News
Museum Collection Items That Are as American as Apple Pie
From hot dog memorabilia to cheerleading uniforms, these objects capture the essence of Americana in all its problematic complexities.
Americana
Art
The Monumental Totem Poles Built by a Retired Oklahoma Art Teacher
FOYIL, Okla. — In 1937, art teacher Ed Galloway began his retirement project: a 90-foot-tall totem pole rising from the back of a big blue turtle.
Art
Preserving the Muffler Men, America's Fiberglass Giants
The United States was invaded by hundreds of giants in the 1960s and 70s. Over half a century later, those that remain are weathered and decayed, their kitsch out of fashion.
Art
From a Pineapple to a Six-Pack, 23 Buildings that Resemble the Things They Sell
A combination of roadside attraction novelty and greater architectural freedom resulted in some very strange 20th-century buildings.
Art
Folk Art Relics from the Golden Age of America's Secret Societies
A strange visual language developed from the 18th to the 20th century behind the closed doors of American secret societies.
Books
The Mysterious Folk Art of America's Secret Societies
Almost every US town has one: that mysterious Masonic lodge with its borrowed Egyptian or Greek details, arcane symbols, and windows and doors that rarely open.
Art
Nostalgia for the Disappearing Danger of Mid-Century Playgrounds
There's a lot of nostalgia around old playgrounds, for the burns in summer on the overheated metal slides or the nauseating spinning play on the whirl. Those brushes or hits with danger are why most of them are gone, replaced with safer, less rusty, contraptions.
Art
Portraying the Sometimes Strange American Self in Tintype Photographs
A lot of 179 of these tintype photographs dating from the 1860s to 1890s is part of the upcoming Fine Photographs & Photobooks sale at Swann Auction Galleries, and are something of a core sample of the shifting social changes in the country, and how those 19th century people were choosing to remembe