Around midnight on September 16, 1866, Dr. W. A. Wilcox of Saint Louis, Missouri, was called to the home of […]
Bags O’ Glass and Bayonet Eyes: Toy Safety and Consumer Protection, 1968–1976
On December 11, 1976, Saturday Night Live aired its first “Consumer Probe” sketch on the sale of unsafe toys. Drawing […]
Gender-Neutral Sex Toys: Turning Gender Dysphoria in the Bedroom into Gender Euphoria
Nestled amidst Allen Ginsberg’s dildo, some vanilla-flavored underwear that offers sexually-transmitted infection (STI) protection, and a Braille issue of Playboy […]
Reclaiming Richard III’s Disability
It’s been 10 years since archaeologists discovered Richard III’s skeleton under a parking lot in Leicester, England. But historians haven’t […]
A Tale of Two Deaths: Chronic Illness, Race, and the Medicalization of Suicide
On a Thursday morning in 1726, French colonial officials in Pondichéry – France’s principal colonial holding on India’s southeastern coast […]
Have Leprosy, Will Travel: A Case of Early Modern Medical Tourism
On the tropical beach of a remote island, a group of ailing Europeans was spread across the white sands. Some […]
Collaboration: A Margaret Bingham Stillwell Imprint
“I had a succession of Trustees who treated me vaguely but graciously in a Victorian way, even though they could […]
On Football, War, and Trauma
There are few things more precious to Buffalonians than their football team. Not only do we love football, but we […]
Maternal-Child Separation in the Carceral State
In 1966, the American “war on crime” began with Lyndon B. Johnson’s Special Message to the Congress on Crime and […]
Her Heroine Mother: Maternity and British Secret Agents in World War II
In the waning months of World War II, news began to circulate that the British had been sending operatives to […]
