What do Robert Louis Stevenson, Sally Rand’s Nude Ranch, monkeys racing tiny automobiles, Diego Rivera, and Indiana Jones, all have in common? The answer is that they are all connected to the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, which opened on February 18, 1939 on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. The start of that event […]

In September 2009, not long after Senator Ted Kennedy had died, 91-year old Senator Robert Byrd, who had been quite ill, spoke on the Senate floor about his late colleague. “Not very ago, I picked up a book of poetry which Ted Kennedy had given to me in July 1996,” said the ailing Byrd, who

I have no idea why a stamp honoring “American Sokol,” an obscure gymnastics organization was the popular stamp issued in 1965. But I do know that Sokol has a pretty interesting history. In 1965, stamp collectors sent more than 12.5 million separate items – mainly special envelopes – to the different post offices around the

Like many people interested in urban and environmental issues, I have long been interested been interested in Oregon’s long history of progressive populism. And like many people who have looked up to Oregon’s lead in those areas, I’ve been puzzled and concerned by the fact that the state also has been – and continues to

In May 1977 about 2,000 protestors, some of them people I knew, occupied the site of an under-construction nuclear power plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire. Six months later, when the United Nations issued two stamps honoring the 20th anniversary of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the New York Times dryly noted, “…the United Nations is

Although I know it’s not true, I believe the word “hassle” comes from the man who founded what became the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which has often been “hassled” (and worse) for its work on climate change. Here’s why I want this all to be true. NOAA traces its history back to multiple