Writing By Topic: Art & Illustration

On the Vault

“Dramatic Courtroom Drawings From Decades of American Trials” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, June 9, 2017)
“Beautiful Pages of a Late Medieval Monk’s Sketchbook” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, December 16, 2016)
“Lyrical Paintings of Life Inside a WWII Internment Camp” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 29, 2016)
“Stark, Spare, Beautiful Midcentury British Safety Posters” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 16, 2016)
“Adorable Midcentury Posters Teaching Kids How to Use The Library” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, June 29, 2016)
“Pretty Portraits of the Tiny, Lumpy, Sweet Strawberries of the Early 20th Century” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, May 25, 2016)
“A 19th-Century 3-D Bird’s-Eye Map of Mt. Fuji, With All the Bells and Whistles” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, April 5, 2016)
“An Uncle Tom’s Cabin Tie-In Card Game, From 1852” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, March 21, 2016)
“A Cheerier Vision of the Depression Years, in Hyperbright Postcards of Recreation Spots” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, February 2, 2016)
“A Beautiful, Escapist Map of ‘Fairyland,’ Published in Britain at the End of World War I” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, January 15, 2016)
“Stunning Modernist Covers of 1930s Fortune Magazine Will Give You A Bad Case of Print Nostalgia” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, January 4, 2016)
“An Adorable Apple Pie ABC for Hungry 19th-Century Children” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, November 25, 2015)
“A D.C. Watercolorist’s Beautiful Record of the Changing City in the ‘60s and ‘70s” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, November 23, 2015)
“Lyrical Engravings of Cyclists’ Adventures During the Sport’s Earliest Days” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, October 28, 2015)
“Broody, Dramatic 20th-Century Posters Promoting Productions of ‘Hamlet'” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, October 23, 2015)
“A Swiss Artist’s Sensitive Early-19th-Century Portraits of Native American Life” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, October 12, 2015)
“Modernist Posters That Taught 1930s Kids How To Take Good Care Of Books” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, October 7, 2015)
“Beautiful Early-20th-Century Watercolors of Apple Varieties You Don’t See Much Anymore” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, October 5, 2015)
“Gorgeous Plates from an Early-20th-Century German Encyclopedia of Minerals” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 25, 2015)
“The Heartbreaking Posters That Convinced Americans To Help Displayed Syrians During WWI” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 23, 2015)
“Beautiful Watercolors of Helpful Plants, from a 16th-Century Book of Herbal Medicine” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 18, 2015)
“Fantastically Hypothetical Buildings on Paper, Drawn by Two Soviet Architects” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 16, 2015)
“School Certificates of Merit for Good Little 19th-Century Boys and Girls” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 14, 2015)
“An Unusually Beautiful 19th-Century Illustrated Photo Album” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 4, 2015)
“Sketches of Life in a Union POW Camp, by a Confederate Prisoner” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, August 31, 2015)
“An Artist’s Strangely Compelling 1960s Scrapbook of Comic Book Art” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, August 21, 2015)
“A Lovely 19th-Century Illustrated Book of Japanese Falconry” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, August 14, 2015)
“Graceful Minimalist Diagrams of Early-20th-Century Olympic High Dives”(Slate‘s The Vault blog, August 7, 2015)
“Drawings of Apache Life, Made by a Prisoner of War in the Late 19th Century” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, August 4, 2015)
“A Delightful 1912 Children’s Book About a Wayward Rocket” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, July 31, 2015)
“Americans Recovering from the Civil War Loved These Bloodless, Beautiful Battle Scenes” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, July 30, 2015)
“A Beautiful 1930s Sportsman’s Map of American Saltwater Fish” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, July 22, 2015)
“A Book of Biting Caricatures of the Turn-of-the-Century 1%” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, July 17, 2015)
“Gorgeous Nouveau Metalwork Designs in a Late-19th-Century Catalog” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, July 15, 2015)
“Gorgeous Nature-Themed Stained-Glass Mosaics, Sold to Victorian Builders” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, May 29, 2015)
“A 16th-Century GIF Tour of the Inside of the Brain” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, May 20, 2015)
“A Depression-Era Medicinal Plant Map of the United States” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, May 13, 2015)
“An Early-19th-Century Scientist’s Close-Up Portraits of Pollen” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, May 8, 2015)
“Audubon’s Animals of 19th-Century North America, Newly Available for Hi-Res Download” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, May 4, 2015)
“Bright 1970 Cuban Propaganda Posters Urging Solidarity With Vietnam” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, May 1, 2015)
“A 1905 Rendition of the 23rd Psalm, Gorgeously Illustrated in Proto-Deco Style” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, April 22, 2015)
“A Midcentury Map of American Wildflowers” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, April 17, 2015)
“How to Captivate an Audience Using Gestures, From a 19th-Century Oratorical Primer” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, March 25, 2015)
“Bloody Accounts of Steamboat Disasters, Sold to Tourists on the 19th-Century Mississippi” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, March 20, 2015)
“Sumptuous 1920s Art Nouveau Prints of Insects From Around the World” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, March 19, 2015)
“A 19th-Century Japanese View of London, by an Artist Who’d Never Been There” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, March 10, 2015)
“Wild, Weird, and Funny Austin Music Posters of the 1960s and 1970s” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, February 20, 2015)
“Delicately Preserved Slices of Wood Illustrating a Late-19th-Century Book of American Forests” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, February 18, 2015)
“Modernist 1930s Posters Calling Skiiers to the Mountains of Europe” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, February 10, 2015)
“Biographical Cartoons of Notable Black Americans, Drawn to Promote Unity During WWII” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, February 5, 2015)
“A Victorian Argument That Snow is Holy, Illustrated by a Beautiful Catalog of Flakes” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, January 27, 2015)
“Beguiling 19th-Century Space Art, Made by a Self-Taught Astronomical Observer” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, January 21, 2015)
“A Beautifully Illustrated Costume Catalog from 16th-Century France” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, December 31, 2014)
“A Vision of the Utter Chaos That Was Early-19th-Century Firefighting” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, December 19, 2014)
“The Most Beautiful and Intelligent Historical Coffee-Table Books of 2014” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, December 19, 2014)
“A Detailed, Majestic Diagram of Two British Ships of War, From an 18th-Century Encyclopedia” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, December 18, 2014)
“An Early Arctic Explorer’s Dramatic Drawings of the Frozen North” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, December 9, 2014)
“Beautiful, Terrible Watercolors of a 19th-Century Whale Hunt, Found in a Ship’s Logbook” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, November 19, 2014)
“Commemorative Illustrations Showing Off the Gorgeous Parades of Late-Medieval Germany” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, October 31, 2014)
“The Wild Zebra-Striped Ships That Confounded German Submarines During WWI”(Slate‘s The Vault blog, October 13, 2014)
“Go Ahead, Try to Decode This 19th-Century Rebus Atlas of New England” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 29, 2014)
“Super-Fancy Pop-Up Greeting Cards, Sent for Rosh Hashanah in Early 20th-Century New York” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 24, 2014)
“The British Painters Who Were Eyewitnesses to World War II” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 12, 2014)
“The Colorful Quilt Squares Chilean Women Used to Tell the Story of Life Under Pinochet” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 10, 2014)
“Gorgeous, Creepy Pages From a Late 19th-Century Art Nouveau Occult Calendar” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, August 29, 2014)
“The Blue-and-Green Elegance of Turn-of-the-Century Tennis Illustrations” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, August 1, 2014)
“19th-Century Japanese Prints Showing the Trials of Western Inventors” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, July 17, 2014)
“A 19th-Century Panorama of the Beautiful, Reeking River Thames” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, July 1, 2014)
“A 1931 Cartoon Map of ‘Chicago’s Gangland,’ Brimming With Wry, Macabre Details” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, June 25, 2014)
“A 1940s Government Comic Book For People Who’ve Just Had DDT Sprayed on Their Walls” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, June 2, 2014)
“The Beautifully Illustrated Family Records of Revolutionary War Soldiers” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, May 21, 2014)
“An Illustrated Map of Stars’ Homes from the Golden Age of Hollywood” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, May 5, 2014)
“Pretty Environmental Propaganda Posters from 1980s China” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, April 11, 2014)
“One Sailor’s Sketched Memories of a World War II Shipwreck” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, April 2, 2014)
“A Brooklyn Woman’s Colorful Quilt, Illustrating Her Experience of the Civil War” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, March 18, 2014)
“An Enlisted Woman’s Quiet Sketches of Friends Serving in the British Royal Navy During WWII” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, February 6, 2014)
“Dramatic Art Deco Illustrations of the Phobias of Modern Life” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, February 4, 2014)
“Pages from a Gorgeous Illustrated Atlas of 19th-Century Mexico” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, December 18, 2013)
“The Creepy, Beautiful ‘Blood Book’ Made By A Scrapbooking Victorian Gentleman” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, October 31, 2013)
“Strangely Beautiful Illustrations of 19th-Century Patients With Skin Diseases” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, October 4, 2013)
“Eight Types of 18th-Century Lady Drunks (Some NSFW)” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 27, 2013)
“Some Exceptionally Vivid Soviet Anti-Religious Propaganda” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 19, 2013)
“Pretty Pincushions, Embroidered by British Soldiers in WWI and Sent to Their Sweethearts Back Home” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 11, 2013)
“An Unbelievably Intricate Drunken-Monkey Diorama, Carved by a Prisoner as a Gift to Henry Ford” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, September 9, 2013)
“The Colorful Posters That Motivated Jazz-Age Workers to Strive” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, August 31, 2013)
“Pages from a 19th-Century Schoolgirl’s Gorgeous Hand-Drawn Atlas of the United States” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, August 30, 2013)
“Seeds of Lovecraft’s ‘Mountains of Madness,” in His Terrifying, Tightly-Packed Notes” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, August 28, 2013)
“A Big, Beautiful Midcentury Map Celebrating American Folklore” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, August 21, 2013)
“Fifty Years Before Boondocks There Was Patty-Jo n Ginger” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, August 13, 2013)
“How to Mock a Nazi: Two Russian Posters That Hit ‘Em Where It Hurt” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, July 26, 2013)
“E.E. Cummings’ Colorful, Imaginative Childhood Drawings” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, June 17, 2013)
“What A Platoon Leader Wore To Storm Omaha Beach, 69 Years Ago Today” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, June 6, 2013)
“Paul Revere’s Vision of Occupied Boston” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, June 3, 2013)
“Four WWII Posters That Taught Soldiers to Identify Chemical Weapons By Smell” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, May 24, 2013)
“Colorful 19th-Century Japanese Woodblock Prints Depict the Fight Against Contagion” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, March 25, 2013)
“Stitching the Solar System: Science as Needlepoint, 1811” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, March 20, 2013)
“Steampunk Before Steampunk Existed: Charles Dellschau’s Fantastic Airships” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, March 18, 2013)
“A Kiowa Warrior’s Drawings of Captivity and Assimilation” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, February 27, 2013)
“A Look Inside the Astonishing Black Panther Murder Trial of 1970-71” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, January 30, 2013)
“‘F is for Fugitive’: A Fantastic 1864 Children’s Book About the Evil of Slavery” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, January 24, 2013)
“Mark Twain Draws His Self-Portrait” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, January 23, 2013)
“Carriers’ Addresses: A New Year Tradition Gone By” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, December 28, 2012)
“A Soldier’s Illustrated New Year’s Greeting” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, December 27, 2012)
“A Get-Well Pictogram From Hemingway’s WWI Drinking Buddies” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, December 4, 2012)
“A View of the Largest Mass Execution in U.S. History” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, November 29, 2012)
“Selling Social Security to Youth, One Comic Book at a Time” (Slate‘s The Vault blog, November 27, 2012)

Everywhere Else

“Show & Tell: An Antique Love Token from a Broken Heart” (Mental Floss online, January 8, 2016)
“Boyhood” (on a unique archive of childhood drawings) (Slate, May 28, 2015)
“History, or Just Horror?” (Slate, November 6, 2014)
“Taking Rube Goldberg Seriously: What Fictional Inventions Say About American Ingenuity” (Slate, April 24, 2014)
“Crappy Taxidermy Internet Meme Is Really Sort of Sad” (Slate‘s Wild Things blog, April 8, 2014)
“Should We Destroy Our Ivory Art Out Of Guilt? Prince William Seems to Think So” (Slate‘s Wild Things blog, February 19, 2014)
“How Janet Malcolm Turns Emily Dickinson’s Poetry Into Visual Art” (Slate‘s Browbeat blog, January 23, 2014)
“The Fantastical Allure of the Space Whale” (Lapham’s Quarterly‘s Roundtable blog, July 18, 2013)
“Wild Things” (on the paintings of Walton Ford) [PDF] (The Crier, Fall 2006)
Interview with Marjane Satrapi [PDF](Venus Magazine, Fall 2004)

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