March 2019

It's easy to see why curator Adam Erby gets excited entering the front parlor at Mount Vernon, which was recently reopened to the public after being closed more than a year for renovation. He and his colleagues now know that the paint colors and furniture are very similar to what was actually here 250 years ago.

The Washingtons most often welcomed guests in this room to the left of the front door of Mount Vernon. One of the most important spaces in the house, it was designed to impress visitors and display the Washingtons’ wealth with its elaborate moldings, family portraits, and some of the first upholstered furniture to appear in Virginia. 

Whether you’re a serious historian or you just enjoy learning about the past, Philadelphia has a lot to offer. The first UNESCO World Heritage City in the United States, it has been known variously as the “City of Brotherly Love,” the “Workshop of the World,” the “Cradle of Liberty,” and the “City of Firsts,” among several terms.

In 1977, American Heritage published an article by Elinor Reichlin, a researcher at Harvard’s Peabody Museum, about a startling discovery she had recently made: the oldest photographs of slaves known to exist. The poignant images show Renty, a slave on the Taylor plantation in South Carolina who had been born in the Congo, his daughter, Delia, and four other enslaved individuals. In total, Reichlin had discovered 16 images of former slaves.

Last year’s scandal surrounding the Nobel Prize for Literature was only the latest in a history almost too farcical for Moliere. The Swedish Academy, the body that awards the literature prize, was embarrassed by credible allegations of financial misconduct, leaks of the names of winners, and sexual assault by the husband of one of the academy members.

So many judges resigned in disgust that the Academy was forced to cancel the 2018 prize altogether. It was such a royal mess that the executive director of the Nobel foundation – the body that oversees all of the prizes – said that the Academy “should get outside help” to sort out all their problems.

Our April 1969 issue was typical of classic issues of American Heritage, with dramatic and substantive essays on George Washington, Ike and Patton, the Transcontinental Railroad, the "ship that wouldn't die," and many other fascinating subjects from our nation's past
—The Editors

A Fateful Friendship, by Stephen Ambrose

Eisenhower dreamed of serving under Patton, but history reversed their roles. Their stormy association dramatically shaped the Allied assault on the Third Reich

The author and her team of researchers at the University of North Carolina have compiled a database of 9,000 newspapers across the U.S. and published important new research on the loss of local journalism and the growth of what they call "news deserts.” 

We asked Prof. Abernathy, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal and New York Times, to provide us with a summary of her findings on these historic trends.  —The Editors