Oriental dance, Arabic dance, raqs sharqi (Eastern dance), la danze serpiente. It’s a dance of many names, but one in particular is the most enduring: belly dance, translated from the French danse du ventre. Coined in 1864, this name haunts the present – like a nineteenth century ghost.
Continue reading “Danse du Ventre: Belly Dance’s 19th Century Ghost”
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz was on my reading list for a while. This would be an enlightening read at any time since the book’s publication in 1998, but seemed especially relevant now in 2020, a tumultuous period of national reckoning.
Of all the historic houses I’ve seen, the Armour-Stiner Octagon House in Irvington, New York has become a new favorite. I am absolutely enamored by its bold color palette, stunning interior, and unique structure. Its preservation story is also quite heartwarming.
How do two weeks jam packed with historic houses and museums sound? If you can enthusiastically answer yes, then you should consider attending one of the Victorian Society in America’s summer programs. The deadline for summer 2019 has passed, but I highly encourage anyone passionate about historical architecture to consider applying in the future.
Continue reading “The Victorian Society in America’s Summer Schools, AKA – Nerd Camp”
Only an artist could dream up a house like Olana, the Victorian Middle Eastern-style home of Hudson River School painter Frederic Church. The artistic oasis overlooks the Hudson River and it’s easy to see what drew Frederic Church to the landscape all those years ago. Today, visitors flock to the site to marvel at both the landscape and what lies within Olana’s beautiful archways.
Continue reading “Olana: A Historic Painter’s Paradise on the Hudson”
A compendium of weird medical history? Yes please! (Disclaimer: if you just ate or are about to eat, you might want to read this later…)
Continue reading “Book Review of Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything”
At last, two years in the making, the book I contributed to is finally out!
As I am enamored by both Russian history and beards, what better way to kick off Movember than with a post on Peter the Great, otherwise known as the Tsar who sheared a nation.
Continue reading “Once Upon a Movember: Peter the Great’s Beard Tax”
Here I am actually talking about ghosts! But make no mistake, Ghostland by Colin Dickey is more than a compendium of ghost stories. Rather, Colin Dickey treats each of these tales as a case study for examining different types of hauntings, their origins and development. Most of all, he is interested in what these stories say about America’s relationship to its past.
Continue reading “Book Review of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey”
