Laura Schumm Archives

How long was the Hundred Years’ War?

The series of intermittent conflicts between France and England that took place during the 14th and 15th centuries wasn’t classified as the “Hundred Years’ War” until 1823. Traditionally, the war is said to have begun in 1337 when Philip VI attempted to reclaim Guyenne (part of the region of Aquitaine in southwestern France) from King […]

Was there a real Mother Goose?

If you’ve ever visited the Old Granary Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts, you may have stumbled upon the tombstone of Mary Goose, a woman believed by some to be the infamous author of countless cherished nursery rhymes: Mother Goose. Visitors toss coins at her tombstone, presumably to garner a bit of good luck, but the […]

5 Things You May Not Know About Nostradamus

Explore a few little‑known facts about this wildly popular seer.

Who Were the Molly Maguires?

In the latter half of the 19th century, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, was an area rife with violence. Between 1861 and 1875, a series of violent assaults, arsons and murders was blamed on a secret society of Irish immigrants known as the Molly Maguires. The group had originally emerged in north‑central Ireland in the 1840s as […]

What does it mean to call someone a “Benedict Arnold”?

Shortly after the Revolutionary War broke out in April of 1775, Benedict Arnold set out as captain of the Connecticut Militia Company to join the Continental Army in Massachusetts. Together with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, Arnold captured Fort Ticonderoga in New York from the British and, later, led a grueling expedition to […]

Who Created the First Alphabet?

The first writing system is believed to have developed during the second millennium B.C.

Thomas Jefferson: America’s Pioneering Gourmand

Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, third president of the United States, appropriator of the Louisiana Purchase, gastronome…?

Did Betsy Ross Really Make the First American Flag?

The well‑known story that Ross sewed the country’s first flag at the behest of George Washington may be apocryphal.

What Was Operation Paperclip?

This controversial top‑secret U.S. intelligence program brought Nazi German scientists to America to harness their brain power for Cold War initiatives.

Six Times M&Ms Made History

The beloved chocolate candies have been to war and space and back again—and for more than 10 years the red ones went missing in action.

America’s Patriotic Victory Gardens

During both World Wars, America’s agricultural production became a powerful military tool.

Food Rationing in Wartime America

World War I Following nearly three years of intense combat since the onset of World War I, America’s allies in Europe were facing starvation. Farms had either been transformed into battlefields or had been left to languish as agricultural workers were forced into warfare, and disruptions in transportation made the distribution of imported food extremely […]