benmarks23 at gmail dot com

 

Mari Tepper: Laying it on the Line

 

 

Nice Ice: Valerie Hammond on the Genteel Charm of Vintage Canadian Costume Jewelry

 

 

Modernist Man: Jock Peters May Be the Most Influential Architect You’ve Never Heard Of

 

 

Meet Cute: Were Kokeshi Dolls the Models for Hello Kitty, Pokemon, and Be@rbrick?

 

 

When the King of Comedy Posters Set His Surreal Sights on the World of Rock ‘n’ Roll

 

 

How One Artist Makes New Art From Old Coloring Books and Found Photos

 

 

Say Cheese! How Bad Photography Has Changed Our Definition of Good Pictures

 

 

Middle Earthenware: One Family’s Quest to Reclaim Its Place in British Pottery History

 

 

Fancy Fowl: How an Evil Sea Captain and a Beloved Queen Made the World Crave KFC

 

 

Heavenly Metal: How Trench Art Keeps the Memories of Soldiers and Their Service Alive

 

 

Meet the Swedish Artist Who Hooked British Rock Royalty on Her Revolutionary Crochet

 

 

Down the Rabbit Hole: How One Collector Discovered a World of Cast-Iron Doorstops

 

 

Selling New Zealand: The Railroad Posters That Made a Nation Want To See Their World

 

 

Almost Famous: The Untold Story of an Artist’s Rock-Poster Roots

 

 

Sad Iron Man: A Maine Geologist Wants You To Know How We Used to Press Our Clothes

 

 

When Jagger and Jimi, Pink Floyd and The Cream, Rocked the Rafters at Ricky-Tick

 

 

What’s It Worth? Just Ask Jeff Foxworthy

 

 

Falling in Love Again with the Haunting Sounds of Interwar Polish Tango

 

 

Guac ‘n’ Roll: How a Recycled College Menu Design Became a Classic Led Zeppelin Poster

 

 

From Death Cab to the Grateful Dead, an Artist Reimagines the Classic Rock Poster

 

 

Pointed Pins: How Pundit Jill Wine-Banks Sends Political Messages with Her Brooches

 

 

Let There Be Light: One Artist’s Mission to Resurrect Old World Stained Glass

 

 

Wanna-Beats: In 1959, Café Bizarre Gave Straights an Entree Into Beatnik Culture

 

 

How My Kid Lost a Game of ‘Magic’ to Its Creator But Scored a Piece of Its Original Art

 

 

Wind Power: How the 19th-Century’s Greatest Shipbuilder Opened the Pacific

 

 

Stirred Not Shaken: How Do You End Up With 50,000 Swizzle Sticks?

 

 

How Gorham Wed New Technologies With Classic Craftsmanship to Gild the Gilded Age

 

 

How a Small-Town Navy Vet Created Rock’s Most Iconic Surrealist Posters

 

 

Battle of the Ax Men: Who Really Built the First Electric Rock ‘n’ Roll Guitar?

 

 

Giving Thanks: Jefferson Airplane Guitarist Sheds the Rock-Star Mask to Tell His Truth

 

 

In Disney’s Golden Age, a Modernist Pioneer Designed the Perfect Animator’s Desk

 

 

Was Robin Williams’ Art Collection a Window on His Troubled Mind?

 

 

The Art of “Star Wars”: The Force Behind the Most Iconic Image in the Cinematic Universe

 

 

Paint Pedaler: How a 1980s Michelangelo Found Fame on the Ceilings of Old Victorians

 

 

Hoarders, Hauntings, and Two-Headed Cows: Dealing Dead People’s Things

 

 

The Great Wallpaper Rebellion: Defending Flamboyance in a World of White Walls

 

 

Joking Aside, Rube Goldberg Got Tech Right

 

 

Is This Treasure Trove of Movie Ads From the Heyday of Newspapers Worth $20 Million?

 

 

A Garage Sale Find of Rare Beatles Photos Took a Collector on a Magical Mystery Tour

 

 

When Whimsical Anti-Theft Tea Caddies Protected the World’s Most Precious Leaf

 

 

Collectors Weekly Proudly Joins Barnebys

 

 

Chanukah Americana: One Family’s Search for the Perfect Menorah

 

 

From Folk to Acid Rock, How Marty Balin Launched the San Francisco Music Scene

 

 

Stranger Than Friction: When Matches Were Dangerous, Vestas Kept Us Safe

 

 

Hippies, Guns, and LSD: The San Francisco Rock Band That Was Too Wild For the Sixties

 

 

To Hell With Helvetica: Is an 1874 Type Catalog the World’s Most Beautiful Book?

 

 

What Makes Cartoonist Roz Chast Laugh?

 

 

The Gay Old Days: If You Really Want To See San Francisco’s Future, Go Back to 1957

 

 

Hollywood’s Leading Motorhead: For Steve McQueen, Racing Motorcycles Was No Act

 

 

All the President’s Yachts: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of FDR’s Floating White House

 

 

Victorian Era Drones: How Model Trains Transformed From Cutting-Edge to Quaint

 

 

That Old-Time Hucksterism: The Oddest Doohickeys of Industrial-Age Entrepreneurs

 

 

Driven to Drink: How 1930s Booze Labels Helped Americans Forget Their Troubles

 

 

Behind the Scenes With Janis Joplin and Big Brother, Rehearsing for the Summer of Love

 

 

When the World Truly Stank, Tussie-Mussies Were a Breath of Fresh Air

 

 

Strummin’ on the Old Banjo: How an African Instrument Got a Racist Reinvention

 

 

Music of the Presses: How an L.A. Printer Kept the Art of the Album Cover Alive

 

 

400 Years of Equator Hazings: Surviving the Stinky Wrath of King Neptune’s Court

 

 

Singapore’s Beloved and Creepy Wonderland, Built on the Healing Powers of Tiger Balm

 

 

Lightman Fantastic: This Artist Drenched ’60s Music Lovers in a Psychedelic Dream

 

 

All-Night French Fries with T-Rex: Seattle’s Trippiest Rock-Poster Artist Tells All

 

 

Māori Modernism: The New Zealand Artist Who Put the Islands’ Native People First

 

 

If You’re Too Young to Remember the Magic of Tower Records, Here’s What You Missed

 

 

Go Canada! When Gorgeous Graphic Design Lured the World to the Great White North

 

 

The Mystery of the Phantom Page Turner

 

 

Victorian Secret: Sitting in a Lobster Bustle Skirt Is Easier Than It Looks

 

 

How a ’60s Power Couple Taught Architects and Dancers To Find Their Inner Hippie

 

 

Before Braille Was King, It Had to Win the War of the Dots

 

 

Formula for Beauty: The Geo-Chemistry Behind Rookwood Pottery

 

 

How Linen Postcards Transformed the Depression Era Into a Hyperreal Dreamland

 

 

Zen Nouveau: New Year’s Greetings from Early 20th-Century Japan

 

 

Where the Wild Books Are

 

 

The Forgotten Kingpins Who Conspired to Save California Wine

 

 

Did the CIA’s Experiments With Psychedelic Drugs Unwittingly Create the Grateful Dead?

 

 

You’ve Got Mail Bombs: Tracking Down the Most Dangerous Letters in the World

 

 

Rise of the Synthesizer: How an Electronics Whiz Kid Gave the 1980s Its Signature Sound

 

 

Sixties Nostalgia Burnout: I’m So Sick of Talkin’ ‘Bout My G-G-Generation

 

 

Someday, Robots May Save or Destroy Us All—For Now, They’re Still Kinda Dumb

 

 

Unboxing Modernism: How the Russian Revolution Spurred Mid-Century Design

 

 

Could an Old-School Tube Amp Make the Music You Love Sound Better?

 

 

Life on Pluto, Circa 1959

 

 

Funny Money: When Mangled Coins and Defaced Currency Become Works of Art

 

 

Campy Couture: Barbie’s ’70s Rivals Flaunted the Fashions We’d Love to Forget

 

 

Would You Put a $300,000 Glass Sculpture on the Hood of Your Car?

 

 

From Donation Bin to Sotheby’s: How a Rare 19th-Century Bible Almost Got Away

 

 

The Existential Conundrum That Is the American Waste Paper Basket

 

 

At the First Rock Festival, Pianos Fell From the Sky

 

 

The Dead Files: Rock Art, Artifacts, and Psychedelic Office Supplies Up for Grabs

 

 

Quest for the Pez Holy Grail: International Smuggling Meets Father-Son Bonding

 

 

New Evidence of Ancient Child-Trafficking Network Unearthed in Maya Sacrifice Cave

 

 

Capturing a Generation of Aviation Geniuses and Their Incredible Flying Machines

 

 

Cheap Thrills: The Freakish Fantasy Art of Mexican Pulp Paperbacks

 

 

When Ice Was Hot: A Skater Shares His Lifelong Love for Ice Show Razzle-Dazzle

 

 

Flipping Out Over Handheld Movies

 

 

Fraternizing With the Enemy: The Christmas Truce of 1914

 

 

The Husband-Wife Team Who Made Everyone Want to Chew Gum

 

 

Fun With Guns: The Art of the Arcade Target

 

 

Skateboard Art Helps Kids in Small Texas Town Find Their Inner Weird

 

 

Factory-Fresh 1955 Chevy Nomad Emerges From 40-Year Hibernation

 

 

Was Levon Mosgofian of Tea Lautrec Litho the Most Psychedelic Printer in Rock?

 

 

The Hippie Daredevils Who Were Just Crazy Enough to Invent Mountain Biking

 

 

When Postcards Made Every Town Seem Glamorous, From Asbury Park to Zanesville

 

 

These People Love to Collect Radioactive Glass. Are They Nuts?

 

 

How Railroad Tourism Created the Craze for Traditional Native American Baskets

 

 

Rainy Day Psychedelia: Seattle’s 1960s Poster Scene About to Get Its Day in the Sun

 

 

The Otherworldly Sounds of the Clavioline, From Musical Saw to Wailing Cat

 

 

In Living Color: The Forgotten 19th-Century Photo Technology that Romanticized America

 

 

Stuck on Colorforms, the Two-Dimensional Toy Beloved By Mid-Century Modern Kids

 

 

Irma Harding, the Woman Who Taught Rural Moms to Kick Canning and Start Freezing

 

 

Cartoon Kittens and Big-Eyed Puppies: How We Bought Into Processed Pet Food

 

 

Skeletons in Our Closets: Will the Private Market for Dinosaur Bones Destroy Us All?

 

 

Google Glassholes: High-Tech Visionaries or Fashion Victims?

 

 

Beer Money and Babe Ruth: Why the Yankees Triumphed During Prohibition

 

 

The Government-Surplus Machines That Power a Cutting-Edge Science Museum

 

 

Mysterious Railway Posters Depict the Dreamy Allure of Deco-Era Japan

 

 

Awkward! 28 Cringe-Worthy Vintage Product Endorsements

 

 

Good, Clean Fun: This Rock Star Parties Hard (with Hot Wheels and Wacky Packs)

 

 

Pulling Out All the Stops to Save a 40-Ton, 100-Year-Old World’s Fair Pipe Organ

 

 

Storybook Apocalypse: Beasts, Comets, and Other Signs of the End Times

 

 

Being The Beatles: Untold Stories from the Fab Four’s Legendary North American Tours

 

 

What’s Behind the Widespread Obsession With Rock-Concert Screenprints

 

 

Rise of the Machines: Tractors and the End of Rural America

 

 

Women and Children: The Secret Weapons of World War I Propaganda Posters

 

 

Treats or Tricks? Unfortunate Vintage Candy Wrappers

 

 

The Dawn of DIY: When it Was Hip to Stitch

 

 

Extraordinary Collection of Counterculture Literature Up for Auction

 

 

Will an Inverted Jenny Turn the Stamp World Upside Down Again?

 

 

My Goodness! Guinness Collectors Snap Up Secret Stash of Unpublished Advertising Art

 

 

Dr. Blankenstein, the Mad Scientist of Analog Synthesizers and Atari Punks

 

 

How a Gang of Harmonica Geeks Saved the Soul of the Blues Harp

 

 

Copper Chronicles: How a Shipyard Worker Hammered Artillery Shells into Art

 

 

Trailing Angela Davis, from FBI Flyers to ‘Radical Chic’ Art

 

 

Our Dad, the Water Witch of Wyoming

 

 

The Unfiltered History of Rolling Papers, Plus Tommy Chong’s Big Fat Jamaican Vacation

 

 

Gloriously Grotesque 19th-Century Pipes

 

 

Say Ahhh: An Oral Surgeon’s Quest to Reimagine the Garage-Band Guitar

 

 

Blood, Sweat, and Steel: My Afternoon with the Ace of Swords

 

 

Lucas-Tesla Project to Give Drivers a Charge While They Watch a Movie

 

 

The Mao Mango Cult of 1968 and the Rise of China’s Working Class

 

 

Welcome to the Retro-Futuristic World of Laurent Durieux

 

 

Classic New Year’s Eve Rock Posters

 

 

John Lennon’s Oddly Patronizing Letter to Eric Clapton Up For Auction

 

 

Priceless Tiffany Collection Flees One Earthquake Zone, Lands in Another

 

 

Unraveling the Ancient Riddles of Chinese Jewelry

 

 

The High Price of a Degree in LSD

 

 

The Cold, Hard Truth About Popsicles

 

 

A Quiet Voice in the Noisy World of Rock

 

 

Dawn of the Flick: The Doctors, Physicists, and Mathematicians Who Made the Movies

 

 

Real Hollywood Thriller: Who Stole Jaws?

 

 

Could There Be a Treasure in Your Toilet?

 

 

The VW Bug’s Rare and Quirky Czech Mate

 

 

The Sources of Psychedelic Art? Drugs, But Also Picasso and the Fire-Bombing of Tokyo

 

 

Blueprint for the Occupy Movement? Read the Protest Manifestos of the 1960s

 

 

Who Killed American Kitsch?

 

 

Does Facebook Have a Secret Paper Fetish?

 

 

Rockin’ at the Rollarena, Pre-Summer of Love

 

 

During the Civil War, Some People Got Rich Quick By Minting Their Own Money

 

 

Before Sesame Street and Electric Mayhem, a Crude Kermit Lip Synced Pop Standards

 

 

If ‘Pan Am’ Takes a Nosedive, It Won’t Be For a Lack of Authentic, Vintage Props

 

 

Scopitone: ’60s Music Videos You’ve Never Seen

 

 

Psychedelic Poster Pioneer Wes Wilson on The Beatles, Doors, and Bill Graham

 

 

Barbed Wire, From Cowboy Scourge to Prized Relic of the Old West

 

 

Lucite in the Sky with Diamonds

 

 

Modern Metallics: Monet Costume Jewelry

 

 

Found Photos: When Rock Lost Its Innocence

 

 

1951 Maserati GP, Low Miles, Needs Paint

 

 

Why Would Anyone Collect Nazi?

 

 

Mondo: The Monster of Modern Movie Posters

 

This 1959 Goggomobil Is Insanely Cute and Gets 55 MPG. Why Can’t Detroit Do That?

 

 

The Woman Behind Bettie Page

 

 

Kem Weber: The Mid-Century Modern Designer Who Paved the Way for IKEA

 

 

The Day Johnny Cash Flipped Off Jim Marshall

 

 

The Folklore and Fashion of Japanese Netsuke

 

 

Devils, Doves, and World War I: The Rock-n-Roll Posters of Gary Houston

 

 

American Picker Dream, Part II: Mike Wolfe On Enduros and Land Rockets

 

 

American Picker Dream, Part I: Mike Wolfe On His Love Affair With Bikes

 

 

A Life of Cards, From Bridge to Magic

 

 

The Storybook-Psychedelic Rock Posters of Marq Spusta

 

 

How My Pal Pete Got On Antiques Roadshow