The first man hanged in Washington, D.C., was an Irishman. His trial provides a unique lens on the early republic and its nascent national capital. The case drew national attention, particularly among Federalist newspaper editors, who used it to expose the threat of Irish immigrants and their hold over the sitting U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson.
The holiday cards of Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson convey more than season’s greetings, providing insight into her career as a photographer in the 1930s and her life as the spouse of a U.S. foreign service officer from 1940 to 1958.
In an 1861 letter to her mother, sixteen-year-old Louisa Russell recounted a Thanksgiving feast that battled against her "considerably tight" clothing.