"Why are there so many 17th century paintings of monkeys getting drunk?" If your curiosity is piqued by this question, Res Obscura is a blog for you. Authored by Benjamin Breen, assistant professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Res Obscura features long-form essays on various strange fads, controversies, and practices throughout history. Each essay is accompanied by a number of digitized primary sources. For example, the essay about seventeenth century paintings mentioned above features 10 pieces of artwork, many of which involve monkeys consuming alcohol. Other recent essays include an investigation of the 1674 Women's Petition Against Coffee in London and an examination of early modern handwriting and typeface. Breen currently publishes a new essay about once a month, and visitors can check out past essays by a number of subject tags.