EYE ON ANTIQUES: FOLDING MONEY

Massachusetts Bay Colony invented it, and everybody spent it. Colonial currency proved essential to making our nation and keeping it alive.

Louis Jordan

HER BEST FRIEND'S HOUSE

Evelyn Ludy always loved her best friend’s 1759 Oley Valley farmstead. Now she and her husband have lovingly fi lled it with local antiques.

Nancy Kauffman

WHAT DID YOU DO ON YOU SUMMER VACATION?

The whimsical 19th-Century sketches of Lewis Miller capture some quaint—even strange—ways our ancestors amused themselves.

REVIVING A BERKSHIRES RETREAT

A local cabinetmaker created his own style in his 1753 home, then Grace and Elliott Snyder revived it as a vital slice of Berkshire heritage.

Gladys Montgomery

JAMESTOWN PART II, THE EARLY YEARS

We celebrate America’s 400th birthday with a look at the 107 brave English souls who fi rst set foot on Virginia soil to found a colony.

Winfield Ross

SASSAFRAS

Touted as a cure-all, North America’s lone native spice became one of the colonies’ first and most profitable exports.

SIDE BY SIDE: MAKING SENSE OF PENNY RUGS

Thrifty 19th-Century women stitched circles and figures cut from wool onto a backing to create decorative mats we call penny rugs. Modern needleworkers keep the craft alive.

Nora Seymour