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Even in an era when scientific discoveries were being made with astonishing rapidity, man's first piloted flight in 1783 ranked as an awe-inspiring event. The Montgolfier brothers began experimenting with…
My favorite short story by Dorothy Canfield Fisher is "The Washed Window," which centers on Booker T. Washington. Fisher's story was published in 1955, forty years after Washington's death. I…
Thomas Ball, Daniel Webster, dedicated 1876. Central Park near the West 72nd Street entrance. Photo copyright © 2017 Dianne L. Durante Fame ... The national reputation of “the god-like Daniel”…
The purpose of the liberal arts: clarification In my post on Grammar, I stated that the liberal arts were originally intended to provide the knowledge that a person needed to…
In late May, I posted on the sculpture of Clarence Darrow that was being designed to stand in front of the courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee, where the Scopes trial was…
When I started reading about Laurent de La Hyre's Allegory of Grammar (more on that painting below), I was shocked to discover that I had earned a Bachelor of Arts degree without…
On June 24, 1826, eighty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson responded to Thomas Weightman's invitation to attend the celebration in Washington, D.C., of the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This is…
There's a joke that all the famous paintings whose location you can't remember are in the Museo di Capodimonte, a palace built in 1738 atop a hill in Naples. Among many…
On July 14, 2017, a sculpture of Clarence Darrow will be dedicated on the lawn of the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee. It will join a sculpture of William Jennings…
First in a series; second is here, third is here. In 1898, Andrew Haswell Green was proclaimed "Father of Greater New York" for his efforts to see Manhattan consolidated with…
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