When Myth Becomes GOBBLE-dygook

       It was well-known that Benjamin Franklin had a near-death experience – with a turkey! Among Franklin’s many experiments with electricity was his 1750 attempt to demonstrate a procedure for electrocuting a turkey, believing that killing a turkey in this manner,...

A French Revolutionary Travelogue

           On July 11, 1780, three officers of the French Army arrived in Newport, Rhode Island. Their leader was Jean-Baptiste Donatien, Compte de Rochambeau, who would command 5,500 French soldiers under the leadership of General George Washington and participate in...

Artistic License with America’s Greatest Moment? Yikes!

      One of the most recognized, iconic paintings of the American founding is prominently displayed in the rotunda of the United States Capitol. Simply and appropriately called Declaration of Independence, it is one of eight oil-on-canvas paintings measuring 12 by 18...

“The British are Coming!” Really?

     For more than a hundred fifty years, school children have been introduced to birth of the United States by the thrilling verses penned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “Listen my children and you shall here of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.  On the eighteenth of...

The American Flag – Decades in the Making?

        Meeting in the Pennsylvania State House on June 14, 1775, just two months after the battles of Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress voted to create a Continental Army to coordinate the military response of thirteen British colonies to...

Who Was America’s REAL First Founding Father?

      George Washington is often called the “Father of our country.” James Madison earned the title of “Father of the Constitution.” But is there such a person as the “First Founder?”  Is there someone who could actually deserve to be called the “First Founder”...