Tag Archives: American Adventure Library

Before 1908, other than Santa Claus, no human being had reached the North Pole, although many had tried and failed. Some had unfortunately died for their efforts. In the year 1908, two serious contenders were preparing for victory over nature. One was a respected medical Doctor and explorer with very little financial support and no friends  Continue Reading »

Our confident, high stock market reminds me of another high stock market early in 1929. That was when one of my environmental heros, Gifford Pinchot, buoyed with financial confidence a rising stock market gives, planned the adventure of a lifetime.   Financial security and the end of his Governorship of Pennsylvania presented Pinchot with a  Continue Reading »

There is a secret in this picture I took last year outside the Summer Palace, Beijing, China. Inside that building, all the doors and windows are blocked by an inside wall so the occupant, the Emperor of China, could not escape. In the year 1898, the Emperor was a prisoner in his own house.      Continue Reading »

If you or I were plantation slaves in Cuba in 1859, our value would have been set by law at $1,000 a person, which is equivalent to $28,316.68 in today’s US currency.   This was a considerable investment by the plantation owner. A large plantation might have around 200 slaves, with a human value in  Continue Reading »

On March 22, 1927, Charles Lindberg became the first man to fly non-stop across the Atlantic from the United States to Europe. He was an instant national hero. While there were many pioneering woman pilots at the time, most people seemed to believe that aviation was a man’s profession.     Amy Phipps Guest disagreed.  Continue Reading »

Ron Howard has just directed a new major motion picture based on the book ” In The Heart of The Sea,” by Nathaniel Philbrick. It is a retelling of the famous sea tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, in 1820, when a giant 80-foot whale became angry at the whaleship and attacked it, bashing in the  Continue Reading »

The brutal murder of the earth’s whale population for many years has had animal rights activists up in arms. Today, most countries have agreed to stop the atrocious killing. Japan, Norway and Iceland are the only three countries which sanction whale hunting. According to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation, these three countries kill 2000 whales  Continue Reading »

In the 1800s, American whaling was a brutal, murderous undertaking. It was carried out by tough crewmen, on tall ships, based in Nantucket and New Bedford, Massachusetts, who were not afraid of huge whales. They were about to learn a frightening lesson.   After the American Revolutionary War, whalers had decimated the whale population in  Continue Reading »