Robert Pohl worked for many years as a computer programmer but recovered from that and became a full time stay-at-home dad. With his son now in school, he has expanded his horizons and become a self-taught historian. He has written books about his house as well as Emancipation in the District of Columbia. You can reach Robert at Robert[at]thehillishome.com
Today’s piece really should be called, “Hooray, the National Intelligencer is online!” Yes, the first run of this venerable newspaper, founded in 1800 as Washington’s paper of record, is finally available at the Library of Congress. The insights that can be gleaned about the early days of the nation’s new capital are invaluable. In looking […]
One last summer holiday for 2016 and I do hope most of most of my readers are out enjoying the weather instead of reading what I have come up with this time. So I will make do with a rerun – though the vast new information that has been added online since I last looked […]
Given that France was the first ally that the United States had, it is remarkable that it was not until the Civil War that a French warship visited the capital of the United States. However, this is exactly what the newspapers of the time insisted was the case when the Gassendi visited the Washington Navy […]
This weekend, I was pointed to a post by Architect of the Capital (not to be confused with the Architect of the Capitol) about a trove of Soviet-era maps, the men who have made a study of them – and the map of Washington, D.C. that was created at a time when it might have […]
One of my favorite stories to tell about the White House is how the Presidents are moved out and in between the time that the outgoing resident leaves for the inauguration and the newly-inaugurated President arrives late that evening. It was not always thus, of course, and so, many years ago, Capitol Hill hosted a […]