George D. Painter
A MERICAN H ERITAGE is privileged not only to take part in announcing the news of the Vinland Map discovery but to publish the first extended magazine treatment of the studies that have been made of it. The Yale University Press is publishing the entire work this month as a book under the title The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation, with texts by R. A. Skelton, George D. Painter, and Thomas E. Marston. This massive, complicated, but intensely interesting volume, which costs $15, includes facsimiles of the map and the Tartar Relation, translations, commentaries, and a foreword by Alexander Orr Victor, Curator of Maps at the Yale University Library and editor and organizer of the project. We wish to thank Mr. Vietor and Chester Kerr, director of the Yale University Press, for making our presentation possible.
Articles by this Contributor

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Why do we need a national nonprofit membership society for American history?
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“Save America’s Treasures” has been totally eliminated—the largest Federal program supporting preservation of such treasures as the original Star Spangled Banner and George Washington’s tent.
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65% of Americans don’t know what happened at the Constitutional Convention, according to a recent survey by Newsweek.
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The “Teaching American History” grants—the largest Federal program supporting history education—have been completely eliminated.
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Visits to the Top 20 Civil War battlefields have dropped in half from 1970 to 2009 according to official National Park Service statistics.
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40% of Americans can’t identify whom we fought in World War II, according to a recent survey by Newsweek.
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A quarter of Americans believe Congress shares power over U.S. foreign policy with the United Nations, according to a recent Annenberg survey.
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“There is little that is more important for an American citizen to know than the history and traditions of his country,” John F. Kennedy wrote in American Heritage.
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The “We the People Program,” which touched some 30 million students and 90,000 teachers over 25 years, has been completely eliminated.
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Two-thirds of Americans could not correctly name Yorktown as the last major military action of the American Revolution, according to a recent national Gallup survey.
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The National Heritage Areas and Scenic Byways program, the only major Federal program encouraging visits to historic places, has been completely eliminated in Congressional committee.




