Abby Epplett, Historian

This post was supposed to launch yesterday, but I spent longer than expected at a delightful Christmas party, so you will get the post today. A quick content warning: the National Museum of Health & Medicine is dedicated to the preservation of human remains for conducting research and to raise public awareness. I have included two images with human remains at the bottom of the article; there is an extra paragraph of text before these pictures, allowing you space to click away if needed. Additionally, I will be describing human remains, injuries, and medical inventions throughout the post. If you do not enjoy this topic, consider reading one of the many other articles on my blog.

Back in July, I took a trip to the Washington, DC area to visit my friend Jenny and see historic sites. I spent a day in Silver Spring, MD, where I visited the National Park Seminary and local religious buildings . During that day, I also hiked the extensive trails connecting Silver Spring to neighboring Chevy Chase. As an aside, this town is named for medieval English folk hero Chevy Chase, who was immortalized in a once-popular ballad . While I did not see any minstrels on my trip, I did cross pedestrian bridges, view historic buildings, and enjoy nature.

On the same day I walked through National Park Seminary , I visited two vastly different religious buildings in Silver Spring, MD. I visited the massive Washington DC Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (formerly called Mormons) and the much smaller Knox Orthodox Presbyterian Church . I enjoyed meeting the people at both locations and comparing the differences between faiths.

In July, I visited Washington, DC and saw an astonishing range of historic sites. On the first day in the area, I visited Museum of the Bible, which took an entire day of exploring. The next day, I traveled to Silver Spring, MD, which has many hidden history gems. My first stop was National Park Seminary , a historic district in the village of Forest Glen, to see unique architecture. Despite its name, the site is not associated with the National Park System and has instead been transformed from a resort to a women’s college to an army medical facility to residential housing. With plenty of informational signage and easy walking, this was a pleasant visit.

The morning after Bilbo disappeared during his Long-Expected Party, his heir Frodo took the brunt of the backlash while handing out gifts labeled with insults written by Bilbo. These gifts were remarkable not only for their snide nature but also for being more modern than other gifts given throughout The Lord of the Rings . While variations of these objects had existed for centuries, if not millennia, their status as items once owned by a single person suggested once again that the Shire had entered an early industrial revolution, allowing goods to be mass manufactured at prices that were a fraction of previous costs. Even with these reductions, such gift-giving was an extravagant display of wealth, especially when considering how Bilbo left the remainder of possessions to Frodo. In this essay, I will review the items given to the ungrateful relatives, describe the history of similar objects in the Real World, and reveal how some of these insults were even worse than what appea...