Underground Railroad in the United States and Canada

24 May 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Underground Railroad map © lccn.loc.gov

Underground Railroad map © lccn.loc.gov

The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery as early as the 16th century, and many of their escapes were unaided; however, a network of safe houses generally known as the Underground Railroad began to organize in the 1780s among Abolitionist Societies in the North. It ran north and grew steadily until the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln. The escapees sought primarily to escape into Slave states and free states”>free states, and potentially from there to Canada.   read more…

Kiawah Island in South Carolina

23 May 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Sport Reading Time:  5 minutes

Golf course © Umc1640F

Golf course © Umc1640F

Kiawah is a sea island, or barrier island, on the Atlantic coast of the United States. Located 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Charleston in Charleston County, South Carolina, it is a seasonal beach and golf community. It is home to the Kiawah Island Golf Resort, with vacation houses and condos, beaches, golf courses, and other resort-like amenities.   read more…

Tufts University in Massachusetts

14 May 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  5 minutes

Memorial Steps © Jellymuffin40/cc-by-sa-4.0

Memorial Steps © Jellymuffin40/cc-by-sa-4.0

Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy programs located in Boston, Phoenix and Seattle. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. Tufts remained a small liberal arts college until the 1970s, when it transformed into a large research university offering doctorates in several disciplines. The corporate name of the university is “Trustees of Tufts College”.   read more…

Solvang in California

8 May 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Tivoli Square © flickr.com - Allie_Caulfield/cc-by-2.0

Tivoli Square © flickr.com – Allie_Caulfield/cc-by-2.0

Solvang (Danish for “sunny field”) is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Located in the Santa Ynez Valley, the population was 6,126 at the 2020 census, up from 5,245 at the 2010 census. Solvang was founded in 1911 and incorporated as a city on May 1, 1985. Solvang has been described as “The Danish Capital of America”.   read more…

Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

3 May 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  8 minutes

© flickr.com - National Park Service/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – National Park Service/cc-by-2.0

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, commonly called the Vietnam Memorial, is a U.S. national memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring service members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Vietnam War. The two-acre (8,100 m²) site is dominated by two black granite walls engraved with the names of those service members who died or remain missing as a result of their service in Vietnam and South East Asia during the war. The Memorial Wall was designed by American architect Maya Lin and is an example of minimalist architecture. The Wall, completed in 1982, has since been supplemented with the statue Three Soldiers in 1984 and the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in 1993.   read more…

Presidential library system in the United States

1 May 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, House of the Month Reading Time:  14 minutes

The Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, Mount Vernon, Virginia © mountvernon.org/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, Mount Vernon, Virginia © mountvernon.org/cc-by-sa-4.0

In the United States, the presidential library system is a nationwide network of 16 libraries administered by the Office of Presidential Libraries, which is part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). These are repositories for preserving and making available the papers, records, collections and other historical materials of every president of the United States since Herbert Hoover, the 31st president from 1929–1933. In addition to the library services, museum exhibitions concerning the presidency are displayed.   read more…

Moderne architecture in the United States

29 April 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Architecture Reading Time:  4 minutes

Coca-Cola Building in Los Angeles, California © Library of Congress - Carol M. Highsmith

Coca-Cola Building in Los Angeles, California © Library of Congress – Carol M. Highsmith

Moderne architecture, also sometimes referred to as Style Moderne, Art Moderne, or simply Moderne, Jazz Age Moderne, jazz modern or Jazz Style, describes certain styles of architecture popular from 1925 through the 1940s. It is closely related to Art Deco.   read more…

Financial District in New York City

26 April 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, New York City Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Hu Totya/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Hu Totya/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Financial District of Lower Manhattan, also known as FiDi, is a neighborhood located on the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by the West Side Highway on the west, Chambers Street and City Hall Park on the north, Brooklyn Bridge on the northeast, the East River to the southeast, and South Ferry and the Battery on the south.   read more…

Project 2025 or 2025 Presidential Transition Project

14 April 2025 | Author/Destination: | Category: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© project2025.org

© project2025.org

Project 2025 (also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project) is a political initiative to reshape the federal government of the United States and consolidate executive power in favor of right-wing policies. The plan was published in April 2023 by The Heritage Foundation, an American conservative think tank, in anticipation of Donald Trump winning the 2024 presidential election.   read more…

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