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Lord Acton wrote that Lafayette taught his compatriots the American "theory of revolution, not their theory of government - their cutting, not their sewing." Gouverneur Morris told George Washington that…
From Oct. 9, 2015 through February 21, 2016, the New-York Historical Society ran an exhibition on superheroes of Gotham. I didn't even realize it was there, which is a nasty thing that happens…
When I think of 19th-century industry, I think of Vanderbilt's railroads ... And Holley's steel mills ... And Thomas Price's lab. According to the MMA's site, the subject of this…
I'm immersed in Robert Harris's Dictator, the third in his trilogy on Cicero. Spoiler: people die, by the thousands. The Roman Republic did not go gentle into that good night. But Harris,…
John Laurens didn't live to see the end of the American Revolution. He died at age 27, killed by the British ten months after Yorktown - which was only recognized in…
Airplanes came into wide use during World War I, and so did aerial photography for reconnaissance. After the war, Sherman Fairchild (1896-1971) founded the Fairchild Aerial Camera Corporation. One of its earliest…
Advertising is the life of trade. —Calvin Coolidge Advertising is “the lubricant for the free-enterprise system.” —Leo-Arthur Kelmenson (1976) Advertising is the poetry of Capitalism. —Michael Maynard, Chair of the Department of…
The earliest surviving letter by Hamilton is dated November 11, 1769. It was written by 12-year-old Alexander, who had lost his mother a year earlier, to his friend (half-brother?) Edward Stevens, who…
You could pass the small bronze Stead Memorial without noticing it, but the man it commemorates was much more aggressive about getting attention. Stead on the glories of the future ...…
When the Organ Rehearsal was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1885, a dealer offered to purchase it on condition that Lerolle cut it in half, discarding the part "where there is…
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