Policing the Necropolis

Tomb-raiding in the late New Kingdom. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

Immortal by Default: A brief history of humans and the ginkgo tree

A brief history of humans and the ginkgo tree. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

The Calamities of Others: An ancient historian aims for the big picture

An ancient historian aims for the big picture. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

Rate the Room: The early history of rating credit in America

The early history of rating credit in America. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

The Summer Is over Alas Alas

Correspondence marking the season’s end and a return to work. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

Fiction Is History: A journey through Joseph Conrad’s life at sea

A journey through Joseph Conrad’s life at sea. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

The Song of the Summer: A Heian-era epistolary romance

A Heian-era epistolary romance. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

Appetite for Destruction: Indigenous Americans knew how to avoid starvation

Indigenous Americans knew how to avoid starvation. Colonists were too hungry to notice. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

Coming Attraction: Charles Morton wonders where birds come from (C. 1695)

Charles Morton wonders where birds come from. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

1916: Ambassador Henry Morgenthau protests the expulsion of Armenians

Ambassador Henry Morgenthau protests the expulsion of Armenians. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

The Prehistory of the Fairy Realm: When Elves Reigned in Medieval Britain

When elves reigned in medieval Britain. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

A Brief History of Frankincense

Following a scent trail. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

Forced Perspective: Sir William Jones gets lost in translation

Sir William Jones gets lost in translation. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

The Ornatrices of Londinium

Finding evidence of the lives of the enslaved along the Thames. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

The last days of William Blake

The last days of William Blake. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 1 year ago

Aldous Huxley insisted “Crome Yellow” was fiction. Ottoline Morrell disagreed

Aldous Huxley insisted that Crome Yellow was fiction. Ottoline Morrell disagreed. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Studying the Script: Finding Chinese inscriptions on turtle shells

Finding Chinese inscriptions on turtle shells. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Following the oud through the history of Armenian music

Following the oud through the history of Armenian music. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

The Custom of the Country: On the relationships formed by the fur trade

On the relationships formed and marriages made by the fur trade. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

A Dictator’s Marginalia: Stalin’s “signs of attention”

Stalin’s “signs of attention” included “rubbish” and “piss off.” | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Charles Darwin, somewhat aimless student and excellent beetle hunter

Meet Charles Darwin, somewhat aimless student and excellent beetle hunter. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Insuring against the cost of insurance itself in Revolutionary-era America

Insuring against the cost of insurance itself in Revolutionary-era America. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

The Coin Standard: On the Failed Dreams of William Hope Harvey

On the failed dreams and forgotten ruins of William Hope Harvey. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Did Girolamo Mercuriale misdiagnose a plague in sixteenth-century Venice?

Did Girolamo Mercuriale misdiagnose a plague in sixteenth-century Venice? | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Escape Artists

Running away from the authorities, legal and ordained, now and then. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Learning Sixteenth-Century Business Jargon

Want to become a merchant? Master a language or two first. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

A Utopia of Useful Things

On the nineteenth-century artists who pictured a future up in the air, and tied to consumption. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Uneasy Lies the Beard

Political hairstyles, now and then. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Saturday Night’s All Right: The invention of payday

The invention of payday. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Grand Statements About Justice: On the Laws of Ur-Namma

On the laws of Ur-Namma. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Experiencing History in Assassin’s Creed

Experiencing history in Assassin’s Creed. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Particularly Keen on Shepherding: Musonius Rufus on Farming

Want to be a philosopher? Try farming. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Not Belonging to the World: Hannah Arendt Holds Firm

Hannah Arendt holds firm during the McCarthy era. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Save the Scribe: the women who worked with medieval manuscripts

On the blessed purpose of the women who worked with medieval manuscripts. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Funny Money

Is there really a difference between the “real” world currencies we use everyday and their funny-money alter egos used online in virtual worlds? | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Whose Homer Is It Anyway?

Creating a composite character out of depictions of the ancient poet. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

As Far from Heaven as Possible

How Henry Wadsworth Longfellow interpreted Reconstruction by translating Dante. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

The Gradual Discovery of Glasses

Considering the prehistory of spectacles. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Do You Want to Build an Icehouse?

On the refrigerated innovations of ancient rulers. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Midwestern Exposure: places where early women photographers could build a career

Lvndr, a London-based platform dedicated to developing inclusive sexual health solutions for the LGBTQ+ community, has raised £1.5m. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

A Little Travel Is a Dangerous Thing

The first adventurers in the Age of Discovery didn’t just make progress into uncharted waters, they invented the very idea of progress. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Times change (1897)

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. tracks the arc of justice. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Edgar Allan Poe Needs a Friend

Revisiting the relationships of “a man who never smiled.” | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

The Memes That Made Us

The origin story of “one nation, indivisible.” | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Nothing but Sheer Racket: On the Music and Mind of Franz Liszt

On the music and mind of Franz Liszt. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

A Pacific Gold Rush

On the routes miners traveled to reach gold in the United States and Australia. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

The Oasis of Palmyra

Unearthing the history of the ancient city-state. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago

Why isn’t there an English Academy? Blame the plague

Why isn’t there an English Academy? Blame the plague. | Continue reading


@laphamsquarterly.org | 2 years ago