If you aren’t using up vacation time, there are a few more days left of sitting in your chair and just staring at the computer screen, begging for something, anything, to save you from the August doldrums, Miley Cyrus think pieces, and pug videos (strike that last one: pug videos are always a good thing). Since this is pretty much the slowest time of the year when nothing really good gets done, maybe it’s a perfect time for you to bone up on your random bits of history, and fill up your Pinterest board with old-timey images from these great websites.
Whether you want to check how historically accurate an episode of Mad Men is, or you care about subjects like “A skewed history of New York City as depicted by the opening themes of 1970s TV shows,” The Bowery Boys is probably already a site you visit regularly. If by chance it isn’t, we suggest you change that right now.
We need to tell you why a Tumblr called “Fuck Yeah, Victorians” is wonderful?
It probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that The Smithsonian has an amazing blog. What you maybe didn’t know is that they have other great sites to visit like Around the Mall and their wonderful and informative fashion history blog. And how about the great Smithsonian Libraries Tumblr? You know about that one too?
Perfect example of why The History Chicks rule: They celebrate the 50th anniversary of The March on Washington by posting Josephine Baker’s speech from the momentous event. They’ve also got a really great podcast that you should consider getting caught up on.
The Tumblr “where early photography meets extreme hotness” would get Ryan Gosling to admit that dudes were way cooler looking when they were photographed using this 19th-century process.
A Rothschild’s 1970s Surrealist party, forgotten 1950s girl gangs, abandoned gardens once inhabited by a Greek poet: these are the random and amazing things you will find on what is constantly one of the most interesting and coolest websites on all of the net.
Dear Downton Abbey and Evelyn Waugh fans,
Covering the social history of England and America between 1880 and 1920, Edwardian Promenade should be your favorite website. It’s definitely one of ours.
Aside from New York and Paris, no other city has been photographed as well over that last 100+ years as Chicago has. This Tumblr started by a former North Carolina resident who fell in love with their new city showcases some of the best images ever taken of the Windy City.
Does reading Mark Bittman or watching Anthony Bourdain just not do it for you any longer? Consider making the switch to this in-depth site full of old European foodie treats you probably had no idea about.
A bunch of academics from places like the University of Toronto, University of Sheffield, and California State University-Long Beach know that everything you might know about Russia doesn’t even begin to tell the story of the long and strange history of the biggest country on the planet, and how it impacts what’s going on there today.
That’s what this great blog is for.