We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
– T.S. Eliot
Arts and Crafts comfort
Arts and Crafts style, the handcrafted tradition so popular in the early 20th century, has made a comeback in the last 10 years with its horizontal lines, medieval craftsmanship, and homespun comfort. Derivative designs are now everywhere, but if you…
The big Daddy of all libraries
Storage has always been a problem at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Ever since it started collecting books in the early 19th century and became the depository of every copyrighted book in the United States, it has been running out…
Shakespeare’s American home
For all things Shakespeare in England, scholars and devotees go to Stratford-Upon-Avon or London (see The Shakespeare Globe experience). But in the United States, they come to Washington, DC, to the Folger Shakespeare Library, situated behind the Library of Congress. A gift…
Washington walkabout
On a recent visit to Washington, DC, I discovered it to be a very walkable city. Laid out in a radial system in the early 1800s, the wide, ample avenues crisscross each other making it easy to find one’s bearings. Even…
Wright’s masterpiece
Fallingwater has been called the greatest house built in the 20th century. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s as a vacation home for the Kaufman family of department store fame, the house is sited in the middle of…
Hometown Carnegie
When you visit Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, you will see the name of Carnegie on a lot of buildings: Carnegie-Mellon University, Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History. They are all named after Andrew Carnegie, a wealthy industrialist, who made…
You know you’re a book lover when…
…you get really excited when you go to a new library you’ve never been to before.
– Unknown author
Restored to bookish glory
In the mid 1990s, the Multnomah County Central Library in Portland, Oregon began to experience serious structural issues and subsequently underwent extensive renovations. With a complete overhaul of the structure, both inside and out, the 1913 Georgian Revival building was restored…