Author: Ms. R.

On a recent weekday morning, I took the I.R.T. to Inwood in northern Manhattan, where from 1915 to 1938 the ballpark Dyckman Oval was a frequent backdrop for Black baseball players barred from the Major Leagues. My train arrived at the Dyckman Street elevated station and I descended to the street. Encountering few other pedestrians, I walked uptown along broad, windswept Nagle Avenue. I soon reached where Academy Street hits the avenue; Academy used to cross the area, creating……

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San Francisco’s Sunnyside Conservatory is a botanic jewel defined by a century-old palm grove and surrounding gardens. The beautiful landmark on Monterey Boulevard has survived six owners, the 1906 earthquake, and is sometimes known as “the other conservatory” (compared to the better-known Conservatory of Flowers located in Golden Gate Park). Sunnyside Conservatory’s previous owners have included a balloon aircraft inventor who was killed by a locomotive, a woman named Temperance who named the conservatory Sunnyside Laboratories and planned to……

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Known also as the Hilleary-Magruder House, this historic residence was constructed in 1742 by William Hilleary and is the oldest house in Bladensburg. It’s also the only 18th-century stone, gambrel-roofed house in Prince George’s County. The house was purchased from Hilleary by Scottish tobacco merchant Richard Henderson in 1763. Henderson had connections to George Washington, who dined there on May 9, 1787. According to the historical marker, he fell ill with a bad headache and an upset stomach. The……

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A trio of malevolent demons perch menacingly upon the cornices of 54-55 Cornhill Street and leer down at those passing by below. These hideous imps are known locally as the “Devils of Cornhill” and the grotesque, terracotta sculptures are the subject of an interesting and humorous piece of local folklore. As the legend goes, the origin story of the “Cornhill Devils” is said to have been the creative revenge of an architect who constructed the building during the Victorian……

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The Cadereyta botanical garden was opened in 1991 by the regional government of Querétaro as a space to display the botanical biodiversity of the country, and to conserve rare and endangered plants.  Despite being one of the smallest states in Mexico, Querétaro is one of the most biodiverse in terms of plants and animals. This is largely a result of the abundance of micro-ecosystems formed by the mountain ranges and valleys of the Sierra Gorda, Trans-Volcanic belt, and the Sierra……

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Eugenio Inacio Martini has been collecting artifacts from across international and Brazilian communication history for over 30 years. He provides visitors with a passionate and interactive journey through these technological advancements.  The oldest piece in the collection is a telegraph from 1835. This device was invited by Samuel Morse along with the famous communication code that bears his name. One can still see the lever that sent signals down a wire, laying the groundwork for future long-distance communication. Martini’s……

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In 1621, Englishwoman Allice Burges stepped off a ship and onto American soil, clutching a letter that recommended her beer-making skills. She was one of 57 women “imported” from England by the Virginia Tobacco Company to join the early settlers of the Chesapeake Bay. The company’s investors had reasoned that wives and, eventually, children would cure the colonists’ loneliness and cement their attachment to the new land—and keeping the colonists happy was good for business. But the women also……

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When the staff at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County first got their hands on their new Himantolophus sagamius, an anglerfish also known as the Pacific footballfish, it was hard to make sense of the specimen’s appearance. After the deep-sea dweller washed up on the shore of Crystal Cove State Park in May, someone promptly stashed it in a garbage bag and tucked it in the freezer. By the time William Ludt, assistant curator of ichthyology, finagled……

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If you sail to the island of Sanday in the Orkney archipelago in northern Scotland, you’ll see the silhouettes of neighboring islands on the horizon. Upon arrival you’ll see white, sandy beaches that trail into rough, once-agricultural terrain, and experience its erratic weather—sun then fog then rain then clear skies all in the same day. Nestled there, on a shallow cliff, is a mound of earth and rocks: a prehistoric tomb dating to around 3500 B.C. The tomb sits……

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Located approximately seven miles northeast of Pitkin, Colorado, Alpine Tunnel was the first railway tunnel to cross the Continental Divide and, at 11,523 feet, was once the highest railroad tunnel in the world. Today it is one of the highest closed railway lines in North America. As part of the Denver South Park and Pacific Railroad, the tunnel was completed in 1882 after two years of work. It cuts under the 12,000-foot Altman Pass, located between 12,442-foot Mount Poor……

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