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Read 5 hours ago and current, but nothing has been published for 19 months.
“How can we draw the line and say at what precise point (treachery begins)… when the treachery is in progress of execution, or.. when the mind is still wavering upon it? In short, how loose and slippery becomes the ground ... if ... we stray forth in quest of secret motives and designs.” - Lord Mahon, History of England, 1854 Perhaps the most infamous story to arise out of the American Revolution…
by Jeff Williamson Washington Irving (1783-1859) first visited Tarrytown in 1798 to escape an outbreak of yellow fever around his home in New York City. The area was rife with folk tales, inhabited as it was already for two centuries by Dutch colonists, and for generations before that by Native Americans who had their own stories of the supernatural. Even during the Revolutionary War, tales of…
by: Thomas Apel In 1948, in the basement of McCosh Hall at Princeton University, carpenters discovered a dusty old shipping crate containing a curious and largely forgotten machine. Unsure of what it was, much less how it worked, the university took the tangled mass of gears, shafts, and springs to astronomy professor Newton Pierce. Recognizing the object, Pierce declared that it was the…
Since the dawn of written record and philosophy, mankind has been looking up into the sky. From tales of Icarus who flew too close to the sun to Leonardo DaVinci who designed flying machines in hopes of leaving the ground, people have always wondered what secrets lay above us. In seeking a new vantagepoint, scientists and physicists alike searched for the answer for hundreds of years. Today we…
Trading wine between “Old World” and “New World” regions was especially crucial to the beginning of winemaking in America. Early settlers discovered that America’s vast landscape with a variety of climates produced many types of grapes. The grapes native to the original thirteen colonies were much different from the grapes that settlers were used to tasting in their wines; American grapes usually…
The violin is widely considered to be a beautifully expressive instrument. It is indeed a mode of expression for just about every emotion on the human spectrum for modern audiences. Along with its great beauty, the violin has much history to share with respect to American history. It tells the story of various cultures who made their home in the colonies, of political unrest, and of revolution.…
S ince the first European settlers reached Jamestown and Plymouth Rock, we have been a nation of drinkers. Libations have played an integral role in our national identity and have played a significant role in many of the most notable events in our nation’s history. The early settlers brought their preferred hooch from the mother country, enjoying Caribbean Rum, beer, and hard ciders. As the United…
By: Daniel Geyer The defeat of General Edward Braddock, along with his British and Colonial army, in July of 1755 against the French and Indians on a small field along the Monongahela River, left a vacuum to which the frontier became a hostile place to live. Raiding parties took full advantage of the retreating British regular and colonial soldiers, attacking settlers, villages and communities all…
By Angelia Cline President George Washington was once a general, and in depicted portraits, one can almost always find William Lee nearby holding Washington's field spyglass. Art is a visual placeholder for the values of a place and time, and that Washington had his loyal personal valet attending to his prized military equipment reveals much about the item's significance. The ancient Greek…
While keeping native birds as pets is now illegal in the United States, by the 19th century birds had become the country’s most popular indoor house pets after their introduction by colonists. Amongst the most sought after was the common canary, followed by the American goldfinch and mockingbird. The history of the domestic songbird in colonial America offers a window into localized aims and…
