Jonathan Shipley

On the day after Christmas, 1944, ball turret gunner Kenje Ogata found himself in the belly of a B-24 bomber under enemy fire over Hungary.

Thanks to the meticulous notes of centuries-old botanists, farmers, and hearty sailors plying the ocean’s depths, researchers can use rare books and records to understand how things were, how thing

It was 1895, and it was then that Edward Sheriff Curtis took his first portraits of a Native American. The princess was Kikisoblu, the eldest daughter of Chief Sealth, for whom Seattle is named.

It was a dark and stormy night. It was, truly, that evening in June 1816 on the shores of Lake Geneva at the Villa Diodati. It was there that a ghost story–writing contest was had.

There’s a woman in Wisconsin working with a wax stencil right now. There’s a lady in Louisiana using a line gauge. There’s a gal in Galveston greeking.

An epistolary interview with John Coffer, one of the world’s foremost wet-plate photographers, suddenly comes to a close with: “Well, gotta’ go move some cattle.” The interview is being conducted b

Dave Eggers is the Willy Wonka of the publishing industry.