How the Postal Service Created the ZIP Code

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Author Timothy Ott

August 13, 2026

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Even with the decline of letter writing in the digital age, the ZIP code remains an American institution, a neat five-digit number that caps an address and, like an area code, can serve as a point of pride and prestige.

Given the ZIP code’s place as an oft-used and universally recognized symbol, it may come as a surprise that the ZIP, short for “Zone Improvement Plan,” isn’t all that old. The system was enacted on July 1, 1963, within many of our lifetimes and just a few months before another famous entity, the Beatles, also arrived in the United States.

But unlike the mop-topped quartet, the five-digit zoning plan wasn’t immediately welcomed by Americans. Here’s a look at how the ZIP code came to be, and ultimately overcame a bumpy start to emerge as a signature accomplishment of the United States Postal Service.

An Early Zoning System Came Out of World War II

Like many innovations, the ZIP code’s origins can be traced back to World War II. At the time, the Post Office Department, as the U.S. Postal Service was then called, was dealing with the loss of personnel to military duty, specifically the departure of experienced sorters who could properly funnel letters and parcels marked with incomplete addresses.

As a result, in 1943, the department assigned one- to two-digit zone numbers to more than 100 high-density urban areas across the country to help make sorting for these areas more efficient. The numbers were to be written on the address of the recipient after the city name, such as “Indianapolis 24, Indiana.”

Although the zone numbers provided some organizational relief, they only papered over the problem of keeping up with the ever-growing volume of mail. Fueled by the country’s postwar population and economic boom, the number of individual pieces of mail jumped from 33 billion in 1943 to 66.5 billion in 1962. By the latter date, a letter was handled by an average of eight to 10 postal employees, increasing the possibility of human error.

The issue wasn’t going unnoticed by the department’s employees. In 1944, a prescient postal instructor named Robert Moon sought to get ahead of the volume problem with his proposal of splitting the country into a network of regional processing centers, each marked by a three-digit code. Nine years later, another inspector, H. Bentley Hahn, completed a six-year study of the department’s outdated operations with a report titled “Proposed Reorganization of the Field Postal Service.”

But despite the modernization efforts of Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield, who introduced the country’s first automated post office in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1960, the department was still struggling to meaningfully address its problems as it faced down a new decade.

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The Zone Improvement Plan Is Born

The tide turned in the early 1960s with the appointment of Postmaster General J. Edward Day, who saw in Moon's long-overlooked proposal and the newly implemented West German postal code system a solution for improving delivery speed and eliminating backlog.

Under the new regime, the department devised a five-digit code that built on Moon's idea of regional processing centers to create a national network of delivery zones. The first digit of the new code denoted one of 10 large geographical regions of the country, in most cases encompassing several states. The second digit signified a smaller division within each region, which included either multiple states, one state, or a portion of a heavily populated state.

The third digit represented either a large city post office or a designated regional center within reach of urban centers and more remote outposts. The final two digits, which incorporated the 20-year-old zone numbers already in place, marked either a division of a big city post office or a smaller one directly served from a regional center.

Hahn, who helped devise the numerical system, was also tasked with helping to explain the finer details of the process in late 1962, before the plan’s official launch. Meanwhile, it was another executive, D. Jamison Cain, who conceived the acronym-friendly name of Zone Improvement Plan, as well as the ideal mascot to deliver the message to the public.

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A Mascot Named "Mr. ZIP" Promoted the New System

In the 1950s, the Cunningham and Walsh advertising agency designed a smiling cartoon mailman for a Chase Manhattan Bank mail campaign. The logo was acquired by AT&T and then the Post Office Department, where it was rechristened as "Mr. ZIP" and designated as the face of the department's new promotional push.

With the arrival of the ZIP code on July 1, 1963, the image of Mr. ZIP was plastered across post offices, mail trucks, brochures, and buttons worn by mail carriers as part of efforts to urge the public to include the five digits on all outgoing mail. He also appeared in a commercial that featured the voice of Broadway star Ethel Merman singing about the joys of the ZIP code to the tune of "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah."

Despite the ubiquitous presence of the friendly mascot, there was some built-in resistance to adopting the new code. This was in part due to other recent widespread changes foisted on the public, including Social Security numbers being required for individual tax returns and phone numbers changing from the old alphanumeric system to all numerals. Bulk mailers also objected to ZIP code implementation, which required the investment of time and money to update their Automatic Data Processing equipment.

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The ZIP Code Was Widely Accepted by the End of the 1960s

The bulk mailers were forced to go with the flow via congressional enforcement, and the rest of the public soon got used to writing out the five-digit code thanks to persistent reminders from Mr. ZIP. According to a 1969 survey, some 83% of Americans were using ZIP codes by that time, while 90% believed the system to be a good idea.

Additionally, the ZIP code’s reach was already extending beyond the Post Office Department. The five digits became a focus of marketing companies, insurance firms, and the U.S. Census Bureau, all of which found the system beneficial to supplying more targeted data.

The Beatles had broken up by the time the Post Office Department reconfigured itself as the USPS in 1971, but the ZIP code was still going strong, the formidable five-digit system outlasting even the Fab Four as an enduring and thriving symbol of 1960s ingenuity.

What Did Ancient People Dream About?

Triptych depicting Constantine's dream, 312 CE — Credit: Henry Guttmann Collection/ Hulton Archive via Getty Images

Author Bess Lovejoy

August 6, 2026

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For the ancient Greeks, Romans, and folks in other cultures, dreams were far more than idle nighttime fancies. They were powerful, often sacred experiences that shaped lives, politics, religious practices, and art.

While ancient people likely dreamed about many of the same themes we do today — love, fear, death, power, the divine — their dreams were widely seen as significant messages, often believed to come directly from gods or supernatural forces. Ancient dreamers sought meaning in their visions, often finding answers to illness, moral dilemmas, or matters of state, and they acted on their dreams with great seriousness. Here’s a look at what people in ancient times likely dreamed about, and what they believed those visions meant.

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Divine Messengers and Prophecy

One of the most common types of dreams in antiquity featured divine or semidivine figures delivering a message — what later Roman thinkers such as the scholar Macrobius classified as “oracles,” and later scholars have called “epiphany dreams.” These dreams usually involved a god, ancestor, or venerable figure announcing future events or prescribing actions to take.

A prominent example is Penelope’s dream in Homer’s Odyssey, where she sees an eagle slay her flock of geese. The eagle speaks, revealing himself as Odysseus and foretelling his return and vengeance. In another example, from ancient Sumer, King Eanatum I dreamed that Ning̃irsu — the Sumerian god of thunderstorms and floods — told him he would triumph in a war. And in Egypt during the 15th century BCE, a deity told Prince Thutmose IV that he would become pharaoh if only he freed the Sphinx from the sand engulfing its body.

In some early Christian writing, dreams offered opportunities for moral instruction, although it can be hard to distinguish between sleeping dreams and what we’d now be more likely to call visions. But it wasn’t unusual for dreams to influence early religion: Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, had a dream of a giant statue that led him to found the cult of Serapis.

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Healing and Transformation

For many ancient people, especially those in the Greco-Roman world, dreams were not only forecasts but also instructions for therapy. The prominent Greek physician Galen reported that he had performed surgery based on instructions received in a dream. (In fact, Galen owed his entire career to a dream his father had.)

In Roman times, the orator Aelius Aristides kept extensive dream journals detailing his interactions with the god Asclepius, the god of healing. In his first such dream, the deity directed him to walk barefoot in cold weather. Aristides also wrote of being instructed to plunge into a freezing river in winter. Despite the bitter cold, he followed the divine command and emerged feeling renewed, with a “certain inexplicable contentment” that lasted through the day and night.

The temple of Asclepius in Pergamum, where Aristides spent years undergoing dream-based treatments, was a center of “incubation” — a practice in which patients slept in the temple in hopes of receiving a healing dream, or simply being healed by the god while they slept. Aristides believed his ailments were not only healed through these dreams, but that the dreams themselves revealed a deeper layer of his identity.

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Symbol and Allegory

Not all dreams in the ancient world were seen as straightforward. Some were symbolic puzzles requiring interpretation. The second-century dream theorist Artemidorus, in his book Oneirocritica (or The Interpretation of Dreams), distinguished between direct (“theorematic”) and allegorical dreams. The former might show you exactly what was coming (for instance, dreaming of a shipwreck and waking up to discover it coming true), but the latter cloaked meaning in metaphor.

In symbolic dreams, one thing signified another — an eagle could mean a king; a journey, an impending change; a flood, internal unrest. Interestingly, interpretation relied not on fixed meanings but on context, such as who the dreamer was as well as their emotional state, social status, health, and personal concerns.

Dreams and Literature

Dreams also fed ancient literature and drama. The playwright Aristarchus of Tegea reportedly wrote a tragedy at the command of the god Asclepius, who appeared in a dream after the playwright’s recovery from illness.

Homer’s famous epics are also infused with dream logic and imagery. In the Iliad Book 2, Zeus sends a deceitful dream to Agamemnon in the form of a person urging him to attack Troy. It’s an example of dreams as political tools used by gods to shape human affairs.

The Importance of Ancient Dreams

Of course, not everyone in the ancient world took dreams so seriously. In the fourth century CE, the philosopher Diogenes the Cynic had this to say about people who got worked up about dreams: “They did not regard what they do while they are awake, but make a great fuss about what they fancy they see while they are asleep.”

Yet as with most things, Diogenes was an outlier. For many in the ancient world, dreams were seen as legitimate and often essential tools for navigating illness, ethics, and divine will. Ancient people dreamed of gods and ghosts, rivers and birds, death and healing, fear and redemption. And whether interpreted as prophecy, therapy, or metaphor, those dreams were treated with reverence and awe.

Why Babies in Medieval Paintings Look So Weird

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Author Bess Lovejoy

August 6, 2026

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Spend any time gazing at medieval European paintings, and one question tends to emerge: What is going on with those babies? Far from the sweet, chubby cherubs we might expect to see, these infants often resemble balding middle-aged men, complete with wrinkled foreheads and dour expressions. What could possibly explain this bizarre artistic choice? To understand, we have to dive into how European art — and the perception of children — evolved from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

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Religion Influenced Art

The unsettling “man-baby” of medieval art wasn’t a mistake or the result of a lack of skill. These depictions were intentional, shaped by artistic and religious ideas of the Middle Ages (roughly defined as between the fifth century and 13th century). Chief among these ideas was the concept of the homunculus, Latin for “little man,” which influenced how artists portrayed Jesus Christ as an infant. In many medieval works, baby Jesus appears with a full adult face, sometimes even showing signs of male-pattern baldness. The idea was that Jesus, being divine, was fully formed and unchanged from birth (a notion referred to as “the homuncular Jesus”). This theological concept seeped into broader portrayals of children, especially since the majority of child depictions in medieval art were religious commissions — portraits of Jesus or the occasional saintly infant.

As a result, artistic conventions leaned heavily toward depicting children as miniature adults. There was little interest in anatomical accuracy or realism. Instead, medieval artists followed established norms that prioritized symbolic meaning and spiritual messaging over lifelike representation. These conventions flattened individuality; adults and children often looked similarly stylized.

It also didn’t help that painters in this period lacked full artistic freedom. Many were working within strict church guidelines or copying earlier models, so even if they had wanted to create more accurate depictions, they weren’t supposed to do so. This lack of realism means that children in medieval paintings are often difficult to recognize as such. Some appeared disproportionately large or small, while others simply looked like shrunken grown-ups.

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The Renaissance Brought a Cultural Shift

Around the 14th century, things began to shift. The Renaissance — an intellectual and cultural movement that most scholars agree began in Florence, Italy — brought a renewed focus on nature, humanism, and realism in art. Artists became more interested in depicting the world as it actually appeared, rather than as a symbolic landscape.

This shift wasn’t instantaneous or universal. You could still stumble across a man-baby in a Renaissance-era painting if the artist was particularly committed to older styles. And the Renaissance itself was not a monolith; it didn’t blanket Europe uniformly or overnight. But the changes it ushered in had profound effects on artistic representation, including how babies were depicted.

One key factor was the rise of secular art. As Florence’s middle class grew in wealth and influence, more people could afford to commission portraits of their families, including their children. And understandably, they didn’t want their toddlers immortalized as frowning and balding. This demand for more personalized, relatable portraiture helped shift artistic norms. Over time, even depictions of baby Jesus became softer, rounder, and more recognizably infantile.

Renaissance idealism also played a major role in how children were depicted. Artists began studying anatomy, observing real babies, and drawing inspiration from classical sculpture. The result was a new visual vocabulary: plump cheeks, curling tufts of hair, playful expressions. These weren’t just more realistic babies — they were idealized versions, blending the best features into adorable cherubic forms.

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Attitudes Toward Children Changed

Alongside these artistic developments, a subtler change was happening in how society viewed children. Although we should be cautious not to project too much onto medieval families (there’s no evidence that parents loved their children any less), the Renaissance introduced a new philosophical current. Children began to be seen less as incomplete adults and more as innocent beings, untainted by sin or worldly knowledge. As adults’ attitudes toward childhood evolved, so too did their depictions of children. Cute babies weren’t just aesthetically pleasing — they reflected deeper cultural values around family, morality, and human development.

In short, those weird medieval babies weren’t just artistic oddities. They were visual expressions of a different worldview. So next time you see a medieval baby that looks like it’s about to pay taxes, don’t laugh too hard. That little face is telling a rich story about art, belief, and how we’ve come to see the smallest among us.

Why Did People Used To Wear Monocles?

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Author Tony Dunnell

August 6, 2026

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In the world of eyewear, few accessories have captured the imagination quite like the monocle. Widely regarded today as an eccentric throwback from an earlier age, the monocle began life as a fairly simplistic and imperfect device for correcting eyesight. But something odd happened during the 19th century: The unassuming corrective lens began taking on an entirely new significance as a powerful symbol of class, intellectual prowess, and cultural identity.

But why did this simple optical device evolve into a status symbol? And why did people start wearing monocles in the first place, when spectacles — those of the two-lens variety — had been around since the 13th century? Here’s a close look at why people used to wear monocles, and why the curious eyepiece ultimately went out of fashion.

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The Origins of the Monocle

The origin of the monocle is somewhat blurry. It likely developed from the “quizzing glass,” which was a magnifying lens on a handle that was held up to the user’s eye to aid in reading or inspecting objects. The monocle, of course, did away with the handle altogether, and was instead held in place by the eye socket itself.

Monocles helped with reading small print and other tasks requiring near vision. They also had the benefit of allowing both hands to be used freely (unlike the quizzing glass) while also being easy to carry, slipping comfortably into a top pocket.

Monocles, however, have one obvious issue: They correct vision in only one eye. This might be fine for someone with anisometropia, in which only one eye needs correcting, but virtually all monocle users require optical correction in both eyes.

This issue was being discussed by medical practitioners as far back as the early 1800s — and their comments were often critical. An anonymous German treatise published in 1824 stated, “The monocle with which a single eye is used must be avoided because it disturbs the balance of binocular vision.” The same year, London optician William Kitchener warned, “This pernicious plaything will most assuredly in a very few years bring on an imperfect vision in one or both eyes.”

The Monocle as a Fashion Statement

By that time, eyeglasses with lenses for both eyes had already been around for several centuries; they were invented in Italy in the 13th century and became increasingly sophisticated over the years. So why were monocles so popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries? In a word: fashion.

One of the first well-known monocole adopters was the Prussian antiquary Philipp von Stosch, a highly influential art and antiquities dealer in the 18th century. (He also happened to be a spy for the British government.) Von Stosch was a notable figure in European high society, and is widely credited with having made the monocle a fashionable accessory.

In Britain, it’s possible that monocles became popular among theatergoers in the early 1800s — a theory presented by Pitt H. Herbert in his 1950 essay “An Eye on the Monocle” — and from there spread to the upper classes, primarily as a matter of style. The Austrian inventor J.F. Voigtlander, who was studying optics in London, introduced the monocle to Vienna in 1814, helping the new fashion spread to Russia and Germany.

By this point, monocles had been wholeheartedly adopted by the rich and powerful, particularly in England and Germany. (According to Herbert, monocles arrived in America in the 1880s, with the fad reaching its height around 1913, but they never became as popular in the U.S. as they were in Europe.) Style quickly overcame any practical purpose, and people began wearing monocles purely as a fashion accessory, with no actual need of a corrective lens — many monocle lenses were made of plain glass with no corrective properties at all.

By the 1830s, the eyewear had completed its strange transformation. Monocles were no longer primarily used as a visual aid, but had taken on a new life as a fashion accessory representing education, refinement, and social standing.

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The Monocle’s Decline

In Britain, the craze began to fade by the end of the 1830s. But monocles didn’t disappear entirely for at least another century; they were still worn in British high society, whether by members of Parliament or well-dressed dandies. By the beginning of the 20th century, the monocle had even become a cultural symbol. Political cartoonists and playwrights used the eyepiece as visual shorthand for the privileged classes — often as a symbol of pomposity and snobbery. But it wasn’t the satirizing of the monocle that led to its fall from grace — it was war.

The monocle was fashionable in Germany, where it was popular among the German aristocracy as well as military leadership. During both World War I and World War II, many notable German generals wore monocles, including World War I General Erich Ludendorff, and the Nazi field marshals Walter von Reichenau and Walter Model, to name but a few. It was this association that ultimately brought about the monocle’s decline, as the eyewear fell out of favor in much of Western Europe and the United States in the wake of these conflicts. Today, the monocle exists primarily as a historical curiosity, a nostalgic and eccentric symbol of pretension and intellect.

The Most Popular Medieval Names

Durham Liber Vitae, circa 840 CE — Credit: Album/British Library / Alamy Stock Photo

Author Kristina Wright

July 30, 2026

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The Middle Ages weren’t just shaped by monarchs and wars — they were lived by everyday people whose names appear in the records they left behind. Parish registers, royal charters, tax rolls, and literature give us a glimpse into the history of common names in medieval England and other parts of Europe and what they meant to the people who carried them.

Some of the most valuable insights about what people were called, and why, come from medieval books created specifically to record names. One example is the local Liber Vitae (Latin for “Book of Life”), which listed individuals — often clergy or benefactors — remembered in the prayers of religious communities. These books were relatively rare and typically associated with major monastic centers in England, such as Durham and Winchester, where they served both spiritual and administrative purposes. The Durham Liber Vitae, which was updated over a span of 700 years, documents a wide variety of Anglo-Saxon and Norman names.

Other sources of medieval names, such as the 14th-century York Registers, document naming trends among the clergy and nobility. Together with legal records and monastic rolls, these texts reveal how names reflected faith, status, region, and tradition. The names below give us a look at how people in the Middle Ages expressed their religious beliefs, honored their ancestors, and signaled their social standing — all through the names they gave their children.

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Christianity Had a Major Impact on Naming Trends

The spread of Christianity throughout medieval Europe had a tremendous influence on naming practices. Biblical names and those honoring saints were popular — and in many regions, they were even required for baptism. Here are some of the most common examples.

John
John, the Latin form of the Greek name Joannes, was one of the most widely used male names in medieval Europe. It originates from the Hebrew name Yochanan, meaning “God is gracious,” and gained prominence through early Christian texts and the popularity of biblical figures such as John the Baptist and John the Apostle. The name was embraced by kings, popes, clergy, and commoners, making it a universal choice across social classes. There were many variations of this popular medieval name, including Johan (Germanic and Scandinavian regions), Jean (French), Giovanni (Italian), and Juan (Spanish).

Thomas
Thomas, the Greek form of the Aramaic Ta’oma’, meaning “twin,” became a common name throughout medieval Europe due to its biblical roots — most notably St. Thomas the Apostle. Its popularity grew further after the 12th-century martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury. The name was used widely by both clergy and commoners. Medieval variations included Tommaso (Italian), Tomás (Spanish), and Thomasse (French).

Margaret
Margaret was a popular name for girls across medieval Europe. It originates from the Greek margaritēs, meaning “pearl,” and entered Latin as Margareta through early Christian usage. The name was associated with purity and virtue, especially due to the widespread veneration of St. Margareta of Antioch and St. Margaret of Scotland. Some of the medieval variations of this beloved name included Marguerite (French), Margherita (Italian), Margarita (Spanish), Margarethe (German), and Margit (Hungarian).

Agnes
Agnes comes from the Greek hagnē, meaning “pure” or “chaste.” It was a classic name among Christian families, inspired by St. Agnes of Rome, a young martyr celebrated for her steadfast faith and innocence. Her story made the name especially popular among parents seeking a model of virtue for their daughters. Medieval variations included Ines (Spanish and Portuguese), Agnès (French), and Agnese (Italian).

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Male Names Were Inspired by Warriors and Kings

Throughout the Middle Ages, warriors and kings provided naming inspiration, reflecting ideals of power, bravery, and nobility. These names were chosen not just for their meanings, but also to honor heroic figures and royal lineage, shaping the way individuals were perceived in society.

William
William rose to prominence after the Norman Conquest of 1066, thanks to William the Conqueror. It derives from the Germanic name Willahelm, meaning “resolute protector.” The name became a symbol of power and legitimacy throughout Norman-ruled lands. There were many medieval variations, including Guillaume (French), Wilhelm (German), Guilherme (Portuguese), and Guglielmo (Italian).

Richard
Richard, from the Latin Ricardus, was a strong and noble name meaning “brave ruler.” It originates from the Old High German Ricohard, combining ric (meaning “power, ruler”) and hard (“brave, hardy”). Its popularity soared due to figures such as Richard the Lionheart, whose legacy of leadership and valor made the name especially popular. Medieval variations included Richart and Rikard in the French and Germanic regions.

Henry
Henry, from the Latin Henricus, was a royal favorite throughout medieval Europe. It comes from the Old High German name Heimirich, meaning “home ruler.” A name popular among future kings and high-ranking nobles, it conveyed authority and stability. Some medieval variations included Heinrich (German), Henri (French), Enrique (Spanish), and Enrico (Italian).

Geoffrey
Geoffrey, from the Latin Galfridus, was a distinguished name of Norman origin. Its roots lie in the Germanic Gaufrid or Walfrid, meaning “God’s peace.” Though less common today, the name Geoffrey (and its variations) was widely used in medieval records and literary circles, largely due to the influence of the Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose writings helped popularize the name and its legendary associations, particularly with the Arthurian tales. Medieval variations included Geoffroi (French), Goffredo (Italian), Gofraid (Old Irish/Scottish), and Jofré (Catalan).

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Female Names Were Strong and Feminine

Though women were often excluded from political power, many female names during the Middle Ages reflected strength and elegance. Several prominent women of the era, whose names were closely tied to royal courts and political influence, helped shape naming trends that persist to this day.

Mathilda
Mathilda (or Matilda) comes from the Latin Matildis, which traces back to the Germanic elements maht (“might”) and hild (“battle”), meaning “mighty in battle.” The name was widely used among medieval royalty and nobility, notably by Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England and a central figure in the 12th century. It conveyed strength and high status, making it a favorite in aristocratic circles. Medieval variations included Matildis (Latin), Mahaut (Old French), and Mechthild (German).

Eleanor
Eleanor, derived from the earlier Alienor, rose to prominence in medieval Europe following the fame of Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of both France and England in the 12th century. The name came to symbolize noble grace and royal authority. Its origin is likely linked to the Provençal name Aliénor, possibly a form of Helen, though its exact roots remain uncertain. Eleanor became widely used across France, England, and parts of the Iberian Peninsula. Medieval variations included Aliénor (French), Alianor (Old French), and Ellinor (Middle English).

Alice
Alice, from the Old French Aalis, traces its roots to the Old High German name Adalheidis, meaning “noble kind.” Brought to England by the Normans, Aelis was favored among the aristocracy and frequently appeared in courtly literature and historical records. Over time, it evolved into the Middle English name Alice, which became common in both noble and common households. Medieval variations included Aelis (Old French) and Alis (Middle English).

Beatrice
Beatrice, from the Latin Beatrix, meaning “she who blesses,” rose to prominence in medieval Italy. The name was popular among noble families and gained lasting literary significance through Beatrice Portinari, the muse of Dante Alighieri. Immortalized in La Vita Nuova and The Divine Comedy, she cemented the name’s association with virtue and idealized femininity. Medieval variations included Beatriz (Spanish and Portuguese) and Béatrice (French).

5 Hidden Treasures That Actually Exist

Fabergé egg, 1912 — Credit: Ian Dagnall/ Alamy Stock Photo

Author Tony Dunnell

July 30, 2026

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It’s hard to surpass the romance and adventure embodied by hidden treasure. The allure of lost riches has lived with us throughout human history, and the interest in such fables has never wavered — hence the enduring popularity of fictional works such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and, more recently, the Indiana Jones movies.

Unlike many legendary troves — such as Montezuma’s treasure, which has fired the imagination of treasure hunters for centuries, despite little evidence as to its actual existence — some hidden riches are known to be very real, but their whereabouts are now tantalizingly lost. Here are five of these lost treasures, all of which continue to inspire treasure hunters and historians alike in their ongoing quests for discovery and long-lost riches.

Lost Fabergé Imperial Eggs

Few things in life are more jaw-droppingly lavish than Fabergé eggs, ornate decorations commissioned by Russian tsars and created by the jewelry company House of Fabergé between 1885 and 1917. The most well known and extravagant are the Imperial eggs, of which 50 were created but only 44 are known to have survived.

The most recent discovery came to light in 2011, when the long-lost Third Imperial Egg was accidentally discovered in an American flea market. It later sold for an undisclosed amount in 2014 after being valued at $33 million.

After the start of the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Bolsheviks ransacked and looted the imperial family’s palace and nationalized the House of Fabergé, and some of the Imperial eggs were lost. Researchers believe that as many as five Imperial eggs have been destroyed, but there’s still a chance that at least one Imperial egg is out there waiting to be found.

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The Florentine Diamond

The Florentine diamond is a clear, pale-yellow diamond with nine sides and 126 facets, weighing 137.27 carats (27.454 grams). Originally from India, it later found its way to Europe. Legend has it that the magnificent jewel was owned by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, but he lost it when he fell in battle during the Battle of Nancy in 1477.

The jewel’s first documented owner was Ferdinando II, the Grand Duke of Tuscany and a member of the powerful Medici family, in the mid-1600s. It then found its way into the hands of the storied Habsburgs, and by 1743 had become part of the Austrian crown jewels. There it remained until the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I. To keep the diamond safe, Emperor Charles I smuggled the stone to Switzerland, where he was being sent into exile.

This is where the fate of the Florentine diamond becomes unclear. Rumors abound, including one that claims a household servant or other person close to the imperial family took the stone and fled with it to South America. Another claims it was broken into smaller pieces and sold to unwitting jewelers. The hunt continues, with the diamond potentially worth around $12 million in today’s money — if it remains intact.

The Amber Room

Before it disappeared during World War II (a fate suffered by many priceless works), the Amber Room was one of the most treasured artifacts in Russia. The room, sometimes referred to as the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” was an ornate chamber decorated with amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors. Originally designed in the early 18th century as a showpiece chamber for Frederick I, king of Prussia, it was then gifted to the Russian Tsar Peter the Great in 1716 and installed in Catherine Palace near St. Petersburg.

The room was quite a sight, with its 180-square-foot floor surrounded by walls decorated with 6 tons of glowing amber. But when World War II broke out, the Nazis looted the room and transported it to Königsberg Castle in what is now Kaliningrad, Russia. In early 1944, with the Allies closing in, the room was disassembled and crated for storage in the castle basement — and then the trail went cold.

Despite decades of investigation by both Russian and German authorities, the original Amber Room has never been recovered. Theories abound, with some believing it was destroyed during Allied bombing raids or loaded onto a ship or submarine that was then sunk. Alternatively, it might still be hidden in an abandoned German bunker or mine. With its finishing touches of gold and other semiprecious stones, historians estimate the room would be worth at least $142 million in today’s dollars, with some estimates as high as $500 million.

Honjō Masamune

The Honjō Masamune is arguably the most significant lost sword in Japanese history. Crafted by the legendary swordsmith Gorō Nyūdō Masamune in the early 14th century, it represents the pinnacle of Japanese sword-making. The katana, with Masamune’s unique wavy pattern along the hamon, or blade, was passed down from one shōgun or general to another. It was wielded by the samurai general Honjō Shigenaga, the namesake of the sword, who won it in battle in 1561 by defeating its previous owner. From there, the sword was passed along to ever-more prestigious owners, cementing its legendary status.

Then, when Japan lost World War II and the Allies demanded the Japanese hand over all their weapons — including their swords — the Honjō Masamune was lost. Its owner at the time, Tokugawa Iemasa, turned in the sword to a police station in 1945. According to records, the sword was handed over to a Sgt. Coldy Bimore — but no such person ever seems to have existed. While it’s possible the Honjō Masamune was melted down or tossed into Tokyo Bay, there’s still a chance that one day it will be found, once again allowing Japan and the world to lay eyes on one of the finest swords ever made.

Credit: Historic Collection/ Alamy Stock Photo

The Irish Crown Jewels

In 1783, George III, king of Great Britain and Ireland, established the Order of Saint Patrick as an equivalent order to England’s Order of the Garter and Scotland’s Order of the Thistle. Half a century later, William IV introduced a new set of regalia for the order, commonly known as the Irish crown jewels, that included a heavily jeweled badge, ceremonial collars, and an eight-pointed star. The items in the collection contained hundreds of gems and precious stones, including emeralds, rubies and, most notably, brilliant Brazilian diamonds.

On July 6, 1907, the Ulster King of Arms, Arthur Vicars, opened the safe in Dublin Castle where the crown jewels were housed, and made a terrible discovery: The jewels had been stolen. No one had checked on the collection in weeks, making it hard to attach a culprit to the crime, and the investigating detectives were stumped — there was no sign of a forced entry, suggesting the thief had their own key.

The king was enraged and the heist became a huge national scandal. Rumors spread and theories were put forward, with suspicion falling on everyone from Arthur Vicars himself to Francis Shackleton (the brother of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton), who also possessed a key to the tower. Such was the mystery surrounding the robbery that even Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, offered his assistance.

Despite the outcry and massive public attention, the crime was never solved and the crown jewels never recovered. It’s possible that the pieces were broken down and the precious stones sold off separately, but we may never know. What we do know is that the collection was worth around £50,000 in its day, equivalent to some $5 million today.

5 Cities That Looked Completely Different 50 Years Ago

Berlin, 1975 (left) and 2024 (right) — Credit: United Archives/ Hulton Archive via Getty Images (LEFT); DjelicS/ E+ via Getty Images (RIGHT)

Author Timothy Ott

July 30, 2026

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Every city experiences noticeable changes with the march of time. Political leaders come and go, businesses appear and disappear, old landmarks are destroyed and new ones erected. To paraphrase the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, nothing is permanent within these centers of human activity except change itself.

That said, some locales certainly change more dramatically than others, due to a variety of factors. While many of us have been around long enough to remember things from 50 years ago, these before-and-after photos from five cities around the world have the mid-1970s looking like a distant era.

Credits: Hum Images/ Alamy Stock Photo (left); pawel.gaul/ iStock via Getty Images Plus (right)

Seattle, Washington

Seattle was hardly a desirable place to live in the early 1970s; following years of layoffs by aerospace giant Boeing, a billboard appeared near the airport, reading, “Will the last person leaving SEATTLE — Turn out the lights.” To say the least, the Emerald City has recovered quite nicely since then. Boeing moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago in 2001 but has since been replaced in Seattle by the sprawling urban campuses of Google and Amazon, the latter boasting its conspicuous Spheres in the Denny Triangle neighborhood.

Other projects have boosted Seattle’s standing among major American cities, from the creation of Freeway Park and the aquarium in the mid-1970s, to the construction of dedicated stadiums for Seattle’s baseball and football teams around the turn of the century. Meanwhile, the tourist-heavy downtown area has also undergone transformation, with the Great Wheel presenting another waterfront attraction and scenic Overlook Walk replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the elevated freeway that was damaged in a 2001 earthquake.

But perhaps the biggest difference between Seattle of the 1970s and today? There was only one Starbucks in existence then, as opposed to the 90-plus stores that populate the city now, among the 17,000 spread across the United States.

Credits: United Archives/ Hulton Archive via Getty Images (LEFT); DjelicS/ E+ via Getty Images (RIGHT)

Berlin, Germany

Without question, the biggest difference between the German capital today and 50 years ago is the eradication of the Berlin Wall that divided the city from 1961 to 1989. The wall still exists in bits and pieces, some portions standing as memorials and another hosting the longest open-air art gallery in the world. But the physical and symbolic barrier has given way to efforts to unify the German capital.

The East German Palace of the Republic was torn down in the early 2000s, as design competitions were held to revitalize Potsdamer Platz in the center of the city. Meanwhile, most of the 16 public parks proposed in a 1994 landscape plan have been developed, while the launch of the large Holzmarkt urban market and cultural center along the Spree River underscores how the modern sensibilities of West Berlin have spread to the rest of the city.

Credits: ClassicStock/ Archive Photos via Getty Images (LEFT); Davel5957/ iStock via Getty Images Plus (RIGHT)

Miami, Florida

Miami has long been a draw for its year-round favorable weather, but there are some stark differences between the beach town of 50 years ago and the metropolis of today. As with other cities on this list, one of the obvious changes are the soaring skyscrapers; Miami had 18 of the top 100 tallest buildings in the country as of March 2024, with the number of buildings reaching more than 300 feet tall increasing by 66% over the previous decade alone.

The money flowing from investors has also made a mark closer to eye level, with Lincoln Road transformed into a world-renowned shopping district and once-quieter neighborhoods such as Wynwood and Sunset Harbor emerging as coveted real estate.

Other areas have undergone major cultural changes by way of demographics, with Cuban and Haitian immigrants pouring in from the 1960s through the 1980s to form the bustling Little Havana and Little Haiti districts. As for public attractions, Miami now boasts the acclaimed Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and new homes for the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum and Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, while the Kaseya Center and LoanDepot park host professional sports teams in place of the now-demolished Orange Bowl.

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Singapore

In 1975, Singapore had been independent for 10 years and was 15 years into the widespread public housing construction program that encompassed most of the city-state. But more extreme changes were also underway, thanks to geopolitical alliances and foreign investments that transformed this tiny nation into one of the world's strongest economies. Most striking, of course, is the skyline — most of the nearly 100 buildings that stand almost 500 feet tall were raised over the past 50 years.

Other major construction projects include the conversion of the royal air force base into the world-renowned Changi Airport, and the development of the artificial Jurong Island, home of the nation's chemical and energy industry. Singapore has also demonstrated that modernization can work in tandem with an environmental focus; nearly 10,000 acres of parks and green spaces have been created since the mid-1970s, with the city’s Gardens by the Bay, featuring the world's largest glass greenhouse and concrete and steel "supertrees," standing as a crowning achievement.

Credits: INTERFOTO/ Alamy Stock Photo (LEFT); Matthew Micah Wright/ The Image Bank via Getty Images (RIGHT)

Panama City, Panama

Similar to Berlin, Panama's capital stands on the outskirts of a human-made feature that has altered the course of the city's history. In this case, the Panama Canal has spelled economic good fortune for the area, especially after ownership of the crucial trade channel passed back into local control at the start of the new millennium.

A construction boom that began a few years later pushed the city to the skies, with more than three dozen of the largest skyscrapers built between 2008 and 2014. The city's urban footprint also expanded by 55% from 2000 to 2020.

Major civic works including the expansion of Tocumen International Airport and the launch of the Panama City Metro improved the traveling experience to and around the capital, while the 64-acre Cinta Costera parkland along the waterfront provides the play space for both locals and high-rolling visitors to Central America's richest country.

The Secret Service Code Names of 9 U.S. Presidents

Secret Service men — ROBERTO SCHMIDT/ AFP via Getty Images

Author Bennett Kleinman

July 30, 2026

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Ever since Harry S. Truman’s presidential terms, from 1945 until 1953, presidents have been given descriptive code names used by the Secret Service to provide an added layer of anonymity when discussing the movements of the commander in chief. The process of selecting these code names is somewhat shrouded in mystery. Sometimes, the White House Communications Agency (WHCA) comes up with a list of words starting with the same letter, and the president chooses something from the list that resonates with them. Other times, the Secret Service simply assigns one of the WHCA-supplied names to the president.

But how does the WHCA come up with the list to begin with? The agency is tight-lipped about its exact process, but a spokesperson once said the words are usually determined by “sheer whim.” While the code names often reflect something unique about the leader — whether it’s a nod to their personality, principles, or background — other times, the inspiration isn’t entirely clear.

Presidential code names started as an added security measure at a time when it was easier to intercept electronic communications. Yet despite modern advancements in technology, the tradition has endured, and these nicknames have become not-so-secret pieces of presidential lore along the way. Here are some of the U.S. presidents’ Secret Service code names, and the suspected meaning behind them.

Credit: Historical/ Corbis Historical via Getty Images

Harry S. Truman: “General”

Harry S. Truman was the first U.S. president with a documented Secret Service code name. “General,” though not a military title he ever held, reflects his leadership as a field artillery captain during World War II — as well as his critical, though controversial, decisiveness as president.

Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Providence”

Dwight D. Eisenhower’s code name, “Providence,” echoed his reputation for being a guiding force of virtue and purpose for many Americans. According to the Eisenhower National Historic Site, he became known as “Scorecard” after he retired, due to his love of golf.

Credit: GraphicaArtis/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

John F. Kennedy: “Lancer”

Lancelot, a legendary knight of King Arthur’s court, was the inspiration for the charismatic president’s code name, “Lancer.” Following John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Kennedy administration’s nickname of “Camelot” was popularized by former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, solidifying this romanticized vision of JFK’s presidency.

Lyndon B. Johnson: “Volunteer”

In 1941, when Lyndon B. Johnson was serving as a Texas Democrat in the House of Representatives, the U.S. entered World War II. In a move that likely inspired his nickname, Johnson became the first member of Congress to volunteer for active duty. He served as a lieutenant commander in the Navy until members of Congress were recalled to Washington in 1942.

Richard Nixon: “Searchlight”

The code name “Searchlight” took a prophetic turn when an early morning break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters led to the unraveling of the Watergate scandal. But the name’s initial link to Richard Nixon may have come from his time as a U.S. representative, when he played a role in — and gained political prominence from — the investigation of a U.S. State Department official who was accused of spying for the Soviet Union.

Jimmy Carter: “Deacon”

Jimmy Carter was a devout Christian before, during, and after his presidency. In the years following his time in the Oval Office, he continued to teach Sunday school, making the name “Deacon,” referencing a church official, particularly apt.

Ronald Reagan: “Rawhide”

The name “Rawhide” drew not only from Ronald Reagan’s role in Hollywood Westerns, but also from the fact that he was a real-life rancher, with a small ranch outside Santa Barbara, California.

Bill Clinton: “Eagle”

Although Bill Clinton’s code name, like most, was never explained, it has been speculated that it has to do with his connection to the Boy Scouts of America. Although he did not achieve Eagle Scout rank (Gerald Ford is the only president to do so), he served as a Cub Scout in his youth, and he spoke at the 1997 National Scout Jamboree.

George H.W. Bush: “Timberwolf”

The reason for George H.W. Bush’s code name, “Timberwolf,” isn’t known, but the 41st U.S. president was an avid outdoorsman who championed environmental protection.

5 Photos From Greenwich Village in the 1960s

Folk musicians in NYC, 1961 — Credit: Bettmann via Getty Images

Author Nicole Villeneuve

July 22, 2026

Love it?139

In the 1960s, New York City’s Greenwich Village — the Manhattan neighborhood located roughly between Houston and 14th streets, from the Hudson River to Broadway — was a hub of American counterculture. Once an upscale residential area in the 1800s, the neighborhood had changed by the early 20th century as low-income tenement houses drove its wealthy residents to other parts of the city.

At the same time, the Village’s central location and low rents started attracting artists, writers, and bohemians from across the country. A community of creativity and political activism flourished in the local coffeehouses, and the neighborhood became a hub of the folk music, protests, and free-spirited style that came to define the 1960s counterculture. These photos are but a small glimpse into the people, places, and moments that made the Greenwich Village scene so iconic.

The Gaslight

MacDougal Street may well be the place that best captures the essence of 1960s Greenwich Village. Though just a few blocks long, the strip was home to a dense collection of coffeehouses and clubs that launched some of the best-known artists of the decade and beyond. Among its most revered venues was the Gaslight Cafe. Opened as the Village Gaslight in 1958, the low-ceilinged former coal cellar originally hosted readings by influential Beat poets including Allen Ginsberg and Diane di Prima before evolving into a cornerstone of the folk scene.

Getting a regular slot at the Gaslight meant earning the approval of insiders such as musician Dave Van Ronk, known as the “Mayor of MacDougal Street.” It also meant getting paid weekly. Though the space was far from glamorous, it was a launching pad for major talent, including Van Ronk, Len Chandler, and of course Bob Dylan, who, upon arriving in New York, said the Gaslight was the club he “wanted to play, needed to.” In 1966, the famed club even hosted Joni Mitchell’s first New York City performance.

Just steps away, Cafe Wha? built its own legacy as one of the first stages for artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Springsteen (and yes, Dylan, who performed there on his first day in NYC). Meanwhile, down the block, Gerde’s Folk City and the Cafe Au Go Go cemented the Village’s reputation as a hotbed of talent with regular performances from Pete Seeger, Emmylou Harris, Tim Buckley, Judy Collins, and many more.

Credit: Sigmund Goode/ Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images

Bob Dylan at the Bitter End

Today, the Bitter End calls itself the oldest rock ’n’ roll club in New York City, and it was certainly an early staple of Greenwich Village’s music scene. Opened in 1961 by future Hollywood film producer Fred Weintraub, the unassuming Bleecker Street coffeehouse quickly gained a reputation for showcasing new talent. One of the earliest acts to play the Bitter End was a then-unknown trio called Peter, Paul, and Mary. In late 1961, the club placed ads in The New York Times urging people to catch the group before they outgrew the intimate room. By January 1962, Peter, Paul, and Mary had signed a record deal, and later that year, they used the club’s signature exposed brick walls as the backdrop for their debut album cover.

When Dylan arrived in the Village from Minnesota in early 1961, he became one of the up-and-coming performers who graced the Bitter End’s stage in its early years. Though he began as one of many young folk singers on the scene, Dylan quickly emerged as the voice of a generation; his songwriting helped to define the 1960s folk revival and position Greenwich Village as the center of a cultural shift. Later, in the 1970s, Dylan returned to the Bitter End not just as a performer but as a fan, dropping by to watch others play or to shoot pool with peers such as Kris Kristofferson. The club briefly changed its name to the Other End under new owner Paul Colby in the 1970s and ’80s, but eventually returned to its original moniker. It remains the Bitter End to this day.

Allen Ginsberg Protests Vietnam

Greenwich Village was a breeding ground for the countercultural energy of the 1960s. Though the neighborhood had been home to artists and freethinkers for much of the 20th century, by the mid-1960s, the folk revival was in full swing, and musicians such as Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and Phil Ochs were increasingly vocal in the anti-war movement. In March 1966, Vietnam War protests swelled across the country; tens of thousands of people marched on Fifth Avenue in New York City in what was then the largest anti-war demonstration to date.

More than 20,000 protesters were joined by some of Greenwich Village’s leading counterculture figureheads. In this photo, legendary Beat poet and vocal Vietnam War critic Allen Ginsberg is pictured in an Uncle Sam hat. He’s joined by members of the underground psychedelic folk rock group the Fugs. Formed by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, the Fugs and their irreverent critiques of mainstream American culture made them a cult favorite in the 1960s Village scene where they frequented live clubs such as Cafe Wha?.

Credit: Leo Vals/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

Washington Square Park

Even before the folk revival hit full swing, Washington Square Park was already a sanctuary for musicians and music lovers alike. Throughout the 1950s, people armed with guitars, banjos, bongos, and mandolins gathered every Sunday to sing and share folk, blues, and more music.

But in the spring of 1961, NYC Parks Commissioner Newbold Morris began enforcing a city law requiring permits for musical performances in the park. While the crackdown was said to be supported by nearby residents concerned about crowds, many suspected that authorities wanted to silence the voices of a growing youth movement.

On Sunday, April 9, 1961, musicians gathered in the park even though permits had been denied. The protest was led by Izzy Young, a pillar in the music scene as the owner of Greenwich Village’s iconic Folklore Center. Police responded with force and arrests in a clash that became known as the Beatnik Riot. That Sunday marked a cultural turning point: a new generation pushing back against authority. The city eventually relented, and throughout the rest of the decade, Washington Square Park remained a hub for protest, performance, and political expression.

Bohemian Style

Bohemianism took hold in New York long before the Beat Generation or hippie countercultures. In the mid-19th century, Greenwich Village was home to writers such as Henry Clapp Jr., known as the “King of Bohemia” and credited with introducing the Parisian ideal of bohemianism — an artistic and non-materialistic lifestyle — to the American literary scene. A century later, the Village attracted a new wave of dreamers. Through the 1950s, the literary rebels known as the Beats inspired a subsequent beatnik subculture, and in the 1960s, hippies adapted similar ideals into a movement centered on personal freedom and social justice. Their shared bohemian sensibilities helped keep the Village a haven for free spirits and artistic freedom.

The fashion seen around the Village in the 1960s was both eclectic and deliberate, as well as comfortable and carefree. This 1967 snapshot captures the vibe: A young woman in a gingham dress and beads has her face painted by a fellow hippie in a bold-patterned headband and shirt, as both of them audition as extras for the Sidney Poitier film For Love of Ivy. By the end of the 1960s, the bohemian spirit that shaped Greenwich Village had spread far beyond it, reaching its peak just 100 miles upstate at the Woodstock Music Festival, where upwards of 500,000 people gathered in the name of peace, love, and music.

5 Toxic Foods People Used To Eat

Victorian-era restaurant — Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd/ Alamy Stock Photo

Author Timothy Ott

July 22, 2026

Love it?175

From our modern vantage point, the culinary options of bygone cultures are sometimes difficult to comprehend. It seems that hungry people gobbled down anything they could get their hands on, including dormice (rodents), beaver tails, and fish bladder jam.

But while some of the choices seem unusual in hindsight, we can at least grasp their nutritional value. Other foods, however, were just downright dangerous to the human digestive system, and certainly wouldn’t have been on the menu had the consumer been aware of the consequences. Here are five toxic foods that people unwittingly used to eat.

Credit: Universal History Archive/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Stone Age Fish

Offering a rich source of vitamins, protein, and fatty acids, seafood is generally considered among the healthiest cuisine to eat — unless, of course, the specimens being consumed contain sky-high concentrations of heavy metals. Such was the case with the Atlantic cod and harp seals that comprised the meals of Stone Age settlers in northern Norway’s Varanger Peninsula around 5000 to 1800 BCE.

According to a recent study, cod bones from the settlement contained levels of cadmium up to 22 times higher than contemporary recommended limits, while seal bones showed similar dangerously elevated levels of lead. While it might seem strange that wildlife came with the risk of carcinogens in an era well before industrialization, the study authors suggest this was the result of climate change. It’s possible the thaw from the last ice age (between about 120,000 and 11,500 years ago) produced rising sea levels that carried soil containing the potent minerals into the water.

Roman Defrutum

It’s well known that the ancient Romans enjoyed their wine, but it’s possible a component of the winemaking process fueled ill health in a manner that went beyond the typical hangover. The Romans made a sweet, syrupy substance called defrutum, which was prepared by boiling unfermented grape juice. This syrup was used as a preservative for wine and fruit, as well as in sauces for dishes of pork, veal, and lentils, as described in the famed Roman cookbook De Re Coquinaria.

The problem was in the sweetener’s preparation: Ancient scholars including Cato and Pliny the Elder called for the syrup to be boiled in a lead-lined pot, inevitably resulting in the syrup’s absorption of lead. Although the hazards of lead poisoning were known to the Romans, it apparently never occurred to these great minds that they were endangering the public with their instructions.

Tansies

Nowadays, a typical Easter meal might include a ham and a sampling of the chocolate left by the Easter Bunny, but for Christians in medieval England, the holiday was incomplete without the serving of the tansy. The dish was named for its primary ingredient, the yellow-flowered tansy plant, which was mixed with herbs and a hearty helping of eggs to produce what was essentially a large, sweet omelet.

Coming on the heels of Lent, the tansy not only provided a welcome change from the strict diet of lentils and fish consumed over the previous 40 days, but also was said to provide relief from the gas-inducing Lenten meals. Despite its purported medicinal qualities, the plant is actually mildly toxic, its pyrrolizidine alkaloids dangerous to humans in high doses. Although the poison didn’t hinder the long-standing popularity of the tansy on dinner tables, people are generally dissuaded from eating the plant today.

Victorian Bread

You could highlight an array of foods in Victorian England that would fail to pass muster under any food safety laws, from the lead chromate found in mustard to the arsenic compounds used to color confectionery. However, given its ubiquity in households of the era, the most egregious example may well be bread.

Seeking to create thick loaves of an appealing white hue, Victorian bakers mixed in such ingredients as ground-up bones, chalk, and plaster of Paris. Another common additive was alum, an aluminum-based compound that inhibited digestion and contributed to the malnutrition rampant among the poorer population. Although the dangers of adulterated edibles were known among the more educated members of the public, there was little stopping the food producers and distributors who ignored these health risks in favor of profits.

Credit: Bildagentur-online/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Rhubarb Leaves

Known for its reddish stalk and tart flavor, rhubarb in the hands of a capable chef can be used to create delicious pies, sauces, and jams. That is, the stalks can be turned into such kitchen delights — the thick green leaves are chock-full of toxic oxalic acid and therefore not meant for ingestion. Unfortunately, this fact was not well known a century ago, as rhubarb leaves were recommended as a source of vegetation during the food shortages of World War I.

Consumed in small but regular doses, the leaves inhibit the beneficial effects of calcium and trigger the buildup of calcium oxalate, leading to kidney stones. While a human would normally have to eat something like 6 pounds of the stuff to experience the more acute effects (including vomiting, diarrhea, and kidney failure), there was at least one reported case of oxalic acid poisoning during the rhubarb leaf’s brief run as a lettuce substitute.

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