Travel and History Articles
- Revisiting Scotland’s home of independent thinking – St. Andrews combines northern hardiness with the rigor of the U.K.’s third-oldest university, challenging conventional thought since before the Reformation. – AAA Traveler Worldwise
- The chemistry professor who preserved Black history – Washington Post magazine See also my piece on Medium for more from some of the sources in that article. Listen to the story on The People’s Recorder podcast.
- A half century before the civil rights movement, DC’s Barbara Pope challenged Virginia’s Jim Crow law – Washington Post magazine
- Black Soldiers Played an Undeniable but Largely Unheralded Role in Founding the United States: Prince Hall and the Revolution – Smithsonian
- How Did Artists Survive the First Great Depression? – Literary Hub
- Climate Change Lessons from an Unexpected Source: America’s Forgotten Cork Crisis: Discover
- Unexpected Cork Country – A Story of Port: Culinary Backstreets
- Exposing Murder Rings and McCarthyism: What Freedom of Information Can Do: The Millions
- In Portugal, Culinary Delights: Washington Post
- During World War II, the U.S. Saw Italian-Americans as a Threat to Homeland Security: Smithsonian
- The Great American Cork Dream – When a fireball rose over Baltimore, people suspected sabotage and said Charles McManus’ cork business was over. Instead, he launched a drive to plant an indispensable tree across America. Listen to the story on NPR’s All Things Considered.
- The Story of a Nazi Plot to Sabotage the U.S. War Effort and How it was Foiled: Smithsonian
- An hour from the busy Bay Area, Stinson Beach is a laid-back retreat: Washington Post
- Ginseng-Poaching in the Great Smoky Mountains: Smithsonian
- Hiking and History in Nova Scotia: Washington Post
- Homestay among the Ruins in Cambodia: Washington Post.
- Empires of the Silk Road and a visit to Central Asia: National Geographic Intelligent Travel
- Catch the dining scene on Mt. Desert Island, or eating your way through Acadia National Park, in Maine: Washington Post
- The Lost Symbol’s Masonic Temple in Washington, DC: Smithsonian
- Another look at Freemasonry in Black and white: Southern Changes
- Jim Thompson’s Oklahoma – The Darkest Guidebook Ever? PDF. Before he wrote The Killer Inside Me, noir novelist Jim Thompson led a guidebook team into down-and-dirty Oklahoma. It showed a shadow side of the Sooners that he brought to his fiction. This article was first posted on the Smithsonian Channel’s blog. You can also read a 1935 true-crime story by Thompson from True Detective (PDF) here.
- Ziplining through Panama’s coffee hills, in Washington Post Travel.
- Agritourism in Sicily Puts You on the Farm: The Washington Post
- Studios of Two Masters in Wood: The Washington Post
- West Virginia’s Cranberry Bogs: The Washington Post
- Fearsome Roots in a Quiet Forest: A trip into the forest of ginseng, with poachers and legends. A download from Tricycle magazine.
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater: The Washington Post
- Sinbad in China: Christian Science Monitor – Revisits Nanjing and the seven (or so) voyages of the explorer Zheng He, the original Sinbad.
- The Wyeths’ Chadds Ford: A visit to N.C. Wyeth’s studio with his grandson Jamie. The Washington Post
- Traffic in a Thai Forest: Slow Trains