Abby Epplett, Historian

I have completed the second animatic in just under a year, significantly faster than Chapter 1 and yet still at a fairly slow pace. I hope to increase efficiency for the next installment. Highlights from the past year included extensive wardrobe design , rousing musical numbers , and folklore about dragons and volcanoes . My essays have become a more manageable length as I practice being concise, while my animation is more fluid. I hope you the latest installment. I will take next week off and be back with an overview of “Chapter 3: Three Is Company” on November 1.

Yesterday, I watched this year’s Robert C. Baron Lecture hosted by the American Antiquarian Society . The talk was given in memory of Robert “Bob” Charles Baron , a pioneer of computer science who passed away in April 2026 at age 92. These talks examine how a written work changed the field, how the field has further changed since the work was published. The speaker was Philip J. DeLoria , the first tenured professor in Native American history at Harvard University who has known Yankton Dakota ancestry. He originally published Playing Indian in 1998 as a reworking of his thesis from 1994. His numerous accolades include serving as a trustee at the National Museum of the American Indian and being a member of the American Philosophical Society, although he regards himself as “just a guy who kinda just does his best.” DeLoria was interested in Native American history from childhood, as he learned about Native American culture while in Boy Scouts, stopped near a lodge for “The Impro...

I recently watched the webinar Creating Winterthur: The Museum, Garden & Library featuring speaker Jeff Groff, the retired estate historian at Winterthur, and hosted by American Ancestors. The talk covered the history of the du Pont family, their properties, and the journey of Winterthur from a private home to a modern museum. The talk was fast-paced, highly detailed, and illustrated with beautiful photographs of the house and grounds, along with family pictures and images of other properties associated with the du Pont family. This is a summary of my favorite parts.

For the 250 th anniversary of the United States, I took a three-day patriotic trip to the Thames River National Heritage Park in Groton and New London, CT. I spent the morning touring Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park, which included its monument, museum , and the interior of the fort , followed by an early afternoon boat tour , and a visit to Avery-Copp House ( first part , second part ). After making several quick history stops around Groton , I went to UCONN Avery Point , a campus of the University of Connecticut. The property contains two buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the colonial revival style Avery Point Lighthouse constructed in 1943 by the Coast Guard during World War II, and massive Bradford House .

For the 250 th anniversary of the United States, I took a three-day patriotic trip to the Thames River National Heritage Park in Groton and New London, CT. I spent the morning touring Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park, which included its monument, museum , and the interior of the fort , followed by an early afternoon boat tour , and a visit to Avery-Copp House ( first part , second part ). Throughout the day, I had quick history stops around Groton, CT, including the Independence Day Parade and nearby artwork, monuments, buildings, and other infrastructure.

This is the final essay for “Chapter 2: The Shadow of the Past”. Next week, October 11, I will take the week off as I finish animating the chapter. The week after, October 18, I will release all videos for Chapter 2. Today’s instrumental covers the final moments from Chapter 2 as Frodo accept his destiny as the one to bear the Ring, taking from the Shire as part of a dangerous journal to have it destroyed. While originally saddened by the thought of leaving his home and traveling alone, his day is brightened when Sam is caught eavesdropping, and Gandalf orders the gardener to go on the journey as his “punishment”.

Yesterday, as part of research for a historical fiction novel, I attended an hour-long talk hosted by the American Antiquarian Society and presented by writer-historian Adam Jortner on his book A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom published by Oxford University Press in 2024.

For the 250 th anniversary of the United States, I took a three-day patriotic trip to the Thames River National Heritage Park in Groton and New London, CT. After a morning touring Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park, which included its monument, museum , and the interior of the fort , followed by an early afternoon boat tour , I was able to explore the beautiful yellow Victorian that I had spotted at several points during the trip so far. Avery-Copp House is an independently managed museum from a very different historical period than my other stops in Groton. In the first part , I described the history of the house. In this second part, I will describe the artifacts and technology found in the building, along with how to visit.

The release of “Chapter 2: The Shadow of the Past” is less than a month away! This is the penultimate essay I share the animations on October 18. This week, I will describe the music theory and motifs behind the instrumental of “Scene 16: To Destroy the Ring”. Next week, or October 4, I will produce a similar essay on “Scene 17: Frodo Decides; Sam Is Caught”. Then, I will take October 5 through 18 to complete the animation process for the chapter. This year of production has gone much more smoothly than the previous chapter, and I am hopeful that “Chapter 3: Three Is Company” will come out much more quickly than its predecessors. Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated. On to the analysis.

For the 250 th anniversary of the United States, I took a three-day patriotic trip to the Thames River National Heritage Park in Groton and New London, CT. After a morning touring Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park, which included its monument, museum , and the interior of the fort , followed by an early afternoon boat tour , I was able to explore the beautiful yellow Victorian that I had spotted at several points during the trip so far. Avery-Copp House is an independently managed museum from a very different historical period than my other stops in Groton. Due to the high number of lovingly preserved artifacts in the house, I will be describing my tour in two parts. The first will describe the history of the house, and the second will describe its artifacts and decor.

For the 250 th anniversary of the United States, I took a three-day patriotic trip to the Thames River National Heritage Park in Groton and New London, CT. After a morning touring Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park, which included its monument, museum , and the interior of the fort , I took the Road to Revolution Boat Tour , a narrated cruise along the Thames River. On this tightly scripted tour, I learned more about the Fort Griswold, life in colonial Connecticut, and other places to visit in the area. I even got to see an Acela train flying past, the same transportation I took during my trip to Washington, D.C. last year.

During his conversation with Frodo during “Chapter 2, The Shadow of the Past”, Gandalf mentioned that the fire of dragons was never hot enough to destroy the One Ring. Only the fire where the Ring was created could melt it down. Folklore throughout the Real World has featured dragons and volcanoes, ranging from cute beasts and fiery love stories to dangerous evildoers and insulted saints. In this essay, I cover the full range of legends and include a note about how modern scientists have discovered the benefits behind the destruction.

For the 250 th anniversary of the United States, I took a three-day patriotic trip to the Thames River National Heritage Park in Groton and New London, CT. For the next few weeks, I will cover the historical sites in that area, starting with two parts on Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park . In the first part , I covered the Groton Monument, the Monument House Museum, and other historical sites around the park. In the second part, I will cover the inside of Fort Griswold and Ebenezer Avery House, along with a more detailed story about the battle for which it is known.

In this section, Gandalf describes Gollum’s trip to Mordor, his torture at the hands of Sauron, and his current position in the dungeons of Mirkwood. Frodo is appalled by this story and unsympathetic of Gollum, remarking, “He deserves death”. His convictions are not unlike those held by others throughout history and in the present day. The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, has been a subject of debate since earliest recorded history. In this essay, I briefly look at how religion shapes these beliefs, its usage in medieval and early modern Europe, and current global laws. I also describe the music theory for the instrumental.

For the 250 th anniversary of the United States, I took a three-day patriotic trip to the Thames River National Heritage Park in Groton and New London, CT. For the next few weeks, I will cover the historical sites in that area, starting with two parts on Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park . In the first part, I will cover the Groton Monument, the Monument House Museum, and other historical sites around the park. In the second part, I will cover the inside of Fort Griswold and Ebenezer Avery House, along with a more detailed story about the battle for which it is known.

I recently took the free, asynchronous online course Dutch Painting of the Golden Age hosted by OpenLearn of The Open University. This organization offers hundreds of free courses on a range of subjects, including “History & The Arts”. All courses come with a free statement of participation. This course took about four hours to complete and is considered Level 2: Intermediate in difficulty.

I recently stopped by the little town of Mendon, MA, called “Mother Mendon” by local historians since it was the first incorporated town in the region. Settled in 1660 and incorporated 1667 years later in 1667, Mendon predates the founding of the United States by over a hundred years. The “children” incorporated from Mendon include Bellingham in 1719, Uxbridge in 1727, Upton in 1729, Milford in 1780, Blackstone in 1845. The “grandchildren” are Northbridge from Uxbridge in 1772, Hopedale from Milford in 1886, and Millville from Blackstone in 1916. Today, the town is part of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor . The Mendon Center Historic District has been on the National Register of Historic Places  since 2003.

Back in June, I visited the Cornet John Farnum House, a recently renovated historic home in Uxbridge, MA, during its open house. With its oldest beam dating from around 1715 and a recent restoration by the Uxbridge Historical Society, the house was a great opportunity to learn local history and see the interior of a building that I often went past but had not gone in for over two decades. The house has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980 .

I recently watched the movie Young Washington directed by Jon Erwin and distributed by Angel Studios. It is worth noting the context of this film upfront. Erwin is an American Christian film director who is part of the Erwin Brothers with his brother, Andrew. Angel Studios is a publicly traded film distributor based in Utah that allows paid members to vote on what films they will release. They were formerly the distributors of the popular series The Chosen , which follows the life of Jesus Christ. (I saw an exclusive film in that franchise while visiting the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC .) While not as heavy-handed as A Great Awakening , a film about the friendship between George Whitefield and Benjamin Franklin which I reviewed several weeks ago , the beautifully shot movie does take liberties with historical events to support a specific point of view, not unlike most movies.

Before this essay, I did not know much about mountain men besides a handful of names: Aragorn, of course, local legend Grizzly Adams (whose grave I visited a few months ago) , Daniel Boone, and Davy Crockett. During my research, I learned the stories of these wanderers and considered how I might take inspiration from tales in the Real World combined with musical motifs to write the brief instrumental of this section.