AMERICAN HERITAGE

Featured Articles

Recent rehabilitation of this important site at the Gettysburg battlefield provides a much improved experience for visitors.

John Dickinson: Forgotten Founder

by Jane E. Calvert

Dickinson played a pivotal role in our Nation’s founding, from the Stamp Act to ratifying the Constitution, but his contributions are largely forgotten by history.

“Shall We Have a King?”

by William E. Leuchtenburg

Some delegates at the Constitutional Convention wanted a strong executive, while others feared the American president might become a king.

Important Early Maps of America

by Edwin S. Grosvenor

In the Age of Discovery, maps held closely guarded secrets for the kings, adventurers, and merchants who first acquired them.

Still “Crazy” for Patsy Cline

by Holley Snaith

Since her untimely death in 1963, the legendary country music star—and the first female to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame—continues to inspire new audiences and artists.

Classic Essays from Our Archives

Finding the Real Jamestown | Winter 2008, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3

By William M. Kelso

The archaeologist who discovered the real Jamestown debunks myths, and answers age-old mysteries about North America's first successful English colony.

A Few Parchment Pages Two Hundred Years Later | May/June 1987, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3

By Richard B. Morris

The framers of the Constitution were proud of what they had done but might be astonished that their words still carry so much weight. A distinguished scholar tells us how the great charter has survived and flourished.

FDR and His Women | March 2003, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3

By Ellen Feldman

A novelist who has just spent several years studying Eleanor Roosevelt, Lucy Rutherfurd, and Missy LeHand tells a moving story of love: public and private, given and withheld.

The Slave Who Sued for Freedom | March 1990, Vol 41, No 2

By Jon Swan

While the American Revolution was still being fought, Mum Bett declared that the new nation’s principle of liberty must extend to her, too. It took 80 years and a far-more-terrible war to confirm the rights that she had demanded.

Searching for “Shenandoah” | Winter 2022, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3

By Bruce Watson

It's one of the oldest folk ballads in our national songbook, but where did it come from? The answer is complex, multi-layered, American.

Alice Paul: “I Was Arrested, Of Course…” | February 1974, Summer 2025, Vol 70, No 3

By Robert S. Gallagher

An interview with the famed suffragette, Alice Paul

Today in History

General James McPherson born

Union Major General James McPherson is born in Clyde, Ohio. McPherson graduated first in the West Point Class of 1853 and spent his entire career in the United States Army before being mortally wounded at the Battle of Atlanta in 1864.
More »
Apalachin Meeting

State and local law enforcement raid the Apalachin Meeting of over one hundred North American mafiosi, who had gathered at the rural estate of Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara. By arresting and questioning a majority of the mafiosi, the federal government confirmed the presence of the American mafia.
More »
Joe McCarthy born

Future United States Senator Joseph McCarthy is born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin. McCarthy served in the Marines during World War II before being elected to represent Wisconsin the Senate, where he served from 1947 until his death in 1957. McCarthy is most famous for his campaign to identify and quash communist threats during the Cold War, better known as McCarthyism.
More »