Author: Ms. R.

Fountain Elms is an Italianate-style mansion in Utica, New York . The home dates back to 1852. Full of Victorian era-elegance, it was built by the architect William Woollett for a wealthy civic icon, Helen Munson Williams, and her husband, James Watson Williams. The mansion features a highly unique cubic design. An antique fountain can also be found in the yard of the home. Fountain Elms has been remodeled and expanded many times, but today it stands restored to how……

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Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. Dylan Thuras: Offices. Most of us have spent sometimes many, many, many hours inside of them. Maybe you work in one. Maybe you go to one to get your taxes done. Maybe you visit your doctor in a corporate office space. You know the type of place I’m talking about. It usually has sprawling corridors, overhead fluorescent lights, an office park. The corporate office space has become……

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La Botte dei Canonici, or ‘Canon’s barrel,’ is believed to be the largest wine barrel of the medieval era. While local historical records first mention the barrel in the early 16th century, the barrel is likely older. According to a local historian, it was built to serve the community by storing wine during years when vineyards had overabundant harvests. The barrel can hold over 20,000 liters, which is the equivalent of 387 normal-sized wine barrels.  La Botte dei Canonici’s……

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In a Fayetteville, New York, cemetery is the gravestone of a largely forgotten suffragist leader, which makes a powerful, uncompromising statement. In the quiet Fayetteville Cemetery, amid rows of conventional memorials, stands a monument that speaks with a voice of radical conviction. It marks the final resting place of Matilda Joslyn Gage, a pioneering suffragist, abolitionist, and freethinker whose contributions to American history were for a time nearly erased. The rough-hewn stone is etched with a sentiment as bold……

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In 1962, a partial mastodon skeleton was unearthed in Tualatin near where its public library now stands. Originally on display at Portland State University until being stored away sometime in the 1970s, the nearly half-complete skeleton was cleaned and restored for display in the library. The exhibit is offset against a frosted glass image of what the mastodon would look like in life. The mastodon was a female who expired in her 20s and is believed to have died……

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Founded in 1983 by David and Marsha Karpeles, the Karpeles museum are a group of seven museums spanning the United States dedicated to preserving and presenting rare and culturally important paper manuscripts. Their collections include anything from letters to drawings to political and religious documents. The collection is believed to include an estimated million documents. The Karpeles mini museum is the most recent addition to the conglomeration. It’s the first Karpeles museum in St. Augustine, Florida, and has the distinction of being among……

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It’s one of the most famous Shakespearian mysteries: what did the Bard actually look like? None of the iconic portraits of history’s most revered playwright are known to be authentic likenesses. The image of Shakespeare that most of us have imprinted in our minds is a combination of facets from various doubtful sources. The true face of the man behind Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear may well have been lost to time.  Or, you might be able to see……

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Since the pre-Columbian era, oysters served as a primary food source in the Chesapeake Bay.  In the 1800s, harvesting of oysters — known as “Chesapeake White Gold” — increased exponentially with the introduction of dredging techniques from New England, leading to an oyster decline in some areas.  After the Civil War, clashes began occurring between Virginia watermen, intent on raiding Maryland’s more abundant oyster beds with dredges, and Maryland watermen, many of whom used traditional hand tongs due to……

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Before he was widely known across Christendom as Saint Anthony of Padua, Fernando Martins was a young boy studying at the Lisbon Cathedral school. Legend has it that the local lad was tempted by the devil in the cathedral, but resisted and repelled his lures by making the sign of the cross. Visitors to the church can now see Martins’ sign on the wall, covered by a decorative grille, on the way up the stairs to the treasury. The……

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On a snowy November evening in 1957, a national guard Twin engine Douglas C-47B plane with 11 people on board tried to land at Gustavus airport. It was on its way from Tacoma, Washington to Anchorage, Alaska. The plane was running low on fuel after having to miss its fuel stop farther south at Annette Island due to severe turbulence and winds and opting to go on to Gustavus, which had good weather at decision time, plus better landing……

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Located in an ancient colonial house in the historical downtown of Mexico City is the museum of perfume.   The collection includes more than 4,000 items, including original bottles from some of the oldest perfume companies, equipment for making perfumes, and related cosmetics. Displays present brilliantly colored bottles, and explanations on the process of perfume-making since its beginning in ancient Egypt.  The museum has workshops in which you can create your own scent. The museum provides enough context for you to……

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Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. Dylan Thuras: Hi, everyone. We have something pretty different for you today. This is a live episode of the podcast, as in we did it with real people in the audience. So a little while ago, I was asked to speak at the WBUR Festival in Boston. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to talk about, and then I stumbled across this hotel, the……

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Around 1850, a steady stream of pilgrims could be seen visiting a grave at New York’s Trinity Church inscribed with the name Charlotte Temple. These mourners were paying their respects to the fictional heroine of Susanna Rowson’s popular 1791 melodramatic novel, Charlotte, a Tale of Truth.  In the novel, the titular Charlotte, a naive 16-year-old British girl, is seduced by the villainous rake Lord Montraville, brought to America, and then abandoned as he goes off to marry another woman and fight……

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