Today while hiking, my friend Erin and I happily encountered a group of folks doing trail maintainace as part of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. This association has very long roots in the region, dating to 1927 when a group of people began with the goals to help build a section of the 2,100-mile A.T. […]
Potomac Appalachian Trail Club Read More »
Knowledge about the existence of hormones was relatively new in the early 1900’s, but scientists were extremely interested in these self-manufactured chemicals that arouse or depress us, that make us grow or sleep or have sex, etc etc etc . . . This early stage of endrocronology was a sort of Wild West, and earnest
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“Lilith” is a sculpture I would pay money to take a pilgrimage to see. Created by artist Kiki Smith in 1994 out of bronze and glass, the statue of Lilith crouches, tense and fierce. Her eyes stare out with a contact that seems physical.The stories of the demon Lilith emerged over hundreds of years, but
The Strong Feminism of Lilith Read More »
Ada Lovelace (d. 1852) lived a supremely Victorian aristocratic life: multiple estates, famous friends, and noble title? :check. Tragic illnesses that caused her to be bedridden and/or die young? : check. Relatives concerned with her propriety despite having an adventurous and spirited personality? : also, check. Called “The Enchantress of Number” by her friend and
Ada Lovelace – “The Enchantress of Numbers” Read More »
A Roman (1st or 2nd c CE) and 12th-century examples of foliage faces that became known as “the Green Man.” For centuries, these carvings existed, adorning buildings, as a man’s face surrounded by leaves, or spewing greenery, or having hair that morphed into plants. But it wasn’t until folklorist Lady Raglan wrote an article that
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In the southeastern part of Pennsylvania, a range of mountains that make up part of the Tuscarora State Forest (see second photo) run in a crescent shape from the nine o’clock to the twelve o’clock position. And running from south to north on the western side of these mountains is route 522, which goes across
The Dark History of the Kittanning Trail Read More »
No, you are not looking at a university student’s blue book . . . But you are seeing a very famous logical proof. This is an image of an early copy of the Medieval philosopher Anselm of Canterbury’s (1033-1109) _Proslogion_, and it used logic to try to prove something unimaginably perfect: the existence of God.His
Anselm of Canterbury’s “Proslogion” Read More »
This is _The New York Times_ 1907 headline that sensationalized a science experiment by a man named Duncan Macdougall. He had decided to run a macabre series of tests to see whether a human soul had weight. Six volunteers close to death agreed to spend their last breaths on a scale in his medical office,
Does A Human Soul Have Weight? Read More »
There is a tradition of misogynist scholarship which traces continuously from Ancient Greece to the early twentieth century. Legal, medical, philosophical, and theological arguements promoted the idea that women were inferior to men, and this was sincerely believed by many educated people. Yet this scholar pictured here — Henricus Cornelius Agrippa (1496-1535) — stood in
Contrasting Opinions of Henricus Cornelius Agrippa Read More »
This cruel object is a Cat-O-Nine-Tails whip, dating from about 1860. Slave owners from the American South used whips like these against the people they had enslaved. Notice the metal spurs at the end of each rope. Millions of people experienced this inhumane treatment, and the “peculiar institution” of slavery of course became a motivating
Cat-O-Nine Tails Whip Read More »
Here you see a physical manifestation of the phrase “bite the bullet.” These two lead bullets came from a hospital serving soldiers wounded in the U.S. Civil War’s famous Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863). In an age preceding anesthetics, patients were told to bite down on these so-called “Hospital” or “Pain Bullets” before surgery was
Biting the Bullet During the Civil War Read More »
In 1862, the port city of Charleston, South Carolina, witnessed one of the most impressive feats in the Civil War. An African-American named Robert Smalls stole an entire ship from the Confederacy and escaped to freedom with his wife, two young children, and several other enslaved people. He did this right under the noses
Robert Smalls and His Escape from the Confederacy Read More »
In the north-central region of Maryland, the Catoctin Park has some of the oldest layers of the earth’s exposed mountains. The Appalachians rose out of a collision between plates in North America and Africa 200 million years ago, and parts of the convergence appear here, where the quartzite rocks you see are part of a
Maryland’s Catoctin Park and the Convergence Read More »
Scientists are enabling us to save lives and hopefully prevent disaster in this COVID-19 pandemic — and coming up with big solutions to health problems is one of the main reasons their profession is so valuable. But for me there is another equally praiseworthy aspect: their contributions to unveiling the forces that shape our universe.
The First-Lady of Physics – Chien-Shiung Wu Read More »
The Darlington Hiking Trail in south-central Pennsylvania runs over a seven-mile trajectory going east-west from the Susquehanna River to the Appalachian Trail, where the path turns into the Tuscarora Trail. The Darlington path actually predates the Appalachian Trail, having its origins from 1908, when people who began the Pennsylvania Alpine Club (such as the famed
South-Central Pennsylvania’s Darlington Hiking Trail Read More »
The area comprising Pine Grove Furnace, near where this photo was taken, was practically clearcut in the 19th century as the lucrative iron works industry increased its influence. Many of the waterways were also harnessed in service to the area’s iron forges. In 1912 and 1913, the South Mountain Mining & Iron Company sold thousands
The Reforestation of Pine Grove Furnace Read More »
This might be a photo that repells at first glance — the hospital ward has long rows of undifferentiated beds, and they are surrounded by brick dehumanizing walls. In the final years of the Second World War, this ward in the hospital of Fatebenefratelli contained men, women, and children who were diagnosed with a disease
World War II and Syndrome K Read More »
This detail of Auguste Rodin’s masterpiece, _The Burghers of Calais_ (1884-89) evokes a moment of despondency and sacrifice that took place in the Hundred Year’s War between France and England in the Late Middle Ages. The story ultimately has a happy ending, but nowhere is this foreshadowed in Rodin’s work.In 1346, the French town of
Wealthy Calais Classes Sacrifice for the Less Powerful Read More »
These images are from the northern terminus of the Tuscarora Trail, a 252-mile path from south-central Pennsylvania to the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. In the 1960s, the security of the Appalachian Trail was jeopardized by commercial land owners. Future-minded members of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy began work on the Tuscarora Trail as a potential
South-Central Pennsylvania’s Tuscarora Trail Read More »
In south-central Pennsylvania’s Pine Grove Furnace State Park lie the ruins of one of three secret interrogation camps in the continental United States for prisoners of World War II. You are looking on the first slide at the remains of a large mess hall. Camp Michaux was originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the
Camp Michaux at Pine Grove State Furnace Park Read More »
