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, and umbrella mark him as a city slicker—promises the couple a better life as he unrolls a listing of “1000…
Today’s Delaware State Fair in Harrington is all cow roping, carnivals and cotton candy. A delight for casual attendees, hard work for exhibitors. But few, if any, farmers at the Fair feel the pressure of their farm going under if they don’t attend. The ancestor fairs of this modern Kent County extravaganza started out as…
The Rehoboth Beach boardwalk shore vacationers today know and love was first built in 1884, and stretched for one and a quarter miles. How did the builders decide where to site its beginning and end? The Delaware legislature early on understood the advantages of the site for a resort, and in 1855 incorporated the “Rehoboth…
