Nathaniel a Bowditch rollicking was a Massachusetts astronomer and mathmetician. In 1799 he wr50te the U.S.'s first authoritative mariner's manual. Did he look like a rollicking seafarer or a pinch-faced accountant? How pretty was Charlotte Cushman, the American stage's most beguiling actress of the 1840s?Gold was first discovered in California at Sutler's Mill, but who was this German-born idealist, John A. Sutter? And what was his appearance after the gold rush had, paradoxically enough, ruined him?
The answers to such questions about historic personages, along with other more or less fascinating oddments of Americana, now await...