John Ortved

As the saying goes, an army marches on its stomach, relying on good and plentiful food to fuel its ability to fight.  For contemporary U.S. armed forces in combat, that usually means Meals, Ready-to-Eat, or MREs. U.S. armed forces switched to MREs in the early 1980s, replacing ...read more

What draws people to stamps?  Why do we get a thrill from seeing Wonder Woman, astronauts, presidents and Americana on these small pieces of affixable paper? One possibility is that they are at once so many things: they’re art, they’re history, they’re antiques, they’re money, ...read more

When the daguerreotype—the proto-photo—was first popularized in 1839, French poet and critic Charles Baudelaire railed against the form, calling it “deplorable.” And in the 178 years since its invention, the camera—and photographers—have courted controversy and headlines in equal ...read more