Rare copy of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' goes on the auction block

(Baltimore Sun) It's the typo that gives it away. The two 13-by-9.5-inch pieces of paper that will go up for auction at Christie's on Friday spell out in big, bold, black letters, "The Star Spangled Banner." Underneath this heading is written, much smaller, these words of explanation: "A Pariotic Song." Continued

Studying Amish style in a whole new light

(Lancaster Online) Within the walls of the Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum, a new exhibit is being researched, designed and planned by a group of six college students who are learning more than they ever thought they would about quilts and fashion.
The collaboration between the museum and the Franklin & Marshall College students is providing more than just class credits for the students involved — it will provide the museum visitors with a look at fashion as art. This is the first time the museum has worked with a college class on an exhibit. Continued

1829: Little girl's observations of B&O Railroad

(Baltimore Sun) ... "The United States Reader or Juvenile Instructor No. 2," written by William Darby and published in Baltimore in 1829, is so interesting because within its pages is a very early account, albeit brief, about the new Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Chartered in 1827, the B&O was the nation's first common carrier railroad, and at the time Darby's book was published, the railroad was building its line westward from the city to Ellicott's Mills, today's Ellicott City. It opened for traffic in 1830. Continued

Local researcher brings together five centuries of Anabaptist history in one book

(Lancaster Online) Donald Kraybill can breathe a parental-like sigh of relief.
His "Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites" is fully grown now and making its way in the world.
The book recently released by Johns Hopkins University Press took 10 years and input by a score of people to complete. Continued

Image: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Amish wagon shop yard, 1942 by John Collier (FSA/OWI/LoC).

Henry Bacon

(Wikipedia) Henry Bacon (November 28, 1866 – February 17, 1924), an American Beaux-Arts architect, is best remembered for his severe Greek Doric Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (built 1915–1922), which was his final project. Continued

Photo: View of the Lincoln Memorial, Reflecting Pool, and WWII Memorial, from the Washington Monument, NW, Washington, D.C. by Carol M. Highsmith (Library of Congress).

Havre de Grace's updated Lafayette Trail features more historic properties

(TheRecord) There are more than 800 historic buildings in Havre de Grace, and the city’s preservation commission is determined to make a dent in chronicling them for those touring the city.
An updated version of the commission’s guide to the Lafayette Trail has 20 new historic properties, on top of the 37 mentioned in the revised 1998 edition of the guide.
Ron Browning, chairman of the commission, said he hopes the new self-guided tour gives people more options to explore along the white, painted trail winding through downtown Havre de Grace.
“We wanted to show some of the different types of architecture, and also some commercial and industrial buildings,” he said. Continued

United States Army War College

(Wikipedia) The United States Army War College is a United States Army school located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500 acre (2 km²) campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks. It caters to high-level military personnel and civilians and prepares them for strategic leadership responsibilities. ... Established from the principles learned in the Spanish-American War, the College was founded by Secretary of War, Elihu Root, and formally established by General Order 155 on November 27, 1901. Continued

Cooking in Colonial Maryland: If it was filling, it was good

(Washington Post) Step into the kitchen at the Godiah Spray Tobacco Plantation at Historic St. Mary's City, and the year instantly becomes 1661.
As Mistress Rebecca Spray, Godiah Spray's wife, prepared the midday meal Nov. 12 by an open hearth for her family members and workers connected with the farm, one of the indentured servants, John Prentice, and a hired hand, William Felstead, debated the quality of their food in the Maryland colony compared with the meals they had in England. Continued

Photo: Turkey in the yard of an old Harford County home, circa 1935 (Library of Congress).

A Sauerkraut Thanksgiving

(Bon Appétit) ... I didn't know what to say that day to explain our tradition, but I've since done some research, and I now know where it comes from: Baltimore. Serving sauerkraut at Thanksgiving is an old tradition there, rooted in the homes of the city's German immigrants. In 1863, when Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday, about a quarter of Baltimore's population was German. Sauerkraut was a given on their celebratory table, and so it became a common part of Thanksgiving meals across the city. Over time, it didn't even matter if you came from German stock: Sauerkraut became a Baltimore thing. My grandfather's family was as Irish as they come—Mack was their surname, a shortened version of Macgillycuddy—but he grew up on the Chesapeake Bay, eating sauerkraut on the fourth Thursday of every November. Continued

{Falmanac slow-cooks his Thanksgiving sauerkraut with spareribs and caraway seeds.}

Photo: Making sauerkraut c1915 (Library of Congress).

New Book on York County, Pennsylvania Mills

(Universal York) York County Heritage Trust will launch its latest publication, Millers' Tales: The Mills of York County, this Saturday, November 27 with a public program. The event will be held a 1 p.m. at the Trust's Agricultural and Industrial Museum, 217 W. Princess St., York. Ray Kinard will speak on milling and agriculture in York County and there will be a demonstration of the Bradley mill, the interior of a full-size working mill installed inside the museum. The author will also be available. The quality paperback book can be obtained at AIM as well as at YCHT's 250 E. Market St. shop. It can be purchased alone or as part of a special package of books on York County history at the shops, online or by phone. Continued

Photo: Wallace-Cross Mill (Kim Choate).

Civil War Times: Uhlinger's Interesting Pistol

Civil War Times magazine editor Dana Shoaf discusses and demonstrates the use of an unusual Civil War gun.

Fire Museum of Maryland set to open holiday train garden Nov. 27

(Towson Times) The Fire Museum of Maryland is again presenting its Holiday Train Garden for young and old to enjoy.
The train garden opens Saturday, Nov. 27, and features a photo opportunity with Santa. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with Santa visiting from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. New additions this year are windmills and a helicopter as part of the impressive display. Continued

Pictured: J.N. Swartzell and daughter Margaret seated with parts of electric train, on porch of home, Washington, D.C. (Library of Congress).

Henry Bourne Joy

(Wikipedia) Henry Bourne Joy (November 23, 1864 – November 6, 1936) was President of the Packard Motor Car Company, and a major developer of automotive activities as well as being a social activist.
In 1913, Joy and Carl Graham Fisher were driving forces as principal organizers of the Lincoln Highway Association, a group dedicated to building a concrete road from New York to San Francisco. After the first several years, Fisher had become more involved instead with creation of the north-south Dixie Highway project and became a developer of Miami Beach, but Joy was dedicated to the Lincoln Highway for the long-haul. Naming it after former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was one of the moves Joy led, and his Lincoln Highway project was completed in his lifetime, despite lack of financial support by automotive leaders such as Henry Ford (Sr.). Continued

How Economic Brawn Transformed a Nation

(NYTBR) It has often been noted that while the American union was established by the Revolution, the American nation was forged only upon the awful anvil of the Civil War. Far less noted, however, is that this nation’s extraordinary power and influence in the 20th century and beyond has been largely a product of the remarkable 35 years that followed the Civil War.
In those decades the American economy exploded in size, becoming by far the largest, most productive and most technically advanced in the world. In 1860 the United States had imported almost all its steel — the product that was increasingly the measure of economic power at that time — from Britain. By 1900 it was producing more steel than Britain and Germany combined and exporting it profitably to both those countries.
H. W. Brands tells this story of extraordinary economic transformation in his new book, “American Colossus.” Continued

China Clipper

(Wikipedia) The China Clipper (NC14716) was the first of three Martin M-130 four-engine flying boats built for Pan American Airways and was used to inaugurate the first commercial transpacific air service from San Francisco to Manila in November, 1935. Built at a cost of $417,000 by the Glenn L. Martin Company in Baltimore, Maryland, it was delivered to Pan Am on October 9, 1935.
On November 22, 1935 it took-off from Alameda, California in an attempt to deliver the first airmail cargo across the Pacific Ocean. Continued

North Carolina

(LoC) On November 21, 1789, North Carolina ratified the Constitution to become the twelfth state in the Union. The vote came approximately two hundred years after the first white settlers arrived on the fertile Atlantic coastal plain.
Originally inhabited by a number of native tribes, including the Cherokee, Catawba, Tuscarora, and Coratans, North Carolina was the first American territory that the English attempted to colonize. Sir Walter Raleigh, for whom the state capital is named, chartered two colonies on the North Carolina coast in the late 1580s; both ended in failure. The demise of one, the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island, remains one of the great mysteries of American history. Continued

Anzio Annie leaving APG

(Aegis) Aberdeen Proving Ground will soon be losing a piece of history — one of the biggest cannons ever built.
The German built K5 long gun that saw service in World War II and later became a major APG attraction was being dismantled this week in preparation for moving it to its future home.
Aberdeen Proving Ground has housed the U.S. Army’s Ordnance School since the 1920s, according to George Mercer, chief of public affairs at APG. Continued

Benjamin Chew

(U of P) Benjamin Chew was born in Maryland, but his Quaker father soon moved the family to Philadelphia. After receiving a classical education and then studying law with Andrew Hamilton in Philadelphia, young Chew travelled to London to continue his legal studies at the Middle Temple. While abroad he made many important connections that advanced his career down the road; most important among his new ties were those to the proprietary Penn family. When he returned to America in 1744, Benjamin Chew settled in Delaware, where he established a successful law practice. Additionally he was elected Kent County representative to the Assembly of the Lower Counties, serving as speaker of that body from 1753 to 1757. In 1754 Chew moved to Philadelphia and again established a thriving law practice. During this period, Chew represented the interests of the Penn family, and like them, left his Quaker faith to join the Church of England. Continued

The Daguerreotype

(LoC) Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, inventor of the first practical process of photography, was born near Paris, France on November 18, 1789. A professional scene painter for the opera, Daguerre began experimenting with the effects of light upon translucent paintings in the 1820s. In 1829, he formed a partnership with Joseph Nicéphore Niépce to improve the process Niépce had developed to take the first permanent photograph in 1826-1827. Niépce died in 1833.
After several years of experimentation, Daguerre developed a more convenient and effective method of photography, naming it after himself—the daguerreotype. In 1839, he and Niépce's son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the French government and published a booklet describing the process. Continued

One-Room Schoolhouse Near Sylmar Razed

(WoCCP) While Cecil County once had dozens of one-room schoolhouses serving rural areas and small villages, many of these structures have disappeared in recent decades. The most recent one, the old Cherry Grove School near Sylmar, was leveled during the past week or so. Built about 1881 for $680, it closed on October 24, 1931 when pupils were transferred to Calvert. For years it served as a private dwelling. Continued

Voltairine de Cleyre

(Wikipedia) Voltairine de Cleyre (November 17, 1866 – June 20, 1912) was an American Anarchist and free love activist. She was a prolific writer and speaker, opposing the State, marriage, and the domination of the Church in sexuality and women's lives. de Cleyre at first subscribed to the individualist school of anarchism, but later called herself only an Anarchist, shunning doctrinal fractiousness. Continued

Digs under old outhouses turn up interesting bottles

(YDR) Many collectible enthusiasts search high and low for the items they treasure most, whether it's coins, jewelry, dolls or other antiques. Old bottle enthusiast Thomas Grove Jr. mostly searches low -- preferably below old privy sites.
"Many young people don't know what a privy is," said Grove, of Dover. "It's another name for an outhouse."
Grove has been digging at privy sites for eight years, always hoping to find something rare. Continued

Image: Outhouse, Abingdon Rosenwald School (Falmanac).

James McHenry

(Wikipedia) James McHenry (November 16, 1753 – May 3, 1816) was an early American statesman. McHenry was a signer of the United States Constitution from Maryland and the namesake of Fort McHenry. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress from Maryland, and the third United States Secretary of War (1796–1800), under presidents George Washington and John Adams. Continued

Columbia honors Civil War heroes

(YDR) As Confederate forces were advancing through York County in 1863, four Columbia citizens were ordered by a Union colonel to burn down the bridge that connects the borough with Wrightsville.
The bridge burning -- the concrete piers remain in the Susquehanna River -- stopped the Rebel soldiers in Wrightsville; they eventually headed south to Join Gen. Robert E. Lee's forces in Gettysburg. The four men -- John Q. Denny, John Lockard, Jacob Miller and Jacob Rich -- were honored Sunday at Locust Street Park in Columbia with a ceremony that included planting a Liberty Elm tree. Continued

German soldier impersonators on train spark historical debate

(Baltimore Sun) ... While playing out depictions of older wars from American history is generally not controversial, conflicts that are fresher present challenges and evoke strong emotions, according to those who have studied the topic.
"The re-enactment of battles from more recent wars like World War II and Vietnam, with some participants playing Nazis or Vietcong, has a different flavor," Jenny Thompson, the author of a book on 20th-century war re-enactors, wrote in The New York Times. "For real survivors, some whose memories are still raw, the safe historical distance collapses." Continued

Photo: Locomotive 734, Western Maryland Scenic Railroad (MDRails)

The Articles of Confederation

(LoC) On November 15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation. Submitted to the states for ratification two days later, the Articles of Confederation were accompanied by a letter from Congress urging that the document
…be candidly reviewed under a sense of the difficulty of combining in one general system the various sentiments and interests of a continent divided into so many sovereign and independent communities, under a conviction of the absolute necessity of uniting all our councils and all our strength, to maintain and defend our common liberties… Continued

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

(Wikipedia) Charles Carroll of Carrollton (September 19, 1737 – November 14, 1832) was a wealthy Maryland planter and an early advocate of independence from Great Britain. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and later as United States Senator for Maryland. He was the only Catholic and the longest-lived (and last surviving) signatory of the Declaration of Independence, dying at the age of 95. Continued

Image: Cornerstone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad laid by Carroll on July 4, 1828, now displayed at the B&O Railroad Museum.

Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition at the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum

(TheRecord) Do “good fences make good neighbors?”
The Havre de Grace Maritime Museum in cooperation with the Maryland Humanities Council, will explore this and other aspects of the cultural history of fences and land use as it hosts the local showing of “Between Fences,” a Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition, and “Beyond Jamestown, Life 400 Years Ago,” Harford County’s companion exhibit that highlights the local story.
“Between Fences” will be on view beginning today (Friday) and continuing through Dec. 31, while “Beyond Jamestown” will have an extended showing. Continued

John Dahlgren

(Wikipedia) John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren (November 13, 1809 – July 12, 1870) was a United States Navy leader. He headed the Union Navy's ordnance department during the American Civil War and designed several different kinds of guns and cannons that were considered part of the reason the Union won the war. For these achievements, Dahlgren became known as the "father of American naval ordnance." He reached the rank of rear admiral. Continued

Top Photo: Dahlgren Chapel, Turner's Gap, Maryland (Acroterion, some rights reserved).

Will Crawford

(artsbma.org) Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in New Jersey, Will Crawford was among the most prolific American illustrators of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Entirely self-taught, he began his career while still in his teens, as a newspaper artist and cartoonist. Crawford eventually became a successful freelance book and magazine illustrator, his work appearing in most of the country's leading periodicals, including Puck, Life, Redbook, and Everybody's Magazine. An enthusiast of the American West, in 1902, Crawford visited Montana. There he met the cowboy artist Charles M. Russell, whom he persuaded to go to New York. When Russell did head east, he stayed with Crawford, from whom he learned more refined drawing techniques, which ultimately enabled him to him become a commercially successful illustrator.

Illustration: "49ers" by Will Crawford (Library of Congress).

Dover man learns part of long history of property on square

Dover, PA (YDR) Had it not been for a high school assignment, Ron Botterbush probably wouldn't have uncovered the history of a couple of old local buildings. But, the report was required for him to graduate. So, like his classmates at Dover Area High School, he started to research.
Two things made his project unique, however. Botterbush chose to write about the house he lived in, and he was 43 years old at the time.
Botterbush, now 77, was set to graduate from high school in 1951, but he joined the U.S. Navy earlier that year and never got his diploma. Continued

Albert Ruger: Pioneering panoramic map artist

(LoC) Pioneering panoramic map artist Albert Ruger died on November 12, 1899 in Akron, Ohio. Ruger was born in Prussia and emigrated to the United States where he initially worked as a stonemason. While serving with the Ohio Volunteers during the Civil War he began drawing landscapes.
After the war, Ruger settled in Battle Creek, Michigan. In the late 1860s, Ruger joined forces with J.J. Stoner of Madison, Wisconsin to form Merchants Lithographing Company. Over the next three decades, Ruger produced maps of towns and cities in twenty-two states from New Hampshire to Minnesota and as far south as Alabama.
A form of cartography in which towns and cities are drawn as if viewed from above at an oblique angle, panoramic mapping became popular during the late nineteenth century. Panoramic cartographers abandoned restraints of scale to illustrate street patterns, individual buildings, and major landscape features in perspective. Continued

Veterans Day

(LoC) The Allied powers signed a cease-fire agreement with Germany at Rethondes, France on November 11, 1918, bringing World War I to a close. Between the wars, November 11 was commemorated as Armistice Day in the United States, Great Britain, and France. After World War II, the holiday was recognized as a day of tribute to veterans of both world wars. Beginning in 1954, the United States designated November 11 as Veterans Day to honor veterans of all U.S. wars. Continued

Replicas of Truman's watch might bring Columbia museum $3.9 million

(LancasterOnline) ... "We are pleasantly shocked," said museum director Noel B. Poirier on Tuesday. "This is a way to solidify that we'll be here in 10 years."
The story begins with the museum borrowing a wristwatch worn by President Harry S. Truman for a 2008 exhibit on presidential timepieces.
While it researched the exhibit, "Time in Office," the museum contacted the watch's Swiss maker, Gallet Watch Group, and asked about the device. Continued

Image taken at the National Watch & Clock Museum (Falmanac, some rights reserved).

Genealogy Detectives: Tracing Your Family Roots

(WoCCP) If you are interested in looking for your family roots, you will definitely want to attend Genealogy Detectives: Tracing Your Family Roots, a “how-to” primer on many of the resources available for tracing your family tree, Wednesday, November 17 at 7pm at the Elkton Branch of the Cecil County Public Library. Continued

Stanford White

(Wikipedia) Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found to this day in places like Sea Gate, Brooklyn. His design principles embodied the "American Renaissance".
In 1906, White was murdered by millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw over White's affair with Thaw's wife, actress Evelyn Nesbit, leading to a trial which was dubbed at the time "The Trial of the Century." Continued

During WW2, this female veteran taught Army boys to fly

(YDR) One day, her father set $10 on the kitchen table. Her brother had recently started taking flying lessons. Why don't you go out to the airport, he told her, and see what's going on? Those $10 started an adventure that led Smith -- now Susan Rodriguez, 90, living in Bethesda, Md. -- to teach American boys how to fly, to a newly liberated Paris and to the Moroccan coast before World War II was done. Continued

Lincoln Wins. Now What?

(NYTimes) ... Now that task falls to a president who received fewer than four votes in 10; a president who is purely the creature of only one section of the country; a president who, apart from one undistinguished term in the House of Representatives a decade ago (and a period in the state legislature), has no experience in public office; a president who comes from a Republican party that has been stitched together from various interests, who will be asked to work with a Congress whose two houses are controlled by Democrats. Continued

Photo: Abraham Lincoln, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly left, taken in Pittsfield, Illinois, two weeks before the final Lincoln-Douglas debate in Lincoln's unsuccessful bid for the Senate, October 1, 1858 (Library of Congress).

Historic Towson hosts annual meeting Nov. 15

(Towson Times) The volunteer preservation group Historic Towson Inc. will hold its annual meeting Monday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. at the Gibson Museum at Sheppard Pratt Health System. ... Sheppard Pratt was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971. The original buildings were designed by architect Calvert Vaux in 1862. Continued

Borough building survey funded: Goal is historic resources check

(Lancasteronline) You might not know it by driving through it today, but Terre Hill Borough once was a thriving commercial center.
In the early 1900s, there were three cigar factories, a cigar box factory and a hosiery factory.
A trolley provided service in eastern Lancaster County, connecting it to New Holland and Lancaster city. Continued

Harry Longabaugh

(Wikipedia) Harry Alonzo Longabaugh (1867 - November 6, 1908?), sometimes spelled Longbaugh, born in Mont Clare, Pennsylvania, also known as the Sundance Kid, was an outlaw and member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, in the American Old West. In 1887, Harry Longabaugh was convicted of horse theft and sentenced to 18 months in the Sundance, Wyoming, jail. Because of this jail time he was called the Sundance Kid. Continued

National parks mark 150 years since dawn of Civil War

(AP) With the wounds of a hard-fought political campaign still raw, the country was sharply divided by the time the election was finished.
It was 150 years ago Saturday: President Abraham Lincoln was elected amid the rising tensions that led to the Civil War.
The anniversary of Lincoln's election kicks off nearly five years of events by the National Park Service and others across the nation marking the Sesquicentennial of the war between North and South. Continued

Image: Library of Congress

Benjamin Banneker: A Man of Exceptional Accomplishment

(Catonsville Patch) Drive a few minutes west of Catonsville and into the quiet community of Oella, and you will find a small gem of a museum and a staff deeply committed to telling the story of an amazing local man who dedicated himself to a life of discovery.
The son of an ex-slave, he sought to teach by his own example that a man can achieve whatever he wishes, regardless of the circumstances of his birth. He was a self taught astronomer, clock maker, mathematician, surveyor and successful farmer at a time in this country's history when African-Americans could be legally considered property, just as farm implements or livestock would be. Continued

Charles B. McVay III

(Wikipedia) Rear Admiral Charles Butler McVay III (July 30, 1898 – November 6, 1968) was a career naval officer and the Commanding Officer of the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) when it was lost in action in 1945 and rescue efforts were delayed, resulting in massive loss of life. In the wake of the incident he was blamed for it. After years of mental health problems he committed suicide. Following years of efforts by survivors and others to clear his name, Captain McVay was posthumously exonerated by the United States Congress in 2001. Continued

Railway hugs river, but greenways might find room

(Lancaster Online) Riverside railroads, a 19th-century creation, clash with a 21st-century initiative to create greenways along the same water, says Michael Helfrick, riverkeeper for the lower Susquehanna. "Railroads restrict hundreds of miles of waterway access throughout the commonwealth," says the York resident who spends his days monitoring and promoting the river. "You have to beg to get access to something that belongs to all the people of the commonwealth," he adds. Continued

Photo: Norfolk Southern Railroad at Washington Boro, PA (Kim Choate/MDRails).

Rare Honus Wagner card to benefit Notre Dame sisters

(Baltimore Sun) In her line of work, Sister Virginia Muller does a lot of praying. She prays for the homeless, the sick, the spiritually downtrodden. And Thursday, she'll throw in a special prayer for a certain T206 Honus Wagner baseball card. That's because the School Sisters of Notre Dame, an international order with administrative offices in Baltimore, are auctioning off the rare Wagner card and bidding ends Thursday night. Continued

Love of history continues in Mount Wolf

(YDR) On Aug. 21, Mount Wolf celebrated a major milestone: its 100th anniversary. The event was marked with lectures about borough history, souvenirs, a picnic and fun for families. There was also a centennial museum open during the festivities.
Borough history was compiled into a book and a DVD so that those interested can learn more about history; also, those who missed the 100th-anniversary celebration can experience some of what happened during the event. The book contains 80 pages from the 1977 history book that was written by Brad Rentzel of Mount Wolf, with an additional 40 pages on recent events. It includes articles written by people who live, work and worship in Mount Wolf. Continued

National parks waive entrance fees on November 11

(NPS) Come visit one of America’s almost 400 national parks on Veterans Day. In recognition of current and former servicemen and -women, all national parks are waiving entrance fees on November 11, 2010.
“From everyone in the National Park Service, I extend gratitude to all who have served in the U.S. armed forces and defended the people, freedoms, and resources of this country,” said NPS Director Jon Jarvis. “In honor of veterans, entry to the national parks, which preserve many of our nation’s finest natural and cultural resources, will be free on Veterans Day, November 11. I invite everyone to take advantage of this opportunity and savor places that our veterans have kept safe for us.” Continued

Engagements With History Punctuate a Lifetime in Books

(NYTimes) ... Mr. Wills’s chapter on his family’s years in Baltimore (he and his wife have three children) includes a long and ardent disquisition on the glories of Johnny Unitas’s passing with the Baltimore Colts, and Raymond Berry’s receiving. Mr. Wills approvingly quotes the sportswriter Frank Deford, who declared: “If there were one game scheduled, Earth versus the Klingons, with the fate of the universe on the line, any person with his wits about him would have Johnny U. calling signals in the huddle.” Continued

Stewartstown RR could be declared abandoned

(YDR) The beginning of the end might be coming for the Stewartstown Railroad Company.
The estate of the historic railroad's former president -- George M. Hart -- has been trying to collect a $350,000 debt since April 2008. Now, the estate is preparing a petition to have the 7.4-mile railroad declared abandoned, which would it allow it to foreclose on the private company, said estate attorney Jim Gillotti. Continued

Image: Stewartstown Railroad Station (MDRails)