Happy birthday, Frederick Law Olmsted

Sunday, April 26th, marks the birth date of Frederick Law Olmsted. No short list of the most important and influential Americans of the nineteenth century would omit the name of Frederick Law Olmsted: mid-century agricultural reformer; sharp-eyed observer of slavery and slave society before the Civil War; mainstay of the United States Sanitary Commission; and…

On Arbor Day

In honor of Arbor Day, we share two poems from Over the River and Through the Wood: An Anthology of Nineteenth-Century American Children's Poetry, edited by Karen L. Kilcup and Angela Sorby.   PLANT A TREE by Lucy Larcom He who plants a tree, Plants a hope. Rootlets up through fibers blindly grope; Leaves unfold into horizons free.…

Angelina and medical decisions surrounding hereditary cancer risk

Guest post by Sue Friedman Kudos to Angelina Jolie Pitt for sharing personal information about her increased risk for breast and ovarian cancers due to an inherited BRCA gene mutation. Once again, by bravely writing about her choice to have prophylactic surgeries—a risk-reducing mastectomy two years ago, and her recent decision to remove her ovaries—she has…

Angelina and medical decisions surrounding hereditary cancer risk

Guest post by Sue Friedman Kudos to Angelina Jolie Pitt for sharing personal information about her increased risk for breast and ovarian cancers due to an inherited BRCA gene mutation. Once again, by bravely writing about her choice to have prophylactic surgeries—a risk-reducing mastectomy two years ago, and her recent decision to remove her ovaries—she has…