Skip to main content
RETURN TO Return to WETA website Donate
Boundary Stones logo

Main navigation

  • Washington, D.C.
  • Maryland
  • Virginia
  • Video
  • About

Claudia Swain

Claudia Swain's entanglement with local history began in her hometown of Norfolk, VA. Asked to write the history of her high school, Claudia discovered the dusty but always fascinating allure of regional history. She continued her newfound interest as an intern with the National Park Service, working on the Glen Echo Oral History Project. With each successive topic, Claudia gets drawn in deeper -- and her friends get even more tired of listening to her go on and on about it.

Posts by this Author

DC
Impressions of Washington: Sarah Pryor, 1859 - 1861

Impressions of Washington: Sarah Pryor, 1859 - 1861

01/17/2018 in DC by Claudia Swain

Sarah Pryor (1830-1912), the daughter of a wealthy Virginian family, lived in Washington from 1859 until the outbreak of the Civil War. In her memoirs written in 1909, she recounts the grand society of antebellum D.C. and the shift to war tensions.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
Hitler's Watercolors

Hitler's Watercolors

08/28/2017 in DC by Claudia Swain

In 1956, the Woodward & Lothrop department store in Washington DC, located at 11th and F St NW, hosted a traveling exhibit purporting to showcase the “American Dream.” Woodward & Lothrop, or “Woody’s” as it was affectionately called, was a staple in the city for over one hundred years, from the late 1800s to 1995, when it merged with another company. During the "Era of Department Stores," a period lasting from the '30s to the '70s when department stores were the main mode of shopping for the American family, Woodward & Lothrop was the King of DC. This is probably why the store felt entirely comfortable hosting the “American Dream” exhibit, and the exhibit’s main draw: four watercolors painted between 1917 and 1919 by Adolf Hitler.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
Eleanor and Diana's Victory Garden

Eleanor and Diana's Victory Garden

05/25/2017 in DC by Claudia Swain

Throughout the centuries, the presidential mansion has hosted crops and sheep and all manner of landscaping. But by World War II, the White House lawns were considered purely decorative. A First Lady would have had to fight hard to install a garden by the White House. Luckily Eleanor Roosevelt was up to the task.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
Julia Child's Washington Roots

Julia Child's Washington Roots

04/26/2017 in DC by Claudia Swain

Julia Child was a giant of French cooking, but before she became a legend in the kitchen she worked in the Office of Strategic Services -- the precursor to the CIA -- in Washington, D.C.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

Virginia
Civil War Alexandria Through the Eyes of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire

Civil War Alexandria Through the Eyes of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire

03/15/2017 in Virginia by Claudia Swain

When the Civil War began looming on the horizon, Judith Brockenbrough McGuire (1813-1897) was the wealthy wife of a prominent citizen in Alexandria, and like many on both sides of the conflict, she believed in a speedy and perhaps even non-violent end to the conflict. In the days leading up to the war, McGuire recorded in her diary the increasingly depressing landscape of Alexandria. Give it a read and take a step back in time!

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

Virginia
Real Life Mercy Street: Diary of Alfred Castleman

Real Life Mercy Street: Diary of Alfred Castleman

02/15/2017 in Virginia by Claudia Swain

We've all seen Mercy Street, but what was the real-life Civil War experience like for Union Army doctors? Alfred Lewis Castleman, a surgeon in the Wisconsin 5th regiment, provides a glimpse with his 1862 diary. The job was difficult, to put it mildly — rife with medical challenges as well as bureaucratic ones.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

Virginia
"Some of the noblest residences in Alexandria had been desecrated to licentious purposes."

"Some of the noblest residences in Alexandria had been desecrated to licentious purposes."

02/07/2017 in Virginia by Claudia Swain

One of the most remembered war correspondents was also the youngest reporter in the Civil War, George Alfred Townsend. Born in 1841, Townsend’s reports on the Battle of Five Forks and the Lincoln assassination gained him wide recognition, but before he had the chance to write those, Townsend visited the occupied city of Alexandria. Among his observations: "It would not accord with the chaste pages of this narrative to tell how some of the noblest residences in Alexandria had been desecrated to licentious purposes; now how, by night, the parlors of cosey homes flamed with riot and orgie [sic]."

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
Other First Ladies

Other First Ladies

02/01/2017 in DC by Claudia Swain

When President Donald Trump's wife, Melania, stayed in New York during the beginning of his presidency, some speculated that the President's daughter, Ivanka, might take on some of the traditional duties of the First Lady in Washington. Some worried this would be another break from tradition by America’s unconventional 45th president; however, there have been numerous other times in US history when the ‘First Lady’ has been a woman other than the president’s wife. Sometimes, it’s because the president is a bachelor or a widower; other times, the First Lady is too ill to fulfill her duties as hostess and appoints a substitute. Or, as often seemed the case in the 19th century and perhaps now, the president’s wife took one look at the job and said “No, thank you!”

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

DC
The Merry Affair

The Merry Affair

01/10/2017 in DC by Claudia Swain

When Thomas Jefferson took office in 1801, he decided he was going to do away with all the courtly nonsense of his predecessors, George Washington and John Adams. No longer would there be rules and regulations dictating behavior in social situations; not a single whiff of pomp or circumstance would be found in his administration. It was a rude awakening for visiting dignitaries including British minister Anthony Merry.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

Virginia
Alexandria Library Sit-In, 1939

Alexandria Library Sit-In, 1939

11/29/2016 in Virginia by Claudia Swain

In 1939 — decades before Virginia schools were integrated, and sit-ins emerged as a primary strategy for protesting segregated businesses and public facilities in the South — Alexandria, Virginia lawyer Samuel Tucker organized a successful sit-in to demonstrate against the Alexandria Library's "whites only" policy. It is believed to be the first sit-in for desegregation in American history.

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

Read More

Pagination

  • Current page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Next page Next ›
  • Last page Last »
Surprise Me!

Not sure where to start reading? Let us pick a story for you!

Categories

  • DC (565)
  • Maryland (106)
  • Virginia (146)

Latest Posts

"DC" Really Stands for Demon Cat... Which Haunts the U.S. Capitol

03/17/2023

"DC" Really Stands for Demon Cat... Which Haunts the U.S. Capitol

From the Mixed-Up Files of the Smithsonian Museum of American History: The Heist of 1981

03/10/2023

From the Mixed-Up Files of the Smithsonian Museum of American History: The Heist of 1981

The "Capitalsaurus": How a Dinosaur That Never Existed Became an Official Mascot of D.C.

03/03/2023

The "Capitalsaurus": How a Dinosaur That Never Existed Became an Official Mascot of D.C.

Most Popular

DC’s Most Underrated History Philanthropist

06/23/2022

DC’s Most Underrated History Philanthropist

Game, Set, Match: How Arthur Ashe Made Tennis Accessible in Washington

10/14/2022

Game, Set, Match: How Arthur Ashe Made Tennis Accessible in Washington

La Dame qui Boite  (The Limping Woman)

06/14/2022

La Dame qui Boite (The Limping Woman)

Tags

1860s1870s1890s1900s1910s1920s1930s1940s1950s1960s1970s1980s1990sAlexandriaArlingtonBlack HistoryBygone DCCivil WarGeorgetownMusic HistorySports HistoryWhite HouseWomen's HistoryWorld War IWorld War II
More
Historical D.C. Metro Map
Tweets by BoundaryStones
WETA

Footer menu

  • Support WETA
  • About WETA
  • Press Room
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • RSS
  • Accessibility

Contact Us

  • 3939 Campbell Avenue
    Arlington, VA 22206 | Map
  • 703-998-2600
  • boundarystones@weta.org

Connect with us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

About Boundary Stones

Boundary Stones explores local history in Washington, D.C., suburban Maryland and northern Virginia. This project is a service of WETA and is supported by contributions from readers like you.

DONATE

Copyright © 2023 WETA. All Rights Reserved.

Bottom Footer

  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Guidelines