Abby Epplett, Historian

On Thursday, March 19 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., I attended the first Parked at Home webinar of the 2026 season. This annual series of virtual talks is hosted by the National Park Service and once again interpreted into American Sign Language (ASL). The hour-long webinars are recorded and available on the Blackstone NPS YouTube channel . This year’s inaugural presentation featured the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site , with ranger Geraldine Finton highlighting the life, work, and legacy of America’s only Nobel Prize-winning playwright. Returning as host was Mark Mello, a ranger at Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park . He reviewed the ideas behind the Work & Life labor movement promoted by unionized mill workers, who called for eight hours of labor, eight hours of recreation, and eight hours of rest. Mill villages had many sources of recreation, including clubs, sports teams, and music groups. A favorite pastime was watching or performing in plays. Eugene...

In late September 2025, I enabled my mild obsession with Old Sturbridge Village (OSV) , a living history museum in Sturbridge, MA. In this five-part series, I will cover the forty antique buildings depicting rural New England life during the 1830s, exhibits showcasing artifacts from the period, and an art installation featuring cows decorated by local artists. In Part 1 , I visited two meetinghouses, a country store, a tavern, a tin shop, and a pair of homes, along with watching costumed interpreters. In Part 2 , I explored a school, workshops, mills, a covered bridge, heritage breed animals, costumed interpreters, and houses. In Part 3, I continue my visit to The Countryside by visiting the barn and a pair of workshops before returning to the Common & Center Village.

In late September 2025, I enabled my mild obsession with Old Sturbridge Village (OSV) , a living history museum in Sturbridge, MA. In this five-part series, I will cover the forty antique buildings depicting rural New England life during the 1830s, exhibits showcasing artifacts from the period, and an art installation featuring cows decorated by local artists. In Part 1 , I visited two meetinghouses, a country store, a tavern, a tin shop, and a pair of homes, along with watching costumed interpreters. In Part 2, I explore a school, workshops, mills, a covered bridge, heritage breed animals, costumed interpreters, and houses.

In late September 2025, I enabled my mild obsession with Old Sturbridge Village (OSV) , a living history museum in Sturbridge, MA. In this five-part series, I will cover the forty antique buildings depicting rural New England life during the 1830s, exhibits showcasing artifacts from the period, and an art installation featuring cows decorated by local artists.

While I have been a fan of Tolkien’s writing for about twenty years, I saw his depictions of Mirkwood for the first time only a few weeks ago. Initially, I was surprised by the orderly rows of trees that looked no more than a hundred years old. Then, after considering the history of Middle-earth as a place of severe habitat destruction from millennia of wars, the apparently recent rehabilitation of the forest made sense. Unlike the Old Forest in the Shire with its massive trees, much of Mirkwood was restored as a shadow of its former arboreal glory. In this essay, I discuss the name of the kingdom and its place in folklore, how the elves’ respect for trees may have been inspired by Finnish culture, and how silviculture or active forest management has been practiced in Europe from ancient times to the present day.

I recently read the second edition of Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents written by Isabel Wilkerson and originally published by Penguin in 2020, with an updated “Afterword by the Author” published in 2023. This international bestseller has a long list of awards, including the Time nonfiction book of the year in 2020, a #1 New York Times bestseller, a Goodreads Choice Award winner, and part of Opera’s Book Club in 2020. Additionally, Wilkerson had won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing , the first African-American woman to be given the prize. Few authors have as much experience in writing and reporting.

Back in September 2025, I took the comprehensive, 2.5-hour “Grand Stairs to Back Stairs” tour of Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich, MA, which is managed by The Trustees of Reservations. Due to the length and breadth of the tour, this is a three-part series, with one post released per day over the next three days. During Part 1 , I focused on the building of the estate, the early history of the Crane family, and the first few stops on the tour. During Part 2 , I described the life of the family and the middle section of the tour. In Part 3, I describe the view from the roof, a snack, behind the scenes, and movies filmed on the property.

Back in September 2025, I took the comprehensive, 2.5-hour “Grand Stairs to Back Stairs” tour of Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich, MA, which is managed by The Trustees of Reservations. Due to the length and breadth of the tour, this is a three-part series, with one post released per day over the next three days. During Part 1 , I focused on the building of the estate, the early history of the Crane family, and the first few stops on the tour. Today, I describe the life of the family and the middle section of the tour.

Back in September 2025, I took the comprehensive, 2.5-hour “Grand Stairs to Back Stairs” tour of Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich, MA, which is managed by The Trustees of Reservations. Due to the length and breadth of the tour, this will be a three-part series, with one post released per day over the next three days. The property comprises of 165 acres and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977 and elevated to a National Historic Landmark in 1998. This section will focus on the building of the estate, the early history of the Crane family, and the first few stops on the tour.

Celebrimbor is best known in The Lord of the Rings as the creator of the “three rings for the elven-kings under the sky” while he lived in Hollin, also known as Eregion. In Tolkien’s posthumous work, the character was greatly expanded. Readers learn that he was a powerful and talented Elf who loved crafts and his family, befriended Dwarves and a dangerous stranger, and sometimes let his pride get the best of him. Celebrimbor began life as the only grandchild of Fëanor, the greatest of the elven smiths, and spent his immortality attempting to become even more skilled than his famous ancestor.