From the Archives: Lincoln’s Greatest Case–Sort Of

Brian McGinty (The Oatman Massacre) uses his skills as both attorney and historian in Lincoln’s Greatest Case: The River, The Bridge and The Making of America. In May, 1856, the steamboat Effie Afton hit a pillar of the Rock Island Bridge–the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi. Both steamboat and bridge caught fire. The Effie…

Read More

Road Trip Through History: The Things We Missed

For those of you who are coming in late, My Own True Love and I went on an adventure this fall: three weeks on the Great River Road. We spent two days in Memphis, three days in New Orleans, and then drove north along the Mississippi without a schedule,* stopping at anything that caught our…

Read More