Applewood Books

Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty are some America's most well-known symbols of freedom and hope. Learn about the story behind these landmarks, the first immigrants to pass through Ellis Island, the questions they were asked, and the things they saw. Discover fascinating details about our shining beacon, where you can find Statues of Liberty all over the world, and more. Open this book‚ and welcome to America.

The Inner Life of the Gilded Age’s Court Jester

Harry Symes Lehr was born in 1869 into a family that was neither wealthy nor socially prominent. His natural gift for entertaining and his penchant for hobnobbing with the very rich earned him entry to the powerful circle of New York and Newport social elite during the Gilded Age. Lehr hosted lavish and themed parties that captivated the social scene who dubbed him “King Lehr.” One of his admirers and patrons, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, introduced him to the young widow Elizabeth Wharton Drexel. Drexel was smitten with young Harry, his elegant dress, and outrageous behavior. Soon they married. 

But King Lehr had a secret. On their wedding night he cruelly dictated to his new wife that they would not live in a happy marriage nor would it be consummated. For twenty-three years Elizabeth lived in a loveless and abusive marriage. After Harry’s death, Elizabeth remarried a baron and as Lady Decies, wrote down her secret story in 1938. Incorporating Harry’s most intimate diaries, Lady Decies reveals a scandalous tale of power, desire, and deception. 

The view that slavery could best be described by those who had themselves experienced it personally has found expression in several thousand commentaries, autobiographies, narratives, and interviews with those who endured. Although most of these accounts appeared before the Civil War, more than one-third are the result of the ambitious efforts of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to interview surviving ex-slaves during the 1930s. The result of these efforts was the Slave Narrative Collection, a group of autobiographical accounts of former slaves that today stands as one of the most enduring and noteworthy achievements of the WPA. Compiled in seventeen states during the years 1936-38, the collection consists of more than two thousand interviews with former slaves, most of them first-person accounts of slave life and the respondents' own reactions to bondage. The interviews afforded aged ex-slaves an unparalleled opportunity to give their personal accounts of life under the peculiar institution, to describe in their own words what it felt like to be a slave in the United States. —Norman R. Yetman, American Memory, Library of Congress  This paperback edition of all of the Maryland narratives is reprinted in facsimile from the typewritten pages of the interviewers, just as they were originally typed.

Dozens of monuments and memorials define the national city, but who built them? And why here? In this book, puzzles and activities are filled with fun facts and interesting trivia about the people, places, and events that helped shape the nation's capital. Read and learn about the story behind the city, the men behind the monuments, and the moments behind the memorials.