Since its early days in the possession of a man who never set foot on the land itself, Medford has been a place of possibility. Many Medford residents have made their mark on American culture, including James W. Tufts, the inventor of the soda fountain, and Fannie Farmer, author of the first modern cookbook. Medford has been the site of revolutionary changes, as entrepreneur Thatcher Magoun built the wildly successful clipper ship industry, and in the case of Belinda Royall, a slave who re...

Enter Somerville, a city packed with stories larger than itself, to salute a heritage that justifies the fierce pride of its citizens. Share a perch on one of Somerville's celebrated hills with Dee Morris and Dora St. Martin and watch the raising of America's first flag and the stringing of its first telephone line. Strolling from neighborhood to neighborhood, this brief history knocks on the doors of everyone from the father of Fenway Park to Missy LeHand, Franklin D. Roosevelt s private ...

The story of the nineteenth-century craze for communicating with the dead, with historical photos included.Wealthy John Wetherbee sought business advice through supernatural means. Psychic Fannie Conant attributed her restored health to spirit intervention. Grieving theater manager Isaac B. Rich wanted to contact his deceased wife. While the individual motives for belief varied, spiritualism flourished in Boston from the first rumblings of the Civil War until the e...

Once the center of agricultural prosperity in Alabama, the rich soil of the Black Belt still features beautiful homes that stand as a testimony to the region�s proud heritage. Join author Jennifer Hale as she explores the history of seventeen of the finest plantation homes in Alabama�s Black Belt. This book chronicles the original owners and slaves of the homes, and traces their descendants who continued to call these plantations home throughout the past two centuries. Discover why the fam...

The name "Luneburg" was coined for King George II of England, who was also the duke of Luneburg, Germany, in 1727. The final name, Lunenburg, was probably a result of misspelling in the early records of the town. On August 1, 1728, Lunenburg was officially granted township but, as early as 1726, a variety of industries had been started and twenty-six houses had been built. In the late nineteenth century, the town returned to predominately agriculture and, today, is a rural residential comm...

During the 1930s in the United States, the Works Progress Administration developed the Federal Writers’ Project to support writers and artists while making a national effort to document the country’s shared history and culture. The American Guide series consists of individual guides to each of the states. Little-known authors-many of whom would later become celebrated literary figures-were commissioned to write these important books. John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ral...

The first settlers came to the Brockport area soon after 1800. Located some twenty miles west of Rochester, the towns of Sweden and Clarkson, the village of Brockport, and a college were organized between 1814 and 1835. The Erie Canal, farm implement manufacturing, and higher education fostered their growth and prosperity in the mid-1800s. At Brockport, the United States became a continental nation, the Industrial Revolution came to agriculture, and popular literature came to American wome...

An unlucky gambler who haunts the Curtis House, the ethereal White Lady who wanders among the tombs of Union Cemetery and a ghostly diner who still insists upon joining the meal are among the otherworldly residents of Southwestern Connecticut. With a long and sometimes turbulent history, the region has become a host to lingering spirits who cannot leave behind the sites of their demise. Through spirit photography and firsthand accounts, Donna Kent, founder of the Cosmic Society of Paranorm...

Inns and taverns occupied a position of central importance in colonial American society. Rest stop, hotel, provisioning center, drinking saloon, dining establishment, center of news and gossip, quartering for soldiers'these retreats served an astonishing variety of roles. In Colonial Inns and Taverns of Bucks County, author Marie Duess filters the colonial andearly modern history of Bucks County through the area's wide array of stagecoach stops, grog shops and taprooms. These inns created ...

First settled in 1634, and incorporated in 1640, the Town of Braintree has a long and distinguished history. �Old Braintree,� which originally encompassed what is now Braintree, Quincy, Randolph, and Holbrook, was the birthplace of John Adams, John Hancock, John Quincy Adams, and Sylvanus Thayer. Primarily a farming community for almost three centuries, Braintree was also home to a number of water-powered mills and businesses, which prospered along the banks of the Monatiquot River. With t...

During the 1930s in the United States, the Works Progress Administration developed the Federal Writers’ Project to support writers and artists while making a national effort to document the country’s shared history and culture. The American Guide series consists of individual guides to each of the states. Little-known authors-many of whom would later become celebrated literary figures-were commissioned to write these important books. John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ral...

From the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, African Americans in the Washington, D.C. area sought leisure destinations where they could relax without the burden of racial oppression. Local picnic parks such as Eureka and Madre's were accessible by streetcars. Black-owned steamboats ferried passengers seeking sun and sand to places like Collingwood Beach, and African American families settled into quiet beach-side communities along the Western Shore of Maryland. Author and public...