The ‘Pedestrian’ Who Became One of America’s First Black Sports Stars

In 1880, Frank Hart wowed audiences at New York's Madison Square Garden by walking 565 miles in six days. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Remembering the ‘Knocker-Ups’ Hired to Wake Workers with Pea Shooters

Rise and shine! | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Scientific Detectives Probing the Secrets of Ancient Oracle

Geological features, toxic fumes, and visions of the future. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Scientific Detectives Probing the Secrets of Ancient Oracle

Geological features, toxic fumes, and visions of the future. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Every City Has Its Secret Gardens

Step inside the hidden green spaces of cities around the world. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Inside the World’s Only Sourdough Library

The collection holds 105 starters and counting. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

How Ceiling Fans Helped Slaves Eavesdrop on Plantation Owners

The punkahs of the Antebellum era served many purposes. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Cave Diving Is Every Bit as Dangerous and Wonderful as It Seems

Huge chunks of the Earth's surface are not hills or valleys, but pockmarked holes. Humans can only enter a small percentage of these caves and caverns, often... | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

What Does Your Oldest Board Game Look Like?

That forgotten game hidden in the back of your closet is also a time capsule. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

How a Hole Punch Shaped Public Perception of the Great Depression

The notorious photo editor who introduced "America to Americans." | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

How Do You Decode a Hapax legomenon? (Also, What’s a Hapax legomenon?)

It's a word that only appears once in a work, author's oeuvre, or an entire language's written record. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The nervous system of Harriet Cole

The meticulously extracted nerves of a 19th-century cleaning lady. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

One of the world's most hazardous jobs is known for its intense pressure. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Rare wooden escalators lead down into a staggeringly monotonous tiled tunnel

Rare wooden escalators lead deep down into an otherwise staggeringly monotonous tiled tunnel. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

For 78,000 Years, People Have Called a Kenyan Forest Cave Home

The layers of Panga ya Saidi reveal millennia of subtle cultural and technological change. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Where Did the Prohibition on Combining Seafood and Cheese Come From?

Fish and dairy can make for a delicious mix, despite popular belief. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

During Prohibition, Federal Chemists Used Poison to Stop Bootlegging

They tried to make industrial alcohol too lethal to drink. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

How a Special Diet Kept the Knights Templar Fighting Fit

Silent meals, a buddy system, and wine “in moderation.” | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

An Algorithmic Investigation of the Highfalutin ‘Poet Voice’

New research suggests that the affected reading style consists of a particular set of attributes. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Ribbon map of the Mississippi River (late 1860s)

Steamboat tourists of the late 1860s wrapped it around a spool. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

A Massive Sinkhole in New Zealand Exposed Traces of an Ancient Volcano

The canyon's walls tell the story of long-ego eruptions. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Submerged History Surrounding Turkey’s Black Rose

Visitors flock to Halfeti for its unusually dark flowers, but there's much more beneath the surface of the half-drowned town. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

How to Reconstruct an Ancient Meal from Dirty Dishes Alone

Archaeologists and chefs used chemical analysis—and their taste buds—to solve a culinary puzzle from China. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

How the Manhattan Project’s Nuclear Suburb Stayed Secret

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, once home to 75,000, went up fast and under the radar. But it was built to last, too. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Meet the Man Behind Indonesia’s Chicken Church

How Daniel Alamsjah's divine dream became a poultry-shaped reality. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

New Guineans Made Intricately Carved Daggers from Human Bones

These deadly relics were symbols of power and prestige. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

Why This Severed Hand Is So Glorious

According to legend, thieves could use it to render a whole household unconscious. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

A new standard of beauty led to today’s weight-loss regimens

A new standard of beauty led to today’s weight-loss regimens. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

How ‘Ennobling’ Helped Italian Aristocrats Solve the Problem of Garlic

The ingredient would have otherwise been too cheap to grace noble tables. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago

The Bygone Baguette Mailboxes of French Polynesia

Like birdhouses, but for bread and pastries. | Continue reading


@atlasobscura.com | 6 years ago