A 50-YEAR HOUSE DREAM COME TRUE

Through years of hard work and perseverance, Bill and Sandy Otto not only restored an 1824 Ohio farmhouse for their growing family but added their dream of a log house to their spacious property.

Dawn C. Adiletta

THE EMERGENCE OF THE MANTEL CLOCK

Connecticut clock maker Eli Terry transformed American industry by mass-producing inexpensive clocks with wooden works and interchangeable parts, packaging them in small cases suited for sitting on the mantel. Dozens of makers followed his lead.

Winfield Ross

CARPETING FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS

Don’t be misled by photos of historic homes that show most rooms with bare floors—period artwork portrays vibrant, wall-to-wall carpet in houses across all classes. An expert explores the styles available to our forebears.

Rabbit Goody

A BETTER PLAN

The tiny town of New Harmony, Indiana, holds the history of two utopian community experiments. Although neither lasted more than a decade, their achievements live on in education, science, and community service.

Jeanmarie Andrews

LONG RIFLES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Accurate and deadly at twice the distance of a musket, the frontiersmen’s weapon helped secure our independence. A new exhibition in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, explains how, showing the role Lancaster played in that success.

Jeanmarie Andrews

COVERLET CHAMPIONS

Melinda and Laszlo Zongor valued woven coverlets so much they created a museum to preserve them and educate others about their beauty and importance. Now in its 16th year, the museum invites others to discover these colorful bed covers

Jeanmarie Andrews

A COLLECTOR'S APPROACH

The 1840s coverlet that caught David Neuhardt’s eye at a show decades ago launched a collection that focuses on the weavers and the fancy work they created in the “coverlet corridor” of southwestern Ohio.

FIRST GARDEN OF HERBAL TEAS

Every colonial wife tended a dooryard garden of culinary and medicinal herbs to care for her family. While no longer necessary for survival, a small herb garden can still yield flavor and fragrance to brighten your morning cup.

WEAPONS WELCOMED HOME

The Museum of the American Revolution hosted a repatriation ceremony for six area museums that lost military artifacts to a brazen thief, whose barn held stolen loot for five decades before he was caught.