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...

The “Penman of the Revolution” and an Empty Chair

      It was warm and humid with intermittent showers as delegates to the Second Continental Congress took their seats in the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House. Thomas Jefferson, who kept a daily record of the weather, had submitted to Congress several...

The Adams – A Marriage for the Ages

           When John Adams first met Abigail Smith, he wasn’t impressed. She was only fifteen years old, and he was eight years her senior. Besides, John had an interest in Hannah Quincy, about whom he wrote in his earliest diary, “That face, those eyes.” About...

Traveling With the Declaration

           In mid-August 1814, Secretary of State James Monroe, accompanied by a group of twenty-five cavalry men set out to assess whether British troops might attack the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. France and Britain were already at war when the United States...

An Old Manchester Suit

        During a time when the form of dress signaled wealth, linage and sophistication, gentlemen of status typically wore a three-piece ensemble consisting of a long fitted coat, waistcoat, and knee-breeches, crafted from fine wool, velvet, silk brocades or...