• From Ukraine to Notre Dame to Petra: Our Shared Humanity, Our Shared Obligation Don’t forget how you felt as you watched Notre Dame burn. Recognize it is something that is happening every day.   Update: July 16, 2022 I wrote the original article below in 2019, but today the race to preserve Ukraine’s cultural heritage has made this discussion urgent again. The Smithsonian and Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian […]
  • Gilded Age Travel   Dining Room at Le Meurice Hotel, Paris Note: The world was on the precipice of unimaginable changes.  And no one saw it coming.  A World War, a pandemic, and a global depression would wipe away all the gilding in short order.  Many of the wealthiest dynasties the world has ever known were wiped out […]