In April of 2021, the famous documentarian, Ken Burns, released a 6-hour documentary called Hemingway. As its name implies, this documentary is about the Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize-winning American writer, Ernest Hemingway. I have not seen the film, but based on Ken Burns’ other works, I am sure that it does a fantastic job…
Author: Bet Arkeh
Jane Austen’s House
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen ranks among the most famous British writers in history. I enjoy Jane Austen’s books, but for the strangest reason, I cannot remember the inside of her home in Chawton, even though I saw it in 2010. I only remember watching a short video about her life…
Keats House
February 23, 2021 marked the 200th anniversary of the death of the British poet, John Keats. Many people view Keats as one of the best Romantic poets in the English language, which is remarkable since he only lived until the age of 25. Some of his famous poems include “Ode to a Nightingale,” “Ode on…
The Kilns: C.S. Lewis’ Home
The British author, C.S. Lewis, is probably best known for his children’s fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia. However, he is known for his Christian works as well, such as Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters. After serving in WWI, Lewis attended Oxford University. Following his graduation, he remained at Oxford and taught English Language…
Newberry Library
Although the Chicago Public Library was founded in 1873, two years after the Great Chicago Fire, a wealthy Chicagoan named Walter L. Newberry decided to leave $2.2 million dollars upon his death to fund another free public library in Chicago. That led to the creation of the Newberry Library in 1887. This is not to…
Ten Historically Interesting Sites in Skokie, Illinois
In 1888, a village 12 miles northwest of downtown Chicago was incorporated as Niles Centre. This swampy land was eventually renamed “Skokie” in 1940. Skokie means “big swamp” in the language of the area’s former inhabitants, the Potawatomi tribe. After World War II, Skokie’s population boomed, explaining why a large percentage of its homes were…
American Writers Museum
In 2017, the American Writers Museum opened in downtown Chicago. Located in a section of a high-rise building, its goal is to teach visitors about famous writers from the United States. I visited the museum in 2017, the same year that it first opened, so its exhibits may still be evolving. Overall, the museum is…
Jewish Museum of Maryland
Founded in 1729, the city of Baltimore, Maryland was established before the United States gained its independence from Great Britain in 1776, thus making it an old city according to U.S. standards. Unsurprisingly, then, Baltimore has the third oldest surviving synagogue building in the United States. Although the Lloyd St. Synagogue, located on Lloyd St….
Museokeskus Vapriikki
Tampere is a city in southern Finland that is approximately a two-hour drive north of Finland’s capital city of Helsinki. The city was once home to numerous industries in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as can be attested by the presence of old factory buildings there. Nevertheless, the buildings are well-kept and the city…
Irish American Heritage Center
Irish immigrants have been making Chicago their home since the 1830s, with the last large wave of Irish immigrants arriving in the 1980s. Therefore, it is not surprising that twelve of Chicago’s mayors have been Irish, including Richard M. Daley, Chicago’s longest-running mayor (who served from 1989 to 2011). Through the efforts of Chicago’s Irish…
Bet Arkeh 