Common Bonds of History and Lessons Learned

  Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip – Balcony of the Old State House, Boston, 1776        On July 18, 1776, exactly two weeks after the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, Colonel Thomas Crafts stepped out onto the second-floor...

The Octogenarian Who Charged Into History

          Writing to newspaperman and publisher Hezekiah Niles in February 1818, former President John Adams asked and responded to his own question. “What do we mean by the American Revolution?” he asked. “Do we mean the American War? The Revolution was effected...

The Ideal v. the Real

        USA250-OC has taken as its basic philosophy a simple but profound observation – that America is the perfect idea: the United States of America is a work in progress. It pits the ideal against the real; principles against human action; the perfect against...

The Man Who Knew Too Much

          In July 1815, former President John Adams wrote a letter to his successor, Thomas Jefferson. They had been close allies in the rebellion against Great Britain decades earlier and members of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence....

Paul Revere’s Mileage

          Embedded in our collective memories are certain scenes of our country’s past. Benjamin Franklin capturing electricity with a kite and a key. Patriots disguised as Native Americans tossing tea overboard at the Boston Tea Party.  George Washington crossing the...

A Buried Museum: The Time Capsule of 1795

          Time capsules haven’t been around that long, the earliest known found in Poland, dating to about 1721. Today it is estimated that there are between 10,000 and 15,000 time capsules around the world, each facing two existential issues: preserving their...