Author: Ms. R.

In Milford, New Hampshire’s Bicentennial Park, a statue celebrates Harriet E. Wilson, the first Black American woman to publish a novel in the United States. In 1859, Wilson published Our Nig; or Sketches From the Life of A Free Black. The novel, which is a semi-autobiographical work, conveys the hardship and abuse Wilson endured in her life as a Black woman in 19th-century New England. After being abandoned by her parents, Wilson was forced to support herself from a young age,……

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Kennon Road serves as an important artery to Baguio City, sometimes called the summer capital of the Philippines with an elevation of 1,500 meters (4,921 feet). This mountainous region is punctuated by large boulders and when the road was first built, passersby observed a particular limestone that resembled the shape of a lion’s head. In the late 1960s, a local club decided to make that resemblance more literal. Members of the Lions Club of Baguio wanted the rock to……

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The Heaviest Corner on Earth is located at the heart of downtown Birmingham, where 1st Avenue North intersects 20th Street North. It is surrounded by a number of imposing buildings. Whether this corner actually weighs more than any other is hard to verify (maybe impossible), but there’s an interesting history as to how the intersection came by its nickname. In 1911, Jemison Magazine published an article entitled “Birmingham to Have the Heaviest Corner in the South,” based on the……

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According to Indonesian folklore, deep in the Sumatra highlands, among the monster flowers and sun bears, a 4-foot-tall primate known as the orang pendek, “tiny man,” walks on two legs. And beneath the calm waters of an almost circular lake, Congolese legend says an enormous, 50-foot crocodile, known as mahamba, devours entire canoes—passengers and all. Scientists have found no proof that these creatures or other storied cryptids like them exist, but cryptozoologist Richard Freeman believes these mysterious animals are……

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You’d be forgiven for not noticing the Ancient Egypt Museum of Tokyo, which is located on the eighth floor of a building located on a busy Shibuya intersection. Many of the salarymen, shoppers, and tourists walking by don’t realize they are walking right under the mummified remains of some of Ancient Egypt’s own, right in downtown Tokyo. The Ancient Egypt Museum of Tokyo boasts over a thousand artifacts. While the tickets are a tad pricey by Japanese standards, and……

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This article is adapted from the February 26, 2022, edition of Gastro Obscura’s Favorite Things newsletter. You can sign up here. Last summer, I went to an upscale wine bar in the East Village, Manhattan. The waiter informed me that the menu’s theme that week was “unusual wines.” My mind immediately went to a rare type of wine I’d become interested in. Excited, I asked if they had any made with grapes native to the Americas. The waiter gave……

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Mary Jane McLeod was born on July 10, 1875, in Mayesville, South Carolina. She was the first member of her family born free but her family had little means. She was the first member of her family to attend school, and against great odds, she would go on to be an educator and pioneering leader, playing a key role in the fight for racial and gender equality. Mary met her husband Albertus Bethune during one of her teaching assignments……

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This story was originally published on The Conversation and appears here under a Creative Commons license. Large carnivores in Africa are important from ecological, economic, and cultural perspectives, but human activities put them at risk. Increasingly, lions, hyenas, and African wild dogs are restricted to protected areas like national parks. Within these limited areas, they must compete for the same food sources. Competition is, of course, nothing new. For several million years, African wild dogs have evolved within a……

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Elegant, beautiful, and solemn, this Gothic basilica church is located in the oldest part of the historic center of Verona. The church is from the 13th-century and the complex was in the center of political, noble, and everyday life of Verona throughout the centuries. It still plays an important role and is surrounded by other historic hotspots.  The complex and the church are very well kept. From outside, the bricks are soft colored under the sunlit of the day…….

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Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit an office, established by the founder of the American Red Cross, that changed the lives of thousands of Civil War soldiers and their families. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll meet some fascinating……

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