A practical guide to using old photographs as primary sources, drawing on the methods of the National Archives and Library of Congress to show how to observe, reflect, and question archival images.
Drawing on contemporary newspapers, eyewitness accounts, and official records, this article reconstructs how the 1918 influenza pandemic upended daily life in American cities—from Philadelphia’s downplayed outbreak to San Francisco’s mask mandates.
Drawing on official RAF despatches, group instructions, and archival records, this article reconstructs how the Battle of Britain was experienced and reported at the time—from the cockpit to the command room—and reveals what contemporaries knew, feared, and expected during the summer of 1940.
Drawing on the pages of Time, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, this article reconstructs the first weeks of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis as contemporaries experienced it: the shock of the embassy seizure, the helplessness of the U.S. government, and the mounting fear of a violent end.
Drawing on contemporary reports, personal accounts, and statistics, this article reconstructs the texture of daily life in 1960s America—from the ubiquity of smoking to the anxieties of the Cold War and the social movements that reshaped the nation.
Drawing on wireless messages, newspaper headlines, and survivor interviews, this article reconstructs how the world first learned about the Titanic disaster—through confusion, error, and the shock of a tragedy that seemed to defy the age’s confidence in technology.
Drawing on the front pages of American and Soviet newspapers from October 1962, this article reconstructs how the public experienced the Cuban Missile Crisis through the press. From Kennedy’s blockade announcement to the final diplomatic resolution, contemporary reporting shaped every moment of the thirteen-day standoff.
From the 1876 journal Akhtar to satellite broadcasts and digital networks, this article traces how Iranian exiles have used journalism to challenge the regime for 150 years, drawing on contemporary reports, eyewitness accounts, and primary sources.
Drawing on the first telegraph, the Virginia-Pilot scoop of December 18, 1903, and the paper’s century-later correction, this article reconstructs how the world first heard about the Wright brothers’ powered flight—and how the news was riddled with errors.
The 1966 Annual Review of Operations by the Kuwait Oil Company offers a bilingual snapshot of one of the world’s largest oil producers at the height of the post-war boom. This article explores the report as a primary source, its context, and its enduring value for historians.