July 14, 2013
Widow’s Walk
Whalers left Nantucket and Cape Cod in droves in search of the next big catch—what of those who stayed behind?
Read MoreRoundtable
Opinions and analysis from Lapham’s Quarterly writers and editors.
May 4, 2025
July 13, 2013
The Man Before the Mast
When Herman Melville began to write Moby Dick he was chasing his own literary white whale: Richard Henry Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast.
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July 03, 2013
Helpful Hints for Amputations
Civil War amputations were a grisly affair; luckily, there were instruction manuals for busy or inexperienced surgeons.
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June 28, 2013
Fine-Feathered Friends
In nineteenth century New York, women flocked to shops to buy hats adorned with exotic bird feathers. Eventually, though, they started to wonder if such adornment was necessary—or ethical.
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June 18, 2013
A Faithful Hound
A thirteenth-century town in France worshiped a greyhound as a saint, but the loyal dog was just one in a line of venerated pets.
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June 15, 2013
The Curious Case of the London Troglodyte
A young girl in London is mistaken for a troglodyte by taxonomist Carl Linneaus, as he maps out the human species.
Read MoreJune 01, 2013
They Called Him Sergeant Stubby
Nearly seventy miles northeast of Paris, there are over twenty cemeteries where the bodies of mostly unidentified German, British, and Italian soldiers are buried from the first World War. There is also Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, the final resting place for over six thousand Americans that lost their lives during the Great War, many of whom fell upon the very ground where their last earthy remains lay during Third Battle of the Aisne. It was during that bloody battle that a stray dog became the most decorated canine in American military history.
Read MoreMay 27, 2013
Her Majesty’s Rat-Catcher
In Victorian London, rat-baiting was both a necessity and a sport.
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May 11, 2013
Consider the Poodle
Poodles might have a reputation for being pampered house dogs, but their strength and intelligence has led them to be the prized canine friends of John Steinbeck, Winston Churchill, and Vladimir Putin.
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August 07, 2023
Monumental Mistakes
2023:
Fitness instructor carves his girlfriend’s name into the Colosseum.
c. 1850:
Thompson of Sunderland makes his mark on Pompey’s pillar.
May 22, 2023
Revolutionary Lovebirds
2023:
Writers on strike search for romance at the picket line.
c. 1945:
Young communists engage in party matchmaking.