history
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Our journey from Charlottesville to Rockfish Gap, and then along the 105-mile-long Skyline Drive to Front Royal, was not just a scenic drive. It was a journey through history, a road that was a product of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. So the road itself is a piece of history. The Harry F Byrd
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One issue that was clearly very predominant at both Williamsburg and Monticello was how to interpret the stories of enslaved people and how to depict the relationship between the Founding Fathers and slavery. I thought the presentation at Williamsburg, which is the story of all the people who lived here, not just the famous ones,
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We did a gardens tour at Monticello. The gardens are not that impressive, particularly compared to the gardens at any British country house. But the tour itself was fascinating and said a lot about Jefferson. The guide discussed how Jefferson was interested in discovering what was an American landscape. That really piqued my interest. I’m
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As we drove from Williamsburg to Charlottesville, the sight of Monument Avenue in Richmond stirred a mix of curiosity and reflection. I was eager to see the transformation of the colossal Confederate Memorials that once graced the boulevard. Reflecting on my time in Virginia in the 1980s, I recall being captivated by Monument Avenue’s ‘quaint’
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From Philadelphia, we headed on down to Jamestown and Williamsburg. I completed my PhD at William & Mary in Williamsburg and even worked as an interpreter for a summer at Colonial Williamsburg, but it had been a long time since I had been back. I was impressed by the interpretation in the museums in Jamestown,
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Because of the delights of our extended stay in Jersey City, we didn’t get to spend quite as much time as we had hoped in Philadelphia.I’ve spent more time in Philadelphia than any other American city, but not usually as a tourist. I was struck by how much of the meta-narrative at Independence Hall still
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At the end of our wander through lower Manhattan, we stopped at the Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall Inn was the site of one of the most significant events in LGBTQ+ history, “The Stonewall Riots” of June 1969. Stonewall wasn’t a unique riot. There had been other riots, such as the Black Cat riots in Los
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Our first full day in the US was marked by a visit to the Statue of Liberty. The sheer grandeur of the statue, which I had only seen from a distance before, was an impressive sight from Liberty Island itself. The island was bustling with visitors from all corners of the globe, a living testament
Early American Musings 