The History Press

Veteran guide and creator of the popular Sinners and Scandals of Laurel Hill Cemetery tour, Thomas H. Keels tells the spellbinding stories of thirteen unforgettable characters and unfolds Laurel Hill’s special place in Quaker City history.

Upon its founding in 1836, Laurel Hill Cemetery became the place to spend eternity for many of Philadelphia’s great and good, but alongside the luminaries interred in this Victorian necropolis lie shadier figures.

Philadelphia girl Mabel Tinley became one of the biggest grifters in Gay Nineties New York. Civil War general Henry Morris Naglee was denounced in the press as “a slayer of innocence and a robber of chastity.” The grisly death of Martha Drinnan, spinster daughter of the cemetery superintendent, remains an enduring mystery.

Veteran guide and creator of the popular Sinners and Scandals of Laurel Hill Cemetery tour Thomas H. Keels tells the spellbinding stories of thirteen unforgettable characters and reveals Laurel Hill's special place in Quaker City history.

Move over, Jersey Devil. A new generation of thrilling—and true!—stories is here to raise South Jersey’s shock factor.

Largely lost to time, these stunners include Atco’s dizzying love dreams, Camden’s underground mystical labyrinth, Glassboro’s UFO frenzy, and the origin of the “cursed” Deptford portion of Route 55. This gripping journey through New Jersey’s southernmost counties also offers views of an escaped show lion, a fatal family love triangle, and the young woman who hoodwinked Camden newspapers before going on to threaten the free world as Nazi propagandist “Axis Sally.”

Local author Danielle L. Burrows collected and researched these happenings and presents them here with detail and aplomb.

November 13, 1925, marked the third miserably cold and dreary day on the campus of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Early that morning the girls at Park House made a horrible discovery. A senior girl, Jeanne Robeson, lay dead on the floor of her kitchenette, the apparent victim of gas asphyxiation.

Later that afternoon, a second tragedy loomed as the girls at Clark House became aware that one of their housemates was missing. Alice Corbett of Utica, New York, walked away from Clark House and simply vanished. Her disappearance was front-page news in every paper in the northeast. 

With the death of one girl on campus and the disappearance of another, the press at first speculated that the two cases were somehow connected. The police, on the other hand, had other theories to investigate: was the Alice Corbett case a suicide, a runaway or an elopement? Did she suffer a nervous breakdown due to academic difficulties, or was her personal life dealt a staggering blow by a onetime boyfriend? 

Join author James M. Greiner as he unravels the details behind this cold case. 

Explore the spooky side of Havre de Grace, one of Maryland's most historic towns.

Since its founding in 1785, the historic town of Havre de Grace has weathered its share of tragedy. Over the centuries, loss, hardship, and untold sorrow have left this eighteenth‑century gem alive with restless spirits and unexplained supernatural phenomena. Among the town’s most haunting legends is that of a mysterious woman of the night said to drift silently across the third floor of the American Legion building. Unable to let go after a violent death, a young lady’s spirit roams the State Theater. On foggy nights, strange figures are seen drifting along the waterfront. Lights flicker in buildings untouched by time. And the river—always moving, always murmuring—seems to carry voices from the past.

Step into the shadows with Lisa Unruh-Lopez to explore the chilling stories of Havre de Grace.

Haunting stories of the bloodiest single day in American history.

In 1862, the Antietam Battlefield ran red with blood. Spanning the fields, ridges, lanes, and bridge crossings of Sharpsburg, Maryland—from the East Woods and West Woods to Bloody Lane, Burnside Bridge, and the Antietam National Cemetery—more than 160 years of eyewitness accounts, folklore, and unexplained encounters have emerged from that deadly day.

Nearly twenty-three thousand soldiers were recorded as killed, wounded, or missing, and there are many whose spirits reportedly still linger. One is reportedly a spectral drummer boy, often identified as Private Charlie King of the 49th Pennsylvania Volunteers, who was just thirteen years old when he died. General Mansfield is rumored to eternally travel up Smoketown Road, re-creating his final ride before he succumbed to a mortal wound. A ghostly woman in black haunts the Bloody Lane, and shadowy figures can sometimes be seen around Burnside Bridge and the old Piper farm.

Author Mark P. Brugh explores the powerful intersection of history, memory, and the supernatural across one of America’s most storied landscapes.

Containing stories from the historical record and interviews with today's practitioners, Maryland Witchcraft has a little something for the history buff, the modern wiccan, and the merely curious alike.

In the dark history of witchcraft in America, other states dominate the popular mind, but Maryland, too, has blood on its hands.

Found guilty of witchcraft, Rebecca Fowler met her death by hanging. If she had been accused in a different colony, the end would perhaps have been different, but in Maryland, witchcraft meant death. The end was not so quick for Moll Dyer. Chased out of her house by fearful neighbors, she fled into the bitter winter night. Facing similar accusations, Hannah Edwards and Virtue Violl stood trial but escaped such a dire fate.

Drawing on stories of ancient witchcraft and shamanism and accounts of European witch trials, author Trish Hoffman unfolds the history of Maryland witches from the colonial era to the present day.

Celebrate fifty defining moments in Pennsylvania sports history.

Few states in the nation can boast as vibrant and fascinating a sports heritage as Pennsylvania. With the Immaculate Reception, Franco Harris transformed a struggling Steelers franchise into a legendary one. On the other side of the state, the Philadelphia Flyers once struck a symbolic blow during the Cold War by overwhelming CSKA Moscow. The origins of pro football possibly lie in Greensburg, and an NFL title was “stolen” in Pottsville. The greatest college football team no one’s ever heard of hails from Carlisle, and college football’s oldest rivalry still rages between Lafayette and Lehigh. The most dominant performance ever in professional basketball took place in Hershey, where the great Wilt Chamberlain poured in one hundred points in a single game.

Historians David Finoli and Tom Rooney bring these stories—and many more—to life in this thrilling ride through all things sports in the Keystone State. 

Explore the Shore on the Silver Screen

From the boardwalk to the bay, the Jersey Shore boasts a rich but somewhat overlooked history of filmmaking along its 130 miles of beautiful coastline.

Atlantic City, the Garden State’s most iconic town, has been featured in dozens of critically acclaimed films, including The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), Atlantic City (1980), and Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). Asbury Park, though largely known for its music scene, has graced the screen in numerous films, music videos, and television shows set and produced within the city’s mere 1.61 square miles of land and water, including The Wrestler (2008), I Saw the TV Glow (2024), and Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025). Cinematic gems like Coyote Ugly (2000), Amityville Horror (1979), A Complete Unknown (2024), and many others were produced on location from South Amboy to Cape May. And of course, there is Kevin Smith, the Red Bank native whose cinematic love letters to his home state helped change the face of independent film.

Marci Mazzarotto profiles more than 140 films, spanning 110 years, along with sundry TV shows and music videos that contribute to the richness of Jersey Shore’s film history. 

On the Jersey Shore, the Revolutionary War was more than a contest between the Continental and British Armies. In this neglected region, locals divided into pro- and anti-independence camps that fought a tumultuous six-year war only intermittently tied to the larger conflict. This war brought unprecedented economic opportunity to the Jersey Shore’s formerly poor and secluded villages, as locals risked their savings on speculative salt-making ventures and risked their lives in privateer vessels. British ships bound for New York were hunted by smaller vessels lurking in shore inlets. Local leaders sought to find and punish stealthy “London Traders” smuggling provisions behind British lines, and militia battled so-called Pine Robber gangs that frequently bested them.

Richly documenting and vividly narrating these events and others, award-winning historian Michael Adelberg explores the shore’s roll in America’s war for independence. 

Read about the stories and characters of Asbury Park during its down years and the events and people that led to its resurgence.

By the 1980s, Asbury Park was left for dead. The once vaunted beach town had emptied out. Redevelopment efforts were derailed by economic upheaval, incompetence, or the slow workings of the judicial system. The city seemed destined to be a cautionary tale. But not everyone left, just as not everyone stayed away.

Henry Vaccaro made his best effort, Domenic Santana resurrected the Stone Pony, and even Tillie remains thanks to Debbie DeLisa, Lance Larson and Kevin Feehan bringing back Wonder Bar at the right time. The counterculture that drew bohemians and artists made for the perfect atmosphere that allowed Jenn Hampton to turn a bowling alley into a music venue.

William Clark recounts how Asbury Park came back to life through the stories of the people who helped its resurgence. 

The Battle for North America

In the mid-1750s, New York was caught in the crossfire as the British and French struggled for control of North America. During the French and Indian War, the Adirondack Mountain region saw numerous military encounters around Lakes George and Champlain while Sir William Johnson, Robert Rogers, John Stark, Phineas Lyman, and others carved their names in the annals of American history. Powerful fortifications rose and fell as the English and the French brawled; forts such as Fort William Henry, Fort Ticonderoga, and Fort Saint-Frederic/Fort Crown Point housed troops, endured sieges, and received their own battle scars over the course of the war. Author Marie Danielle Annette Williams uncovers the complex history of the Adirondacks during its most tumultuous time.  

From the Roaring Twenties to a Rock 'N' Roll Landmark

Since it opened in 1925, the Gramercy Park Hotel has always been one of New York’s premiere cultural hotspots. Early in its history it served as the backdrop to Humphrey Bogart’s first marriage and housed a young John F. Kennedy. Soon Babe Ruth was a regular at the bar, and Joe DiMaggio was feted there. Most famous, perhaps, was the period in the 1970s, when rock ’n’ roll royalty dubbed the hotel “the Glamercy,” and acts such as the Clash, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Madonna, and more stayed “on the way up or on the way down.” The hotel’s history also includes the harrowing personal story of the Weissberg family who owned it for many years and lived there. Author Max Weissberg reveals an inside look at the hotel’s storied past as a rock ’n’ roll muse and a New York icon. 

Join author Alison Fortier for a walk through our United States Capital and its iconic locations. 

This tour of the nation’s capital goes beyond the traditional guidebook to offer a historical journey through the federal district. Visit the White House, the only executive home in the world regularly open to the public. Travel to President Lincoln’s Cottage and see where he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. Look around lesser-known sites, such as the grave of Pierre L’Enfant, the city’s Botanical Gardens, the Old Post Office and a host of historical homes throughout the capital. From George Washington’s Mount Vernon to the Kennedy Center, trek through each era of Washington, D.C., for a tour of America’s most beloved sites. Join author and Washington insider Alison Fortier as she curates a revised and updated expedition to our shining city on a hill.

Sink your teeth into this frankly delicious history of Rippers, Texas Wieners, and other iconic dogs of the Garden State.

Any local will tell you New Jersey is home to a surprising number of unique local and regional hot dog styles. Chili-drenched hot Texas wieners in Paterson. Potato-packed Newark-style Italian dogs at Jimmy Buff’s. Dirty water pushcart franks topped with mustard and sauerkraut and juicy MOP dogs (that's mustard, onion, and pickle) like the ones served at Hot Dog Johnny's. The origins of New Jersey's iconic hot dogs begin well over a century ago and include obscure holes-in-the-wall and world-famous roadside stands like the historic Rutt’s Hut.

A fun deep dive for foodies, travelers, and local history buffs, author Mark Neurohr-Pierpaoli’s travel guide to the history and traditions of New Jersey's hot dog serving styles is your next great bite!

Spirits of the Deep

The maritime tragedies of the Jersey Shore reveal the terror of North Atlantic hurricanes, the high price of human failure, and the dreadful consequences of mutiny and murder. But this sad and dark history also has a haunting side. Immigrants perished just miles from their destinations, their dreams of a new life dashed, and well-heeled passengers aboard posh vessels never saw land again. Yet all their cries still echo shoreward to this day. Destroyed by fire or mysterious mishaps, ocean liners still travel the waters they sank beneath many years ago.

Through numerous accounts of hauntings and unique maritime apparitions, New Jersey author Patricia Heyer introduces the ghosts of the Shore’s spine-tingling maritime folklore.

From daring escapes and naval skirmishes to the resilience of everyday people, The Revolution on Raritan Bay reveals how this region’s sacrifices and conflicts influenced the outcome of America’s independence.

Raritan Bay was more than a body of water during the American Revolution—it was a front line. Its villages, farms, and ports became places where Patriots, Loyalists, and those in between clashed in a struggle that reshaped the colonies. Smugglers, privateers, and spies used its waters and inlets to move men, messages, and supplies. Families were torn apart, neighbors eyed one another with suspicion, and violent raids brought the war directly to the doorsteps of New Jersey residents.

Historian and television host John R. Schneider uncovers these overlooked stories, weaving together local accounts with the broader fight for liberty. 

Discover and celebrate the heritage of Cape May County's revolutionary patriots.

Descendants of whalers and those accustomed to hard living, the people of Cape May County served their emerging country on land and sea. They fought in the Continental army and the local militia at places like Brandywine and Germantown, and they fought at sea and on Delaware Bay, mostly as privateers. Their activities devilled the vaunted British navy and damaged the British war effort. Men like the Stillwell brothers, Nicholas and Enoch, prowled the waters around Egg Harbor and Peck’s Beach. Others, like successful Philadelphia lawyer and merchant Thomas Leaming, financed privateer ventures at the risk of losing everything.

Cape May County author Ray Rebmann tells the story of the roles played by local men and women in securing America’s liberty. 

For more than 200 years, Great Lakes shipyards have bolstered America's and Canada’s commercial and naval power.

Vessels like the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Niagara, and Walk-in-the-Water are now the stuff of legend, but lesser-known ships also have their stories to tell. Cargo-carrying schooners, such as Moonlight and Minnedosa, got faster and bigger over the years, helping them hold their own against the emerging steamships, while the revolutionary design of the R.J. Hackett set the standard for lake freighters for years. Of course, the Great Lakes have often exacted a heavy toll, as demonstrated by the mysterious disappearance of the Griffon and the harrowing sinking of Pere Marquette 18.

Highlighting vessels from the colonial era down to modern times, historian Glenn A. Knoblock explores the maritime heritage of America and Canada.

Sink your teeth into this frankly delicious history of Rippers, Texas Wieners, and other iconic dogs of the Garden State.

Any local will tell you that the Garden State is home to a surprising number of unique local and regional hot dog styles. Chili-drenched hot Texas wieners in Paterson. Potato-packed Newark-style Italian dogs at Jimmy Buff’s. Dirty water pushcart franks topped with mustard and sauerkraut. And juicy M.O.P. dogs (that's mustard, onion, and pickle) like the ones served at Hot Dog Johnny's. The origins of New Jersey's iconic hot dogs begin well over a century ago and include obscure holes-in-the-wall and world-famous roadside stands like the historic Rutt’s Hut.

A fun deep dive for foodies, travelers, and local history buffs, author Mark Neurohr-Pierpaoli’s travel guide to the history and traditions of New Jersey's hot dog serving styles is your next great bite!

Explore the storied streets of Georgetown through the voices of those who’ve lived, loved, and built their lives there.

From its humble beginnings as a port town along the Potomac, the neighborhood has evolved into a place known for its historic architecture and beautiful gardens. It has also been the home of more than one famous name, including President Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Graham Bell, Jack and Jackie Kennedy, and Madeleine Albright. Today’s residents have their own memories of childhood adventures in Rose Park, quirky house history discoveries, and chance encounters at the legendary Martin’s Tavern. Locals from all walks of life share their stories of the people and places that have left their mark, from accidental parking sticker acquisitions to fondly remembered friends.

Author Marilyn Butler reveals how Georgetown has shaped—and been shaped by—those who call it home.

The murder that still haunts a Pennsylvania city

On the morning of August 8, 1975, sixteen-year-old Debbie Gama disappeared after leaving her home in Erie, only to be found dead days later in a creek nearly thirty miles from her home. What followed was an investigation that lacked suspects or even evidence pointing to a viable suspect. That is, until a private investigator named Dan Barber uncovered evidence leading directly to her killer: her English teacher, Raymond Payne. After Payne’s arrest, Debbie’s mother, Betty Ferguson, embarked on her own quest for justice, which unexpectedly led her on an incredible journey of forgiveness.

Utilizing newspaper articles, court documents and investigative files never before revealed, Justin Dombrowski presents a gripping narrative of one investigator’s pursuit of justice and a mother’s search for the truth.

Remembering two palaces of retail

For generations, Scranton’s two big department stores, The Globe Store and Oppenheim’s Scranton Dry Goods Company, affectionately known as “the Dry,” dominated retail in the Electric City. Facing each other on Wyoming Avenue, they created special memories for those who walked their sales floors with attractive displays, special events, community service and elaborate Christmas decorations. Many fondly recall the steamship round of beef carved to order at The Globe’s Charl-Mont Restaurant or waving to customers passing by on the escalator from the Dry’s mezzanine Tea Room. Together, the two stores brought the best the world had to offer to Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Join Scranton-area native Daniel J. Packer Jr. and step through the iconic revolving doors into a bygone era of shopping in grand style.

In this revised and expanded edition, a harrowing new arrest in the cold case, intense trial and key developments are presented alongside the original narrative.

Friday, August 15, 1975, began as a typical summer day in the suburbs. Young children played with their friends; adults prepared for work or planned for their vacation at the Jersey Shore...

That all changed in the hours before noon, when Gretchen Harrington, the eight-year-old daughter of a Presbyterian minister and his wife, was kidnapped while walking to a Vacation Bible School less than a quarter mile from her house. Her body was found by a jogger in a state park nearly two months later. The crime forever changed the lives of the children who were about Gretchen’s age and their parents, many of whom chose to live in Marple Township because they considered it a safe refuge from the crime-ridden streets of Philadelphia.

Journalists Mike Mathis and Joanna Falcone Sullivan examine the kidnapping, murder, nearly five-decade-long investigation.

Too few know of the screen legends from Ohio and the outsized impact the state had in establishing Hollywood as the filmmaking capital of the world.

Hollywood and Ohio are much closer than one might assume. Indeed, it could be argued that Hollywood is Ohio’s offspring. The original settlement was founded as a Christian community by a young lady from Ohio. That community was pushed aside when the fledgling New York City movie industry relocated to California to find refuge from Ohio’s own Thomas Edison and his monopoly on motion picture production. Native Ohioans such as Lillian Gish, Theda Bara, and Clark Gable also stepped into the early Hollywood spotlight. And the movie industry truly became that—an industry—when the Warner brothers from Youngstown introduced sound to films, making movies a significant form of entertainment worldwide.

Author Conrade C. Hinds unspools the deep and little-known connection between Hollywood and the Buckeye State.

A Century of Murder Upstate

Nestled in the heart of upstate New York, Steuben County’s rural scenery belies a sinister past.

Since the hanging of Robert Douglass in 1825, the county has been the center of a series of murders that resulted in controversial outcomes. Seaman Simons, part of an alleged love triangle, cheated his death sentence after killing his rival. “The Wayland Murderess” Mary Hess inexplicably shot her neighbor and brother within minutes of each other. David Dunn became the only person from the county to die in Auburn Prison’s electric chair, and Hugh Bray’s delusions about a young man breaking up his landlord’s home climaxed in a fatal scene.

R. Marcin, author of Murder and Mayhem in the Finger Lakes, presents a century of this picturesque county’s darkest history.

Explore the story of the birth and growth of Glenside, one of Philadelphia's oldest and most preeminent suburbs.

In 1857, the rutted Germantown & Willow Grove Turnpike passed through farmland as it crossed paths with the bustling North Penn Railroad. The community of Glenside would one day be the result of that crossing. A visitor getting off the train would see green vistas of rolling fields, tasseled corn, and lounging cows. Discovering the area in the mid-nineteenth century, wealthy industrialists constructed lavish country estates to escape the health perils of the city in the summer, and by the end of the century, enterprising developers had begun dividing the land into plots for respectable country homes for Philadelphia’s burgeoning middle class.

Historian Thomas J. Wieckowski tells the entertaining story of how one of Philadelphia’s first and most esteemed suburban communities grew from such humble beginnings.

Discover the history of Philadelphia's Quakers as they rose to power and prosperity and fell into peril.

Fleeing political upheavals in England for settlement in the New World, Quakers rose to unprecedented economic and political power in the Pennsylvania colony. However, the failure of the Quaker-dominated government to provide for defense in the wars from the 1730s into the 1760s was the beginning of their downfall. By the Revolution, their fortunes had waned, and they were brutally suppressed by their political foes. Seventeen influential Friends and three others were exiled to Virginia without so much as a hearing, and Quaker farms and businesses were subject to depredations. Labeled dissenters by Loyalist and Patriot alike, they stood their ground, alone and isolated.

Through the words of those who were there, author and historian Jeff Denman vividly describes the precipitous rise of the Philadelphia Quakers and their fall during the American Revolution.

Hidden History of Atlantic City tells the stories of the legendary nightspots, spectacular hotels and the glittering casinos of the real Boardwalk Empire.

For decades, Atlantic City was deservedly known as the queen of resorts. All the glitz and glamour imaginable shined on the boardwalk, where visitors of all ages enjoyed breathtaking views of a pristine beach overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The city by the sea had grand hotels, iconic restaurants, and amusement piers. Its nightclubs introduced Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis as a comedy team and booked stars like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and many more. As the city slipped from its one-time prosperity, its decay was on view nationally when it hosted the 1964 Democratic Convention, but when legalized gambling arrived in 1978, some of the legendary glamour returned.

Entertainment journalist, author, and jazz performer Bruce Klauber traces the incredible history of a city that’s been up and down and over and out—and up again.

Ossining, one of Westchester County’s oldest communities, holds a legacy as deep and layered as that of the Hudson River it borders.

The first incorporated village in Westchester County, Ossining is defined by a history of remarkable firsts: the county’s first newspaper, first volunteer fire department, first childcare facility, and first official American casualty of World War I, Edmond C. Genet. One of its most enduring symbols is the infamous Sing Sing Prison, established in 1825. Although its presence has left an indelible mark on the village’s identity, the prison remains just one chapter in Ossining’s rich and textured story.

In a book packed with rare details and “Portal to the Past” entries, local authors Scott Craven and Caroline Ranald Curvan reveal the rich history of this unique community.

George Washington and Alexandria recounts and celebrates the life, legacy, and leadership of the city's hometown hero and the father of the nation.

No other city in America had the impact that Alexandria had on George Washington’s personal life and professional career. From his first job as surveyor until the last day of his life, Washington was supported by his neighbors, friends, and family from Alexandria. Alexandrians helped make him the father of our nation. In return, Washington helped shape the city and, by extension, the new American nation.

Washington’s half brothers were the first landowners and trustees to the city of Alexandria, and prominent local families like the Fairfaxes were influential in Washington’s life. Alexandria merchants, John Carlyle, John Dalton, and William Ramsay, did business with Washington and supported him during the French and Indian War and Revolutionary War. During the Revolutionary War, other citizens like John Fitzgerald and Robert Harrison served as his aides de camp, and doctors like James Craik and William Brown served Washington and his family. After the war, Washington helped start the Alexandria Academy and the Potomac Company, and he was a shareholder in the Bank of Alexandria. He was an active member in Alexandria’s Christ Church.

While Washington’s home was Mount Vernon, his hometown was Alexandria. It was fitting that the city would celebrate his return from the Revolutionary War, see him off as president, and build enduring memorials to his legacy.

Revel at the tales of these locals boys from Southwestern Pennsylvania going west to seek their Sin City dreams.

As turmoil rocked New Castle in the 1970s, a group of young men completed their military service and came home to a bleak future. Without college degrees or marketable skills, they found few options in Western Pennsylvania. Looking for a better life, they turned their eyes west.

Las Vegas promised women, gambling, excitement, and the chance to make a buck. Over their decades on the floors of Sin City’s casinos, they would rub shoulders with gangsters and stars and keep a sharp eye out for opportunity—and for card counters.

Based on hours of exclusive interviews, author Dale Perelman unfolds this cavalier group’s frolicking adventures as they navigated their way from the belly of the downtown Golden Gate to some of the Strip’s premier casinos, all while teetering along the right side of the law.

With the opening of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in 1964, Staten Island was changed forever.

Sewers, schools, roadways, and even the politicians of New York City were not prepared for the onslaught of relocating Brooklyn residents who sought a rural lifestyle. Houses were bought as quickly as they were built. Schools were scrambling to find seats for thousands of newly arriving students. The antiquated sewer system of Staten Island could not handle the overload and there simply wasn't enough room for all of the septic tanks needed.

Who were the allies or adversaries of development? Who sought to make a meaningful plan for Staten Island's future?

Author Patricia Salmon examines the preparation, design, and opening of "The Bridge," as well as how it impacted the citizens of Staten Island during the next decade. 

Explore the history of our nation's capital through this history of its bridges.

In the late 1700s, the first bridges, now completely gone, connected the new Federal City to the outside world. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, more and bigger crossings arose to support industry, allow the expansion of suburbs, commemorate cultural and civic leaders, and enhance the aesthetics of the District’s waterfronts and parks. Although the city abandoned civic-minded, commemorative, and monumental constructions for utilitarian highway monoliths in the mid-twentieth century, a recent renaissance has seen a welcome shift to walkability and beauty instead of brute utility.

Using the city’s bridges as an index of the times, author and D.C. native Bob Dover tracks the growth, decay, and rebirth of the District from the 1750s to today.

Remembering two palaces of retail

For generations, Scranton’s two big department stores, The Globe Store and Oppenheim’s Scranton Dry Goods Company, affectionately known as “the Dry,” dominated retail in the Electric City. Facing each other on Wyoming Avenue, they created special memories for those who walked their sales floors with attractive displays, special events, community service and elaborate Christmas decorations. Many fondly recall the steamship round of beef carved to order at The Globe’s Charl-Mont Restaurant or waving to customers passing by on the escalator from the Dry’s mezzanine Tea Room. Together, the two stores brought the best the world had to offer to Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Join Scranton-area native Daniel J. Packer Jr. and step through the iconic revolving doors into a bygone era of shopping in grand style.

Possessed with a spirit of optimism and an innate gift for retailing savvy, entrepreneur William T. Grant revolutionized the nation’s retailing industry with the 1906 debut of his W.T. Grant Company department store in Lynn, Massachusetts. Taking aim at the lucrative yet untapped middle ground between the discount five-and-dime variety stores and traditional department stores of the era, he built a well-deserved reputation as the store “Known for Values.” Grants quickly became one of the nation’s fastest-growing and most beloved department store chains, encompassing 1,238 stores in forty-six states at its height in 1972. While the Grants stores are now just a fond memory, the legacy of William T. Grant continues to be remembered today, along with the vibrant philanthropic nonprofit William T. Grant Foundation, which he started in 1936.

Hoboken holds a unique place in American history that no city its size can match.

Originally an outpost of the Dutch empire, it grew into a hub of the Industrial Revolution, becoming synonymous with steam-powered ships and trains, the zipper and even Tootsie Rolls. Over the years, the city was home to some of the nation’s wealthiest and most notable people, including John Jacob Astor and Frank Sinatra, as well as to waterfront shacks and tenements filled with destitute immigrants. When hard times hit, industry and innovation vanished, leaving Hoboken a dilapidated factory town. But it recovered to become a bohemian enclave and a leader in urban renewal.

Join author and journalist Joseph Lauro as he traces the city’s remarkable past.

A Tale of Two Foes

After the Battle of Monmouth Court House, in June 1778, the Revolutionary War in Monmouth County devolved into skirmishes between local militias and British Loyalists. Chief among these warring factions were revered rebel hero Captain Joshua Huddy and his fierce rival, a runaway enslaved Black man called Colonel Tye, who fought for the British. Attempting to bring the captured Huddy to prison, Tye was killed in battle, and when Loyalists murdered Huddy without benefit of trial two years later, the resulting international outrage jeopardized Benjamin Franklin’s Paris peace treaty negotiations. Only when Marie Antoinette pleaded with George Washington to stop the retaliatory hanging of a young British lieutenant did the peace talks resume.

Author Rick Geffken reveals the stories of these two obscure enemies who died and rose to fame for their beliefs in independence.

Fires were a scourge in nineteenth-century New York, destroying personal property, prominent buildings and, in many cases, a sense of community. In Madison County, fires changed the community, included the mysterious burning of the Madison County Courthouse, the complete loss of business districts in both Canastota and Hamilton and the arsonist who terrorized Cazenovia for nearly five years. Fires destroyed the historic Gerrit Smith Mansion in Peterboro, the Munnsville Plow Company and Duffy-Mott in Bouckville, drastically affecting the future of the county. Madison County historian Matthew Urtz examines the fires, their causes and the economic and psychological impact they had on this peaceful community.

In this revised and expanded edition, a harrowing new arrest in the cold case, intense trial and key developments are presented alongside the original narrative.

Friday, August 15, 1975, began as a typical summer day in the suburbs. Young children played with their friends; adults prepared for work or planned for their vacation at the Jersey Shore...

That all changed in the hours before noon, when Gretchen Harrington, the eight-year-old daughter of a Presbyterian minister and his wife, was kidnapped while walking to a Vacation Bible School less than a quarter mile from her house. Her body was found by a jogger in a state park nearly two months later. The crime forever changed the lives of the children who were about Gretchen’s age and their parents, many of whom chose to live in Marple Township because they considered it a safe refuge from the crime-ridden streets of Philadelphia.

Journalists Mike Mathis and Joanna Falcone Sullivan examine the kidnapping, murder, nearly five-decade-long investigation.

Join author Alison Fortier for a walk through our United States Capital and its iconic locations. 

This tour of the nation’s capital goes beyond the traditional guidebook to offer a historical journey through the federal district. Visit the White House, the only executive home in the world regularly open to the public. Travel to President Lincoln’s Cottage and see where he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. Look around lesser-known sites, such as the grave of Pierre L’Enfant, the city’s Botanical Gardens, the Old Post Office and a host of historical homes throughout the capital. From George Washington’s Mount Vernon to the Kennedy Center, trek through each era of Washington, D.C., for a tour of America’s most beloved sites. Join author and Washington insider Alison Fortier as she curates a revised and updated expedition to our shining city on a hill.

After the 1776 Battle of White Plains, Westchester County became known as the “Neutral Ground.” But there would be no peace here. Occupied by neither side, it was a place where no one could remain neutral amid clashes by detachments of the contending armies, as well as violence by groups of bandits, vigilantes and partisans. Families were driven from their homes, and violence flared between once peaceable neighbors. Espionage played a major role as well, culminating in the Arnold-André conspiracy, which nearly ended the war in a British victory. Local historian Stephen Paul DeVillo details the colorful personalities and diverse military units that shaped the course of the conflict.

From the Roaring Twenties to a Rock 'N' Roll Landmark

Since it opened in 1925, the Gramercy Park Hotel has always been one of New York’s premiere cultural hotspots. Early in its history it served as the backdrop to Humphrey Bogart’s first marriage and housed a young John F. Kennedy. Soon Babe Ruth was a regular at the bar, and Joe DiMaggio was feted there. Most famous, perhaps, was the period in the 1970s, when rock ’n’ roll royalty dubbed the hotel “the Glamercy,” and acts such as the Clash, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Madonna, and more stayed “on the way up or on the way down.” The hotel’s history also includes the harrowing personal story of the Weissberg family who owned it for many years and lived there. Author Max Weissberg reveals an inside look at the hotel’s storied past as a rock ’n’ roll muse and a New York icon. 

Crippling winter storms are locked in the memories of millions of New Jerseyans.

On December 26, 1947, an unpredicted storm buried Newark in twenty-six inches of snow. A record-setting nor’easter on January 22, 2016, unleashed sixty-mile-per-hour wind gusts, six-foot drifts and snowfall depths of thirty inches in Bernards Township and Long Valley. But no storm was more infamous than the so-called Great White Hurricane. Coming when the science of meteorology was in its infancy, the blizzard of 1888 left tens of millions at the mercy of a vicious three-day nightmare with tragic loss of life and property that no one saw coming.

Author Don Colgan tells the stories of winter’s fury and of those who lived through the most extraordinary winter storms in New Jersey history.

The murder that still haunts a Pennsylvania city

On the morning of August 8, 1975, sixteen-year-old Debbie Gama disappeared after leaving her home in Erie, only to be found dead days later in a creek nearly thirty miles from her home. What followed was an investigation that lacked suspects or even evidence pointing to a viable suspect. That is, until a private investigator named Dan Barber uncovered evidence leading directly to her killer: her English teacher, Raymond Payne. After Payne’s arrest, Debbie’s mother, Betty Ferguson, embarked on her own quest for justice, which unexpectedly led her on an incredible journey of forgiveness.

Utilizing newspaper articles, court documents and investigative files never before revealed, Justin Dombrowski presents a gripping narrative of one investigator’s pursuit of justice and a mother’s search for the truth.

In the early hours on a rainy autumn night in 1955, on a lavish country estate in Oyster Bay Cove, esteemed New York socialite Ann Woodward fired both barrels of her custom-made shotgun into the head of her husband, multimillionaire William J. “Billy” Woodward Jr., killing him. She mistook him for a notorious prowler who preyed on the privileged class. At least that was what the official reports stated. The police focused on catching the prowler, as they cast an impenetrable dragnet around the “Playhouse” for the elusive intruder. However, as with many other aspects of Billy and Ann’s social circle, things were not always as they appeared. Local author and retired detective Jerry Aylward uncovers the uncomfortable truths behind one of the Gold Coast’s most notorious murders.

In Yaphank, New York, hid the greatest threat to the United States war effort during World War II: the American Nazi.

Building on racial and ethnic biases, lack of trust in government and a dose of conspiracies, the German American Bund was able to contribute to a growing American fascist movement. Fueled partially by Nazi Germany’s financing of propaganda, thousands of New Yorkers embraced the ideals of an American Reich through retreats such as Yaphank’s Camp Siegfried, which groomed Nazi sympathizers to be ready for the fascist overthrow of the American republic. In opposition to Nazism, multiple local citizen groups fought to combat the Bund’s organized efforts to undermine America. Author Christopher Verga brings to life the often-overlooked history of New York’s World War II era through a story of Nazi sedition, espionage and citizen resistance to preserve the American republic.

In 1980, a record-breaking thunderstorm unleashed a disastrous amount of water on the tiny town of Brady’s Bend.

In a mere forty minutes, the community was annihilated by a catastrophic flash flood. Residents ran for their lives, and nine people drowned. Although rescue and recovery soon followed, the harrowing experience left a mark on the survivors that remains decades later.

Author and Brady’s Bend native Lisa Olszak Zumstein tells this community’s story in full and reveals how this devastating storm mirrors numerous others in the Appalachian corridor.

It has been four centuries since the first Roosevelt arrived in New Amsterdam as a humble farmer.

The Roosevelts became one of America’s most distinguished families—one with ties to many sites in New York City. A brownstone on East 20th Street where Theodore Roosevelt was born and developed his love of nature. A twin brownstone next door where his uncle Robert instilled in the future president an interest in conservation, while having multiple affairs and even starting a second secret family with a mistress. And the double townhouse on East 65th Street built by Sara Delano Roosevelt so the growing family of her son, Franklin, would have a suitable place to live while she meddled in their lives. Historian Bill Bleyer details the unique places in the city where family members lived and worked and unveils the private interactions behind this famous American family.

The Greatest Generation of the Keystone State

The Pennsylvania Wilds comprise a tiny fraction of the state’s population, but when the United States entered World War II, the Wilds responded with characteristic courage and determination. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, young men rushed to recruitment centers to serve. Many returned as heroes. Many never returned, paying the ultimate sacrifice. Not to be left out, numerous women filled the ranks of Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps or became navy nurses overseas. On the homefront, workers bused in to fill vacancies left by those who went to war flooded the small towns of the Wilds, and all across the region, people stepped up to provide defense services and to plant victory gardens.

Compiling contemporary news accounts, letters and firsthand accounts, historian Kathy Myers celebrates and commemorates the region’s intrepid war efforts at home and abroad.

The revolutionary Battle of Monmouth signaled the end of major combat in the North. Centuries later, reminders of the conflict remain. The Covenhoven House, the Village Inn, Marlpit Hall, the Craig House and the homes of Thomas Seabrook and the murdered Joseph Murray stand open to the public today. Visitors can also behold safehouses for the wounded—such as Old Tennent Church, St. Peter’s and Old First Church—and tread along the same ground as George Washington, General Sir Henry Clinton, Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette. Devoting attention to these sites and to the Battle Monument in Freehold, the Revolution’s most prominent and enduring symbol, historian Randall Gabrielan leads a tour through Monmouth County’s revolutionary heritage.

Dutch, Irish and Native American residents of New York State have long told tales about mysterious Little People occupying the region’s hills and forests. An exhausted man in 1880s Brooklyn reported to the police that dancing fairies on his roof were keeping him up at night. Irish immigrants in Hell’s Kitchen claimed that banshees in trailing white gowns mourned the deaths of their loved ones. Hordes of goblins on Bannerman Island emerged after nightfall to terrorize navigators of the Hudson River. And in the Genesee Valley, waterfall-dwelling Little People taught a sacred dance to a Haudenosaunee boy. From the noisy metropolis to upstate’s rolling hills, Andrew Warburton roams New York in search of tales of the enchanting Fair Folk.

Join author Joseph Buga on an exploration of this working-class and indefatigable city. Passaic has a history that stretches the imagination. Back when the place was called Acquackanonk, it played a crucial role in the American Revolution. Later, its hospitable attitude toward immigrants established Passaic as a beacon of both stability and innovation. By the late 1800s, the city was becoming a national leader in all things textile and rubber—Edison used Passaic wire to electrify Lower Manhattan. Allen B. Dumont established WABD in Passaic, the fourth national TV network alongside ABC, CBS and NBC. The Passaic High School “Wonder Team” boasted the longest high school winning streak in any sport, and a Passaic athlete became the “world’s fastest man.” Passaic pop legends the Shirelles and Joey Dee and the Starlighters made it big and influenced an upstart British group, the Beatles.

While Antietam remains one the most famous engagements of the Civil War, history largely overlooks the lower end of the battlefield.

Only here did the Confederates use Antietam Creek as a barrier, so it was the only place where Union troops had to force their way across. Here the Union army waged its final attack, and the Confederates launched their last counterattack led by A.P. Hill’s division. It might as well have been a different battle entirely from the more famed northern field.

Using dozens of journals, diaries, newspaper accounts and reports, author Robert M. Dunkerly examines the action in detail and explores the gradual preservation of this oft-neglected portion of America’s bloodiest battle.

On July 26, 1981, eight-year-old Cheryl Ziemba and her four-year-old brother, Christopher, disappeared from their backyard in Old Forge, Pennsylvania.

Within hours, hundreds of neighbors, police and firefighters were engaged in a frantic search, praying that they were not a town “snakebitten,” or cursed to misfortune. Two days later, all hope was lost when firefighters discovered the bodies of the children in an abandoned strip-mining pit. Pennsylvania State Police arrested their fifteen-year-old neighbor, Joey Aulisio, who was tried as an adult and sentenced to death by electric chair. Forty-three years later, Joey Aulisio still sits in prison.

Author Brian W. Kincaid presents a definitive account of one of the most infamous crimes and sensational trials in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

New York City is blessed with an incredible array of public sculptures.

One overlooked aspect of this collection is its monuments of Black Americans, each with its own remarkable story. The first appearance of a Black person in a city monument came in the Civil War Soldiers’ Monument in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery in 1876, but this was a nameless symbolic figure. It wasn’t until 1945 that Booker T. Washington became the first identifiable Black American honored in a New York City monument. In 2007, the city dedicated its first monument to a Black woman, Harriet Tubman. Behind every first is a story of triumph over adversity and exclusion. Local author David Felsen reveals the stories behind thirty inspiring monuments that have endured, as well as how they found their place in the city’s history.

Acclaimed author June Hersh presents the iconic dishes, fascinating stories and mouthwatering history behind Upstate New York’s culinary heritage, featuring delicious recipes of reinvented classics.

The heart of New York State’s food culture isn’t found on busy Manhattan avenues—it exists within the country kitchens, historic farms and neighborhood spots beyond the environs of New York City. Chicken riggies, salt potatoes and beef on weck aren’t just local foods—they reveal the vibrant Italian, Irish and German immigrant histories that shaped the region. From the Borscht Belt to the Finger Lakes, New York’s Upstate has diverse and exciting flavors all its own. The Empire State’s picturesque apple orchards, Concord grape vineyards and dairies have been feeding the nation for centuries.

A portion of the proceeds from sales of this book benefit the Catskills Borscht Belt Museum.

In the early twentieth century, an interconnected web of men and women, led by Dr. V.E. Vivian, fought for a better future in Whitesbog Village, a forgotten town in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens. And they won.

Before their heroic efforts, air, land and sea were riddled with pollution, with few protections. Hope for a better tomorrow seemed unlikely. When they were done, the 1.1 million acres of the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve became the largest protected and preserved open space on the East Coast.

With the help of numerous color images dedicated to Dr. Vivian, author William J. Lewis chronicles and celebrates the educators and historians who started New Jersey’s conservation movement and successfully crusaded for a better, cleaner world.

Winner of the 2026 Bachelder‑Coddington Distinguished Book Award of the Civil War Roundtable of Gettysburg

As the nation’s future hung in the balance, the Weather Gods delivered a wrath of fury on Union and Confederate forces throughout the Gettysburg Campaign. First, record-breaking heat and humidity wore down the warring armies during ungodly forced marches. Next, relentless storms plagued the soldiers with resultant muddy slogs on nearly impassable roads. As the armies met in mortal combat, soul-crushing heat turned the bucolic fields of Gettysburg into a sanguinary and barren expanse. Finally, torrential rains haunted the Confederate retreat and narrow escape across a swollen Potomac River. Authors Jeffrey J. Harding and Jon M. Nese present firsthand accounts, harrowing narratives and groundbreaking meteorological research that reshapes how we view the Civil War’s Gettysburg Campaign.

Guardian Dams. Today, most people remember Johnstown for a cataclysmic flood, but the city was also once known for steel.

From the early 1900s through much of the 1970s, millions of gallons of water per day were necessary to keep the city’s main industry alive. This is the story of the dams that didn’t fail, safely keeping the people of Johnstown and its steel industry prosperous for decades. It is also the story of transformation, for the dams built by an extinct steel company still stand and now safeguard areas of great natural resources and ecological importance in the highlands of Northern Appalachia. Surveying more than a century of wars, labor strife and economic catastrophe, author Joshua Penrod interweaves the story of these dams with the history of Johnstown itself.

They Didn’t Need to be There

It was a calm, moonless night in late April 1865. Robert E. Lee had surrendered. Abraham Lincoln was dead. Assassin John Wilkes Booth and accomplice David Herold, previously hiding in the swamps of Southern Maryland, had crossed the Potomac River to safety. The barge Black Diamond was anchored with the Potomac Flotilla near Blackistone Lighthouse, hoping to prevent that crossing and catch the perpetrators. All onboard were unaware that they were too late. The steamer Massachusetts was running downriver carrying U.S. soldiers back to their regiments. By dawn, the Black Diamond was on the bottom of the river, the Massachusetts was crippled and eighty-seven men were dead. Author Karen E. Stone reveals the story of a heroic pursuit turned tragic.

Schuylkill County is no stranger to disaster.

Schuylkill County is no stranger to disaster. Protected by volunteers since 1811, residents have faced block-burning conflagrations like the Great Memorial Day Fire of 1945, which consumed sixty-seven buildings in the Mahanoy City Business District, and commercial airplane crashes like United Flight 624 near Ashland, with no survivors. The Red Church propane truck explosion near Orwigsburg caused twelve fatalities, and the Reading Railroad passenger train collision with a gasoline truck in Port Carbon sparked death and destruction, as well as a frantic search for burning money.

Telling these stories with the help of rare and many never-before-seen images, authors and veteran firefighters Michael R. Glore and Michael J. Kitsock revisit some of the region’s most harrowing catastrophes.

Author Christopher P. Semtner takes readers inside the homes of Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe’s terror tales and melancholy poetry carved a bold new path across literary genres. Meet the man behind the madness, murder and mayhem on this road trip to Poe’s homes in Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia, the Bronx and more. Along the way, meet the grave robbers, murderers and tooth thieves who inspired his greatest horror stories. Learn the secret histories of these Poe places to find out which was owned by a man who kept Poe’s wife’s bones in a box under his bed, which might be haunted by Poe’s ghost, which has the best basement for hiding corpses and which stood across the street from an anatomy lab.

Author Jim Cullen shares tales of the ruddy trailblazers who grappled and persevered during nation-shaping moments in the Garden State. New Jersey sits at the intersection of the most important developments in American history, from the fight for freedom to the rise of the United States as a global power. At each critical moment, key figures came forward. These profiles of important Americans—some natives of the Garden State, some not—focus on key episodes that took place here but echoed broadly. From George Washington to Thomas Edison and Whitney Houston, these men and women crisscross politics, business, religion, social activism, science and entertainment, and their critical encounters took place in cities and towns across the state.

One candy heiress, two bullets and three suspects.

The small Southern California island of Coronado rarely makes news for violent crime. But in the spring of 1975, World War II widow and retired librarian Ruth Quinn was murdered, execution-style, in her cottage. Her death sent a shock wave through the community. The granddaughter of Jujubes and Jujyfruits creator Henry Heide, Ruth was found fully clothed with her shoes on, in her bed, dead from two gunshot wounds. To this day, her murder has never been solved, but whispers about her brother, her son and even a local petty thief still swirl.

Author Taylor Baldwin Kiland sifts through the dirt for the facts about Ruth’s life and her untimely end in Coronado.

Dr. Ann Webster Bunch delves into the enigmatic disappearance of William Morgan, a 19th-century figure whose threat to expose Masonic secrets led to his mysterious vanishing, igniting political turmoil and leaving a case that remains unresolved nearly 200 years later.

William Morgan was last seen in Batavia, New York, in September 1826, down on his luck and haunting the local pubs. An elusive local citizen, he had recently threatened to publish purported Masonic secrets. He was later arrested that same month in Canandaigua for petty theft and eventually transported and held in Fort Niagara. From there Morgan seems to have disappeared forever. The local Freemasons were accused of his demise. State Assemblyman and newspaper editor Thurlow Weed fanned the political flames to great effect. Yet Morgan was to return, this time in stone, atop a monument erected at Old Cemetery, Batavia, in 1882. Enigmatically, no body lies there. Thus, the case of Mr. Morgan technically remains that of a missing person almost two hundred years after his disappearance. Dr. Ann Webster Bunch takes an investigative science approach to this extremely cold case to demystify and highlight ways to resolve the fate of this highly polarizing historical figure.

The Garden State After the Great War

Post–World War I life was dramatically different for New Jersey than it had been prior to the war. By 1920, the war was over for the Europeans, but it was still on for America until President Harding signed a paper in a local living room after a golf game. Harding’s out-of-wedlock child was born in Asbury Park, and Atlantic City began the beauty contest that would become Miss America. Prohibition hit what was an unwilling state, and the governor tried to keep New Jersey liquor legally flowing, while bootleggers and rumrunners made illegal liquor generally available. Joseph Bilby and Harry Ziegler detail this frenetic era in the Garden State.

Bloody discoveries, potential serial killers & dramatic court cases.

Washington, D.C., saw its share of grim murders in the mid-twentieth century. From a love triangle gone wrong to an unknown killer on the loose, there was no shortage of sensationalized headlines keeping residents up to date. Reports of a respected businessman found in a hotel room with the body of his longtime mistress shocked locals, while the murder of eleven-year-old Carol Bardwell in Rock Creek Park sparked a manhunt for her killer. The racially charged case of Catherine Reardon’s murder in the National Cathedral’s library would even end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Join author Zachary G. Ford as he uncovers the capital region’s dark past.

True Blue for Union

In the middle of the nineteenth century, Cape May County was an isolated and lightly populated peninsula at the southernmost tip of New Jersey. Nevertheless, its citizens answered the call for the Union effort during the Civil War. The 7th U.S. Infantry regiment recruited substantially from the region, and the entire community came out to usher the gallant troops to war, departing from Cape Island. On the homefront, supporting rallies were staged, food drives enacted and medical supplies shipped to the front. Railroad tycoons eyeing the underdeveloped beaches of Cape May began developing the county’s resorts beyond Cape Island even before troops returned home. Author Ray Rebmann presents the valiant efforts and changing times of Cape May County in the Civil War era.

Dig into the untold stories and lesser-known tales of MoCo.

Washington, D.C.’s next-door neighbor has seen many a politician, militant and Red Line passenger travel within its bounds, but the county’s own, unique history has sometimes been buried. Learn about George Washington’s Dickerson farm and what made one Germantown man take explosive revenge on his neighbor. How has a 105-year-old woman seen her community change over more than a century? Which groundbreaking horror movie filmed many of its iconic scenes around the area?

Author Brian Myers, a Gaithersburg native, has trekked across the county on a mission to record more than thirty chapters of the wildest, most shocking and inspiring stories that Montgomery County has to offer.

Below the bustling skyscrapers of Wall Street lie a connection to the city’s colonial and revolutionary past...

The graveyards of historic Trinity Church and St. Paul’s have endured for centuries, even as the rest of Manhattan’s cemeteries have mostly vanished amid the constantly evolving metropolis. The gravestones invoke incredible stories of famous Americans and lost figures from the history of New York.

Join author Adam Selzer as he presents the lives, mysteries and epitaphs of New York’s Trinity Church and St. Paul’s graveyards.

Founded in 1914, Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park is one of the leading zoos in North America. From humble beginnings as a small collection of animals, it transformed into a state-of-the-art home to more than seven hundred animals, including many threatened or endangered species. A small family of Asian elephants, including an unusual set of twins, play a crucial role in both education and conservation efforts to protect these majestic animals. The zoo collaborates with its nonprofit partner, Friends of the Zoo, to provide visitors with experiences that excite, memories that endure and knowledge that inspires global wildlife conservation.

A Dark History Revealed

In the early twentieth century, eugenics was at the forefront of scientific discourse in the quest to understand human genetics. On Long Island and throughout the nation, eugenicists were granted unfettered access to conduct experiments on prisoners, psychiatric patients, Coney Island circus performers and more, all in an effort to legitimize a false science. The origins of the eugenics movement can be found within the Eugenics Record Office, an otherwise nondescript two-and-a-half-story administrative building at Cold Spring Harbor, New York, under the direction of Charles Benedict Davenport from 1910 to 1939. The work conducted there directly led to the forced sterilization of thousands of American citizens and the passage of anti-immigration laws and sparked a deadly global movement.

Author Mark Torres explores the local characters, influences, landmarks and ghastly consequences that emanated from this small Long Island facility for decades and spread throughout the world.

A Thrilling Lost Chapter of Mob Rule

Western Pennsylvania’s New Kensington was in the grips of Mafia control throughout the 1950s, with a bevy of bookie joints, gambling casinos and brothels. An outgrowth of the Pittsburgh mob, New Kensington’s Costa Nostra ordered a group of Mafiosi to break into a National Guard station in Ohio and steal a shipment of weapons. The guns were destined for Fidel Castro, who was waging guerrilla war in Cuba. The Pittsburgh Mafia was hoping to get on Castro’s good side if he won the war to secure the reopening of gambling casinos. From a daring heist in Canada to Swiss bank accounts and CIA informants, this infamous gunrunning scheme was a high-speed saga of international intrigue. Join author Richard Gazarik as he presents a harrowing historical narrative of the criminal underworld of Western Pennsylvania.

Learn about efforts underway to save the historic and environmentally important Fourth Street Preserve.

IIn 1670, the first officially deeded land in Lewes was granted by the Duke of York to the town’s earliest settler, Helmanias Wiltbanck—30 of the original 104 acres of Wiltbanck’s beloved preserve remain pristine and undeveloped today, right in the heart of Lewes. Three families owned this land for 312 of the past 355 years. Their tales involve attacks by pirate ships and the British, death and survival during the “fever years” and a prominent but forgotten judge who helped write the original Delaware Constitution and fund its Revolutionary War troops.

Local author and preservation leader Michael Rawl tells these stories and unfolds the long history of this piece of the heart of Lewes.

Take a Bite of Philadelphia's Storied Sandwich History

Philadelphia boasts some of the most delicious original sandwiches and passionate sandwich aficionados. From the classic cheesesteak to the delectable roast pork, the city’s cultural and ethnic diversity has resulted in many of America’s most established meals between bread. Join author and bona fide sandwich obsessive Mike Madaio as he journeys through the history and eateries behind Philadelphia’s most iconic sandwiches and discovers some unsung heroes along the way.

Discover the Shipbuilding Dynasties that Built Philadelphia's Maritime Industry

The waterfront of Kensington and Fishtown in Philadelphia attracted a host of innovative and hardworking shipwrights from America’s earliest days. As fleets transitioned from wooden-hulled ships of sail to iron steamships, the tradesmen of Kensington’s shipwright dynasties were at the forefront of the global shipbuilding industry throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Kensington’s shipyards saw the birth of screw propulsion, revolutionizing the speed and reliability of ships forever afterward. The Industrial Revolution in Philadelphia, which earned the city its motto “Workshop of the World,” fostered innovation and invention in the local maritime industry. For this reason, Kensington shipwrights commanded worldwide respect.

Amid a series of three destructive floods that pounded little Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in less than a century, Cambria County residents somehow maintained their lofty expectations and big-picture foresight to begin what would become the oldest Christmas high school basketball tournament in the nation, as they would boast. Learn the amazing history behind an historic hardwood tournament.

“Delaware will be written on my heart.”

In 1972, a young Delaware attorney made an audacious bet, challenging the state's most formidable politician in a race for the US Senate. Joe Biden won that election at age twenty-nine, but weeks later, his wife and daughter died in a car crash that also injured his two sons. This is the story of Delaware’s preeminent political leader, his family and their journey over the decades since. From the Charcoal Pit to the Hotel DuPont, St. Joseph’s on the Brandywine to the Wilmington train station, these tales reveal Joe Biden’s deep roots in Delaware and how they helped carry him to the White House.

Author Dan Shortridge examines Biden family lore and traces the history of the institutions that shaped their lives and the First State.

Folktales, hidden treasures and witchcraft.

The towering skyline of New Brunswick stands in stark contrast with the swampy ceder forest it emerged from in the late 1600s. While the city grew over the original Lenape settlement of Ahanderamock, its history was passed on through whispers of tales both real and imagined. In the Buccleuch Mansion, a skeletal figure dressed as a British Grenadier is said to stagger the halls with a lantern, and at Rutgers University tales of secret societies swirl through campus. Long-lost pirate treasures, some rumored to be connected to mysterious clues etched in stone, remain undiscovered to this day.

Author Mark Neurohr-Pierpaoli uncovers the mysterious stories lurking below the surface of New Brunswick. 

Faith, family and food.

Between 1880 and 1924, more than four million Italians immigrated to the United States. Tens of thousands flocked to Newark and reshaped a city. Many settled in the Old First Ward, which once claimed the title of largest Little Italy in New Jersey. Clubs like the Spilingese Social Club sprang up to provide support and camaraderie and dishes like giambotta made their way into everyone’s kitchens. 

Author Andrea Lyn Cammarato-Van Benschoten traces the roots of Newark’s Italian communities.

Marianna Randazzo reveals terrifying legends, historical accounts and firsthand testimonies, offering readers a thrilling journey into the dark underbelly of Staten Island's haunted past.

Staten Island is known as the mystifying borough, and it is home to numerous ghosts and eerie tales. The Alice Austin House was once home to a pioneering photographer, but ghostly images of a different sort now appear among the beams. The Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp holds tales of supernatural echoes, while over at the Old Bermuda Inn, the specter of Martha Mersereau, waiting for the return of her dead husband, appears at candlelit windows each evening. On some of the island’s most desolate roads, a spectral hitchhiker appears, vanishing from the car mid-ride, leaving only an eerie chill. Countless travelers have encountered her, a haunting reminder of the thin line between the living and the dead. Local author Marianna Randazzo uncovers the secrets behind Staten Island’s haunted houses, spectral sightings and enduring legends.

Discover the History Behind the Beauty of Long Island's Most Cherished Parks

Each year, tens of millions of people visit Long Island’s state parks. Most visitors are unaware that each one of the state parks has its own fascinating chapter in the region’s storied history. Some were once vast estates of New York’s elite during the turn-of-the-century Gilded Age, such as Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park. Others were “hunting clubs,” where wealthy members banded together to create retreats, including Caleb Smith State Park Preserve. Montauk’s Camp Hero has a multigenerational military history, even inspiring conspiracies that the government experimented with mind control and time travel. Underprivileged children from the bustling boroughs of New York City found fresh air and formative experiences at Camp William Carey in today’s Hallock State Park Preserve. Author Kristen Matejka presents the hidden history of the New York state parks on Long Island.

A Century of Faith

The first Mass was offered for what would eventually be known as St. Rita Church in the humblest of places, a cobbler’s shop on East Custis Avenue in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria. The ladies of the yet-to-be-established parish provided its name—St. Rita of Cascia is the patron of impossible causes. The first small church was built on Hickory Street in Mt. Ida and a parish was founded on September 21, 1924. Through depression, war and post-war growth, political and social change and into a new millennium St. Rita Church has grown under its namesake’s patronage. A beautiful new church was built in 1949 and a school was founded in 1952. The St Rita Centennial Committee tells the stories of a century of community.

Chilling Tales of the Hudson Valley

Nestled on the banks of the Hudson River, Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown are steeped in history and ghost lore. Famous for Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” the storied Westchester region also has a dark history of witches, spies, and pirates. Rumors of Headless Horseman sightings surge during spooky season while visitors flock to the Valley’s haunted hot spots like the Old Dutch Church and the famed writer’s Sunnyside home. Join author and journalist Sam Baltrusis on a bone-chilling journey through the streets of Sleepy Hollow as he breathes new life into the legendary village’s long-departed souls.

Uncanny stories, local legends and ghostly encounters from the First State.

Delaware may be small, but every corner of it is filled with strange and unusual history. Horrifying tales of ghosts haunt places both old and new. The Castle contains many stories of mysterious specters, but the mystery of the house’s first owners is the truly creepy tale. The legend of the Devil’s Road, called a myth by some, will chill your bones and make your spine tingle. In a state so close to the sea, stories of murder and mayhem include tales of piracy and maybe even cannibalism.

Delaware native and paranormal historian Josh Hitchens invites you to join him on a journey through the spooky side of the First State.

Erie's Shocking Turn of the Century Extortion Scandal

On February 8, 1911, the Scott Mausoleum, a symbol of wealth for the Scott and Strong families in Erie, Pennsylvania, was desecrated by unknown vandals, coined by nationwide papers as ghouls. With the inside of the mausoleum heavily damaged - and a body missing - the crime set off shockwaves throughout the country during a time in which grave robbery, extortion and murder reigned supreme. 

Hundreds of reporters and newspaper correspondents throughout the country and world descend upon the Great Lakes port city. Private Detectives from the Perkins Detective Agency in Pittsburgh took charge of the case, pitted against rival detectives from the famous Burns Detective Agency. The case took a sinister turn when a series of letters were sent to wealthy local philanthropist Charles Hamot Strong, threatening to blow up his mausoleum and murder his granddaughter.

Author Justin Dombrowski presents the twists and turns of a historic and shocking crime and coverup in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Lake Champlain is one of America’s most historic waterways, but much of its history has remained hidden. With the arrival of Europeans, the lake became a vital route between the English in New England and the French in Quebec.

Its isolated beauty contrasted sharply with the bloody military campaigns that unfolded there. While enormous forts were erected, colonial villages blossomed, and 18th century naturalist Peter Kalm spread the word of its bucolic charm. William Miller attracted large audiences as he preached that the world would end in the 1840s. Valcour Island developed its own commune, and when Prohibition took effect, the towns near the Canadian border became a hotbed of bootlegging.

From presidential visits to shipwrecks, local authors Jason Barney and Christine Eldred chronicle some of the lake’s lesser-known contributions to American history.  

“Europe stretches to the Alleghenies, America lies beyond.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“They are my people and this is my town and it does my heart good just to be here.” - Art Rooney Sr. 

Pittsburgh contains multitudes. The city bestows a character of contradiction, love of place and strength of community on anyone lucky to be born and raised there. A town whose rivers were once lined with belching steel mills but also hosted the world’s first major modern art exhibition is not easily defined. From the decline of the steel industry and the exodus of a vast diaspora of Pittsburghers to its reinvention as a trendy mid-sized metropolis, the ethos of the Steel City remains ever-changing. Across thirteen interconnected essays, author Ed Simon examines the city’s identity in all of its minutia—U.S. Steel and the U.S. Steelworkers; dive bars and churches; the black and gold and the Black and white; hills, bridges and inclines; and geography as destiny.

Founding the Pennsylvania Wilds and Preserving Elk Country

The village of Benezette is ground zero for the famous elk herd of the Pennsylvania Wilds. Before becoming a popular ecotourism destination, the community was a quiet village with a hardworking ethos. The region’s first settlers arrived in the 1780s, looking for new frontiers and economic opportunities. Reuben Winslow purchased more than three hundred acres of land along the Bennett’s Branch of Sinnemahoning Creek and, by 1844, had laid down the town’s lots as the founder of Benezette. The arrival of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the late 1800s fueled the rise of local industry such as timber and coal. Nearby villages such as Weedville, Caledonia, Medix Run, Summerson and others looked to Benezette as the center of the of the region while developing their own communities. Author Kathy Myers presents the history of Benezette and its influence in the heart of the Pennsylvania Wilds.

Exploring Pittsburgh's Ups and Downs

In Pittsburgh, the elevation varies wildly, fluctuating 660 feet from highest to lowest points throughout the area and making it one of the hilliest cities in the United States. Throughout this unruly and physically challenging landscape, the city's first mass transportation system was built – a steadily expanding network of public stairways, locally referred to as city steps, these flights of stairs are a throwback to a very different time in history and a very different Pittsburgh. Authors Laura Zurowski, Charles Succop and Matthew Jacob present the history of the Steel City steps and a walking guide to their scenic locations today.

Discover the stories of two legendary leaders of the Revolutionary War

Robert Kirkwood and Peter Jaquett were close contemporaries and comrades in the Delaware Continental Regiment during the Revolutionary War. Battle buddies who relied upon one another on and off the field, they led their respective companies through 32 battles over almost eight years of war. They endured difficulties and hardships and exercised daring and initiative on the path to victory. Under their leadership, the Delaware Regiment gained a lasting reputation for punching far above its weight.

Local author Kennard R. Wiggins tells the stories of the daily lives of these two men and their soldiers in the field.

Summer at the Cottage/

By the 1890s, a newly rising middle class found itself having time, money, and access to begin taking vacations. Church denominations began creating summer cottage communities that combined natural settings and intellectual and spiritual pursuits. The first communities were the Chautauquas, where lectures on philosophy, science or politics were offered. For the devout, there were Camp Meetings where one attended purely for religious instruction. Spiritualist camps were among the rarest and incorporated séances to talk to your dead ancestors./While attending programs, families could engage in outdoor recreation and craft classes. Tents were first used for accommodations but were quickly replaced by wooden frame cottages in Victorian, Arts and Crafts and Adirondack styles. By 1900, more than 300 cottage communities existed and were found throughout the United States with the majority in the Mid-Atlantic.Join author Peter Seibert as he reveals the beauty, history and influence of summer cottage communities of the Mid-Atlantic. 

Discover the Beautiful Valley's Harrowing Past/

Genesee County has seen trials, tribulations and triumphs throughout its storied history as national events have been brought to its doorstep. Cold War anxiety was on full display in the preparedness drills of the 1950s and the effect those had on Batavia's studnets. Too often overlooked, the scourge of racism has reared its ugly head in the region, as the Ku Klux Klan once had a presence in the county. Locals were rocked by the assassinations of MLK and John F. Kennedy in the 1960s. Genesee women from acitivists to farmers have left an indelible mark on the county's past. Join author and historian Michael Eula as he reveals historic chronicles of Genesee County.

America's Only Shelter Established for Holocaust Refugees/

During the height of the second World War, at the order of President Roosevelt, Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York housed 982 refugees, rescued from the horrors of the Holocaust. The community of Oswego answered the call of service and opened its arms to the survivors. Oswegonian and WWII veteran Joseph Spereno’s connection with refugee Jake Sylber helped launch his tailoring business that was a fixture in the city for more than 20 years. Then high school Principal Ralph Faust was among local educators who fought to allow the refugee children into Oswego schools, forging connections with those young people who went on to distinguished careers. Local Boy Scout leader Harold Clark created a troop for refugee children to share in the American experience of scouting.Author Ann Callaghan Allen presents the harrowing narrative of how Oswego gave shelter to hundreds of Holocaust survivors.