Articles

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Buying Sustainable Furniture

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Buying Sustainable Furniture

Similar to the current trend of "fast fashion" in the clothing industry, the furniture industry has been forced to rethink its audience and purpose...

Meet Me at the Eagle: Wanamaker's Department Store

John Wanamaker was the father of the department store and a pioneer of modern conveniences. He felt customers were easily victimized and wanted to ...

British Colonial Furniture

For several centuries, England was "the empire on which the sun never set" - as in, its territories were so extensive that it was presumed to be da...

The Grand Tour: Spring Break or Field Trip?

Centuries ago, the pinnacle of English aristocracy and a young gentleman's education was "The Grand Tour.” Popular between the 16th and 18th Centu...

American Folk Art

When we consider folk art, what usually springs to mind are the wares that were hand crafted or decorated by members of an ethnic community, with s...

A Love (Seat) Story

This is a love story, but it really begins with an affair between women…and the voluminous dresses of their day. Fashion, 17th century France speci...

Timeless Charm of Historic Stone Houses

While stone farmhouses are not uncommon, they are as unique as the people that built them and say much about how they lived. These homes were most ...

Art & Design in the Roaring '20s

One hundred years ago, America was in the throes of post war prosperity, technological advances, and the French-inspired style known for its sleek ...

Black Forest Carvings

Many assert that Black Forest wood carvings are a distinctive style of decor that originated not in the Black Forest of Germany, but in the Swiss ...

Color Blindness in Art

Color blindness, or color vision deficiency, affects about 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women. It is most commonly caused by a gene mutation on the X-c...

Chauncey Jerome and The Industrialization of Time

Prior to the industrial boom of the 1800s, time (for the average man) was measured by daylight, punctuated by sunrise and sunset, regardless of the...

Governance and Goodwill: The Resolute Desk of the Oval Office

Looking forward to election day, we've seen a lot of images and iconography of the American government lately. The White House, the Oval Office, a...

Halloween's Irish Roots

As with many mainstream holiday traditions celebrated in modern America, it's difficult to discern the origin and purpose of many of the ways in wh...