Smelling the Past

Despite its primacy in our lives, our sense of smell is often overlooked when we record our history. We tend to connect with the past visually  and sometimes auditorily. Technology is making it possible, and historians, scientists, and perfumers are now taking the idea of smells as historical artifacts more seriously.  Their efforts have already made it possible to smell fragrances worn a century ago, to re-create the smell of a rare flower even if it goes extinct, and to better understand the smells that ancient cultures appreciated or detested.  (ripped off from Courtney Humphries' article, Whiff of History in Boston.com).

My History Grad School Advisor says I'm a real  prodigy in stink.