"Twas founded be th' Puritans to give thanks f'r bein presarved fr'm th' Indyans, an' . . . we keep it to give thanks we are presarved fr'm th' Puritans." —Finley Peter Dunne, "'Thanksgiving,' Mr. Dooley's Opinions" (1901) Holidays are like peaks in a nation's topography. Without them, the landscape...

Finding recent scholarship on 18th- and 19th-century literature poses no great challenge to the skilled researcher, who may use a variety of available tools to support such an inquiry. It can be more difficult, however, to discover contemporaneous responses to significant 18th- and 19th-century authors. One useful tool for that...

It was through my early American history classes at Colgate University that first I discovered the joys of using the Archive of Americana as a teaching tool. In those classes, I compelled my students to make use of this valuable resource by establishing citation levels for each grade. For my...

No labor-saving machine, Nor discovery have I made; Nor will I be able to leave behind me any wealthy bequest to found a hospital or library, Nor reminiscence of any deed of courage, for America, Nor literary success, nor intellect—nor book for the book-shelf; Only a few carols, vibrating through...