Olga.  Tatiana. Maria. Anastasia.  The Russian Grand Duchesses were among the most photographed and talked about young royals of the early twentieth century. Yet, over the years, most only remember their tragic end in a basement at Ekaterinburg in 1918.

Greenland. Population 56,000. Five times the size of California. It’s covered in an ice sheet 700 miles wide and 1,500 miles long. That’s nearly three quadrillion tons of bone-chilling ice. For the last 150 years, explorers and scientists have sought to understand this remote and mysterious island. 

Florence Finch was an unlikely warrior.  Her mother was Filipino; her father was an American serviceman. As World War II drew close to the Philippines, Florence fell in love with a dashing American naval intelligence agent, Charles “Bing” Smith, stationed in Manila.  When Bing was killed in battle, the mild-mannered housewife became a fervent resistance fighter.

They couldn't have been more different. Eleanor came from one of the nation’s most powerful political families; her marriage to her distant cousin Franklin Roosevelt took her straight to the White House. Lorena Hickok, known as Hick, grew up in rural South Dakota and worked as a servant girl after escaping from an abusive home. At different points, they were lovers, confidantes, professional advisors, and caring friends. Together, they played significant roles in one of the most tumultuous periods in American history.

By the end of Reconstruction, more than 500,000 African Americans had registered to vote across the South. The vast majority were former slaves. By 1906, less than ten percent remained. Beginning in 1876, the Court systematically dismantled both the equal protection guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment, at least for African Americans, and what seemed to be the guarantee of the right to vote in the Fifteenth.

Almost 150 years ago, most of Chicago burned to the ground.  The fire started in Catherine and Patrick O’Leary’s barn on October 8, 1871 and grew out of control quickly by jumping branches of the Chicago River twice on its relentless northeastward path through the city’s three divisions.

In 1871 there were 252,539 miles of stone walls in New England and New York―enough to circle the earth ten times. But what do we actually know about them?  Who built them, and why?

The Fight for Women's Suffrage and the Century that Followed
Nancy Pelosi’s forward to Victory for the Vote reminds us “that the trailblazing suffragists did not wait for change, they worked for change!”  And work they did!

George Washington. Napoleon Bonaparte. Toussaint Louverture. Simon Bolivar. If the revolutionary world wanted to do without kings and queens, who would lead?  Without divine right, what would give leaders their authority? Military valor?  The consent of the people?  Their own Godlike qualities? These four “men on horseback” all struggled with this question.