Blog
Sunlight, Rain, and Facial Hair: What Weird Taxes Have Governments Used to Collect Money or Influence Our Behavior?
Have you ever seen a colonial American house with fake windows? Or a building with very few windows? You may be told that people did that to avoid the British window tax. That’s not accurate, but when you learn about the creative ways that governments have tried to...
Who DIDN’T Sign the Declaration of Independence 250 Years Ago?
Today we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence. It wasn’t achieved in a single day. The Declaration of Independence wasn’t even signed in one day—and it wasn’t on July 4, either. But a celebration needs to be limited or it loses its effect and...
Camping with History: History on the Hoof at Paynes Prairie Preserve
This was our fourth stay at this park, and I was determined I wasn't going to write about history at this one. It's not one of Florida's older parks, and the only historical sites I remembered were the remains of the homestead of a cattle driver from the late 1800s....
What Did Jane Austen Do For Easter?
I’ve written four short novels and tons of blogs that center on Christmas traditions in Regency England, but I never even considered what Easter might have been like. What were Jane Austen and her contemporaries doing to celebrate the holiday? I was pretty sure she...
Earliest Celebration of St. Patrick Was in a Town Named for a Different Saint
New York is generally considered to hold the world’s largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade. And they claim to be the oldest as well. But they’re not even close to holding that title. The first recorded St. Patrick’s Day parade was not in Boston, even though that city has...
Weird Industries from the Past: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt
We all know that the Egyptians mummified their kings and invested quite a bit of money and time in the process. What I didn’t know, until I saw an exhibit at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore recently, is that the Egyptians also mummified millions of animals with...
History of Christmas Stockings: The Real Reason Hanging Up Socks in Your Living Room is Kind of Creepy
We have lots of Christmas stockings. Some of them are so furry I feel like they should have a tail and a collar. Some have sequins. The oldest one is threadbare felt covered in sparkles and beads. None of them looks like anything you would or could wear, although my...
George Washington Vandalized Here: The History of Tourism at Natural Bridge
I love tourist traps—as long as they’re historic. I think it’s fun to imagine all the travelers who visted before me: parents in awe, children annoyed and underwhelmed and wondering when it’s time to eat. So, for years, every time we passed the billboards on I-81 in...
The Great Awakening: Will We See Another One?
I went to secular public schools from pre-K through grade 12, so religion was not regularly addressed in school at all. Christmas was about Santa Claus and decorated trees. Easter focused on bunnies and eggs. Yet there was one religious event that managed to make it...
Camping with History – Ghost Fires and Orange Hats at French Creek State Park
We picked this Pennsylvania park purely for its location and the fact that it had some trails we could hike. As we neared the entrance, I saw a sign for a national historical site and thought maybe we could make time to visit after we left. But it turned out that the...