History on Display

History on Display: Henry VIII at Chicago Shakespeare Theater

June 4, 2013

My Own True Love and I recently went to see Henry VIII at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. As far as I’m concerned, the play isn’t one of Shakespeare’s best,* but the performance was a theatrical tour de force. As always. CST knows how to do it right. Written in 1613, ten years after the Queen Elizabeth’s [...]

Read the full article →

History on Display: The Unexpected DeMoulin Museum Celebrates Invention, Imagination,and Industry

March 26, 2013

I freely admit that I visited the DeMoulin Museum in Greenville, Illinois, with a certain amount of trepidation. Over the years My Own True Love and I have visited plenty of small private museums that were founded to showcase an individual’s passion. All too often, they are sad, weird, and incoherent.* A museum devoted to [...]

Read the full article →

History on Display: 1001 Inventions

July 24, 2012

Last year, a couple of months before I launched History in the Margins,  My Own True Love and I met up with one of my best history buddies to visit an exhibit at the New York Hall of Science:  1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization. Although the exhibit was obviously designed with children [...]

Read the full article →

History on Display: Genghis Khan

June 19, 2012

I want to make it clear right from the beginning that I think Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes have gotten a bum rap in the annals of history. Most of our ideas about the ferocity of the Mongol invasion come from contemporary accounts of Genghis Khan’s admittedly ferocious campaign against the Turkish kingdom of [...]

Read the full article →

History on Display: Byzantium and Islam

May 2, 2012

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Islamic gallery has been on my to-do list for this  year’s trip to New York ever since it opened last November. It has some amazing pieces.  But the exhibit that blew me away was Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition. I want to make it clear right from the [...]

Read the full article →

Why I Want to Go to Omaha

January 10, 2012

Why is Omaha on my travel list?  Two words, okay three:  The Bodmer Collection. In 1832, German naturalist Prince Maximilian zu Weid-Neuweid led one of the earliest expeditions to the American West.*  As anyone who has snapped a picture of the Grand Canyon or the Grand Bazaar knows, expeditions need to be recorded.  Instead of [...]

Read the full article →

History on Display: Elizabeth Rex

December 20, 2011

If you’re in Chicago between now and January 22, or are close enough that you can get here with no difficulty, I strongly recommend you get tickets to Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of Elizabeth Rex  by Canadian playwright Timothy Findley. * Findley builds his story on three historical facts: The Earl of Essex, a court [...]

Read the full article →

History on Display: Windows on the War

September 27, 2011

There are plenty of good reasons to visit the Art Institute of Chicago:  the Impressionist collection, the Chagall window, the under-appreciated collection of South Asia art, the gift shop.  But the Art Institute usually isn’t my first choice for a history lesson.  In fact, it doesn’t generally take much to set me off on the [...]

Read the full article →

History on Display: That’s Ruff

August 25, 2011

Sometimes you stumble across something small at a museum that overshadows the museum’s larger purpose in your mind. For instance, the only thing I remember about the historical museum in Galena, Illinois, is a half-smoked cigar that a child picked up after General Grant discarded it.  The boy evidently treasured it for years, handing it [...]

Read the full article →

History on Display: Tipu’s Tiger

August 9, 2011

“Tipu’s Tiger” is one of the most popular exhibits at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  For generations, British school children and American tourists have lined up to watch the large mechanical tiger maul a fallen British gentleman.   Today the toy is too fragile to operate, but once upon a time the tiger roared and its [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries