Skip to main content

January/February 2008

In This Issue
January/February 2008

Lansdowne, the home of saloniere Anne Willing Bingham.

The Early American Salon

In the manuscript culture of the pre-print age, a lost world of poetry has been rediscovered.

By David S. Shields

Volume 29, Issue 1

Portrait of Richa Franks, attributed to Gerardus Duyckinck, circa 1735. Oil on canvas, 44 13/16 X 35 11/16 inches

Courtesy Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

  • Features

    Philip Lampi

    The Orphan Scholar

    Philip Lampi's lifelong quest to document elections of the early Republic.

    By Katherine Mangu-Ward
    Bill of Rights, 1942, by Howard Chandler Christy

    One Country, Many Programs

    A sampler of We the People projects from the Founders to Mark Twain to Laura Ingalls Wilder.

    By Meredith Hindley
    Child celebrating Mom's citizenship

    "Informed Patriotism"

    NEH celebrates five years of We the People

    By Bruce Cole
    Political cartoon with Andrew Jackson

    King Andrew and the Bank

    Andrew Jackson stares down the national bank and wins.

    By Daniel Feller
    Abraham Lincoln as a young lawyer

    "Terrific in Denunciation"

    Abraham Lincoln's legal papers reveal a surprising cache of sundry clients and dramatic litigation.

    By Douglas L. Wilson
    Movie star Lauren Bacall

    Hebrew National

    Not just Torah and gefilte fish: A new film shows the complexity of life as a Jewish American.

    By Joseph Epstein
  • Departments

    Curio

    Soldiers in the Garden

    An "unwilling participant" in the American Revolution writes from her fortified Cambridge, Massachusetts, home.

    She's Crafty

    Domesticity on the rise in Oregon.

    Of Stillness and Light

    With Henry David Thoreau, winter walks can quickly turn into "frolic gambols."

    Impertinent Questions

    Newspaper Contest in 1908 asked "When Is It Time to Go Home?"

    Conversation

    Letters From Robert E. Lee

    Elizabeth Brown Pryor talks with NEH Chairman Bruce Cole about her dual careers as a historian of antebellum America and a highly decorated diplomat working for the State Department.

    In Focus

    What about Bob?

    Robert Bailey fosters grassroots humanities programs in Arkansas.

    By John C. Williams