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Seeing reliefs of trophies at the Pergamon exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art reminded me that I'd written an essay on trophies back in 2007. While writing an essay…
By 1774, 45-year-old Reverend Samuel Seabury (1729-1796) was a veteran of verbal combat. Assigned to a church in New Jersey from 1754 to 1757, he became embroiled in the debate over…
February 2016 Gore Vidal, Burr: A Novel. Read it for the second in my series of posts on Hamilton: An American Musical. Vidal is a great storyteller, and who tells your story really…
New York is the greatest city in the world: no argument from me about that. But greatness has to start somewhere ... Here's the Dutch settlement at the southern end of…
Sculpting the Sherman Monument Augustus Saint Gaudens, recognized since his Farragut, 1880, as one of America's most skilled and innovative sculptors, was already ill in 1891, when he accepted the commission for an equestrian…
On the goal of advertising Advertising says to people, “Here’s what we've got. Here’s what it will do for you. Here’s how to get it.” —Leo Burnett So Kennedy said to…
In 1776, the "old money" families in New York - the ones that had been around in Dutch times and had continued to thrive for a century under the British -…
If I had a list of ten favorite portraits, this would be on it, and near the top. First of all, the subject looks intelligent and dignified; but that's the…
Did you ever wonder why the Tappan Zee Bridge was built at the Hudson River's widest point? To be as close to New York City as possible, without being within 25 miles…
The pamphlet Common Sense, which Angelica mentions in "The Schuyler Sisters," was published anonymously in Philadelphia, on January 10, 1776. Within a few months, British expatriate Thomas Paine was known to be…
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