Archive (Page 2) • Archival Magic • Buttondown

BONUS Archival Magic | Sourdough

As I've said before: don't judge archives by age. This comic from last week was too perfect to miss. / Hilary Price Mid-month extra! Some of my stories...

Archival Magic | Color

by way of rainbows, cave art, and the CDC This transmission electron microscopic image shows a sample of the first U.S. case of COVID-19. Like other federal...

Archival Magic | Live

by way of cherries, jellyfish, and the International Space Station Artists and photographers attempt to preserve the fleeting blossoms of DC's cherry trees...

Archival Magic | Questions

February 27, 2021

by way of the Post, Planes, and Philadelphia In this case, the answer is gasoline, somewhere above the Imperial Valley at the border of California and Mexico...

Archival Magic | Moments

January 31, 2021

by way of Snow, Science, and Simone Biles Skaters carve the ice on the Reflecting Pool, circa 1923. / LOC DC's biggest snowstorm in two years coated the city...

The 30 | COVID-19

December 31, 2020

...by way of concrete, music boxes, and grandparents My grandparents pose for a photo circa 1950. The concentric circles of the pandemic have closed on me....

The 30 | Experiment No. 12

December 14, 2020

Thanks for following along with this experiment. The goal, as I wrote last year, was to send you one item to read, watch, indulge, sit with, ponder – to...

The 30 | Native

November 29, 2020

by way of geometry, dating, and songs Potawatomi lands, much diminished, are shown at the left in green; Sac & Fox in pink; and Winnebago in the blue stripe....

The 30 | Family

November 15, 2020

...by way of Phone Booths, Boats, and Knives A family at a co-op farm in Natchitoches, La., in 1940. / LOC We've flipped a bit, with a short focus-post to...

The 30 | Experiment No. 11

October 31, 2020

Hocus pocus! I'm on deadline for a story to be published in National Geographic. I want to save my full post for discussing that, so I'm swapping the usual...

The 30 | Experiment No. 10

October 15, 2020

This is the kind of project I see and immediately think, wish I would have done that. The runtime is 18 seconds, but the brevity hides days of work. I'm also...

The 30 | Collage

September 29, 2020

by way of France, Prussia, and Kansas City Like many Depression-era quilts, this one consists of fabric scraps and flour sacks that serve as the backing. /...

The 30 | Experiment No. 9

September 15, 2020

This gem popped up in a playlist from WCRB, a radio station in Boston that I've listened to for much of the time I've lived in DC. I don't remember how I...

The 30 | Bicycles

August 31, 2020

by way of... Dinosaurs, Horses, and Great Bears A small-town newspaper in Illinois published this advertisement in 1891. Despite rigorously testing my rental...

The 30 | Experiment No. 8

August 15, 2020

Don't read on an empty stomach. "A pie chart of the federal discretionary budget is a well-known marketing technique for selling ice cream." I read this...

The 30 | Ice Cream

Fire, Sugar, Cicadas An original watercolor I painted earlier in lockdown – who knew we'd still be here? I'm surprised that picture didn't melt on its way to...

The 30 | Experiment No. 7

Has anyone else thought, "Wow, the pandemic has illuminated the rickety wooden beams that support the foundational illusion of our false construction of...

The 30 | Statehood

51, 232, 705k President Dwight Eisenhower signs the statehood bill for Hawaii, the 50th state, in 1959. / Eisenhower Presidential Library Apologies for both...

The 30 | Experiment No. 6

I'm breaking my own rules (selectively creating new rules?) because I found such a harmonious dialogue in these two portfolios. The yarn's tactility offers...

The 30 | Census

Indiana, Alaska, and Cacti Automatic Arithmotor, patented in 1878. / Smithsonian Open Access (not sure why the photo is stylized in such a trendy way) Maybe...

The 30 | Experiment No. 5

Welcome to all the new folks from the Creative Mornings talk I gave a few weeks ago! Here's the backstory to this year's experiment. A conversation with a...

Rivers, Watermelons, Stephen Colbert "I can get at the human quality in these children. They are real — real as can be. They express life." – sculptor...

The 30 | Experiment No. 4

This passage really stuck with me, something of a prose-poem during National Poetry Month. The big oak at the end of our Norfolk garden is a kind of coda, a...

The 30 | Forests

Violins, Chocolates, Asteroids Still loving Smithsonian Open Access. / "Night Through Forest" by Louis Eilshemius, 1889. Uncountable are the afternoons I...

The 30 | Experiment No. 3

We're heading for one of the earliest cherry blossom blooms on record after a winter-that-wasn't in DC. Amid the thrashing news cycle, I encourage you to...

February 29, 2020

Superpowers, Citrus, and Salmon This sprightly painting is from Smithsonian's new open-access image database. / Watercolor no. 35 by Allen Tucker, 1937. The...

The 30 | Experiment No. 2

February 14, 2020

"That was all I knew, at the start." I love the framework here: pick a random day. With some luck and a masterful journalist, the result is remarkable. A...

The 30 | Gatekeeper

January 31, 2020

Camels, Coffee, and One Mean Moon A result from searching "gatekeeper" on Unsplash, a sharing community with 157,866 photographers and counting. / Raül...

The 30 | Experiment No. 1

January 14, 2020

Find a solid internet connection and immerse yourself in the microscopic creatures of Antarctica. A reminder about this year's experiment. -30-

December 31, 2019

Goats, Ghosts, and $1 billion Probably chastising someone for their tardiness in 1917. / LOC The ball has dropped, in so many ways. I assume you've...

The 30 | Experiment

November 30, 2019

Through the many doors of your mind and into your soul. Or stomach? I promise I'm not looking two doors ahead. Just one. / Dustin Renwick A super interesting...

October 31, 2019

No time for curses. The witching hour approaches on All Hallows Eve. / Wikimedia Commons The rain last night steadied and softened, steadied and softened but...

The 30 | Kindness

September 30, 2019

“So shines a good deed in a weary world.” -- Willy Wonka via Shakespeare The simplicity of Ellsworth Kelly's "Austin" resonates with me regarding this theme....

August 31, 2019

Banana slugs are the second-largest terrestrial slug species in the world. Do not eat them. A relative stranger and I gabbed about bees between swim sets at...

The 30 | Sports

Some humpback whales too, if you're into that. U. S. Amateur and Professional Roller Skating Championships at Palace Rink in Detroit, March 1914. / LOC I...

I, too, stepped on the moon. / Dustin Renwick Retrospectives and recaps featuring the most famous satellite will inundate your news feeds starting in 3......

A woman corrects a scale model at New York University in 1939. May was all about maps, and I'm thrilled to share this month's newsletter. My family didn't...

The 30 | Awards

Norwegian speed skater Oscar Mathisen poses with his medals in 1914. / LOC Accolades ≠ achievement. Receiving an award for writing, photography, or other...

The 30 | Community

A meal in South Carolina looks just as welcoming today as it did on July 4, 1939. / LOC Meaningful interactions remain difficult to replicate in digital...

The 30 | Fashion

February 28, 2019

French actress Gaby Deslys shows off her style in 1913. / LOC A short month demands a few long reads, including an excellent profile of the new big-thinker...

January 31, 2019

At least nine people died from the fires that resulted when a train with nearly 170 school teachers aboard crashed in eastern Pennsylvania in April 1911. In...

The 30 | Wonder

December 31, 2018

You might recognize the polka dots of a Wonder Bread store in Wyoming. / LOC Take heart if you dread another year-end, best-of list. I promise this...

The 30 | Friends

November 30, 2018

Sweaty friends and sunrise, all for zero dollars. / Photo credit: fellow running and pie enthusiast Matt Anzur. Many of us move through life like rockets on...

The 30 | Identity

October 31, 2018

Fans of Hocus Pocus will recognize the Old Burial Hill Cemetery, a 17th-century graveyard in Marblehead, Mass. / Dustin Renwick All Hallows Eve allows us to...

September 30, 2018

Two boys hoist produce at a roadside stand in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1936. / LOC Late last month and earlier this month, I finished reading two books about...

The 30 | Strike

August 31, 2018

Sandlot baseball has not changed much in a century, shown here in 1918. / LOC A month like this generates easy existential fodder -- how do any of us produce...

The 30 | Scattered

Glittering pieces adorn the Resurrection Chapel of the Washington National Cathedral. / Dustin Renwick A bucket of mosaic tiles tossed into a tornado. That...

The 30 | Cloudy

Sunset over Lake Michigan belies the reality that it rained every day on my vacation. / Dustin Renwick A triathlon teammate told about a cycling trip on...

The 30 | Quoted

John Reynolds performs a stunt in the District of Columbia in 1917. / Library of Congress Fun fact: the Netherlands produces almost one billion tons of...

The 30 | Seeing Space

Introspection via selfie isn't new (no caption except circa 1915). / Library of Congress The eyes had it this month, including some entertaining data...