When Pierre S. du Pont bought the deteriorated Longwood Gardens in 1906, he thought that owning property was a sign of mental derangement. Still, he worked hard to create a stupendous fantasy garden, a place, he said, “where I can entertain my friends.”
How Creek Indian number 1501 repaid a debt
Stempel’s winning technique was simplicity itself: He got all the questions in advance.
The early critics of television predicted the new medium would make Americans passively obedient to the powers that be. But they badly underestimated us.
The vast jumble of objects that once brought solace to an eccentric heiress has become a great museum of the middle class
In which a President fails to fulfill his constitutional duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” And a reluctant Congress acts.
When the President fired the general, civilian control of the military faced its severest test in our history
She was the first whaleship ever sunk by her prey. But that’s not why she’s remembered.
How a shy millionaire’s peculiar genius transformed his “country place” into an unparalleled showcase of American furnishings
A HERITAGE PRESERVED
In reconstructing the past, Old Sturbridge Village is doing a lot more than selling penny candy and buggy rides. Struggling for verisimilitude, curators are raising scrawny chickens, trudging behind 150-year-old plows—and keeping pesticides out of the orchards.
How a brave and gifted woman defied her parents and her background to create the splendid collection that is Shelburne
How the happy combination of a millionaire and, a parson gave us Colonial Williamsburg, a place of surpassing loveliness—and a continuing reminder of what a truly bold enterprise our Revolution was
The fallout-shelter craze of 1961
What happened when the richest man in America decided to collect one of everything
