Facts & Science

Step into the future of the past in Chicago's 1893 World's Fair!

What came to be known as the World's Columbian Exposition was planned to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's 1492 landfall in the New World. Chicago beat out New York City, St. Louis, Missouri, and Washington, DC, in its bid as host - a coup for the Windy City. The site finally selected for the fair was Jackson Park, a marshy area covered with dense, wild vegetation. Daniel H. Burnham and John W. Root were selected as chief architects, creating the famous White City. The fair featured several different thematic areas: the Great Buildings, Foreign Buildings, State Buildings, and the Midway Plaisance, a nearly mile-long area that featured exotic exhibits. The exposition also showcased the world's first Ferris Wheel and introduced fairgoers to new sensations like Cracker Jack, Pabst Beer, and ragtime music. Unfortunately, by 1896, most of the fair's buildings had been removed or destroyed, but this collection takes readers on a tour of the grounds as they looked in 1893.

The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair was the largest international exhibition ever built in the United States.

More than one hundred fifty pavilions and exhibits spread over six hundred forty-six acres helped the fair live up to its reputation as the Billion-Dollar Fair. With the cold war in full swing, the fair offered visitors a refreshingly positive view of the future, mirroring the official theme: Peace through Understanding. Guests could travel back in time through a display of full-sized dinosaurs, or look into a future where underwater hotels and flying cars were commonplace. They could enjoy Walt Disney's popular shows, or study actual spacecraft flown in orbit. More than fifty-one million guests visited the fair before it closed forever in 1965. The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair captures the history of this event through vintage photographs, published here for the first time.

The Chicago World’s Fair lifted a city, state, and nation and helped visualize a lift post-Great Depression. Revisit the Fair in this visual history!

It took six years and cost $100 million, but on May 27, 1933, the gates swung open on the biggest birthday party the city of Chicago had ever seen. The Century of Progress Exposition, better known as the 1933–34 Chicago World's Fair, commemorated the amazing progress that had been made since the founding of the city just 100 years earlier.

Many of America's largest companies joined with countries from around the world to showcase their histories and advertise their newest products. The road to opening day was not an easy one, with the Great Depression making it look like the fair might never be built, but thousands of small investors stepped forward to help close the financial gap. The fair went on to an unprecedented second season, and when the gates finally closed after the last of the 39 million visitors went home, it had achieved something quite rare among world's fairs: earning a profit.

This collection of rare photographs, previously unpublished, highlights the major attractions of the fair and the astonishing changes made between seasons. This book is a must-have for fans of Chicago, Illinois, and Great Depression-era history.

Held in Philadelphia from May 10 through October 10, the 1876 Centennial Exhibition celebrated the 100th anniversary of American independence.

Philadelphia hosted 37 nations in five main buildings and 250 additional structures on 285 acres of land. The celebration looked backward to commemorate the progress made over the 100-year period, and it announced to the world that American invention and innovation was on a par with that of our foreign counterparts. Patriotism abounded, as did messages of industrial and commercial prowess that promised a brighter future for all. Over nine million people attended this awesome consumer spectacle, an event that set the tone for a long series of world's fairs yet to come.

Four distinct anthracite coal fields encompass an area of 1,700 square miles in the northeastern portion of Pennsylvania. Early Coal Mining in the Anthracite Region is a journey into a world that was once very familiar.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, underground coal mining was at its zenith and the work of miners was more grueling and dangerous than it is today. Faces blackened by coal and helmet lamps lit by fire are no longer parts of the everyday lives of miners in the region. These vintage photographs of collieries, breakers, miners, drivers, and breaker boys illuminate the dark of the anthracite mines. The pictures of miners, roof falls, mules, and equipment deep underground tell the story of the hard lives lived around the hard coal. Above ground, breaker boys toiled in unbearable conditions inside the noisy, vibrating, soot-filled monsters known as coal breakers.

On November 1, 1957, traffic officially opened on the far-reaching Mackinac Bridge.

That was the culmination of 70 years of talking and dreaming about a bridge acrossthe Straits of Mackinac, of discouraging attempts for legislative and congressional approval, of efforts to raise the funds, and finally of a three-year construction program necessary for the world's longest and costliest (to date) suspension bridge.Michigan's greatest symbol is expertly maintained, fully funded, and amazingly resilient to the many forces and factors of man and nature that have failed to seriously affect its status as the lone highway link between Michigan's two main peninsulas. The miracle bridge at the Straits of Mackinac truly allows a view that epitomizes the state motto of Michigan, Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam, circumspice, or If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.

Falling in between the dark days of the Great Depression and World War II, the 1939–1940 New York World's Fair offered a refreshing prediction for the World of Tomorrow.

There were exciting demonstrations of robot servants, computerized highways, color photography, and a new invention called television. Visitors could tour the latest in model homes, enjoy the marvel of air-conditioning, and watch the newest streamlined steam locomotive in action. America's largest corporations joined forces with nations from around the world to showcase the wonders of a future that was sure to come. There were also displays of past technical marvels, international culture and cuisine, and plenty of the innovative architecture that is a large part of these international expositions. Vintage photographs, most never published before, showcase what has been lauded as the most memorable world's fair of all time.

Go inside the people, places, forests and machines that made Maine the logging and lumber giant it is today.

Known as the Pine Tree State, Maine once led the world in lumber production. It was the first great lumber-producing region, with Bangor at its center. Today, the state has nearly 18 million acres of timberland, and forest products still make up a major industry. The state's lumber industry went through several historical periods, beginning with the vast pine and spruce harvests, the organization of major corporate interests, the change from sawlogs to pulpwood, and then to sustained yields, intensive management, and mechanized harvesting.

At the beginning, much of the region was inaccessible except by water, so harvesting activities were concentrated on the coast and along the principal rivers. Gradually, as the railroads expanded and roads were constructed into the woods, operations expanded with them and the river systems became vitally important for the transportation of timber out of the woods to the markets downstate. Logging and Lumbering in Maine traces these developments in the industry and examines the history from its earliest roots in 1630 to the present, providing a pictorial record of land use and activity in Maine.

In 1984, the city of New Orleans hosted the last world's fair held in the United States.

Conceived as part of an ambitious effort to revitalize a dilapidated section of the city and establish New Orleans as a year-round tourist destination, it took more than 12 years of political intrigue and design changes before the gates finally opened. Stretching 84 acres along the Mississippi River, the fair entertained more than seven million guests with a colorful collection of pavilions, rides, and restaurants during its six-month run. While most world's fairs lose money, the 1984 New Orleans World's Fair had the dubious distinction of going bankrupt and almost closing early. However, the $350-million investment did succeed in bringing new life to the area, which is now home to the city's convention center and a bustling arts district.

Lebanon, located on the border of New Hampshire and Vermont, is the center of the largest micropolitan area in the United States and the only city in New Hampshire’s Grafton County, but its history has long been overshadowed by its cultural neighbors: Dartmouth College to the north, the Enfield Shaker community to the east, and the Cornish Colony to the south. Here, Lebanon’s history takes center stage, starting from its beginnings as valuable territory for the Indigenous Western Abenaki and the first European colonists on the banks of the Connecticut and Mascoma Rivers. Lebanon follows the city through its development as a railroad hub, its growth as a powerhouse of mill production, and its modern role as a center of healthcare and scientific innovation. This book showcases photographs from the collection of the Lebanon Historical Society—a one-of-a-kind archive of the area’s history. Generations of amateur historians and collectors have produced a resource of thousands of original images supplemented and informed by a vast trove of historical documents and artifacts. 

The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair: Creation and Legacy uses rare, previously unpublished photographs to examine the creation of the fair and the legacies left behind for future generations.

When the gates of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair swung open on April 24, 1964, the first of more than 51 million lucky visitors entered, ready to witness the cutting edge of worldwide technology and progress. Faced with a disappointing lack of foreign participants due to political contention, the fair instead showcased the best of American industry and science. While multimillion-dollar pavilions predicted colonies on the moon and hotels under the ocean, other forecasts, such as the promises of computer technology, have surpassed even the most optimistic predictions of the fair.

In this engaging pictorial history, discover the relationship between the exposition and its host city of Buffalo, and the triumphs and tragedies it endured.

One of a series of popular turn-of-the-century international expositions, the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 emphasized Western Hemisphere production and trade. William McKinley on its grounds in September. The Pan-Am flaunted America's status as a leading international power after the victory from the 1898 Spanish-American War. In this engaging pictorial history, discover the relationship between the exposition and its host city of Buffalo, and the triumphs and tragedies it endured. Discover the booming Buffalo of 1900, with its links to midwestern agriculture and eastern markets. The city had abundant electric power, was home to several important industries, and had a wealthy and influential leadership. A logical venue for the exposition, Buffalo became home to a fair that paid tribute to the nation's industrial, agricultural, and commercial dominance. Along with Chicago in 1893 and other fairs that followed, the Pan-Am combined high-toned self-promotion in the formal exhibits with midway displays that made sport of other cultures and races. The exposition came to a shattering close with the assassination of Pres. Neither the fair nor the city fully recovered. Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition explores a unique time in American history. Historians, scholars, and residents alike will delight in this fascinating collection of images from Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.

From the mid-19th century to the 1930s, no place in America was more feared or mysterious than the stretch of desert on the California–Nevada border known as Death Valley.

While today Death Valley National Park is seen as a place of natural beauty and scenic wonders, there were once rumors of vaporous gases so toxic that birds flying overhead would drop dead instantly. One of the first Americans to encounter this dreaded land was William Lewis Manly, who left his Wisconsin home for California’s 1849 Gold Rush and who heroically saved those lost pioneers who would give Death Valley its name. Other pioneers in the early 20th century were Frank “Shorty” Harris, who made Death Valley’s biggest gold strike; the Hoyt brothers, who, in 1908, struck it rich in a place called Skidoo; and in the 1920s, a con man named C.C. Julian, who used the valley’s reputation to scam naive investors. There was a time when the entire country seemed to be consumed with news and tales of the Death Valley Gold Rush.

Ted Faye is a documentary filmmaker, exhibit curator, and historical researcher on stories and people of the Death Valley region. Faye has worked with tourism boards on both the state and local levels to develop materials that tell the stories of their communities. He was a historian at US Borax, and many images from this book are from the Borax collection at Death Valley National Park.

Bill Cotter is a longtime world's fair enthusiast and his collection of world's fairs photographs, the world's largest, has been featured in museum exhibits.

After enduring 10 harrowing years of the Great Depression, visitors to the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair found welcome relief in the fair's optimistic presentation of the ""World of Tomorrow."" Pavilions from America's largest corporations and dozens of countries were spread across a 1,216-acre site, showcasing the latest industrial marvels and predictions for the future intermingled with cultural displays from around the world. Well known for its theme structures, the Trylon and Perisphere, the fair was an intriguing mixture of technology, science, architecture, showmanship, and politics. Proclaimed by many as the most memorable world's fair ever held, it predicted wonderful times were ahead for the world even as the clouds of war were gathering. Through vintage photographs, most never published before, The 1939-1940 New York World's Fair recaptures those days when the eyes of the world were on New York and on the future.

The Morris Canal was not the longest canal in the world, but it did have one superlative to its credit—it climbed higher than any other canal ever built.

In its time, it was world famous, visited by tourists and technical people from as far away as Europe and Asia.For nearly 100 years, it crossed the hills of northern New Jersey, accomplishing that feat with 23 lift locks and 23 inclined planes.From Lake Hopatcong, the canal ran westward through the Musconetcong valley to Phillipsburg, on the Delaware River, and eastward through the valleys of the Rockaway and Passaic Rivers to tidewater at Newark and Jersey City—a little over 100 miles horizontally and a total rise and fall of nearly 1,700 feet vertically.The Morris Canal, once an important soldier in the American Industrial Revolution, has been gone for most of the 20th century, but its memory lives on in the many photographs, postcards, and other memorabilia that its unique presence inspired.

Oakdale, California, is located on the south bank of the Stanislaus River in the state’s great Central Valley. The area was the ancestral home of a band of Yokut Indians. With their leader Cucunuchi (later named Estanislao by missionaries), the Yokuts successfully resisted Spanish occupation until the flood of American and European gold seekers overwhelmed them in 1849. Ferries were quickly constructed on the banks of the river to transport miners, merchants, mules, and horses from the port of Stockton to the goldfields of the southern Mother Lode. Cattle ranchers and grain farmers soon moved into the area, and by the time the railroad built a bridge across the river in 1871, a town was laid out, and there were plenty who jumped at the chance to buy lots in the new town of Oak Dale, as it was known then. This is the story of those colorful, resourceful, and enterprising people who transformed a rough, saloon-filled railroad stop into a strong and thriving community. 

Chronicling the visual history of the design, construction and launch of the lunar module - one of the most historic machines in human history.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced his plans for landing a man on the moon by 1970 - despite the fact that the United States had a total of just 15 minutes of spaceflight experience up to that point. With that announcement, the space race had officially begun. In 1962, after a strenuous competition, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation of Bethpage, Long Island, had won the contract to build the lunar module - the spacecraft that would take Americans to the moon. This was the first and only vehicle designed to take humans from one world to another.

Although much has been written about the first men to set foot on the moon, those first hesitant steps would not have been possible without the efforts of the designers and technicians assigned to Project Apollo. Building Moonships: The Grumman Lunar Module tells the story of the people who built and tested the lunar modules that were deployed on missions as well as the modules that never saw the light of day.

Allentown State Hospital, formerly known as the Homoeopathic State Hospital for the Insane at Allentown, was the first homeopathic state hospital for the treatment of the mentally ill in Pennsylvania.

On October 3, 1912, under the direction of its superintendent, Dr.Henry I. Klopp, the hospital opened its doors to receiving patients. In 1930, Dr. Klopp opened a children’s ward on the hospital’s grounds, one of the first of its kind in the world.Built to alleviate overcrowding in the state mental health system, the hospital quickly exceeded its own occupancy. By 1954, the population of the hospital hit its peak of 2,107 patients. However, Allentown State Hospital would consistently pioneer change in the mental health system until its closure in 2010. In 1993, a dedicated group of employees created the Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) process to provide a safer response to supporting patients in crisis.By 1998, this approach helped put the spotlight on Allentown State Hospital when it became the first hospital in the United States to go seclusion free.

Steven Royer is a local resident of the Lehigh Valley and supporter of preservation efforts for the adaptive reuse of the property over the alternative choice of demolition. Throughout his studies, he has reviewed over 1,000 documents and has dedicated many hours to talking with both staff and patients of the former hospital. Many of the images contained in this book come from their personal collections and aim to provide an inside view of one of the most progressive mental health hospitals in the United States.

Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) was carved from the environs of Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, at the height of the Cold War with the former Soviet Union.

Originally, the area was a center for cotton production and large mills, but on the eve of World War II, civic leaders sought a US Army initiative that established Redstone and Huntsville Arsenals for the manufacture and stockpile of small solid-fuel rockets and chemical weapons.After World War II, Operation Paperclip brought scientists and engineers from Germany to pursue missile and rocket development at Redstone Arsenal’s Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) and eventually the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). After establishing the civilian NASA on July 29, 1958, Pres. Dwight D.Eisenhower dedicated the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center on September 8, 1960, to the resolute general, statesman, and “builder of peace.” The president concluded, “May this great center be ever worthy of its honored name.” Following the Mercury and Apollo programs of the 1960s and early 1970s, MSFC’s notable achievements continued with Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Space Shuttle, Spacelab, and the space station. Today, Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA’s leading center for propulsion systems and launch vehicles, supports the lunar missions of Project Artemis.

Cindy Donze Manto, a historian, urban planner, and the author of Michoud Assembly Facility and Stennis Space Center, has assembled a compilation of photographic images and maps culled from an array of libraries, museums, private collections, and NASA.

Florida's Space Coast and its explosion into the 20th century thrust these beach towns into the modern age and paved the way for America's space exploration.

Florida's Space Coast is an area that got its name from one of the most exciting times in United States history. Settlers were living in Brevard County as far back as the 1800s, and even after World War II, it was still a quiet place to live. Cities and beach towns along 74 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline were thrust into the modern age in the early 1950s, when rockets began lighting up the skies above them. The space race had begun, the nation would set a path to put men on the moon, and Florida would become the backdrop for this thrilling chapter of American history. The area's population surged with over 200,000 new residents, and things would never be the same. It was a time when people risked their lives for space exploration, and a community came together to make it happen.

Essex County Overbrook Hosptial details the history of this institution which had its beginnings as an asylym.

What was founded as the Essex County Lunacy Asylum evolved from a single building on South Orange Avenue to a city within itself in Cedar Grove. It was named the Essex County Overbrook Hospital. Construction began on the hospital's iconic brick buildings in 1896, and they were prominent features on Fairview Avenue for the next 100 years. The facility produced its own food, housed its own police and fire departments, and sustained its own power sources. The Essex County Overbrook Hospital was recognized throughout the world as a leader in psychiatric care. In later years, overcrowding began to plague the institution. However, after the advent of modern psychiatric drugs, many patients were able to be discharged back into the community. In 2007, the buildings were closed, and the hospital was relocated to a newer establishment nearby. The grounds have since been plagued with vandalism and neglect, with a final deal for demolition having been solidified in 2015.

Pittsburgh's Bridges takes a comprehensive look at the design, construction, and, sometimes, demolition of the bridges that shaped Pittsburgh, ranging from the covered bridges of yesterday to those that  define the skyline today.

Pittsburgh is the City of Bridges, and what remarkable bridges they are! The area's challenging topography of deep ravines and mighty rivers - the Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio - set the stage for engineers, architects, and contractors to conquer the terrain with a variety of distinctive spans. Many were designed to be beautiful as well as functional. While other cities may have one signature bridge, Pittsburgh has such a wide variety that no single bridge can represent it.

The story of the bridge that transformed Maryland's Eastern Shore from a sleepy backwater to a major tourism destination and caused an economic boom in Baltimore in the west.

When it opened to traffic in 1952, the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge - simply called the Chesapeake Bay Bridge - was the third-longest bridge in the world. The four-mile long span was constructed over the Chesapeake Bay in a dramatic 2.5-year period of progress that became known to the workers as Operation Link, because it would be the first physical connection between the two widely separated parts of Maryland. Today, the two spans - the original Bay Bridge from 1952 and the parallel span built alongside it in 1973 - are towering architectural landmarks along the East Coast of the United States.

The Hudson River bridges, iconic structures of the New York State Bridge Authority, are the cornerstone of the Mid-Hudson Valley.

Opened in 1924, the Bear Mountain Bridge was the first vehicular crossing of the Hudson River, south of Albany. Twentieth-century growth in the Hudson Valley can be traced to each bridge opening, the result of grassroot efforts by local residents. The Mid-Hudson Bridge, named for the region these bridges span, was designated an “Engineering Epic” following the tipping of the east caisson that delayed construction for a year while engineers and laborers struggled to right that caisson in the waters of the Hudson River. The plan for the Rip Van Winkle Bridge required the creation of the New York State Bridge Authority, when funding was otherwise impossible during the Great Depression. Three more bridges were built connecting remaining areas of the Mid-Hudson region.The last crossing became the “twin spans” of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, the New York State Bridge Authority’s most traveled span. In 2010, the New York State Bridge Authority gained ownership of the bridge structure of the Walkway Over the Hudson, a pedestrian walkway built on the old Poughkeepsie Bridge, which opened for trains in 1889.

Kathryn W. Burke, educator, author, and director of Historic Bridges of the Hudson Valley, shares her appreciation and knowledge of these bridges through photograph archives of the New York State Bridge Authority; the Modjeski & Masters, Inc., engineering firm; and the Smithsonian Museum of American History. This is Burke’s second book on the Hudson River bridges.

For nearly 80 years, Pennhurst State School and Hospital was a reminder of how society viewed and treated people with intellectual disabilities.

Over its existence, Pennhurst was home to more than 10,600 people. Many spent decades there, working to keep the institution running by performing various jobs. While some enjoyed the lives they had fashioned for themselves at Pennhurst, for many others, life there was crushing. Pennhurst also played a central role in the lives of its employees and in the rural Pennsylvania community where it was located. Controversy plagued the institution for its entire existence, and it is remembered primarily as a place where bad things happened. However, it was much more than that. This book provides a window into that separate world, reminding those who were part of it of what they saw and did there and giving those who know only what they have heard or seen a different picture of what Pennhurst truly was.

New Hampshire Covered Bridges is a photographic study of the state's enclosed wooden spans that date from as far back as 1827. The book contains rare photographs of historic bridges that no longer exist, as well as pictures of many that still stand today. The images are accompanied by detailed information about the design and construction of covered bridges and the men who built them. Each bridge has its own life story. Some have defied floods and hurricanes and still stand; others have fallen victim to nature or arson or the demands of modern transportation.

The remarkable story of the people who built the Conowingo Dam brick by brick and bill by bill, and the impact that goes on today.

Second in size only to the massive hydroelectric works at Niagara Falls, the Conowingo Dam across the Susquehanna River was celebrated as a miraculous feat of modern engineering when it opened in 1928. The dam was built with astonishing speed and efficiency and completed on budget and ahead of schedule, and its generators came on line at the very crescendo of the Roaring Twenties, when the race toward electrification was changing American life. The hydro dams of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams in the Pacific Northwest, and the great colossus of Hoover Dam were all constructed in the next two decades, but handsome, indomitable Conowingo Dam preceded them all and remains in effective operation to this very day.

Route 128 and the Birth of the Age of High Tech tells the intertwining stories of the construction of the nation's first circumferential beltway and the burgeoning high-tech industries of Massachusetts, which helped spawn the modern age of personal computers, the Internet, and biotechnology.

The Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, held during the summer of 1909, was the first world's fair held in Seattle.

Capitalizing on the popularity of the booming gold rush, the exposition was designed to showcase the riches of the Pacific Northwest and highlight trade with the Pacific Rim nations and beyond. Millions of visitors came to Seattle to experience the one-of-a-kind attractions, exhibits, and events held during the AYPE, which became the footprint for the modern University of Washington campus. Many of these visitors stayed to populate the growing metropolis. From the ornate European-style architecture to the fountains and gardens, the amusements of the Pay Streak, and the exotic Oriental exhibits, the AYPE entertained and educated while bringing needed business to Washington State.

Located in northwest Wisconsin and surrounded by Beaver Dam Lake, the city of Cumberland is known as the "Island City." The lake was known to the local Ojibwa tribe as Che-wa-cum-ma-towangok, or "Lake Made by the Beavers."

With over 1,100 acres of open water, the lake's resources brought in loggers to cut the big stands of timber to be milled into wood that would build the northern part of Wisconsin. Soon, an influx of Italian immigrants called Cumberland home, creating one of the largest communities of people of Italian descent in the entire state. The early pioneer families - Miller, Hines, and Ritan - had established stores, mercantile businesses, and livery stables to help the community grow. Over the years, many notable people have come from the area, including Olympic gold medal wrestlers John and Ben Peterson, statesman Thomas St. Angelo, and football standout Julius Alphonse. Stokely Foods, Ardisam, and 3M also call the area home. When the railroads came, the town became a destination for settlement and agriculture. After the timber industry moved away, the community became a popular place for summer cottages and homes.

The innovative Benjamin Franklin Bridge, originally named the Delaware River Bridge, was constructed to connect the cities of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey.

For a time after its opening on July 1, 1926, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, with a main span of 1,750 feet. The Benjamin Franklin Bridge contains many rarely seen images of the bridge's planning and construction, the individuals who helped make the concept of the bridge a reality, and the workers who built it. The bridge has undergone many changes in the decades since its opening, and these vintage photographs trace its evolution, illustrating the bridge's endurance as a symbol of the Philadelphia-Camden metropolitan area.

From its art deco architectural design to its historic integrity and preservation, Floyd Bennett Fieldis a must-have for, aviation, and New York history enthusiasts.

Although New York City was slowly recognizing the need for a municipal airport in the late 1920s, it sought to regain prominence by constructing the most advanced airport of its day.

Construction in the far reaches of Brooklyn was started on October 29, 1929, the day of the stock market crash that heralded the Great Depression. The airport was named posthumously for Floyd Bennett, a Brooklyn native, Navy pilot, and Medal of Honor winner. Unfortunately, because of many factors—including poor timing, politics, and remoteness from Manhattan—the airfield was a commercial failure. Its advanced features, however, made it a mecca for private aircraft and the site of numerous record-breaking flights.

Aviation historian Richard V. Porcelli, author of Arcadia Publishing's NAS Atlantic Cityand numerous articles, tells how the Navy became an early tenant in a move that would impact the airfield's destiny. In 1941, the Navy's presence led to the establishment of NAS New York, which played a key role in the wartime delivery of planes from numerous area factories. After the war, it served as an important Naval Air Reservebase until its closure in 1971.

Between 1824 and 1840, Florida’s government functioned out of several log cabins and rented rooms in the newly established territorial capital of Tallahassee. In 1839, the federal government gave $20,000 to construct a permanent capitol building; the bones of the structure were laid by enslaved craftsmen. The first session took place in 1841, and additional funds requested each year ensured the capitol was complete when Florida entered the Union as the 27th state on March 3, 1845. Over the years, four significant capitol expansions reflected the needs of a growing state until a new and modern Capitol Complex, designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone, was completed in 1977. The aging former capitol was slated for demolition until the people of Florida spoke out in a successful campaign to save the historic building and restore it to its 1902 appearance. Highlighting the photographic collection of the State Archives of Florida, Florida’s Historic Capitol Building reveals stories about the state’s political past, the development of a capital city, and the legacy of an iconic Florida building.

Readers who want a distinct and compelling look at the nation's first state prior to the building of Interstate 95 will enjoy the insight provided into Wilmington.

Interstate 95 was constructed as part of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, signed into law by Pres. Dwight Eisenhower. Francis “Frank” Victor du Pont (1894–1962), son of T. Coleman du Pont, who gave Delaware the DuPont Highway, was the US commissioner of the Bureau of Public Roads from 1953 to 1955. Frank du Pont was a key figure in promoting a national highway and for championing the need for this new interstate system to access city centers. This “Center City” requirement came into play when a lame duck Wilmington City Council on June 21, 1957, approved placing the interstate between Adams and Jackson Streets, essentially cleaving the city and ignoring various protest groups who favored a route east of the city.

Wilmington before Interstate 95 is author William Francis’s sixth book for Arcadia Publishing, all dedicated to the history of the First State. The book contains images primarily from the Delaware State Public Archives dated in the 1950s and early 1960s, highlighting west Wilmington and the neighborhoods demolished for the interstate as well as a city history and the downtown area from this bygone era. 

The town of Stoddard, located in the Monadnock Region of southwest New Hampshire, is blessed with a handsomely severe landscape of forests, lakes, and hills admired for their natural beauty. Hundreds of farm families settled in the town between 1768 and 1820. When the rock-laden and thin-soiled farms failed in the mid-1800s, the town turned to industry to survive. An extensive woodenware industry and a nationally known glass industry provided employment through the 19th century. Those industries also failed by the early 20th century, and the town’s population toppled by more than 90 percent. The introduction of the automobile revived the community, allowing families to easily visit the town’s numerous lakes and ponds. Stoddard became a tourist destination as the 20th century progressed. Today, two-thirds of the land area has been conserved as natural open space, most of it available for public use. Stoddard’s natural beauty and unaltered historic character are enjoyed by visitors and a growing population of permanent residents.

Logging in Wisconsin explores the 70 years when logging ruled the state, covering the characters who worked in forests and on rivers, the tools they used, and the places where they lived and worked.

Wisconsin was the perfect setting for the lumber industry: acres of white pine forests (acquired through treaties with American Indians) and rivers to transport logs to sawmills. From 1840 to 1910, logging literally reshaped the landscape of Wisconsin, providing employment to thousands of workers. The lumber industry attracted businessmen, mills, hotels, and eventually the railroad. This led to the development of many Wisconsin cities, including Eau Claire, Oshkosh, Stevens Point, and Wausau. Rep. Ben Eastman told Congress in 1852 that the Wisconsin forests had enough lumber to supply the United States for all time to come. Sadly, this was a grossly overestimated belief, and by 1910, the Wisconsin forests had been decimated.

At its opening in 1964, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was named one of the Five Wonders of the Modern World by Reader's Digest magazine.

It was the culmination of a concerted, decade-long push by a group of men, led by Lucius J. Kellam Jr., an Eastern Shore native and businessman who dreamed of opening up the remote Eastern Shore to the bustling Virginia mainland. This $200-million, 17.6-mile-long series of bridges, tunnels, islands, and trestle in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay - long dismissed as impractical and even impossible - won the attention of the world at its opening. It also brought an abrupt end to the ferry service that was long a cornerstone of the New York-to-Florida Ocean Highway, shuttling millions of cars between the Eastern Shore and Hampton Roads.

From the American Railroad to Space - Discover the fascinating history of the Michoud Assembly Facility.

After an auspicious beginning as a royal land grant from French king Louis XV to a wealthy French citizen of New Orleans in 1763, the land Michoud Assembly Facility occupies remained in private ownership until 1940, when it was sold to the US government. Prior to World War II, the site was used to grow sugar, hunt muskrat, and build railroad and telephone lines. In 1941, the world's largest industrial site was built, covering 43 acres of unobstructed, low-humidity, air-cooled space under one roof to construct C-46 cargo planes. The Korean War required the assembly of Sherman and Patton tanks there, while the space race compelled the design and assembly of the colossal Saturn I, IB, and V rocket boosters for the Apollo program that reported directly to Dr. Wernher von Braun. The 1970s saw the fabrication of the enormous external tank for the Space Shuttle program. Today, Michoud Assembly Facility continues to support the US space program by building major components for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (or MPCV).

Readers interested in the founding, innerworkings, and incredible process of mining will thoroughly enjoy reading about the history of one of the largest excavations in the world, Bingham Canyon Mine.

The history of Bingham Canyon Mine began in 1863 with the discovery of ore. It was Daniel Jackling’s idea to mass-produce low-grade copper with steam shovels and trains. The start-up of open-cut mining took place in 1906. Its success made the site the richest on earth. The story of the Bingham Canyon Mine is about constant movement and change, innovations, and improvements. Mining techniques were always improving; steam shovels and trains were converted to electric, then to diesel locomotives, and later to large mining trucks and conveyor systems. The mine expanded, and the work created the largest excavation on earth, one of the few man-made structures that can be seen from space. 

Tim Dumas loves the history of Bingham Canyon, and his motto is “Keep Bingham’s history alive.” His first book, Bingham Canyon, takes the reader on a trip up Bingham Canyon and highlights each community that once filled this now buried canyon. Many of the images and much of the information in Bingham Canyon Mineare from the Don Strack collection found at utahrails.net.

From Macon to Hawkinsville, the history of Georgia's once thriving textile mills is documented in this visual history.

Cotton was once king throughout Georgia. Reconstruction investors and railroad tycoons saw this potential to open textile mills in the South instead of sending cotton up North. Towns across Central Georgia became a prime spot to locate textile mills because of the access to cotton from local farms, cheap labor, and nearby rivers to power the mills. Textile mills were operated in cities and towns across Central Georgia such as Macon, Columbus, Augusta, Tifton, Forsyth, Porterdale, and Hawkinsville, among others. The textile mills provided employment and sometimes a home in their villages to people across Georgia as the agrarian lifestyle gave way to industrial expansion. In these mills, photographer Lewis Hine captured iconic images of child labor. After the decline of production and closing of the mills, many have been revived into new usages that honor the legacy of the mill workers and their families who lived in the villages of the textile mills across Central Georgia.

In Plymouth and Northwestern Amador County mother and daughter authors Deborah Coleen Cook and Amy Elizabeth Champ present a look into the chronological past of the region from the native Miwok people to the 21st century with photographs gleaned from local families and historic repositories.

Situated near the Sierra Nevada foothills in the northwestern region of Amador County is the small town of Plymouth. This hamlet, and other surrounding towns such as Drytown, Fiddletown, and River Pines, have been home to farmers, ranchers, and merchants since the early days of the California Gold Rush. Plymouth, known to be the gateway to the world-famous Shenandoah Valley wine country, is a thriving community with a hometown feel. History lives here, from the aged buildings along Main Street to the ruins of the Plymouth-Consolidated Mine, one of the largest gold producers in California.

Cook, a retired historic archaeologist and former Amador County archivist, spent much of her professional career studying the history of Amador County and is a former longtime resident of Plymouth. Champ has been a resident of Plymouth since obtaining her doctoral degree at the University of California at Davis. She currently teaches in Amador County.

Hudson River Bridges documents how these structures remain beautiful testaments to cooperative efforts during trying times in America's history.

The Hudson River Valley, an invaluable connection between New England and the rest of the colonies during the American Revolution, continues to be a major crossroads today. The Hudson River bridges were architectural marvels of their time. The Bear Mountain Bridge was the longest suspension bridge, while the Newburgh Beacon second span was built with a new type of weathering steel. The bridges were constructed during important times in history. The Bear Mountain Bridge was built as the automobile became an integral part in the country's development, and the Mid-Hudson Bridge was built during the Depression. Labor disputes helped develop labor laws, and world wars led to changes in activity on the bridges.

Seattle is situated in a region of outstanding scenic beauty, but the forested hills and numerous bodies of water that characterize the city were formidable obstacles to connecting its communities as it grew out from the historic center.

Between 1896 and 1930, the city undertook massive landscape regrades, landfills, and waterway cuts to ease movement by land and water.The completion of these efforts allowed for the construction of Seattle’s first permanent steel bridges beginning in 1910.Nine bridges included in this book are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.They include Washington’s oldest steel arch bridge, the 1911 Twelfth Avenue South Bridge; the 1913 Ravenna Park Bridge; all four of the Lake Washington Ship Canal bascules, constructed between 1917 and 1924; and the Depression-era Aurora, Cowen Park, and Schmitz Park bridges.Bridges of Seattle explores the history of the spans that are a quintessential part of the Seattle experience.