On June 25, 1876, while George Armstrong Custer and more than 260 men of the Seventh Cavalry were being annihilated at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, a teenage Crow scout named Curley was already riding hard for safety. He was not in the fight, and he would spend the next five decades trying to … Read more
In 1893, deep in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, three sisters lived in a massive hollowed-out oak stump—a dwelling roughly 15 feet in diameter with crude windows and a smoke pipe protruding from its moss-covered roof. Evangelene, Meredith, and Imigene Walker became the center of one of the region’s most disturbing historical accounts, a case … Read more
Private George W. Glenn, serving under the alias George W. Glee in H Troop of the Seventh US Cavalry, survived the Battle of the Little Big Horn as part of Major Marcus Reno’s battalion. His firsthand account offers a ground-level view of the regiment’s march, the valley fight, and the desperate siege on the bluffs. … Read more
In 1876, a family entered a photography studio in rural France. The father wore a dark wool suit that appeared tailored for someone slightly larger than him. The mother wore a high-collared dress trimmed with lace that had yellowed from repeated washing. In her arms, wrapped in what seemed to be a white cotton christening … Read more
Before the era of power couples and media-savvy political dynasties, there was John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier. He was the young, handsome, and intelligent president. She was the feminine, sophisticated, and elegant first lady. After the tragedy of 1963, they became symbols of patriotism, beauty, and American pride. Over time, that image of perfection … Read more
Two lines of soldiers stand in an open field, one in blue and one in gray, calmly waiting their turn to be shot at. That image has appeared in movies, textbooks, and classroom jokes for over a century—the notion that Civil War soldiers followed an unspoken gentleman’s agreement, one side firing while the other stood … Read more
A former Oregon deputy sheriff is breaking a decades-long silence about a case he says he could never explain, involving three missing residents who returned months later acting like people they no longer seemed to be. In the fall of 1959, a family of three vanished from their remote farm in eastern Oregon. Augustine Vosler, … Read more
The Halstead family arrived at a 160-acre parcel of bottomland in the hill country of Independence County, Arkansas, in October of 1867. Elias Halstead was a 39-year-old Civil War veteran with a limp from a ball that never fully worked its way out of his leg. His wife, Sarah, was a 28-year-old widow who had … Read more
For more than a century, a daguerreotype sat forgotten in a cardboard box in the basement of the Historical Society of Philadelphia. Wrapped in yellowed newspaper, it held the image of two young sisters staring out from 1863. When Dr. James Mitchell, a historian specializing in abolitionist movements, pulled the metal plate from its protective … Read more
The afternoon light filtered through the tall windows of the Atlanta Historical Archive as Dr. Rebecca Morrison examined a collection of early 20th century photographs donated by an anonymous estate. Among faded portraits and formal gatherings, one image stopped her cold. A wedding photograph from 1903. A white man in a dark three-piece suit sat … Read more