Issue

It saved the early Colonists from starvation, it has caused men to murder each other, it used to be our most democratic food—in short, an extraordinary bivalve

How A.A. Griffith abandoned a college presidency to answer the call to greater duty, as explained in the 1884 edition of Hill’s Album of Biography & Art

The fallout-shelter craze of 1961

The 1,200-Mile Race Between the Natchez and the Robert E. Lee

GOOD READING

The curious career of the Hays Office

A splendid gathering of American folk art—half a century before its time

A Connecticut photographer’s record of life in a shipbuilding town

A major new exhibition celebrates the bright, idiosyncratic paintings of America’s folk artists

In an age of ersatz heroes, a fresh look at the real thing