Today Gabby and I got to visit the formerly secret bunker under the famous resort of Greenbrier, West Virginia! The 11,000 acres of this elite hotel/spa/golf course/plastic surgery/horseback riding (etc) resort was also a hidden cover for a nuclear fallout shelter designed to hold 1,000 members of Congress and their staff in case Washington DC […]
The Greenbriar Bunker Read More »
So much of the preserved natural beauty of the U.S. can be traced back to the FDR Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, and this remote jewel of state park is another example. The Greenbrier State Forest is over 5,000 acres in southeastern West Virginia. Straddling lands to either side of Kate’s Mountain (so named for a
The Greenbriar State Forest Read More »
You are looking at a Colonial American recipe for abortion. Published in 1748, it was not the only at-home herbal abortifacient of the time, but it was one of the most well read. And given the publisher, that makes sense — it was Ben Franklin. Eager to adapt a British guidebook that had set out
A Colonial Recipe for Abortion Read More »
Winterthur is a jewel of an estate located in northern Delaware; it is the ancestral home of the du Pont family, one of the wealthiest in American history. Although its museum and library are famous for their collection of Americana, it was the gardens that Henry Francis du Pont most cared about on that property.
The Winterthur Gardens Read More »
This is George H.W. Bush, U.S. president from 1989-1993, and in 1995 he publically revoked his membership from the N.R.A., stating that the group “deeply offends my own sense of decency and honor; and it offends my concept of service to my country. I resign as a lifetime member of the N.R.A.”. Context is relevant
George H. W. Bush and the NRA Read More »
In my home state of Pennsylvania, now is the season of the Mountain Laurel blooms. This shrub (Latin name “Kalmia latifolia”) grows indigenously all along the eastern seaboard from southern Maine to northern Florida, and was used by Native Americans — the wood was good for carving into digging utensils, earning the plant the moniker
This collage shows different angles of one of Washington DC’s lesser-known architectural wonders. The Heurich House, aka the “Brewmaster’s Castle,” is located in DC’s trendy Dupont Circle neighborhood. Built between 1892-1894 for the German immigrant Christian Heurich and his wife Mathilde, the Heurich House is a terrific example of Richardsonian Romanesque, one of my favorite
The Heurich House of Washington DC Read More »
The lovely architecture of Washington DC abounds in neoclassical design, echoing Ancient Greek and Roman styles that were popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Many of these buildings, as well as the avenues and roads that connect them, were largely from the imagination of Pierre Charles L’Enfant, a French volunteer for the
Pierre Charles L’Enfant and Washington DC Read More »
Are you from the US and fancy a trip to Europe — but don’t quite have the funding? Just north of Philadelphia is a small district called Bryn Athyn, which has . . . A Medieval mansion and cathedral. Or, almost. Glencairn Museum falls into the category of “unique homes of the wealthiest business tycoons
The Glencairn Museum Read More »
Today my daughter and I got to visit VAMPA, a paranormal museum in Doylestown PA! The very recently constructed museum was a sensory adventure. Starting with the garage-sale garden exterior, which sprawled with iron gazebos, plastic near-life sized dinosaurs (only some of which were broken), and lots of pseudo-Greek statuary, visitors wind their way to
VAMPA Museum, Doylestown, PA Read More »
My vote for the uttermost macabre U.S. state motto goes to Maryland. It comes from the original seal of the state dating to the early 1600s, which bears the words running across the horizontal banner below the two male figures, stating “FATTI MASCHII PAROLE FEMINE,” and we’re just gonna need a minute to process this.
Maryland’s State Motto Read More »
In the United States today, we are celebrating a relatively new federal holiday: Juneteenth. Meant to mark the emancipation of US slaves, Juneteenth celebrations extend on the state level back to 1865, when the Union formally ended slavery in Texas — from there, other states with communities of African Americans began to acknowledge the day.
Juneteenth and the Mascogos Read More »
Here’s the first automated game ever made: the Nimatron. Making its first appearance at the 1940 New York World’s Fair, it pitted a human against a machine which made perfect moves. The _New York Times_ wrote about the “new electric robot 8 feet tall”, that it would “play a variation of an old Chinese game
Birthday celebrations in history have differed across the globe, and historically an annual ritual to recognize the anniversary of a completed lap around the sun wasn’t the norm for most people. In the United States it was the advent of Industrialization — between 1860 and 1880 — that common people began to regularly acknowledge birthdays.
It’s an old photo, but with a squint this looks like a fishing village from the mid-20th century. And that’s exactly what Camp Hero was designed to fool the viewer into thinking it was. But in fact, this settlement of quaint-looking wooden clapboard buildings was a secret military base known as Montauk Air Force Station,
Camp Hero/Montauk Air Force Station Read More »
Tucked away in an incongruous green space close to a busy thoroughfare in Mechanicsburg Pennsylvania is Lincoln Cemetery, the final internment for tens upon tens of African Americans, buried here at a time when racial segregation was still legal in this country. Although the earliest tombstone dates to 1862, there is speculation that there were
Lincoln Cemetery in Mechanicsburg Read More »
Here are scenes from the High Line of New York City, considered one of Manhattan’s most popular attractions. It isn’t that old: a group called Friends of the High Line formed in 1999 to create the public park, and they attracted enough wealthy donors to create and open it by 2009. The High Line is
The New York City Highline Read More »
Just to the west of Las Cruces New Mexico, along the I10, is this ginormous statue of a roadrunner. It is built out of completely found materials — stuff like shoes, cell phones, old wire, crutches, headlights, and old toys. Artist Olin Calk created the recycled bird in 1993 to examine “consumption, recycling, and just
Roadside Roadrunner Attraction Read More »
The Franklin Mountains have seen human activity since at least 12,000 years ago, but their name came from a much more recent source, when a rancher named Benjamin Franklin Coons settled in El Paso in 1849 — he was such a heavyweight in the region that locals used to call the city “Franklin” in the
Franklin Mountain State Park Read More »
Here are photos of a sculpture and the cultural museum outside the Mescalero Apache Tribe on the Mescalero reservation near Tularosa, New Mexico. Ulysses S. Grant formally created the Mescalero reservation, comprising almost half a million acres in 1873, and today three sub-tribes of Apaches live there. The Lipan Apache at the reservation arrived in
Mescalero Apache Tribe Read More »
