Shorts 2/3

Two girls hug in a painting by Thomas Gainsborough, from 1759

Ghosts of the 18th Century

A brief reflection on the way history can haunt us through art, and on how history lives in the mind.

Colonial-NewYorker

Aug 192 min read

My latest visit to the Bray School at Colonial Williamsburg

A short meditation upon the recent restoration and interpretation of the Williamsburg Bray School [c. 1760-1774].

Colonial-NewYorker

Aug 183 min read

An image of an 18th century tax stamp from England. This newspaper dates before 1765, so it is a grand example of tax stamps in England before the stamp act riots of 1765 in America

Prelude to the Stamp Act, 1765

A short vignette in a Shakespearean style about the moment when the frigate Edward deposited royal tax stamps in NYC in the year 1765, prefacing a lengthy period of rioting and political violence.

Colonial-NewYorker

Aug 169 min read

Commonplace History

History. Fiction. Oddity.

Ghosts of the 18th Century

My latest visit to the Bray School at Colonial Williamsburg

Prelude to the Stamp Act, 1765