The reading room
Find your way through history. Explore 279 entries across places and centuries. Follow an event, compare its context, and examine the evidence.
Jump to the pictures and stories ↓ Africa Americas Asia Europe Middle East Oceania Global 1858–1875 CE
In-depth study The historic Prince Consort beam engine at Crossness Pumping Station, photographed in 2007. This modern photograph documents surviving sanitation machinery; it is not an 1865 photograph.Picture source & rights Steve Cadman / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Resized and converted to WebP; derivative under the same licence · Licence terms Europe / Medicine
Rapid urban growth overwhelmed older waste systems. London’s sewer works show how public health depended on engineering, finance and the work of maintenance.
Read → 1946–1958 CE
In-depth study Bikini Islanders unload pandanus for roof thatch at Rongerik after relocation, 7 March 1946. The official military record shows relocation work, not an explosion, radiation injury or consent to permanent exile.Picture source & rights Joint Task Force 1 · Operation Crossroads: The Official Pictorial Record, p. 21 · U.S. government public domain · Wikimedia 500-pixel derivative converted to WebP · Licence terms Oceania / War
U.S. nuclear testing transformed Bikini and Enewetak and exposed Marshallese communities to displacement and radioactive contamination.
Read → 1966 CE
In-depth study The Johnson and Marcos parties tour rice fields at Los Baños on 26 October 1966 during a visit to the International Rice Research Institute in the early IR8 release period. The NARA caption does not identify the particular plot or plants in this frame as IR8.Picture source & rights White House Photo Office / National Archives and Records Administration; LBJ Library / Wikimedia Commons · U.S. federal work, public domain in the United States · Converted to WebP · Licence terms Asia / Science
The release of IR8 rice illustrates the Green Revolution’s promise of greater yields and the importance of water, inputs and access to technology.
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