredible Collection of Early Baseball Cards
There's a lot of history in these collectibles.
real estate
When Cactus Destruction Is Imminent, These Rescuers Come Running
The Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society is closing in on 100,000 salvaged plants.
loneliest graves
The Grave Farthest From Earth Is on a Spacecraft Headed Out of Our Solar System
Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, and then hitched a ride toward it.
bees
The Parasite That Forces Bees to Dig Their Own Graves
It's a growing threat to our food supply.
show & tell
How Does Your Tsundoku Stack Up?
Atlas Obscura readers share their personal piles of unread books.
central park
Squirrel Counting Is a Great Excuse to Explore Central Park
A lesson in slowing down and looking close.
loneliest graves
A Mormon Pioneer's Grave, Marked Only With a Wagon Wheel Rim
Rebecca Winters's grave is one of the few that were marked at all.
television
Why There's a Columbo Statue in the Middle of Budapest
The American television character is memorialized in an unlikely locale.
buried alive
History's Best Strategies for Avoiding Being Buried Alive
These ingenious 19th-century techniques aimed to make sure dead really meant dead.
grave week
How Do You Accidentally End Up Running a Pet Cemetery?
Shera Danese-Falk knows.
van gogh
Found: A Photo of the Man Who Fired Van Gogh and Changed Art History
A portrait of the artist as a bad salesman.
grave week
Ancient Greek Funerals Were Decked Out in Celery
It was a powerful symbol of death—and victory.
loneliest graves
The Most Isolated War Grave of the British Commonwealth Is in the Namibian Desert
In 1915, South African forces fought Germans for control of territory in southern Africa.
