June 03, 2022

GEOLOGICAL ODDITIES  When Is An Island Not An Island?  You would be forgiven for expecting camels, or an oasis, maybe. This land might be mistaken for the Sahara, or the Arabian Peninsula’s famous Empty Quarter, the largest continuous sand desert on the planet. But this is Bunge Land, Zemlya Bunge in Russian, a 2,400-square-mile desert north of the Arctic Circle. And no one is entirely sure how it got there.  READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA Solar Cookers “It’s so hot, you could fry an egg on the sidewalk.” But could you actually harness the power of the sun to cook food? That’s what we set out to answer with an experiment involving solar ovens. Solar cooking has been around for hundreds of years, but the case for it (no fuel, zero pollutants, no need to use an indoor stove during ever-hotter summers) is stronger than ever. Could this be the dawn of a new era of cooking? READ MORE → WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA Chowning’s Tavern According to records from the Virginia Gazette, the original Chowning’s Tavern opened its doors in the late 1700s. Until it was torn down sometime before the Civil War, the bar was a popular gathering site for Virginians. In 1941, Colonial Williamsburg restored the building, conducting research to stay faithful to the tavern’s original architecture, furniture, and food. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA COURSES | STARTS 6/15 Adobe Art and Architecture Explore the history and cultural context of adobe and learn the basics of designing and building adobe architecture. We’ll look at the history and cultural heritage significance of adobe in New Mexico, the politics surrounding it, and the people and organizations promoting adobe architecture today. We’ll then dive into the methods of building adobe architecture. ENROLL TODAY → LGBTQ HISTORY Queer Coney Island To most, the prevailing narrative of queer history in 20th-century New York exists in Manhattan. But while the documented queer life of Manhattan happened in apartments, speakeasies, and at drag balls, down in Brooklyn, queer history took place along the borough’s waterfronts, a space where, thanks to a high volume of commercial activity, strangers often came to congregate in relative anonymity for the day before disappearing back to their private homes. One of the most prominent of these spaces was Coney Island. READ MORE → SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge Overlooking a canyon in the Santa Ynez Mountains, the Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge carries motorists up to 400 feet above the canyon floor. The bridge is on a stretch of State Route 154 and, in addition to its impressive height, also boasts the title of being California’s largest steel arch bridge. READ MORE → FREE MEMBERS-ONLY EVENT Inside a Globemaker's Studio Get a behind-the-scenes look at the globe-making process in action during this one-hour virtual tour at the private North London studio of Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, where artisans from around the world handcraft and hand-paint a dazzling array of bespoke globes! SIGN UP → UNIQUE ARCHAEOLOGY How Beer Cans Contribute to Archaeology For most people, archaeology conjures images of timeworn tombs and temples. But archaeologists have long relied on garbage, whether sherds of pottery or empty beer cans, for insight. Trash is a testament of daily life. Regardless of its age, it represents a wealth of information about the society that produced it. Enter: David Maxwell’s collection of beer cans. READ MORE → BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT Bloodroot Feminist Vegetarian Restaurant Today, the eateries of the feminist restaurant movement have all but disappeared, but from the 1970s to the early 1990s, anywhere from 250 to 400 of them opened their doors. These restaurants, often run by lesbian collectives, were where women of the second-wave feminist movement went to meet, relax, and organize. At some restaurants, food was a means to an end, a way to establish a feminist community and enable women, historically barred from eating out without male escorts, access to public space. READ MORE → SPONSORED BY DISCOVER PUERTO RICO La Cara del Indio This roadside sculpture welcomes visitors to the city of Isabela and the Portal del Sol in the west region, and is a monument dedicated to Cacique Mabodamaca, the chief of Guajataca, a large area that covers the (now) cities of Isabela and Quebradillas. Mabodamaca fought against the Spaniards in 1511, and died during the battle—but according to legend, he leaped from the cliffs of Isabela rather than surrender. As a result, his profile was carved by nature on the cliffs, and he continues to watch over his land. LEARN MORE →