Above: Edward Williams Clay, Skaters on the Delaware River at Philadelphia, 1831 / National Museum of American History “Amidst the dreariness of wintry winds and chilling frosts that have stripped the rugged oak of its… Read More »Flying over the ice in full glee
Above: Bret Harte. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution The newly discovered Latin poem, a sensational find surely, made its way into the campus publications of two colleges within two years of its appearance. But no… Read More »‘Iocus operatus quoque bene’ — Latin for ‘The joke worked too well’
The Delaware Breakwater, constructed between 1829 and about 1835, was one of the first national undertakings of public works projects, costing over $2 million at the time. “The expense and difficulty of constructing a breakwater… Read More »Blue Rock shelters the Bay
Above: Detail from Francis William Edmonds’s “The Speculator” (1852). A rural couple listens skeptically to a representative of the Building Association, identified by the paper in his coat pocket. The salesman—whose top hat, pointed shoes,… Read More »The investment will return the cost thrice over!
You’ve heard the story about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree, getting caught, and then fessing up with “I cannot tell a lie.” But do you know where that story came from? How was… Read More »The man who wrote “I cannot tell a lie”? Lied.
He was a Delawarean by birth, a white man of education and refinement, well heeled and well connected. He thought he could get away with the idea. After completing degrees in both law and medicine… Read More »He got away with murder
Today he’s recognized as one of the founders of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which later became NASA. His numerous patents included one for a method of greatly extending the range of long distance… Read More »A greenhorn outsmarts a mule
By the end of his long life, he had founded one of the largest Methodist congregations serving the African-American community on the east coast. And every time “We Shall Overcome” is sung somewhere in the… Read More »The seeds of “We Shall Overcome”
What could be less controversial than naming your estate “Buena Vista” when in fact it does have a ‘good view’? But that’s not the reason Delaware senator John M. Clayton chose to rename the ‘Homestead’… Read More »The Delaware estate named for political gain
“We hardly think he will be able to compete with the swallows in this harness,” sniffed the June 24, 1871 Scientific American article on W. F. Quimby’s flying machine. “We would advise him to start… Read More »Quimby’s quagmire of an airqaft