Early death in Victorian America was an experience few families escaped.  The grieving heart was often susceptible to the superstitions of the day. With most deaths occurring at home, mirrors were draped in dark cloth so that no one could see their reflection for a time and be taken along ...

Bessie Pease Gutmann’s illustrations graced the covers of many of America’s early magazines such as McCall’s and Woman’s Home Companion. Bessie painted lovely images of babies and young children, capturing their innocence and purity in soft shades of blue and pink. Her own dear children, Alice, Lucille, and John, were ...

Think of everything our hands do.  Some hands create beautiful art with a paintbrush, others prepare delicious foods that bring others joy, and some take yards of fabric and turn them into lovely dresses or fine suits. Whatever someone’s hands can create, God is the Giver of the gifts that ...

During the summer months of the 1940’s and 50’s many towns were filled with empty swimming pools and deserted playgrounds. These rites of passage for American children were still there, waiting to be enjoyed.  But something else was there, too.  Polio was an invisible enemy that targeted mostly little ones ...

At the edge of the yard on my dad’s property grew a large bed of vibrant orange tiger lilies. Every year as early summer came, they popped up and opened toward the sky. They were not just another patch of old-fashioned flowers; they had been planted 60 years before by ...