Sarah Laskow's User Profile - Atlas Obscura

Sarah Laskow

Former Atlas Obscura staff writer

2015
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Everything You've Heard About Chastity Belts Is a Lie

Including their very existence.

Sloths: Cute or Disgusting?

There are strong arguments both ways.

children's literature

Found: An Unpublished Manuscript by Maurice Sendak

The illustrations and text were hiding in his files.

Found: Three Cases of Madeira Bought for John Adams’ Presidency

The wine still tastes pretty decent.

A New Map Tracks the Life of San Francisco's Emperor Norton

Walking tour, anyone?

The Hidden Rules of the Puritan Fashion Police

Slashed sleeves, frizzed hair, or a gold hatband could land you in court.

Found: A Purse Hidden in the Library Walls Since 1966

A dentist's reservation card was one of the best clues inside.

Found: A Buried Bomb That Was Actually a Hip ‘80s Time Capsule

It looks a lot like a bomb.

These Hand-Drawn Maps Helped Create 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Books

Author Jay Leibold shares the branching maps he created while writing his first CYOA stories.

Found: 5,000-Year-Old Skeletons of Very Tall People in China

They were giants for their time.

founding fathers

Found: The Remains of Sally Hemings' Small Room at Monticello

It was right near Thomas Jefferson's bedroom.

Found: Surprise Time Capsule Hiding in the Walls of a High School Gym

It was almost destroyed along with the building.

What Happens When the Growing Rift in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Finally Breaks?

A new, giant iceberg could be born any day now.

Found: A Hidden Stone Square Inside the World’s Largest Megalithic Stone Circles

The monument at Avebury still has secrets to be uncovered.

Found: A Bottle of Whisky Hidden in a Ship’s Mast

It spent 35 years at sea.

Britain's Futile Attempt to Keep American Colonists From Taking Tribal Land

British surveyors and Native American leaders drew a border along the Appalachians. Then the Revolutionary War happened.

Found: A Giant, 20-Pound Lobster on a Journey

The TSA screened this surprisingly large specimen.

I Can't Believe It's Butter That Was Buried in a Bog!

Following an ancient Irish practice, one man made his own bog butter.

Even in the 1700s, Book Clubs Were Really About Drinking and Socializing

And "a considerable element of boisterous good humor."

Found: A Remarkable Trove of Medieval Pottery

Thousands of pieces of pottery were hiding under one town's Memorial Hall.

How to Make Sense of a Mass Grave

A fascinating case study from the Thirty Years' War.

Found: A Viking Toilet, the Oldest Bathroom in Denmark

This new discovery goes against previous ideas of Viking bathroom culture.

Found: An Abandoned Air Raid Shelter Hidden Beneath the Brush

The site where it was found is said to be haunted, too.

How a Soviet Circus Clown Tried to Prove That Dogs Can Be Psychic

In the 1920s, USSR scientists investigated “biological radio communications,” more popularly known as telepathy.