Historical Travel 
Young Le Corbusier in Istanbul
In 1911, the last decade of the Ottoman Empire, a young Swiss-French architect visited Istanbul. He sketched as much as he took notes there, in “Stamboul,” capital o... ...read more
Tony Judt Imagines a World without Trains
“If you try to imagine the world that existed before 1830, before the first railway line in England, between Manchester and Liverpool, it’s quite literally unimag... ...read more
Means of Historical Travel: Early Air Balloons
A question in light of jets grounded across Europe because of volcanic ash particles: could a balloon fly through that? The era of airships is bygone and fast trains are far li... ...read more
American Embassies: Not Always Fortresses
Last month a glass-walled, green fortress was unveiled in London, the winning design for the new, billion-dollar American embassy. Critics, not all of them architectural, panne... ...read more
Driving That (Ottoman Steam) Train
The train reversed down the tracks, its engine facing backward, and passed the collected Swiss tourists, cameras ready. It returned a few minutes later, the steam engine facin... ...read more
America’s First Consul in Damascus
First Obama named the first ambassador to Damascus in five years. Then the State Department lifted its travel warning for Syria — though not the 30-year State Sponsor of ... ...read more
Touring Boston’s Waterfront for a Molasses Blast
A wave of molasses, bursting from an exploded steel tank at thirty-five miles per hour, smothered two city blocks in Boston’s North End on a warm January in 1919. The st... ...read moreFollow Us
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