Author: Ms. R.

Buildings can often serve as a miniaturized history of the city in which they stand. Oklahoma City’s Plaza Theatre is one example. While it’s now a state-of-the-art performance venue, this nearly century-old building has survived abandonment and indeed narrowly dodged destruction.  When the Plaza Theatre was built in 1935, the city was riding high on the prosperity generated by the discovery of oil, and the freshly built, industrially cooled 800-seat movie house was the gem of the bustling downtown……

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Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit a museum in Montana that’s a dream for dinosaur nerds—with bones that are not replicas, but the real deal, locally sourced. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some fascinating people and hear……

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The town of Sherborn, Massachusetts, is a relatively small community and much of the area consists of scenic farmland and quaint neighborhoods. Along Route 27, near the town’s center, is the Peace Abbey: a park dedicated to pacifism, non-violence, and conscientious objectors with memorials and plaques dedicated to many renowned advocates of peace throughout history such as Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein, John Lennon, Susan B. Anthony, and many more. However, people are not the only ones to……

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“It’s a combination of flying a helicopter and riding a mechanical horse,” says Melissa Eisdell. She’s getting ready to mount a penny farthing, a Victorian-era bicycle with an enormous front wheel almost as tall as the rider, a tiny back tire, and a saddle that sits typically five feet off the ground. Eisdell is the current European Female Penny Farthing Racing Champion, and held the UK title for a year. Now, she’s participating in The Knutsford Great Race 2023,……

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The Lewis and Clark Expedition was a resounding success given the goals set for it by President Thomas Jefferson. Over a two-year period, the Corps of Discovery explored the lands of the Louisiana Purchase all the way to the Pacific Ocean, making discoveries of exploitable natural resources and ushering in generations of settler colonialism and Manifest Destiny, all with but a single casualty. The body of the expedition’s only death, Sgt. Charles Floyd, is now entombed under an obelisk……

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Beginning in 1908, Jacksonville had a two-decade-long love affair with the film industry. Where New York City was cold in the winter and Hollywood was still waiting to be established, Jacksonville became known as the “Winter Film Capital of the World.” Norman Studios was established in the midst of this film Renaissance.   Begun as Eagle Film City in 1916 and purchased by Richard E. Norman in 1920, Norman Studios became one of the principal studios working with Black actors……

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At the onset of World War II, the Japanese Imperial government began to tighten its iron grip on the people and their pastimes, giving rise to the censorship committee. This group banned any works of art that disrespected the emperor, criticized the military, or were “against public policy.” The surge of censorship did not spare the world of rakugo, the Japanese art of comic storytelling, as some tales dealt with sexuality and alcohol misuse. Rakugo performers decided to self-ban……

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On the promenade of JFK in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park swims a whale born of yesterday’s treasures. The whale came to be, not as an incarnation of an animated tale by Hayao Miyazaki nor from divine discipline for flying too high with hubris; it was by the mind and passion of local artist Reuben Rude that this 49-foot humpback whale came to swim down the center of the John F Kennedy Promenade, as if heading towards Ocean beach……

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Space exploration is tightly woven into the American myth, an extension of the feeling of westward expansion–it was famously called “the final frontier” for a reason. And where better to experience the entire history of the space program than on the side of a water tank found along U.S. Highway 70 in the remote Organ Mountains of New Mexico?  To answer the obvious question, the water tank inspired the space museum, not vice versa. The museum was the brainchild……

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