One of the postcards in this meticulously researched book shows a streetcar riot in Muskegon, Michigan on August 5, 1919, where some of the streetcars are overturned. The postcard’s message reads, “Had a serious riot here Tues. eve -... Read More

The Jersey Shore has had the worst shipwreck record of any coastal region between Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras. According to the author, if all the remains of vessels embedded in the sands from Sandy Hook to Brigantine were laid end to... Read More

There is no record of where or when the first boat was built, according to the author. That question is somewhat irrelevant anyway, he points out, since different people in different places gradually developed watercraft, using trees,... Read More

Most plants thrive in soil that is rich in humus—decaying organic matter—because humus holds moisture and provides nutrients to plants. According to the authors of "The Complete Compost Gardening Guide", the best way to give plants... Read More

During the last week of May 1939, the Cuban government refused to grant entry to 937 Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler’s Germany. They were passengers aboard the Hamburg—America Line’s St. Louis. This was three months before the Nazi... Read More

Most early governors stayed in boarding houses or hotels, according to the author. In 1840, Illinois State Representative Abraham Lincoln introduced legislation to appropriate money for a residence for the governor, but the bill didn’t... Read More

In this memoir of her extended family of Sephardic Jews, the author asks her father, Jacob, “What is your mother tongue?” He replies: “At home, it was Judeo-Spanish; in the street with my buddies, Greek and Armenian; with the... Read More

A family-parents, five sons, and three daughters-poses in their Sunday clothes on the porch steps of their brick home in the early 1900s. This engaging stereograph, from the Indiana Historical Society, evokes an era when the front porch... Read More