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The Dr. Scholer archives were given to the NYPL by his wife
murder

Inside a Manhattan Coroner’s Grisly, Salacious Case Files

At the turn of the last century, New Yorkers found myriad unusual ways to meet a premature demise.
Luke Spencer December 17, 2015
At the FBI.
crime

Why Mormons Make Great FBI Recruits

What sparked rumors of a "Mormon Mafia"?
Sarah Laskow November 4, 2015
A signed photograph of Harriet Quimby and Matilde Moisant.
aviation

The Daredevil Gal Pals Who Conquered the Sky

Harriet Quimby and Matilde Moisant were best friends and the first women licensed as pilots in the United States.
Hadley Meares October 12, 2015
Detail on 74 Wall St. across the street
New York, New York

Site of New York Slave Market

Where now stands a 42-story condominium tower of marble, glass and steel was once the central market of New York’s slave trade.
Protestor David Kirkwood is detained by police in Scotland during the Battle of George Square in 1919. The last known attempted reading of the Riot Act took place during the protest.
crime

What It Actually Means to 'Read the Riot Act' to Someone

The saying got its start as an 18th-century British law to punish protestors.
Ella Morton July 28, 2022
history

The Lesser-Known History of the Confederate Flag

Cara Giaimo June 23, 2015
<em>Idea dell'Universo</em> Vincenzo Coronelli, Italy, 1683.
maps

An Illustrated Guide to Space Maps

Thousands of years of attempts to understand our place in the cosmos.
Jeremy Berke and Cara Giaimo May 25, 2023
The relief that saved the monastery from Mongols
Yeghegnadzor, Armenia

Noravank Monastery

Nestled in a peaceful valley, this Armenian monastery may have been saved from Mongols thanks to the eyes of God.
Coconut Cake and Planter’s Punch.
Brooklyn, New York

Gage & Tollner

Brooklyn's most iconic restaurant, resurrected.
A U.S. Navy salvage crew works to save the captured German submarine U-505, shortly after she was abandoned by her German crew in June 1944.
military history

The Remains of the U-Boats' Watery Reign

Where to see the final four "iron coffins."
Melinda Musil September 27, 2022
Abandoned Kiel Ranch, circa 1933.
North Las Vegas, Nevada

Kiel Ranch

An 1870s ranch for pioneers, rodeo stars, and divorcees was abandoned and left for dead, until the city reopened it for exploration.
Corpse road between Wasdale & Eskdale in England's Lake District.
medieval

Take Your Dead to These Old Corpse Roads

Mourn ‘til you can’t no more.
Allison Meier June 10, 2014
Haile Homestead
Gainesville, Florida

Historic Haile Homestead

Over 12,500 words are scrawled across each room of this historic plantation house and no one knows why.
Paris, France

Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France)

This massive library holds what was once the largest book collection in the world.
Pure terror (and sugar.)
food

America’s Least-Popular Halloween Candy Will Never Go Away

The waxy little treat continues to sell by the billions.
Eric Grundhauser October 20, 2013
Ballard City Hall Municipal Building, 1915
Seattle, Washington

Ballard Centennial Bell Tower

A 1,000 pound brass bell commemorates a time when this small maritime neighborhood was actually its own separate city.
"Magische Orte" installed in the Gasometer in 2012
Oberhausen, Germany

Gasometer Oberhausen

An industrial relic is now one of Europe's most staggering art spaces.
Windows at the Hippodrome before the new tenant moved in.
San Francisco, California

Site of the San Francisco Hippodrome

An art supply shop holds the secrets of this quiet neighborhood's raucous Barbary Coast past.