Pursuing History
Treaty of Paris (1783): An Honorable Peace
Treaty of Paris (1783): An Honorable Peace By Donna K. Keesling Two hundred and forty years ago this month, the American Revolution officially came to an end when British and American delegates signed what is [...]
What’s ahead for History Camp and The Pursuit of History and how you can be involved
What's ahead for History Camp and The Pursuit of History and how you can be involved Next year is the 10th anniversary of History Camp. We had the first on in 2014, and in [...]
Rapidan Camp: President Hoover’s Rustic Retreat
Rapidan Camp: President Hoover’s Rustic Retreat By Donna K. Keesling Beginning with George Washington, presidents of the United States have sought a place to temporarily retreat from many of the pressures of the position. Our [...]
Drive-In Theaters: Movie Night Under the Stars
Drive-In Theaters: Movie Night Under the Stars By Donna K. Keesling “Here the whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are apt to be” said Richard Milton Hollingshead, Jr. to the Camden, [...]
Great Camps of the Adirondacks: A Grand Life in the Wilderness
Great Camps of the Adirondacks: A Grand Life in the Wilderness By Donna K. Keesling In the late 19th century and early 20th century, wealthy families vacated their New York City homes in the summer [...]
Federal Writers’ Project: Chronicling American Life During the Great Depression
Federal Writers’ Project: Chronicling American Life During the Great Depression By Donna K. Keesling During the Great Depression, as many as one out of four Americans were without work. Through the Works Progress Administration (WPA), [...]
Freedmen’s Bureau – Bringing Freedpeople to Full Citizenship
Freedmen’s Bureau – Bringing Freedpeople to Full Citizenship By Donna K. Keesling On January 1, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, [...]
Innovation in History: Revolutionary Narratives
To 2026 or not to 2026? That is the question… With the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution approaching, many historians, teachers, historic sites, and museums are considering how to plan for the Semiquincentennial or [...]
The Statue of Liberty – A Universal Symbol of Political Freedom and Democracy
The Statue of Liberty – A Universal Symbol of Political Freedom and Democracy By Donna K. Keesling You probably know her as the Statue of Liberty or Lady Liberty, but her given name is Liberty [...]
Fresnel Lenses: Illuminating the Seacoast
Fresnel Lenses: Illuminating the Seacoast By Donna K. Keesling From the earliest times, man attempted to light the shoreline so that seagoing vessels would have a safer passage. But it wasn’t until Augustin Fresnel invented [...]
Radio City Music Hall – “The Showplace of the Nation” Turns 90
Radio City Music Hall – “The Showplace of the Nation” Turns 90 By Donna K. Keesling In late 1929, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. decided to build a complex of buildings on a site in [...]
Tutankhamun: 100 Years Since Carter’s Wonderful Discovery
Tutankhamun: 100 Years Since Carter’s Wonderful Discovery By Donna K. Keesling When British archaeologist Howard Carter declared that he saw “wonderful things” when he peeked into the tomb of Tutankhamun, little did he know that [...]
Valley Forge: A Place of Transformation for the Continental Army
Valley Forge: A Place of Transformation for the Continental Army By Donna K. Keesling In Dember of 1777, the Continental Army established its winter encampment in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Historian and author Phillip S. Greenwalt [...]
Pullman – America’s First Planned Industrial Community
Pullman – America’s First Planned Industrial Community By Donna K. Keesling What comes to mind when you hear the word “Pullman?” Do you think of elegant railway sleeper cars from the early twentieth century? Or [...]
The WASP – First American Women to Fly for their Country
The WASP – First American Women to Fly for their Country By Donna K. Keesling In the late summer of 1942, twenty-eight experienced civilian women pilots volunteered to ferry aircraft for the United States Army. [...]
Innovation in History
Dr. Robert Krim’s work over the past 20 years has been focused on Boston’s four centuries innovation. He worked with a team to establish a very broad organization – The Boston History and Innovation Collaborative [...]
Chautauqua Institution: A Model for Life-Long Learning
Chautauqua Institution: A Model for Life-Long Learning By Donna K. Keesling Founded in 1874 as a summer assembly to train Sunday school teachers, Chautauqua Institution evolved into an active community based on four founding pillars: [...]
Camp David – The Presidential Retreat
Camp David – The Presidential Retreat By Donna K. Keesling The president of the United States lives a very public life, especially when he is at the White House. Each moment of the president’s day [...]
Fred Harvey: Defining Hospitality in the American West
Fred Harvey: Defining Hospitality in the American West By Donna K. Keesling Fred Harvey, a nineteenth century entrepreneur in the hospitality industry is credited with standardizing food service along the railroad routes in the American [...]
USS Constitution Proves Its Mettle
USS Constitution Proves Its Mettle By John Allison It took Naval Constructor George Claghorn and his crew of shipwrights three tries to launch the USS Constitution. On a cold October 21, 1797, the ship finally [...]
Commanding USS Constitution
Commanding USS Constitution By Donna K. Keesling USS Constitution is the world’s oldest commissioned warship afloat and is the oldest sailing vessel worldwide that can still sail under her own power. Launched on October 21, [...]
Friendship 7: NASA’s First Manned Orbital Spaceflight
Friendship 7: NASA’s First Manned Orbital Spaceflight By Donna K. Keesling Sixty years ago, on February 20, 1962, an Atlas 6 rocket was launched at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This mission, called [...]
Towns of the Swift River Valley – Lost to the Quabbin Reservoir
Towns of the Swift River Valley – Lost to the Quabbin Reservoir By Donna K. Keesling Four towns – Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott – were incorporated in the Swift River Valley in central Massachusetts [...]
2021 Highlights and Accomplishments
2021 Highlights and Accomplishments 2021 was an exciting year and included the launch of our first all-day online History Camp America; 50 online, free History Camp Discussions with historians and authors; and exciting new, [...]
Sparrows Point: From Steelmaking to Distribution Center Hub
Sparrows Point: From Steelmaking to Distribution Center Hub By Donna K. Keesling In the mid to late 1800s, the railroad industry was laying new tracks and spurring industrial growth in the United States. The Bessemer [...]
Operation Torch: Striking Back in North Africa
Operation Torch: Striking Back in North Africa By Donna K. Keesling “You have embarked for distant places where the war is being fought.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote these words in a letter that was [...]
The Gettysburg Address Still Resonates Today
The Gettysburg Address Still Resonates Today By John Allison Why should we care about the Gettysburg Address? Lincoln wasn’t the keynote speaker at the dedication of the National Cemetery on November 19, 1863. Edward Everett [...]
Still Searching for the “Lost Colony”
Still Searching for the “Lost Colony” By Donna K. Keesling “CRO” and “CROATOAN,” carved into a tree and a post were the only clues that Englishman John White found when he returned to Roanoke Island [...]
The Battle of Gettysburg – Crucial Turning Point
The Battle of Gettysburg – Crucial Turning Point By Donna K. Keesling The town of Gettysburg, in southcentral Pennsylvania, was laid out with two hundred and ten lots by James Gettys in 1786, twenty-five years [...]
Celebrating the Smithsonian Institution’s 175th Anniversary
Celebrating the Smithsonian Institution’s 175th Anniversary By Donna K. Keesling On August 10, 2021, the Smithsonian Institution celebrated its 175th anniversary. You probably know the Smithsonian by its many artifacts – including the Star-Spangled Banner [...]
America’s First Fourth of July
America’s First Fourth of July By J. L. Bell, boston1775.net As the latest The Pursuit of History Historical Moments mailing quoted, John Adams praised the Continental Congress’s vote for independence from Britain by writing home [...]
A Trip Down History Lane: Reading My Way Through the Pandemic
A Trip Down History Lane: Reading My Way Through the Pandemic By Dr. Michael Shire The innocent question asked by grandchildren to their grandparents, ‘What did you do during the war…?’ will now be applied [...]
Katharine Gibbs: Pioneering American Business Executive
Katharine Gibbs: Pioneering American Business Executive By Rose Doherty Women will be in public life from now on. However, this societal change did not happen quickly and was the result of many 19th-century women’s work. [...]
National Parks Posters from the WPA Era
National Parks Posters from the WPA Era By Joanna Wendel In honor of The Pursuit of History’s limited edition screenprint of Fort Ticonderoga, designed in the iconic style of WPA National Parks posters from [...]
The Lafayette Trail Traces a Noteworthy Path
The Lafayette Trail Traces a Noteworthy Path By Joanna Wendel The Marquis de Lafayette played a major role in the American Revolution and helped build an enduring friendship between France and the United States. Across [...]
Nellie Tayloe Ross: The First Female Governor
Nellie Tayloe Ross: The First Female Governor By Joanna Wendel January 2021 will be remembered as the inauguration of Kamala Harris, the United States’ first female vice president. But this month also marks the anniversary [...]
Honoring a Remarkable Life: The William B. Gould Memorial Project
Honoring a Remarkable Life: The William B. Gould Memorial Project By Joanna Wendel Over the summer, as he watched statues fall around the country, Brian Keaney began to think about the role of public monuments. [...]
Why Do You Love History?
I have loved history my whole life. I love the story of history – that’s what connects us to it because the story is how we relate to people in the past. I’ve learned valuable [...]
Gravestone Girls: Bringing New England Cemeteries to Life
Gravestone Girls: Bringing New England Cemeteries to Life By Joanna Wendel Most people take their Halloween decorations out of storage every October and then pack them away until the following year. For Brenda Sullivan, however, [...]
Ways You Can Support The Pursuit of History
History has an important place in our lives. You understand how important it is to appreciate our past, and how it connects to our present. Like you, we believe that more people gaining a broader [...]
The Lucy Burns Museum: Shedding light on a dark episode in the history of women’s suffrage
The Lucy Burns Museum: Shedding light on a dark episode in the history of women’s suffrage By Joanna Wendel August 18, 2020 marked the centennial of the ratification of the 19th amendment, which granted women [...]
America’s Summer Roadtrip Recap
When we had to cancel our in-person History Camps this year, we wanted to find a unique way to connect people to history and to historic sites across the country. The result was America's Summer [...]
American Panorama: Mapping History for the Twenty-First Century
American Panorama: Mapping History for the Twenty-First Century By Joanna Wendel What is a map? Fundamentally, it’s a tool, a visual record of the surface of the world. Yet maps are also portals into memory [...]
America’s Summer Roadtrip
America’s Summer Roadtrip The Pursuit of History puts on annual History Camps that bring together people from all walks of life for a day of learning and sharing. When we had to cancel this year’s, [...]
From History Camp to The Pursuit of History
From History Camp to The Pursuit of History In late 2013, Lee Wright approached three authors and bloggers in the Boston area and proposed that they adapt the format that he’d seen work for Boston [...]
Witness to the Revolution: Decoding the Boston Massacre
Witness to the Revolution: Decoding the Boston Massacre By Joanna Wendel Imagine yourself pacing the narrow streets of Boston on a chilly morning in 1770. The night before, March 5, a confrontation between local civilians [...]
History Test Scores Have Dropped
History Test Scores Have Dropped By Kayla Schultz The state of public education has been and always will be a hot topic of conversation. While many of those conversations veer toward the political, it always [...]
History Camp Online
We feel that The Pursuit of History is more important now than ever. Lee was in the back of an Uber coming from the airport when we decided that we were going to have to [...]
History at Home
History at Home By Joanna Wendel Although shelter-in-place orders may be lifting gradually, most of us will still be spending more time than usual at home in the coming months—which means that now is a [...]
Innovation in History
Dr. Robert Krim’s work over the past 20 years has been focused on Boston’s four centuries innovation. He worked with a team to establish a very broad organization – The Boston History and Innovation Collaborative [...]
Honoring a Remarkable Life: The William B. Gould Memorial Project
Honoring a Remarkable Life: The William B. Gould Memorial Project By Joanna Wendel Over the summer, as he watched statues fall around the country, Brian Keaney began to think about the role of public monuments. [...]
12 road trip destinations (plus virtual trips there) for history buffs [USA Today]
12 road trip destinations (plus virtual trips there) for history buffs [USA Today] Missing travel and learning about history? The Pursuit of History, a nonprofit that aims to engage more people with history, is hosting [...]
Stop at Thomas Edison’s Factory on a Virtual Cross Country Road Trip [Untapped Cities]
Stop at Thomas Edison’s Factory on a Virtual Cross Country Road Trip [Untapped Cities] Cross country drives are a longstanding American tradition, but due to the COVID-19 pandemicand accompanying restrictions, now is not the ideal [...]
“America’s Summer Road Trip,” 1 Aug [Boston1775 Blog]
“America’s Summer Road Trip,” 1 Aug [Boston1775 Blog] When History Camp Boston and then other History Camps had to be canceled this year because of the pandemic, the organizers of The Pursuit of History looked [...]
Freedom Center to participate in 12-part virtual road trip of U.S. [Cincinnati Business Courier]
Freedom Center to participate in 12-part virtual road trip of U.S. [Cincinnati Business Courier] The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is one of 12 stops on a virtual road trip across the U.S. On Aug. [...]
Heart Mountain to participate in ‘America’s Summer Roadtrip’ online broadcast on August 1 [KULR8]
Heart Mountain to participate in ‘America’s Summer Roadtrip’ online broadcast on August 1 [KULR8] POWELL, WYO. – Heart Mountain Interpretive Center will take part in a new national event, “America’s Summer Roadtrip,” on Saturday, August [...]
Rebecca Nurse Homestead Museum to be featured in ‘America’s Summer Roadtrip’ [WickedLocal]
Rebecca Nurse Homestead Museum to be featured in ‘America’s Summer Roadtrip’ [WickedLocal] The Rebecca Nurse Homestead Museum, chosen as one of the most significant historical sites in the nation, will participate in a new national [...]
‘America’s Summer Road Trip’ showcases notable historic sites [San Francisco Examiner]
‘America’s Summer Road Trip’ showcases notable historic sites [San Francisco Examiner] Spanish American writer and philosopher George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” In the current climate, [...]
America’s Summer Road Trip featuring Historic New Bridge Landing [Patch.com]
America’s Summer Road Trip featuring Historic New Bridge Landing [Patch.com] The Bergen County Historical Society is excited to announce that Historic New Bridge Landing has been selected to participate in a new national event called [...]
Immerse yourself in American History with a virtual summer roadtrip [Great Day Washington]
Immerse yourself in American History with a virtual summer roadtrip [Great Day Washington] America’s Summer Roadtrip 2020 is a free live stream event debuting on 8/1. Lee Wright, Founder and President of The Pursuit of [...]
Carrie Lund, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Pursuit of History with Michael Patrick Shiels [Michigan’s Big Show]
Carrie Lund, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Pursuit of History with Michael Patrick Shiels [Michigan’s Big Show] We love travel and we love to get out there to the wide-open spaces and in the [...]
Explore These Hidden Gems During America’s (Virtual) Summer Road Trip [The Discoverer]
Explore These Hidden Gems During America’s (Virtual) Summer Road Trip [The Discoverer] Meandering along scenic highways and exploring national parks on an all American road trip is a classic summer activity for friends and family. [...]
AMERICA’S SUMMER ROADTRIP [Taking the Kids]
AMERICA’S SUMMER ROADTRIP [Taking the Kids] The Pursuit of History, a non-profit, recently created America’s Roadtrip. Take the kids on a free virtual tour of 12 historic sites in 12 hours. See full post here: https://www.takingthekids.com/2020/07/21/americas-summer-roadtrip/
Visit 12 of America’s Most Historic Sites in 12 Hours [OnTravel.com]
Visit 12 of America’s Most Historic Sites in 12 Hours [OnTravel.com] The Pursuit of History’s Lee Wright joins Paul and Elizabeth to unveil a virtual road trip to 12 of the United States’ most fascinating historical sites. [...]
This Live-Streaming Road Trip Stops At National Park Sites [National Parks Traveler]
This Live-Streaming Road Trip Stops At National Park Sites [National Parks Traveler] Don’t want to travel, but still want to visit Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico or Wright Brothers National Memorial in North Carolina? You can [...]
Virtual tour of Chaco, other historic sites set for Aug. 1 livestream event [Farmington Daily Times]
Virtual tour of Chaco, other historic sites set for Aug. 1 livestream event [Farmington Daily Times] Lee Wright, the cofounder of a national nonprofit organization that seeks to help people develop a broader understanding of [...]
From History Camp to The Pursuit of History
From History Camp to The Pursuit of History In late 2013, Lee Wright approached three authors and bloggers in the Boston area and proposed that they adapt the format that he’d seen work for Boston [...]
History Camp Online
We feel that The Pursuit of History is more important now than ever. Lee was in the back of an Uber coming from the airport when we decided that we were going to have to [...]