The History Press

Preserving Pride through Art

Cheyenne’s downtown demonstrates an ongoing appreciation for public art. Melding art and history, bronze statues decorate the streets of Wyoming’s capital city. Following the completion of thirty-five sculptures on Capitol Avenue, the project exploded with the addition of more than fifty bronzes. The city-wide installation immortalizes symbols of the American West. The Cheyenne Children’s Museum includes several statues celebrating paleontology. Others pay tribute to remarkable women like Lakota Sioux Princess Blue Waters and Louisa Swain—the first woman to vote in Wyoming Territory. Near Cheyenne Regional Hospital, the Healers of the West monument honors a notable doctor and nurse. And of particular pride is the statue of champion cowboy, Verne Elliott, riding a wild buffalo for the visit of President Teddy Roosevelt at the 1910 Frontier Days celebration.

Authors Starley Talbott and Michael E. Kassel return to complete the story behind the city’s inspired and ambitious display of The Cowboys State’s unique culture and heritage.

Preserving Pride through Art

Cheyenne’s downtown demonstrates an ongoing appreciation for public art. Melding art and history, bronze statues decorate the streets of Wyoming’s capital city. Following the completion of thirty-five sculptures on Capitol Avenue, the project exploded with the addition of more than fifty bronzes. The citywide installation immortalizes symbols of the American West. The Cheyenne Children’s Museum includes several statues celebrating paleontology. Others pay tribute to remarkable women like Lakota Sioux Princess Blue Waters and Louisa Swain, the first woman to vote in Wyoming Territory. Near Cheyenne Regional Hospital, the Healers of the West monument honors a notable doctor and nurse. And of particular pride is the statue of champion cowboy Verne Elliott riding a wild buffalo, commemorating the visit of President Teddy Roosevelt at the 1910 Frontier Days celebration.

Authors Starley Talbott and Michael E. Kassel return to complete the story behind the city’s inspired and ambitious display of the Cowboys State’s unique culture and heritage.

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.

"There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country." —Theodore Roosevelt

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt embarked on one of the most audacious journeys in presidential history: the epic “Great Loop Tour.” This daring nine-week, fourteen-thousand-mile train trek across twenty-five states transformed the landscape of American conservation.

At the heart of this monumental trip lies a legendary three-night camping expedition through Yosemite alongside renowned naturalist John Muir. This profound experience would help spark the creation of the national park system and the preservation of many of America’s wild spaces for future generations.

Roosevelt’s tour broke other boundaries along the way, including the presence of courageous African American Buffalo Soldiers who not only protected the president but also became the first guardians of our national parks.

The remarkable connections between Roosevelt, Yosemite, and President Abraham Lincoln, along with many other fascinating characters, helped shape the modern conservation movement for decades to come.

In this revised and expanded edition, author Chris Epting explores one of the most impactful presidential journeys in American history and the forging of our national parks.

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.

This final posthumous publication from beloved regional poet, naturalist and writer George Ellison presents lovely poetry from an icon of the Smokies alongside gorgeous paintings and photography from Elizabeth Ellison and Quintin Ellison.

As Western North Carolina rebuilds in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, these ruminations and scenes from life at the edge of the Smoky Mountains will take readers on an inspirational, hopeful and artistic journey into the heart of the Blue Ridge.

Nestled outside Bryson City, on the doorstep of the Great Smoky Mountains, lies the home of George and Elizabeth Ellison. For more than forty years, their permanent camp was more than a homestead—it was the inspiration for a world of beauty found within their poems and paintings. In this posthumous tribute to George, the legacy of his poetry is presented alongside special galleries of Elizabeth’s breathtaking paintings and daughter Quintin Ellison’s stunning photography. As the region continues to rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, these ruminations on living among the Smokies, depictions of Western North Carolina culture and interpretations of its untamed natural domain reveal life in the land of blue shadows through the work of some of the region’s most cherished artists.

Fiesta Days parades, Saturday nights at the Vacaville Theatre, and Bulldogs and Wildcats everywhere.

Exquisite food coupled with the wonder and whimsy of the world-famous Nut Tree restaurant. Beating the heat at The Blue Lagoon Waterslide Park or getting lost in the giant maze, The Wooz. Trips to the burger joints on “Hamburger Hill” while the scent of dehydrating onions from the Basic Vegetable Products plant wafted through the air. Savoring Vasquez Deli burritos with the radio station tuned to KUIC. Celebrating with hometown heroes Super Bowl Champion Jarrett Bush, World Series MVP Jermaine Dye and iconic rock band Papa Roach.

Author and accidental historian Tony Wade leads this vivid tour through bygone Vacaville.

Over a century of history, pride and tradition.

Armijo High School opened its doors for the first time in 1891. What began in the upstairs classrooms of Crystal Elementary School in Suisun City grew to the sprawling campus on Washington Street in order to serve the rising population of Fairfield, California. Armijo alumni have made indelible marks in numerous fields, including medicine, law, civil and military service, athletics, and the arts. Notable graduates include Noriyuki “Pat” Morita who earned an Academy Award nomination for playing Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid movies, New York Giants Super Bowl champion George Martin and Johnny Colla, multi-platinum recording artist with Huey Lewis and the News.

Join Tony Wade as he delves into the generations of students, parents and faculty that embody Armijo pride.

Discover the story behind the Nantucket Civil War Monument, King Alcohol and more in Hidden History of Nantucket.

The celebrated history of Nantucket's great whaling days often overshadows the fascinating changes that took place in the years following. Learn about some named on the Civil War Monument, some left off and some who may not belong. Meet the Cold Water Army of seven hundred schoolchildren who paraded against King Alcohol in hopes that the island would become a temperance oasis. Little remains of the bathing pavilion and water slide of the long-lost town of Coatue that once had big plans for expansion. With surprising facts and captivating tales, authors Frank Morral and Barbara Ann White explore these and other lost accounts of the faraway island.

Join author Richelle Putnam as she recounts how Mississippian’s resolve and fortitude brought the state through one of the hardest economic times in American history.

When the Great Depression erupted, Mississippi had not yet recovered from the boll weevil or the Flood of 1927. Its land suffered from depleted forests and soil. Plus, the state had yet to confront the racial caste systems imprisoning poor whites, African Americans and other minorities. Nevertheless, innovative Mississippians managed to keep their businesses and services open. Meanwhile, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs fostered economic stimulation within the state. Author Richelle Putnam also highlights the state's spiritual and cultural giants, who rose from the nation's poorest state to create a lasting footprint of determination, pride and hope during the Depression era.

Author and historian Anthony Sammarco reveals the fascinating history of Boston's beloved Jordan Marsh.

Jordan Marsh opened its first store in 1851 on Milk Street in Boston selling assorted dry goods. Following the Civil War, the store moved to Winthrop Square and later to Washington Street between Summer and Avon Streets. The new five-story building, designed by Winslow & Wetherell, unveiled the novel concept of department shopping under one roof. It attracted shoppers by offering personal service with the adage that the customer is always right, easy credit, art exhibitions and musical performances. By the 1970s, it had become a regional New England icon and the largest department store chain in the nation.

The Squirrel Hill Historical Society and editor Helen Wilson explore the fascinating history of one of Pittsburgh's historic neighborhoods.

Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood began on the frontier of western Pennsylvania 250 years ago and developed into a vibrant urban community. Early settler John Turner, half-brother of renegade Simon Girty, survived capture by Native Americans and experienced firsthand the change from dangerous wilderness to established farming community. As Squirrel Hill developed, the landscape dotted with farms and cottages, inns and taverns, and little shops, over time Pittsburgh's elite began to build mansions in the area, especially after the Civil War; one of these stately manors even became the Pennsylvania Female College in 1869, today known as Chatham University. Wealthy landowners Henry Clay Frick and Mary Schenley bestowed Squirrel Hill its grand public parks . Hyman Little, Herman Kamin and countless others moved to the hill and made it Pittsburgh's premier Jewish community, with a tight knit cluster of synagogues, temples and a thriving business district. Today, Squirrel Hill is still one of the most beautiful and exclusive neighborhoods in Pittsburgh.

Author Gretchen Knapp brings to life the challenges and contributions of daily life in World War II Buffalo.

When President Roosevelt visited Buffalo in November 1940, he found a hardworking city with a large immigrant population manufacturing aircraft for the Allies. Nearby Fort Niagara inducted over 100,000 young men, resulting in an acute labor shortage. American Brass, Bell Aircraft, Chevrolet, Curtiss-Wright, Houde Engineering and Republic Steel reluctantly, then gladly, hired women. More than 300,000 defense workers toiled in hot factories for high wages despite transportation, housing and food shortages. The aircraft plants alone employed 85,000 on forty-eight-hour workweeks. Buffalonians watched the flag raising at Iwo Jima, participated in the Manhattan Project and observed the formal surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay. Author Gretchen Knapp brings to life the challenges and contributions of daily life during wartime.

Beyond the beaten path of local landmarks, residents and tourists can find curious secrets, lost mysteries and fascinating legends.

The famed Hope Diamond once found itself, and its mysterious curse, buried in an Asheville girl's sandbox. Elvis once handed a cherished guitar to a local man at an Asheville concert, and he held on to it for forty years. At a flea market, an Asheville attorney paid a few bucks for an old tintype likely of Billy the Kid, and it may be worth millions. Native author Marla Hardee Milling recounts odd, but true, stories hiding behind Asheville's picturesque beauty.

Flint is a city full of legacies overshadowed by tragedy. Read the stories of the innovations and surprising elements of the city's past.

In the shadow of Flint's success as an industrial hub and the tragedy that is the water crisis that came to a head in 2014, the fascinating past of Flint has been largely forgotten. Local author Gary Flinn showcases the obscure and surprising elements of the Vehicle City's past, such as local Civil War hero Franklin Thompson who was actually Sarah Edmonds in disguise; the city's most prolific inventor, Lloyd Copeman, created the electric stove, flexible ice cube tray and automatic toaster; and even Thread Lake's Lakeside Amusement Park that offered seaplane rides and a giant roller coaster partly built over the water before closing in 1931. Flinn offers the reader the often-overlooked but fascinating history of Flint, including how the 2014 water crisis was a half century in the making.

Author Dwayne W. Pickett details the life of William Hilton, his exploration of the Carolina coast and the founding of an iconic island.

Behind the pristine beaches and world renown of Hilton Head Island lies a history that dates back to the early exploration of the nation. In 1663, William Hilton, a mariner born in England, was hired by a group in Barbados to find new lands for them to settle. Hilton led an exploration of the Port Royal Sound area, where he named a high bluff of land Hiltons Head as a navigational marker for future sailors. The island began as a sparsely populated area on the fringe of English settlement in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when it was called Trench’s Island on some maps.

For more than a century, Cincinnati's candy industry satisfied our national sweet tooth. Dive into its specialties and past.

Stick and drop candies appeared here long before their Civil War popularity. Opera creams, rich fondant-filled chocolate candy brought here by Robert Hiner Putman, provided decadence. Candy corn, which the Goelitz Company introduced to the United States before World War I, remains a ubiquitous treat. Marpro Products created and popularized the marshmallow cone candy. Doscher invented the French Chew and made caramel corn a baseball concession at Redland Field decades before Cracker Jack became synonymous with our national pastime. The city's many Greek and Macedonian immigrants influenced the unique Queen City tradition of finishing a Cincinnati-style threeway of spaghetti, chili and cheddar with a chocolate mint. Local food etymologist Dann Woellert tells these stories and more in this delectably sweet history.

Bayou St. John played a significant role in the neighborhood of the same name, fueling debate over the waterway's use, control and ownership for centuries.

Native Americans first used it as a trade route. Later, it became a backdoor entrance for settlers to the present-day French Quarter. As commercial use declined, residents witnessed a progressive shift toward recreation. Following the Civil War, tourists flocked to witness Marie Laveau's voodoo ceremonies. The early twentieth century brought two amusement parks. And events like the Bayou Boogaloo music festival draw thousands of visitors. Despite its many costume changes, the bayou continues to be the Crescent City's most beloved waterway. Author Cassie Pruyn reveals this evolving story.

Defined by a tangled web of deception for more than a century, Northwest Indiana's political culture involved secret handshakes, tapped phone calls, backroom deals and murder.

Found submerged in his car with a rock on the gas pedal, city official Babe Lopez's execution-style murder rocked East Chicago. Shot and killed at a political fundraiser, power broker Jay Given's murder occurred while four hundred guests mingled in a neighboring room. Former Lake Station mayor Keith Soderquist stole thousands of dollars from his reelection campaign and the city's food pantry account to gamble at local casinos. Author Jerry Davich explores the hidden political scandals and highly publicized court cases of public servants once sworn to serve and protect.

The history of a town is almost like a personal diary, each day filled with the events and people who made their mark.

This collection could be thought of as Hampton’s diary, as authors Wythe Holt and Edward B. Hicks offer up a day by day history of the stories that shaped this jewel of the Commonwealth. The city’s story begins at the origins of Old Point comfort as early as 1608 on the coast of Virginia and about 25 miles from the first permanent English settlement in the New World, Jamestown, but that’s only the beginning of the story. The Emancipation Proclamation was first read to the public on the grounds of what is now Hampton University under what would soon be called the Emancipation Oak. NASA’s Langley Research Center helped send astronauts to space and tested the Apollo Lunar Lander. Fort Monroe encompasses nearly two centuries of service to the country, as historic and symbolic site during the Civil War as a Union stronghold in the midst of the Confederacy and as the largest stone fort in North America. Join Holt and Hicks and enjoy the rich historical legacy of Hampton every day of the year.

Local author Brendan Kirby revives Mobile's history of gangsters, gambling, theft and arson.

Since its founding in 1702 as the first capital of the French colony of Louisiana, Mobile has witnessed all manner of salacious scandals. An 1847 murder resulted in the hanging of Charles Boyington, who maintained his innocence to the very end, and a great oak tree near his grave site seems to support him. Many believe the notorious Copeland gang started one of the city's worst fires as cover to escape with stolen loot. A 1932 murder case involved a slaying at the landmark Battle House Hotel and proved that Mobile juries could not always be trusted.

Follow the tragic story of a fishing trip gone wrong and its impact on the community of Brockton, Massachusetts.

On May 13, 1928, ten prominent men of Brockton, Massachusetts, headed off on a fishing trip to Moosehead Lake in Maine. After traveling fourteen hours, the group met Maine guide Samuel Budden and boarded the Mac II for the final voyage to their destination. Approximately six miles from the Tomhegan sporting camp, the boat took on water in rough seas and sank, taking Budden and all but one of the adventurers to a watery grave. Jim Benson and Nicole Casper chronicle this horrific tragedy and its legacy in two New England communities.

Author Thea Lewis takes a revealing ride through the unique and colorful history of the Green Mountain State.

Vermont is a picturesque landscape, but the idyllic setting hides a sometimes dark and desperate past. H.H. Holmes, America's first serial killer, may have been the University of Vermont's deadliest student. A Burlington resident made an empire partly by carrying contraband goods to and from Canada. The first United States president subject to a birther movement wasn't 44, but a much lower number. A Burlington schoolboy ran away with the circus and became an international sensation under the big top.

With remote waterways and unpressured trout, Wyoming's Wind River Range is the backcountry fly angler's mecca.

In the alpine lakes and streams, trout may approach a dry fly two or more at a time, and an angler can cast for days without seeing another person, let alone another angler. But more than just a place to catch lots of fish, the range is also a place to disconnect from noise and networks and reconnect with oneself. In a series of essays on misfortunate father-and-son backpacking trips, disaffected Boy Scouts, psychotropic deep-woods epiphanies and many other topics, author Chadd VanZanten offers not only a survey of the fishing and history of the Wind Rivers but a tour of personal landscapes as well.

Since Naperville sprang from the northern Illinois prairie, it has maintained an unmistakably fascinating heritage.

The settlers who followed the Napers to the DuPage River had to endure the hardships of felling trees and plowing prairies to make a place to call home. The campuses of the Research and Technology corridor might seem far removed from the travails of those early years, but both are part of the same community. That shared tradition holds surprises such as the location of the Stenger Brewery or the legacy of Peter Kroehler, furniture tycoon, mayor and philanthropist. Bryan Ogg takes stock of the people and events that shaped Naperville from its founding through its current state.

Greenwich in the seventeenth century was a lost world with tythingmen and meeting warners, wild horse hunters, herdsmen, townsmen, pounders and planters.

Faced with an ever-changing environment, citizens set many new-world boundaries. Farmers created common fields along the coast and redesigned wilderness. They balanced religious and civic authority, private and common interests and financial inequities across communities. The first comers found it more challenging to please their own than it was to please their God. Their departure from the past fashioned an idealized, yet still imperfect, new society the Puritans proudly called the Greenwich Plantation. Author Missy Wolfe details the strategies and setbacks of creating community in colonial America's First Period.

When the bustle of a city slows, towns dissolve into abandoned buildings or return to woods and crumble into the North Georgia clay. In 1832, Auraria was one of the sites of the original American gold rush.

The remains of numerous towns dot the landscape - pockets of life that were lost to fire or drowned by the water of civic works projects. Cassville was a booming educational and cultural epicenter until 1864. Allatoona found its identity as a railroad town. Author and professor Lisa M. Russell unearths the forgotten towns of North Georgia.

Over fifty thousand Connecticut soldiers served in the Union army during the Civil War, yet their stories are nearly forgotten today.

Among the regiments that served, at least forty sets of brothers perished from battlefield wounds or disease. Little known is the 16th Connecticut chaplain who, as prisoner of war, boldly disregarded a Rebel commander's order forbidding him to pray aloud for President Lincoln. Then there is the story of the 7th Connecticut private who murdered a fellow soldier in the heat of battle and believed the man's ghost returned to torment him. Seven soldiers from Connecticut tragically drowned two weeks after the war officially ended when their ship collided with another vessel on the Potomac. Join author John Banks as he shines a light on many of these forgotten Connecticut Yankees.