• The history of government cheese. (Aeon)

• On the Royal Society of London. (Literary Hub)

• “Everyone loves a picture of a medieval lion.” (British Library Blogs)

• A Nelly Bly monument might be coming to New York City. (The City)

• “Founded by Dutch whalers in 1619, Smeerenburg—literally ‘Blubber Town’—was once the busiest polar site for rendering oil from blubber.” (The Public Domain Review)

• The photography archives of the magazines Ebony and Jet are for sale. (Perspectives on History)

• What made the moon? (New York Times)

• And what caused the death of New Coke? (Mother Jones)

• “Why the United States needs more museums about slavery and abolition, not another about the Civil War.” (Black Perspectives)

• This week in mysterious headlines that withhold enough information to make you want to click and learn some history: “Giant marble pyramid-shaped island complex rising from sea uncovered, revealing secrets of ancient Greece’s origins.” (The Independent)

• And this week in sentences about history that do not end the way you would expect: “More than two hundred years after he died of his battlefield wounds in Russia, archaeologists believe they have found the remains of one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s favorite generals buried in a park beneath the foundations of a dance floor.” (Reuters)

• This week in obituaries: the architect of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the print edition of the Chicago Defender, an Italian actress, the man who made the musical Annie, Ross Perot, and Rip Torn.