EXPLORE THE ATTIC

MIND IN A MAN'S WORLD -- MARGARET FULLER

In her brief, brilliant life, Margaret Fuller was the heart and mind of women’s equality

HEROESThe AtticApril 24, 2024Margaret Fuller, Transcendentalism, The Dial, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau, Henry David Thoreau, EmersonComment

OL' DIZ -- AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL

His English was fast and loose but his fastball was faster. There was only one Dizzy Dean.

HEROESThe AtticMarch 27, 2024Dizzy Dean, St. Louis Cardinals, Baseball, Gashouse Gang, The Depression Comments

THE WELL-BEHAVED WOMAN BEHIND 'WELL-BEHAVED WOMEN...'

How an unknown grad student, mother of five, became a historian, an inspiration, a meme.

HEROESBruce WatsonMarch 6, 2024Well-behaved women, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife's Tale, Women's History, Women's History Month, Colonial history, American history Comments

THE WOMAN WHO SAID 'NO!' TO NIXON

While the nation watched, Barbara Jordan stepped out of the Jim Crow past to defend democracy.

HEROESThe AtticFebruary 21, 2024Barbara Jordan, U.S. Congress, Watergate, House Judiciary Committee, Nixon impeachment, Richard Nixon Comments

GREAT DAY IN HARLEM

Like the music it celebrated, the iconic photo of jazz greats was mostly improv.

HEROESThe AtticJanuary 31, 2024A Great day in Harlem, Jaz, Jazz history, Ken Burns' Jazz, Harlem, Black history, Black History Month Comments

SUPERSISTERS! COLLECT 'EM ALL!

When a nine-year-old girl asked about trading cards, her mother and aunt got busy. And “Supersisters” went viral.

HEROESBruce WatsonJanuary 11, 2024Supersisters, SupersistersTM, Lois Rich, Women's history, Trading Cards, 1970s, Women's culture, Great women Comments

THE EINSTEIN OF GREEN LIVING

Critics scoffed but Amory Lovins has stayed on “the soft path” to renewable energy.

HEROES, TEACHERS, TEACHERS & HEALERSThe AtticDecember 15, 2023Amory Lovins, Hunter Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute, RMI, Environment, Environmental Movement, Solar Energy Comments

PROJECT 562 -- REBIRTH OF NATIONS

Native-American portraits were stuck in the past. So Matika Wilbur set out to photograph all 562 nations.

HEROES, ART-ISHThe AtticOctober 3, 2023Project 562, Matika Wilbur, Native Americans, Native American photographs Comments

FREDERICK DOUGLASS' FOURTH

Once Frederick Douglass rose to speak, Independence Day no longer seemed so free.

History, HEROESThe AtticJune 29, 2023Frederick Douglass, What to the slave is the fourth of july, Fourth of July, Abolition, Slavery Comment

MARATHON WOMEN

Women couldn’t run 26 miles. Impossible. Then women jumped into the pack in Boston, and ran and ran. . .

HEROESThe AtticApril 6, 2023Katharine Switzer, Boston Marathon, 1967 Boston Marathon, Jock Semple, women's running Comment

THE GAME OF THEIR LIVES

1950 World Cup — America’s amateurs take on the British “Kings of Football.” Do you believe in miracles?

HEROESThe AtticDecember 9, 2022The Game of their Lives, World Cup, Soccer, Football Comments

ALICE IN AUTOLAND

Automobiles were for men, men, men. Then Alice Ramsey and friends set out coast-to-coast — in 1909.

HEROESThe AtticOctober 13, 2022Alice Huylar Ramsey, Early automobiles, Maxwell automobiles, Automotive history Comments

THE ATTIC READS: NOT TOO LATE

Think it’s too late to do anything about global warming? Think again.

BOOK-ISH, HEROESThe AtticSeptember 21, 2022Rebecca Solnit, Global warming, Not too Late, Optimism, Environmental Movement, Environmental movement, Greenhouse gases, Global activism Comment

WHERE THE HEROES LIVE

Think there are few heroes in our cynical age? The Carnegie Hero Fund knows thousands.

HEROESThe AtticSeptember 1, 2022Carnegie Hero Fund, Andrew Carnegie, Heroes, American heroes Comment

W.E.B. DUBOIS AND THE GREAT RACE DEBATE

When W.E.B. DuBois debated Lothrop Stoddard, white supremacy was laughed off the stage.

TEACHERS, HEROESThe AtticJuly 14, 2022W.E.B. DuBois, Lothrop Stoddard, Race in America, Racial debate, eugenics, The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy Comments

THE WOMAN WHO INSULTED HITLER

Booted out of the Reich, Dorothy Thompson warned Americans of Nazis in their midst. Was anyone listening?

HEROESThe AtticJuly 7, 2022Dorothy Thompson, Hitler, Nazism, American Journalism, "It Can't Happen Here", Sinclair Lewis Comments