The Historic Traveler newsletter
| The Historic Traveler Newsletter!
August 15, 2025 | To Our Readers: Contest Alert! There’s prize for the winner who encourages the most people to sign up for The Historic Traveler’s free membership this month! Tell your friends, send them a link to the home page www.TheHistoricTraveler.com or the membership page www.TheHistoricTraveler.com/members, mention us during events, post on social media, in your facebook groups or on your podcast! We’ve now added a place on the enrollment form to tell us who sent new subscribers! If you come out on top of the leaderboard by Sept 15, I have a hardback edition of John Jakes’ On Secret Service for you: “The story of two couples, divided by war and allegiance, who discover that love doesn’t take sides. A Rebel sympathizer’s affection for a former Pinkerton detective turned Union agent cannot save him from the horrors of a Richmond prison. A Confederate officer sacrifices his rank to save an actress taken captive while posing as a Union soldier.” Come on...let’s get the word out! So, it’s late in the summer and you will probably be sitting on a beach somewhere, sightseeing or hanging in the backyard—or at least I hope you are! Therefore, I’m going to keep the rest of this newsletter short! |
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| | | On September 9, Latinos in Heritage Conservation will reveal the first-ever national list of Endangered Latinx Landmarks during a free, live webinar open to the public. Each of the 13 selected sites tells a story of memory, resistance, and deep-rooted belonging. While some are listed on national, state, or local historic registers, designation alone does not guarantee preservation. These places continue to face urgent threats. Most have never received public funding. Several are already fighting for survival. Register for this important webinar HERE | | Want to Buy a Welsh Island With a 19th Century Fort |
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| If you want to get away from it all, there can be few places more secluded than Thorne Island. Situated 3 nautical miles off the coast of Pembrokeshire in west Wales, United Kingdom, the private island is home to a 19th century fort. Extending to approximately 2.49 acres, Thorne Island has recently gone up for sale, with the owner seeking offers in excess of £3 million ($4 million), according to the listing on the selling agent Strutt & Parker website. The fort’s highlights include a helipad, a covered rooftop bar with a games room and a sea-view office. Originally designed to house 100 men, the restored property can today sleep up to 20 people in its five plush bedrooms, while other living spaces include grand dining rooms and terraces sheltered by barrack-style walls. The fort was built on the craggy outpost between 1852 and 1854 as part of a wider plan to strengthen national defenses against a possible Napoleonic invasion. Get your checkbook out! READ MORE HERE | | Israel Archaeologists Find Evidence of Earliest Human Burial Practices in a Cave | A 100,000-year-old burial site is changing what we know about early humans. Read more here! | | A Volunteer Finds the Holy Grail of Abolitionist-Era Baptist Documents in Massachusetts | Jennifer Cromack was combing through the American Baptist archive when she uncovered a slim box among some 18th and 19th century journals. Opening it, she found a scroll in pristine condition. A closer look revealed the 5-foot-long document was a handwritten declaration titled “A Resolution and Protest Against Slavery,” signed by 116 New England ministers in Boston and adopted March 2, 1847. Until its discovery in May at the archives in Groton, Mass., American Baptist officials worried the anti-slavery document had been lost forever after fruitless searches at Harvard and Brown universities and other locations. A copy was last seen in a 1902 history book. See more here! |
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| | The Magnolia Palace
By Fiona Davis | Fiona Davis’ The Magnolia Palace is a dual-timeline historical mystery set in New York’s famed Frick Mansion, shifting between 1919 and 1966. In the earlier storyline, Lillian Carter—once a sought-after artists’ model—finds herself caught in the Frick family’s tangled intrigues when she accepts work as a private secretary to steel magnate Henry Clay Frick’s daughter, Helen. Secrets, power struggles, and an unexpected murder draw her into dangerous territory. |
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Half a century later, British model Veronica Weber arrives at the Frick Collection for a Vogue photoshoot, only to be stranded inside during a snowstorm. She discovers a hidden message that leads her deep into the mansion’s history—and toward answers that connect her fate to Lillian’s long-buried story Davis excels at evoking the opulence and tensions of the Gilded Age, contrasting it with the shifting glamour of the 1960s fashion world. The Frick Mansion itself becomes a central character, its marble halls and hidden passageways holding both art treasures and the weight of untold stories. The mystery is layered, the pacing brisk, and the two heroines equally compelling in their quests for independence and truth. In fact, Lilllian is based on a real woman, considered the world’s first supermodel, whose face still graces numerous carvings and statuary around New York. |
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I found The Magnolia Palace a great read that kept you guessing at its twist and turns. It offers intrigue, romance, and a satisfying unraveling of secrets across decades. Get the BOOK, AUDIO BOOK, and EBOOK |
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| | Here are a few articles you don’t want miss… | Ghent, Belgium – Medieval Merchant Power Etched in Stone and Spirit – With gabled guildhalls mirrored in quiet canals, Gothic towers that command the Flemish sky, and streets still alive with centuries of spirited defiance, Ghent captures the essence of medieval commerce at its height. Once one of the richest cities in northern Europe, it spun its fortunes from cloth and its legacy from rebellion—standing proud against dukes, emperors, and the passage of time. Today, its fortress walls, sculpted guildhouses, and grand churches remain a living testament to a city where trade, artistry, and independence were built to last. Den Bosch, Netherlands – A Dutch Masterpiece of Medieval Might and Carnival Madness – Few cities can claim a duke’s name, the birth of one of Europe’s most brilliantly bizarre painters, and a Carnival so lavish it borders on the surreal. Yet Den Bosch—formally ’s-Hertogenbosch—has never been ordinary. Founded in 1185 as a fortified market town, it has withstood sieges, nurtured saints and sinners alike, and gifted the world the fever-dream visions of Hieronymus Bosch. Today, its moated walls, medieval lanes, and riotous festivals keep alive a legacy equal parts holy, hallucinatory, and defiantly human. Museum of the Month: The Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands – The Second Largest Collection of Van Gogh Paintings – In the heart of the Hoge Veluwe National Park, a remarkable museum holds a treasure trove of genius and tragedy: more than 90 paintings and 180 drawings by Vincent van Gogh. Here, visitors can follow the arc of his life in brushstrokes—from the earthy shadows of The Potato Eaters to the swirling light of The Olive Trees—and glimpse the shifting moods of a mind both brilliant and tormented. Born of collector Helene Kröller-Müller’s vision and generosity, this museum now pairs Van Gogh’s legacy with masterpieces by Seurat, Mondrian, and Rivera, all framed by serene parkland and a world-class sculpture garden.\ Floating Amsterdam’s Canals – Liquid Streets of History and Beauty – In Amsterdam, water is not a backdrop but a lifeline, threading through the city’s heart for more than four centuries. Along the graceful arcs of its canal belt, merchant houses still whisper of a Golden Age when spices, silks, sugar, and art flowed in from every corner of the globe. Engineered for defense, trade, and beauty, the concentric rings of the “Grachtengordel” remain a UNESCO-listed marvel—where every bridge frames a portrait of a city built as much on ingenuity and ambition as on water itself. And catch up with these great features…
You can see them all at https://thehistorictraveler.com/blog
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