FEATURES
Ann Eliza and the Prophet
Brigham Young’s 19th wife was a reluctant bride who bedeviled him and helped bring down a pillar of Mormonism: polygamy
by Claudia Glenn Dowling
Eureka!
In Europe, 200-year-old museums are commonplace. The United States has only one. But its exhibits are like nothing you’ve seen
by Richard Conniff
Monumental Man Cave
The ruins of Jack London’s dream house evoke the spirit of an author who boasted he would live forever
by Stephen Harrigan
Gold Grab
Wall Streeters Jay Gould and Jim Fisk cared nothing for Main Street when they tried to corner the gold market and almost destroyed the country
by Reed Karaim
Weegee’s World
Arthur Fellig transformed news photography with a style as graphic as the mean streets he prowled in New York
by Claudia Glenn Dowling
Through an Iceberg Darkly
John Muir’s first-hand account of skirting death at night, at sea, in Alaska, in an open canoe is breathtaking
by John Muir
DEPARTMENTS
Letters
Gazette
Nixon’s biggest secret divulged; world’s oldest forest unearthed; Lincoln’s sweet tooth probed; Thomas Jefferson plasticized
The Big Picture
In 1959, we pumped enough U.S. oil to be self-sufficient. Now we import that much
We’ve Been Here Before
Freedom of religion does not mean politics is free of religion
The First
Digital camera—from 1975
Encounter
Groucho Marx and T.S. Eliot trade kudos over dinner
Details
Lakota war bonnet from Custer’s Last Stand
Interview
Henry Petroski teaches us everything we need to know about engineering
Letter From American History
Sensitive subjects
Reviews
A fresh account of FDR’s Final Victory at the polls; a grizzly mountain man tale; immigrant treasures; summer stage music
From America’s Attic
How we paid for the Washington Monument
