The U.S. is almost a magical place; like Hong Kong, it was built by immigrants and refugees who arrived with nearly nothing and faced with an uncertain future. With determination and grit, they resolved to make this a meritocracy where they believed anyone can make it with hard work. The Read more
Sitting in the middle of Wall Street diagonally across from the New York Stock Exchange is an old customs house on the site where George Washington was inaugurated in 1789. The building was completed in 1842 in classical revival style by one of the first architecture firms in the city, Read more
Ubiquitous tenement buildings are a staple in New York popular culture. The red brick buildings with a fire escape hanging off the outside wall are featured on the silver screen and in music videos across decades. The Tenement Museum is inside an 1880s tenement that it bought in 2011 with Read more
In 1860, the North had virtually unlimited credit, over 80% of deposits, and the bulk of industrial power while the south was poor and relied on slavery. Americans have instituted slavery for 240 years, more than half of the country’s existence. The Civil War began at Fort Sumpter in Charleston, Read more
The museum near the Hershey chocolate factory is a combined bus and car museum. I like how it arranged cars by period in scenes from the decade such as in a drive-in theatre, a used car lot, or a gas station. The Tucker exhibit with original 1948 cars, items from Read more
Two nuclear power plant disasters from the Cold War live in our collective memory—Chernobyl in 1989 and Three Mile Island in 1979. There was also Fukushima more recently but that wasn’t an issue that rose from human error, quite the contrary, it was an exhibition of human courage when Japanese Read more
The museum in state capital Harrisburg is one of the few state museums in the northeast that aren’t free. It’s just across the street from the Pennsylvania State Capitol so hold on to your ticket in case you need to come back after a capitol tour. I recommend starting from Read more
In state capital Harrisburg, Pennsylvania has one of the most ornate state capitols in the U.S. It is the third building on the site, the first burned down in a blizzard from heating coals, and the second was so ugly it was torn down before it was completed, the one Read more
The capital of Pennsylvania is boring. The State Capitol and State Museum are all it has going for it for tourists. You can find delicious food in the market made by Amish people, but more of them live in Lancaster’s farms, not Harrisburg. Hershey just northeast of Harrisburg is home Read more
This is America’s first Amish museum established in 1956. It’s east of Lancaster deep in Pennsylvania’s Amish country. The region also has Quaker and Mennonite families. There are now 43,000 Amish people in Lancaster County, out of 370,000 in the world. Over 40% of the state’s revenue comes from dairy Read more
Many Swiss and Germans immigrated to Pennsylvania staying in the heartland and planting native wheat and corn for sustenance in the 17th century. They escaped religious persecution in Europe for their Anabaptist beliefs. Pennsylvania became known for thrifty farmers, German beer, and accurate clocks. By the 18th century, there were Read more