Abby Epplett, Historian

Today I am reviewing The Guinness Book of Records 1492: The World Five Hundred Years Ago , a book I purchased at the Book Barn in Niantic, CT back in 2024. Almost exactly a year ago, I reviewed A Pictorial History of Costume by Wolfgang Bruhn and Max Tilke , which I purchased on the trip. The two books are similar in that they provide fun facts about world history broken into easily readable sections with plenty of pictures. Much like the modern Guinness Book of Records , Guinness Publishing produced the book back in 1992 for the anniversary of Christopher Columbus and his crew arriving in the Caribbean. Unlike the modern record book, where records do not rely on the judgement of trained GRW employees but on primary resources from the time period with varying levels of accuracy. Deborah Manley , a co-founder of the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE) and a prolific author, was editor of the book, while Dr. Geoffrey Scammell, a history profess...

I go to Portsmouth, NH so often that this is my fifth installment of quick history stops. The city is highly walkable with wide sidewalks, crosswalks with traffic lights, and streets lights. On this trip, I went back to the public gardens at Prescott Park, learned about historic buildings, took a rest on Four Tree Island, and even saw a very large boat pass under Memorial Bridge.

I return from my winter holiday break with new music, aptly named “The Adventure Song”. This piece covers the first few pages of “Chapter 2: The Shadow of the Past” as Frodo spends seventeen years at Bag End hosting parties with his twenty closest friends, visiting Elves and Dwarves in the woods, and not aging. As much as Frodo seemed to enjoy his life, he was curious about the land beyond its borders that his ‘uncle’ Bilbo had described in his stories. This essay details other adventure songs found in modern Western musicals that I used as a reference while composing this piece, along with a quick note about how I am voicing the Elves, and an explanation of the song’s structure.

Few things give me such delight as a historic harbor tour. During my annual trip to Portsmouth, NH in 2025, I took the Portsmouth Harbor Cruise offered by aptly named Portsmouth Harbor Cruises . This eighty-five minute tour covers four hundred years of Portsmouth history in a well-researched and approachable format. The perfect weather made the trip a delightful experience.

Since starting the blog in May 2022, I have methodically visited historic houses, museums, parks, and quick history stops throughout New England, marching steadily toward the unattainable goal of “Seeing Everything”. Warner House was the only historic house open for public tours that I had not visited during my annual pilgrimage to Portsmouth. The building has even been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1966 . While I have no more properties to explore, I plan to return for boat tours, along with traveling farther north to Kittery, in the coming year.

Happy New Year, and welcome back to my blog after my winter holiday break! In July 2025, I took a daytrip to the Greater Portsmouth area and visited many history-themed attractions, including botanical gardens, a historic house, a boat tour, and quick history stops. The first post in the four-part series focuses on Fuller Gardens located in North Hampton, NH. This had been on my list of places to visit for several years, but the stop had eluded me. I was glad to have the opportunity to visit at last.

This is my last blog post of 2025! I will discuss two aspects of folklore that appear during “Chapter 2, The Shadow of the Past” related to the seventeen years Frodo spent living alone at Bag End. During this time, he took many trips through the woods of the Shire and was rumored to speak with people from other lands, refugees fleeing danger in the South. Folk cultures around the world have long been fascinated by or afraid of forests. The hobbits’ fears of who might lurk in the woods aligned with fears of Ancient and Medieval people in the Real World. Meanwhile, human migration and displacement due to natural or man-made disasters have existed for thousands of years but have been studied only for the past few decades. During this essay, I will describe both of these concepts and point out similarities between them: our natural unease over the unfamiliar.

Back in July, I visited Washington, DC. This is the fourth installment to my miniseries on the National Museum of American History , and the final post about my adventure in the capital. I will be taking a two week break during the holiday season but will be back in the New Year with more history-themed posts. Quickly reviewing my in-depth tour of the museum, I covered second floor of the museum plus “Entertainment Nation” in Part 1 ; “First Ladies”, “American Presidency”, and “The Price of Freedom” in Part 2 ; and “Food” and “American on the Move” in Part 3 . For this last part, I will visit “Lighting A Revolution & Power Machinery”, “Change Your Game”, “American Enterprise”, and “The Value of Money”.

I return once again to the National Museum of American History , which I visited back in July during my adventure in Washington, DC. This is part three of a four part series. The first part covered the second floor of the museum plus “Entertainment Nation”. The second part covered “First Ladies”, “American Presidency”, and “The Price of Freedom”. This third part will cover “Food” and “American on the Move”, both located on the first floor.

During my trip to Washington, DC back in July, my final stop was the National Museum of American History (NMAH) . This series looks to be four parts long and will finish up this week. The first part covered “The Star-Spangled Banner”, “Within These Walls”, “Many Voices, One Nation”, “American Democracy”, a temporary exhibit about Latina reporters, and “Entertainment Nation”. This next part will include “The First Ladies”, “The American Presidency”, and “The Price of Freedom”, all located on the third floor.