"A collection of essays examining the history of nineteenth-century commercial lithography in Philadelphia. Analyzes the social, economic, and technological changes in the local trade from 1828 to 1878"--Provided by publisher.

What do our myths say about us? Why do we choose to believe stories that have been disproven? David M. Krueger takes an in-depth look at a legend that held tremendous power in one corner of Minnesota, helping to define both a community’s and a state’s identity for decades. In 1898, a Swedish immigrant farmer claimed to have discovered a large rock with writing carved into its surface in a field near Kensington, Minnesota. The writing told a North American origin story, predating Christopher Columbus’s exploration, in which Viking missionaries reached what is now Minnesota in 1362 only to be massacred by Indians. The tale’s credibility was quickly challenged and ultimately undermined by experts, but the myth took hold. Faith in the authenticity of the Kensington Rune Stone was a crucial part of the local Nordic identity. Accepted and proclaimed as truth, the story of the Rune Stone recast Native Americans as villains. The community used the account as the basis for civic celebrations for years, and advocates for the stone continue to promote its validity despite the overwhelming evidence that it was a hoax. Krueger puts this stubborn conviction in context and shows how confidence in the legitimacy of the stone has deep implications for a wide variety of Minnesotans who embraced it, including Scandinavian immigrants, Catholics, small-town boosters, and those who desired to commemorate the white settlers who died in the Dakota War of 1862. Krueger demonstrates how the resilient belief in the Rune Stone is a form of civil religion, with aspects that defy logic but illustrate how communities characterize themselves. He reveals something unique about America’s preoccupation with divine right and its troubled way of coming to terms with the history of the continent’s first residents. By considering who is included, who is left out, and how heroes and villains are created in the stories we tell about the past, Myths of the Rune Stone offers an enlightening perspective on not just Minnesota but the United States as well.

The true story of a cold case, a compulsive liar, and five determined detectives, from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author and “master journalist” (The Wall Street Journal). On March 29, 1975, sisters Katherine and Sheila Lyons, ages ten and twelve, vanished from a shopping mall in suburban Washington, DC As shock spread, then grief, a massive police effort found nothing. The investigation was shelved, and the mystery endured. Then, in 2013, a cold case squad detective found something he and a generation of detectives had missed. It pointed them toward a man named Lloyd Welch, then serving time for child molestation in Delaware. The acclaimed author of Black Hawk Down and Hue 1968 had been a cub reporter for a Baltimore newspaper at the time of the original disappearance, and covered the frantic first weeks of the story. In The Last Stone, he returns to write its ending. Over months of intense questioning and extensive investigation of Welch’s sprawling, sinister Appalachian clan, five skilled detectives learned to sift truth from determined lies. How do you get a compulsive liar with every reason in the world to lie to tell the truth? The Last Stone recounts a masterpiece of criminal interrogation, and delivers a chilling and unprecedented look inside a disturbing criminal mind. “One of our best writers of muscular nonfiction.” —The Denver Post “Deeply unsettling . . . Bowden displays his tenacity as a reporter in his meticulous documentation of the case. But in the story of an unimaginably horrific crime, it’s the detectives’ unwavering determination to bring Welch to justice that offers a glimmer of hope on a long, dark journey.” —Time

"A collection of essays examining how patterns of use and attitudes to green spaces within Penn's city plan and along the Schuylkill informed notions of place from the time of Philadelphia's founding to the formation of the modern Fairmount Park system in the mid-19th century"--Provided by publisher.

An unconventional history of Philadelphia that operates at the threshold of cultural and environmental studies, A Greene Country Towne expands the meaning of community beyond people to encompass nonhuman beings, things, and forces. By examining a diverse range of cultural acts and material objects created in Philadelphia—from Native American artifacts, early stoves, and literary works to public parks, photographs, and paintings—through the lens of new materialism, the essays in A Greene Country Towne ask us to consider an urban environmental history in which humans are not the only protagonists. This collection reimagines the city as a system of constantly evolving constituents and agencies that have interacted over time, a system powerfully captured by Philadelphia artists, writers, architects, and planners since the seventeenth century. In addition to the editors, contributors to this volume are Maria Farland, Nate Gabriel, Andrea L. M. Hansen, Scott Hicks, Michael Dean Mackintosh, Amy E. Menzer, Stephen Nepa, John Ott, Sue Ann Prince, and Mary I. Unger.

How to Build a Monument / Paul M. Farber -- Memorializing Philadelphia as a Place of Crisis and Boundless Hope / Ken Lum -- Public Practice / Jane Golden -- Tania Bruguera, Monument to New Immigrants -- Mel Chin, Two Me -- Kara Crombie, Sample Philly -- The Art of the Proposal: Reading the Monument Lab Open Data Set / Laurie Allen.

Most people do not think to observe geology from the sidewalks of a major city, but all David B. Williams has to do is look at building stone in any urban center to find a range of rocks equal to any assembled by plate tectonics. In Stories in Stone, he takes you on explorations to find 3.5-billion-year-old rock that looks like swirled pink-and-black taffy, a gas station made of petrified wood, and a Florida fort that has withstood three hundred years of attacks and hurricanes, despite being made of a stone that has the consistency of a granola bar. Williams also weaves in the cultural history of stone, explaining why a white fossil-rich limestone from Indiana became the only building stone used in all fifty states; how in 1825, the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument led to America’s first commercial railroad; and why when the same kind of marble used by Michelangelo clad a Chicago skyscraper it warped so much after nineteen years that all 44,000 panels of it had to be replaced. This love letter to building stone brings to life the geology you can see in the structures of every city.

"What will we leave for future generations? What is it about a community that might inspire a work of art? Can that art give meaning to our public spaces?" "The artists and communities participating in the program New Land Marks: Public Art, Community, and Meaning of Place have been grappling with these challenging questions. The resulting book documents how a long-standing Philadelphia cultural organization - the Fairmount Park Art Association - initiated this program in order to plan and create unique public art projects with communities that volunteered to participate. Artists have been working with these communities to incorporate public art into ongoing community development, urban greening, civic history, streetscape enhancement, and other revitalization initiatives. The resulting proposals - which represent "works in process" - celebrate community identity, commemorate "untold" histories, inspire civic pride, respond to the local environment, and invigorate public spaces. This book is a guide for those interested in how communities and artists can examine the appearance and meaning of public spaces." "In addition to illustrating the work of the twenty-one artists participating in this innovative public art project, the book includes essays by noted authors Ellen Dissanayake, Thomas Hine, Lucy Lippard, and Penny Balkin Bach, Executive Director of the Fairmount Park Art Association, who also served as general editor."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Historic Architecture in Northwest Philadelphia is a colorful and comprehensive look at the rich architectural history of the Wissahickon Valley, and the people who made it possible with a locally sourced building stone, the Wissahickon schist. The simple stone structures of Germantown's origins as a village of German immigrants laid the groundwork for the more elaborate buildings for Philadelphia's rising mercantile class that followed. From the colonial period to the 1930s, this architectural tour explores 450 structures, many still standing and well preserved, in the area from Wayne Junction in Germantown to Northwest Avenue in Chestnut Hill. A wide variety of architectural styles and influences are captured in nearly 750 modern day and archival images, including the Georgian, Colonial, and Federal styles of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; the Revival of those styles and others; Italianate; Second Empire; and Romantic Eclecticism. This extensive architectural review is ideal for architects, historians, and residents of Northwest Philadelphia.