Clips

The Magazine Antiques

Pippa Biddle created the Object Lesson feature for the Magazine Antiques and has co-written it with her husband, Benjamin Davidson, since 2019. It is published in each print issue. The most recent Object Lesson is below, with an archive further down:

A Stitch from Time Past: On Collection Antique Sewing Boxes
The Magazine Antiques; March/April 2024 Issue
As the ladies gather around the fireplace, they settle into seat cushions. Out come needles, thread, yarn, fabrics. One woman continues work on a baby sweater, another tools a decorative stitch on a pillow. 

Featured Pieces

A Life of Her Own
Maine Magazine; October 2019 Issue
Barbara Beebe warns guests not to use the outhouse at night because the path curves past the local porcupines’ favorite milkweed spot—the meadowed clearing that extends downhill from her front door—and they aren’t fans of intruders during their nightly feasts. (Read as published in print.)

Finishing the Adirondack 46ers: A Hiker Reflects On Pausing At Number 42
AMC Outdoors; Spring 2019 Issue
I’ve long been haunted by the dream of a girl who could shrink mountains down to the size of her palm, slip them into her pockets, and carry them with her wherever she went. (Read as published in print.

Voluntourism: Blame it on the Victorians
Alto Global Consulting; August 29, 2018
The spring break trip to build houses in Guatemala that your sister took when she was in high school may not have been available 30 years ago, but voluntourism’s roots go back to long before the ecotourism boom of the 90s or even the commercial air travel revolution that followed World War II.

A Father-Daughter Hike in Search of Common Ground
AMC Outdoors; Spring Issue 2018
Places, I’m learning, can be passed down like a genetic trait. They can be traced and tracked, forging a heredity path. The thread that binds your life to a place is spun not from happenstance but from circumstance and story. (read as published in print)

Fire Escapes Are Evocative, But Mostly Useless 
The Atlantic; February 25, 2018
In the 19th century, fire escapes saved tenement-dwellers from peril. Today they are more likely to cause harm than to prevent it.

By the Horns
Guernica; August 28, 2017
The costs of doing business in Interior, South Dakota, population: 94. 


Selected Clips

A chronological list of all of my pieces for publications including The Atlantic, Wired, BBC Travel, Refinery29, Guernica, Nylon, Greatist, GirlBoss, and more is available here. For selected pieces categorized by subject, please see below: 

Object Lesson columns for The Magazine Antiques

Gallic Bred: The Work of Léon Marcotte
The Magazine Antiques; January/February 2024 Issue
Now nearly forgotten, New York Furniture Maker and French Expatriate Léon Marcotte was the toast of tycoons in the Gilded Age. 

Lights from the Dark Ages: The Lüsterweibchen
The Magazine Antiques; November/December 2023 Issue
All about the world’s weirdest chandeliers 

Keeping Time with the Willards
Magazine Antiques; September/October 2023
Keynotes on a classic nineteenth-century American clock 

A Blueprint for Early America
Magazine Antiques; July/August 2023

One Simple Trick: On the Enduring Appeal of Puzzle Jugs
Magazine Antiques; May/June 2023

Everyday Silver and the Triumph of Queen Anne
Magazine Antiques; March/April 2023
Queen Anne’s popularity increased as part of the late nineteenth-century interest in revival styles, and has held out ever since.

Emotion on the Auction Block: The Didion Auction 
Magazine Antiques; January/February 2023
In a world where the digital is regnant and kids no longer even learn cursive writing, what is a bunch of blank notebooks worth? 

Ozark Roadside Tourist Pottery: The Legend of Harold Horine
Magazine Antiques; November/December 2022
The road lay open before them, a black, sun-baked line cut into the landscape of the Dust Bowl.

Object Lesson: The Life of the Game
Magazine Antiques; September/October 2022
Game boards are both form and function. 

Object Lesson: The Once and Future Couch
Magazine Antiques; July/August 2022
Four generations on, the furniture-making Eilersen family continues to strive for improvement.

Object Lesson: The Living End
Magazine Antiques; May/Jun 2022
George Nakashima and the legacy of “live-edge” furniture

Object Lesson: Ships of Bone and Hair
Magazine Antiques; Mar/Apr 2022
The art of Napoleonic prisoners of war

Object Lesson: Looking at the Past through a Lens of Antique Glass
Magazine Antiques; Jan/Feb 2022 Centennial Issue
Building a museum of where we’ve been, and where we are. 

Object Lesson: Blue Plate Special 
Magazine Antiques; Nov/Dec 2021 Issue
How Spode Willow Pattern China Became an Enduring Touchstone in the Decorative Arts

Object Lesson: The Revisionist Prints of William Baillie 
Magazine Antiques; Sep/Oct 2021 Issue
How not to copy a Rembrandt. 

Object Lesson: The Warp, Weft, What, and Why of Navajo Weavings 
Magazine Antiques; Jul/Aug 2021 Issue
Today, Navajo weavings, whether in private hands or public collections, offer those who view them a complex framework for building and understanding of what happens when culture and peoples mix together and pull apart. 

Object Lesson: Pennsylvania Spice Boxes…or are they Chests?…or Cabinets? 
Magazine Antiques; May/Jun 2021 Issue
When we first started digging into the history of these little cabinets, there were many points everyone could agree on. But it soon became clear that there are many ‘facts’ about the boxes on which no one seems to agree.

Object Lesson: Henry Chapman Mercer and His Moravian Pottery
Magazine Antiques; March/April 2021 Issue
It was around 9:30 on the evening of June 24, 1910, when the flames were first spotted. 

Object Lesson: Decor to Go, a Primer on Campaign Furniture
Magazine Antiques; January/February 2021 Issue
“If it’s survived a war,” Sean Clarke says, “hopefully it’ll survive a fifteen-year-old boy.”

Object Lesson: Norton Pottery of Vermont
Magazine Antiques; November/December 2020 Issue
By the time John Hilfinger was following this circuit in the middle of the nineteenth century, something was changing in the pottery business. 

Object Lesson: The Sculpture of Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller
Magazine Antiques; September/October 2020 Issue
They called her the “sculptor of horrors.” (As published online…See further down this page for additional Object Lesson columns)

Object Lesson: The Work of Lucy M. Lewis, Acoma Pueblo Potter
Magazine Antiques; July/August 2020 Issue
We found the pot near the bottom of a box at the back of our second storage unit in an industrial area of Kingston, New York.

Object Lesson: All About the Windsor Chair 
Magazine Antiques; May/June 2020 Issue
The work begins with the riving of logs. 

Object Lesson: Eero Saarinen in Four Chairs
Magazine Antiques; March/April 2020 Issue
Those who see in black and white would likely emphasize one of Eero Saarinen’s chairs for Kingswood and disregard the other as a misstep. 

Object Lesson: Rose Valley Furniture
Magazine Antiques; January/February 2020 Issue
From 1901 to 1906, a small furniture shop in Rose Valley, Pennsylvania produced a trickle of pieces that looked back, looked forward, and yet were entirely of their time. 

Object Lesson: Taghkanic Baskets
Magazine Antiques; November/December 2019 Issue
A classic example of regional folk craft, Taghkanic baskets have been woven in a small corner of the Hudson River valley since the mid-eighteenth century. 

Reporting and Deep Dives

Why It’s Better to Carry Weight on Your Head
The Atlantic; August 18, 2017
People have done it for centuries. Maybe everyone still should. An Object Lesson.

AI is Making it Extremely Easy for Students to Cheat
Wired (Backchannel); July 5, 2017
An examination of changing classroom dynamics due to the use of AI tools like Wolfram|Alpha published by Backchannel, Wired’s weekly digital magazine. Reporting was later featured in a CBS segment

The ugly story behind a breakfast meat
BBC Travel; June 1, 2017
Salami is undoubtedly the Dominican Republic’s reigning breakfast meat, but the story of how it got there is an almost-forgotten tale of two dictatorships, racism, WWII, and a small community of Jewish refugees intent on rebuilding their lives. 
*This piece is also available in Spanish, translation courtesy of BBC Mundo.

The Branding Of Danger
The Dispatch; April 2018 issue
In an era of helicopter parenting, each action feels like protection, but it’s smothering and isolating in aggregate.

Welcome to the Jungle – disconnecting, reconnecting, and nature deficit disorder
The Dispatch; February 2018 Issue
Today, we spend more time fiddling with technology than we do with our feet in the grass. 

How (some) US companies are competing for talent with paid family leave
Impact Alpha; February 6, 2018
More companies, looking to retain talent and meet employee expectations, are offering paid leave and perks. 

The Science Behind Acupuncture – and Why It Really Works
Greatist; September 12, 2017
For a long time, acupuncture was the weird thing mainstream medicine gave the side-eye, but the deep study of why it works and where it works best has forged a link between the traditional practice and contemporary medical understanding. 

Profiles  

Social Register Icon and Silent Star Still Speaking
The Social Register Observer; Winter 2018 (Print)
The life of Colleen Moore, the World’s Most Famous Flapper

The Real Jane of the Jungle
The Social Register Observer; Winter 2017 (Print)
An intimate portrait of iconic scientist and activist Dr. Jane Goodall.

Slvt Cult Makes Shocking Feminist Art Designed to Grab Attention
Nylon; November 13, 2017
Artists Kate Warren and Maggie Famiglietti create unapologetic art that refuses to be silenced.

The Argentinian Artist Using Tiny Objects To Make Big Political Statements
GirlBoss; August 31, 2017
Elisa Insua is a popular artist of the Instagram age, so why is she moving across the world and leaving her art supplies behind?

“We’re All Narcissists”: How Singer Duendita is Changing the Definition of Beauty
GirlBoss; May 30, 2017
Singer duendita talks about her Queens roots, her soulful sound, and how she’s ready to flip her blessings.  

As An 11-Year-Old, Alexandra Nechita Sold Paintings for $100,000. Here’s What She’s Doing 20 Years Later.
GirlBoss; May 15, 2017
From child prodigy to mom, artist Alexandra Nechita shares what it’s like to pursue longevity when everyone is waiting for you to crash and burn.

Travel and the Outdoors

Behind the Book: Ours to Explore
University of Nebraska Press Spring 2021 E-Newsletter, Spring 2021

How to Build Peace by Providing Meaningful Travel Experiences
Go Overseas; September 20, 2017

When Heroes Become Human: Sitting Alongside Emilie Drinkwater
Altitude Seven; July 1, 2017

The Voluntourist’s Dilemma
Go Overseas; February 22, 2016
A 3-part series digging into voluntourism.

Find Real Ways to Help
The New York Times; April 29, 2014

Orphanage Volunteering’s Shocking Link to Child Abuse
The Huffington Post and Catalyst; various dates in 2016 and 2017
This piece was part of a campaign to end orphanage volunteering organized by the Better Volunteering, Better Care Initiative.

Little White Girls Aren’t the Problem with Voluntourism, Privilege is. 
Self-published October 28, 2014, republished by Catalyst May 24, 2017

The Fish with the Earring: Interloping on a Vodou Ceremony in Haiti 
Self-published; November 24, 2015

The Problem with Little White Girls (and Boys): Why I Stopped Being a Voluntourist
republished by dozens of publications including The Huffington Post, Those People, Catalyst, and more; February 2014

To license articles for republication in any format, please email pippa@pippabiddle.com.