photographed in Clarksville, Tennessee on October 14, 2007

As construction of the interstate highways bypassed some of the old U.S. system, areas adjacent to the new highways were immediately affected. Generations of families and businesses in urban neighborhoods were uprooted to make way for the new freeways. In rural areas, cities and towns on federal aid routes saw a sharp decline in traffic and tourism. Merchants in bypassed areas saw their business drop to a trickle the day following the opening of a new section of interstate. Some businesses relocated to the nearest freeway interchange to survive; those who didn’t often were forced to close. Many of the smaller hamlets withered away, becoming little more than ghost towns. In major cities, large areas were cleared and urban neighborhoods uprooted in the path of the interstate.

The politics and economics of interstate highway routing often resulted in low-value properties being condemned, which meant the leveling of housing where the cities’ neediest citizens resided. During the New Deal and after the war, major cities began the process of revitalizing aging urban core areas by demolishing substandard housing and replacing them with complexes of high-rise apartment buildings, a process referred to as “slum clearance.” Later, urban planners discovered that freeway construction could provide a shortcut way to remove blighted areas. In the 60s, “urban renewal” became the euphemism for this new type of urban planning, skirting the social issues it raised.

The 1950s and 1960s were exciting times to be on the American Road. Motorists were treated to an eclectic mix of down-home versus space-age accommodations, of scary two-lane roads and modern superhighways. The American highway landscape gradually evolved into a cornucopia of new businesses lining the interstates. National brands of motels, restaurants and gas stations, like pearls connected by a string of nonstop freeways, wholly dependent on the interstate.

Excerpted from The American Highway: The History and Culture of Roads in the United States by William Kaszynski. Published by McFarland & Co., Jefferson, North Carolina, 2000.

photographed in Shanghai, China on September 3, 2007

The result, then, is that the English language is represented by a series of signs which, originally deduced from phonetic considerations, are now totally inadequate to represent the sounds uttered, and that it may be asserted with perfect truth, that no Englishman can be sure how to pronounce a word which he has only seen and never heard, or how to write a word which he has only heard and never seen on paper. It is true he may approximate both to the sound and to the form, and the more he has read and written the more close will his approximation be, and he may even hit upon the exact sound or form, but it must be guess work, for there is absolutely no guiding principle whatsoever.

Now it requires but a brief consideration to condemn this state of things, which is much worse than the Chinese, because, in the Chinese characters there is so much plan and system that when the radicals are known, some conception of the thought intended by the complete sign can be formed, whereas, when the alphabet is known, no proper conception can be formed of the sound of the word represented. We must therefore condemn the present English orthography as not fulfilling the purposes for which spelling was invented, while at the same time, as will be shown soon … it does not fulfill the purpose which those who would preserve it think it suited, — it does not show the meaning or origin of the word, and thus lead to the conception of the thought instead of the conception of the sound. Were the orthography then a scientific observation, (instead of a historic growth,) it must be condemned as a scientific failure.

Excerpted from American Phonetic Dictionary of the English Language, designed by Nathaniel Storrs and compiled by Dan S. Smalley. Published by Longley Brothers, Cincinnati, 1855.

photographed on September 18, 2010 at the Crayola Factory, Easton, Pennsylvania

Binney & Smith Co., of New York, recently closed their very successful “Crayola” Contest; $525 in cash prizes were offered. There were two classes to the contest, “A,” open to all boys and girls between fifteen and twenty years of age; “B,” open to all boys and girls between eleven and fifteen years of age. These classes were separated into divisions, and great variety in choice of subjects was given.

Drawings were submitted to the number of 2,500, from all over the country. The jury of awards consisted of the following gentlemen: Walter Sargent, State Supervisor of Drawing, Massachusetts; Frank Alvah Parsons, Professor of Pedagogy, Art and Design, New York Art school; Frank Forrest Frederick, Professor Art and Design, University of Illinois.

The judges were astounded at the excellence of the work done by the pupils in the various schools throughout the thirty-seven states that submitted drawings.

“Crayola” seems to have opened a new field in art. The manufacturers declare that it is the only crayon which artists consider a real substitute for oil, water-color, and pastels.

Excerpted from The School Journal, Volume LXX, From January 7, 1905 to June 24, 1905. Published by the United Educational Company, New York, 1905.

photographed in Lewis Township, Kansas on September 29, 2008

You will pass a few modest homes and farm buildings along the way, some in use, others in disrepair. The most recently abandoned, a classic two-story farmhouse, has boarded-up windows and an extensive but weed-choked corral. A house abandoned years ago is open to the elements, all its windows and most of its shingles gone. A large shelterbelt, planted in the 1930s, is now a thicket of dead trees. Once the trees are gone the house will lean with the wind until it collapses; but that will be a while.

Like the others who have business in Hope, I know who left; I know why. Every time I pass the abandoned houses I am reminded of them. “Hope Presbyterian Church is located by itself on the South Dakota prairie,” is what the church history says. But that doesn’t begin to tell it. Hope Church, which fifteen years ago had a membership of 46, is down to 25 today, scattered on ranches for thirty miles around. The loss is due to older farmers retiring and moving to town, and younger farmers leaving the area.

Excerpted from Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris. Published by Mariner Books, New York, 1993.

photographed in Central Park, Manhattan, New York on August 14, 2010

The old saying that music has charms to soothe the savage beast may be true in some cases, but a recent demonstration at the Central Park menagerie in New York city failed to prove its truth in the case of caged animals.

When some musicians, playing wind and string instruments, appeared before the cages, the animals sat up and took notice—at first. Then most of them became restless. The large crowd of onlookers may have had something to do with their excitement, as well as the noisy jazz, which seemed to rouse the animals.

According to Dr. E. L. Scott, of the Department of Physiology of Columbia University, one of the scientists present at the experimental demonstration, the results as a whole did not indicate that the musical noise had any very pronounced effect, although the behavior of some of the animals was unusual.

The polar bear exhibited astonishment when the trombone and clarinet began a duet. The bear at first sat up in the attitude of a dog when it begins to howl. Its jaws opened, and there was a nervous, trembling movement of the cheek muscles, and he looked as if he would like to howl if he could. Instead, he stood up and began to sway excitedly from side to side in a curious kind of dance. A small tame wolf in an adjoining cage at first ran into its den under cover, then came out and ran wildly around, panic-stricken.

Excerpted from ‘Music in the Zoo,’ appearing in Popular Science, July 1921, vol. 99, no. 1.

photographed in Manhattan, New York on August 14, 2010

It is a cool and rainy morning in New York City, and Cheryl Petit de Mange wants a cup of coffee. Two big, bright Starbucks shops beckon from 200 yards in either direction. But Petit de Mange instead joins 14 other hardy java junkies crowded around what looks like a bright-orange ice cream truck. She’s waiting to buy a 12-ounce cappuccino for $2—$1.68 less than what she’d pay across the street. “It’s not just about price or better customer service,” yells Petit de Mange over the soul music blasting from the truck’s sound system.”Why would you go to Starbucks when you can support a neighborhood business like this?” She has just summed up how a pair of entrepreneurs, equipped with nothing more sophisticated than a refurbished electric-company truck, keep their coffee business percolating despite being sandwiched between two outlets of a popular and respected national chain.

Everything Mud founders Greg Northrop and Nina Berott do is designed to distinguish their business from Starbucks and other national brands. “My profit margins probably aren’t as great as Starbucks,” concedes Northrop, 40, who says he could make a “decent profit” if he weren’t putting so much of his earnings back into the business. Northrop wants to boost sales, which grew to $520,000 last year, up from $293,000 in 2002, the year he added a second truck now on Wall Street.

Excerpted from ‘Beat the Beast: Selling Price’ by Maggie Overfelt. Published in Forbes Small Business, September 2004.

photographed in Chicago, Illinois on November 14, 2009

That innocence is the receptacle of all heavenly good things, and therefore that the innocence of Little Children is the plane or ground of all their affections for good and truth, may appear from what has been said before … The innocence of Children was imaged to me by the representation of a Child in wood with scarce any thing of life in it, but which was vivified gradually, answerably to the progress of Children in their knowledge of truth, and their affection for good: and afterwards I had a representation of genuine innocence in a very beautiful Child quite lively and naked: for the innocents which are in the inmost Heaven, and such nearest to the Lord, appear as Little Children … In a word, the more the Angels excel in wisdom, the higher is their degree of innocence; and the higher their degree of innocence, the more do they appear to one another as Little Children: hence it is that Infancy in the Word signifies innocence.

Excerpted from A Treatise Concerning Heaven and Hell, and of the Wonderful Things Therein by Emanuel Swedenborg. Translated from the original Latin and published in the second edition by R. Hindmarsh, London, 1784.

photographed in Quincy, Illinois on September 5, 2009

When the Franciscans were asked, in 1859, to make a foundation in Quincy, it was expressly stipulated that, besides engaging in parish work, they would open a high school for boys and young men. There was, indeed, urgent need of a Catholic high school and college in this part of the state, but owing to the scarcity of priests and religious, it was a matter of extreme difficulty, if not an impossibility, to obtain Catholic educators for such an institution. In these circumstances, the pioneer Franciscans, with characteristic zeal and energy, determined to accept the invitation of Rt. Rev. Bishop Juncker to supply the deficiency.

The arrival of Father Servatius Altmicks and his companions in Quincy and the beginning of their foundation, has already been told. As soon as the friars had taken up their abode in the Mast House, as the end of December, 1859, the set aside the first floor for the purposes of the high school which they planned to open as soon as possible. This undertaking in the interest of education was attended with many difficulties. The Fathers were few in number, hampered by the lack of resources, and besides engaged in pastoral work. At this distant date, it is indeed a cause of wonderment that they succeeded so well in the face of so many difficulties; one cannot but admire the zeal and courage of these pioneers. It was naturally impossible under the circumstances, to begin with a complete course. The main point was to make a beginning; the course could be extended and perfected later as reinforcements would arrive from Germany and the conditions in the mission would improve. This was the opinion of Bishop Juncker, the Rev. H. Schaefermeyer, and of the Catholics of Quincy. Accordingly, the Fathers resolutely set to work, and early in the year 1860, probably in March, they were in a position to receive the first students.

Excerpted from ‘The Franciscans in Southern Illinois’ by the Rev. Silas Barth, O.F.M. Originally appearing in Illinois Catholic Historical Review, Volume III. Published by the Illinois Catholic Historical Society, Chicago, 1920.

photographed in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire on May 30, 2010

Lake Winnipesaukee is about thirty miles long and varies from one to ten miles in width. The lake is almost five hundred feet above the sea level and the water is very clear and pure. Winnipesaukee has an area of seventy-one square miles, exclusive of two hundred and seventy-four islands, ten of which have an area of more than one hundred acres each …

The fishing in Lake Winnipesaukee is unsurpassed in New England, all things considered. The state fish and game commissioners are stocking its waters with land locked salmon, and already many specimens of gamy fish have been taken weighing from seven to twelve pounds each. Lake trout are very numerous and afford good sport both summer and winter. It is no uncommon thing for one row boat to bring in fifteen or twenty trout weighing from three to ten pounds each as the result of one day’s trolling during the spring months. In the summer, black bass, pickerel, perch and other excellent food fish are taken in immense numbers.

Excerpted from ‘Laconia, the City on the Lakes’ by Charles W. Vaughan, originally appearing in National Magazine as edited by Joe Mitchell Chapple, published by Chapple Publishing Company, Ltd., Boston, 1902.