Extra Credit: Holiday Grab Bag Edition

Hi everyone, and welcome to the November/December edition of Extra Credit!

So much has happened since the last Extra Credit was published, and—though I’d love to be on a more regular publishing schedule for this newsletter—this means that I’ve had a lot of time to collect interesting topics to share with you guys.

Consider this a sort of holiday grab-bag and I your weird history-obsessed Santa Claus. After all, what better time to dive into the abyss of historical obscurities than the liminal space between Christmas and New Years? I, for one, hardly remember what day it is, but I can definitely tell you all about the time President Garfield’s assassin got mixed up in a religious sex cult.

So, without further ado, let’s begin our descent into niche-history miscellany.

Outside my windows, snow is falling, and inside my home, the floors are coated in a less-charming coat of drywall dust. I’ve always said that there’s no better time to remodel your home than during the chaos of the holiday season, and so here we are, re-doing the upstairs bathroom as we close out 2025.

My search for design inspiration led me to a 1957 catalogue by American Standard, in which Lee Childress of Interior Design Originals laid out several gorgeous color schemes for the modern midcentury bathroom, in all their textured, metallic, and candy-colored glory.

Ready to build six more bathrooms just to fulfill my pastel plumbing fixture dreams, I posted the images to Notes. So many shared my fascination, but one comment—from Allison, seen below—had me thinking a little deeper. Who was Lee Childress, and where could I find more of their work?