Skip to main content

Search Stories

J. H. Patterson, the first supersalesman, put his cash register in every emporium and banished itchy fingers from the till Read >>
One of his ships was rotten, his cold-weather gear was totally inadequate, and his officers resented him. But Lieutenant Wilkes had his orders—and off into the unknown Antarctic he sailed Read >>
BEING HAP-HAZARD ACCOUNTS OF THE Perils and Pleasures of Aerial Navigation. Read >>
Identifications for the drawing on pages 6-7 Read >>
A few kind words from down under Read >>
Jewish immigrants to America crowded into a tight ethnic huddle on New York’s Lower Rast Side. Yet for most of them it was still a land of promise Read >>
The bleak future of Hudson County’s lovely old seat of government illustrates the threat to our heritage of beauty from a generation that neither builds nor remembers well Read >>
So Abraham Lincoln summed up his boyhood in Indiana. Posterity has made of it a romantic legend, spent in a dark, smoky, crowded, deep in the wilderness Read >>
The only American ever to be both President and Chief Justice of this country was jolly, energetic, and weighed over three hundred pounds. Read >>
At least one President was a multi-millionaire. Another had gone hroke. Several had made fortunes in land speculations or memoir-writing, while one had lost everything in trade. Two were so well-off they refused the salary; another considered resigning because he couldn’t live on it. One thing all have discovered: The American people, who have elected some rich men and some poor men (though no beggars or thieves), are never indifferent to Read >>
Alabama’s Lurleen Wallace is not the first wife to stand in for her husband on the political stage. “Farmer Jim” Ferguson ran his Miriam for governor of Texas five times, and twice the voters elected her Read >>
The Puritans were far from puritanical about their food. With them, cooking was a high art Read >>
Unless the makeshift Yankee admiral with his tiny homemade fleet could hold Lake Champlain, the formidable invasion from Canada might overwhelm the rebel army Read >>
Many a book, a magazine, a play, a movie, has been banned in Boston. But Christmas? Read >>
A soldier in the American army being unfortunately surprised at a game of cards by a sergeant who owed him an old grudge, was carried before the colonel of the regiment, that he might be punished for gaming, against which general orders were very severe. Read >>
Had a tempest not thwarted his plans, George Washington might have lost the Revolution in the first major operation he commanded Read >>
Is it libel to say that the President of the United States tried to seduce his neighbor’s wife—even if he did? Thomas Jefferson tried to gag the venomous editor of upstate New York’s Wasp; Alexander Hamilton argued brilliantly in defense of journalistic candor. Read >>
In Henry Bergh—a reformed dilettante who founded the A.S.P.C.A.—many saw a latter-day Saint Francis of Assisi. But others, especially the cruel or the thoughtless, regarded him as The Great Meddler. Read >>

Enjoy our work? Help us keep going.

Now in its 75th year, American Heritage relies on contributions from readers like you to survive. You can support this magazine of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it by donating today.

Donate