From 1854 to 1929, 250,000 abandoned or orphaned children in East Coast cities found themselves on journeys across the country. Shepherded by private organizations like the New York Foundling or the Children’s Aid Society, these orphans were resettled with families who promised to give them shelter, an education, and a place to grow up. It […]
On May 13, 1862, just over a year into the Civil War, an enslaved man named Robert Smalls, who labored on a Confederate steamer in South Carolina’s Charleston harbor, set into motion a daring plan. As his great-great-grandson Michael Boulware Moore explained, “He saw that the Confederate crew had left, and he knew that oftentimes […]
This past summer, guests lined up for a special event outside the legendary Greenwich Village piano bar, Marie’s Crisis. Visitors were on hand to take part in a rather unusual performance — a Mobituaries memorial do-over for a largely forgotten Founding Father: Thomas Paine. It turns out Paine died on, or near, the site of […]