Historic Recipes by Mail

Culinary innovation is an essential aspect of human history, and it can be fascinating to replicate those old recipes and see how they hold up to modern-day dishes. If you know a history buff who also loves to cook, we recommend this Recipes by Mail subscription. Select either a six-month or 12-month subscription, and your giftee will receive a new package each month containing a historical recipe replicated on high-quality paper, plus a pamphlet with important biographical and contextual information about the dish and its creator. Some of the more popular recipes include Rosa Parks’ pancakes and George Washington’s ice cream.

Uncommon Goods, $42-$78

The Smithsonian’s New Map Book

A new book from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, History of North America Map by Map offers a fascinating look at how North American geography has shifted over time. The work contains maps that depict a variety of events and changes, such as the boundaries of ancient civilizations, how the U.S. evolved during its westward expansion, and how the Civil War reshaped the nation. It also includes written blurbs to provide context for all of these historical events. The Smithsonian offers map books on the history of the world and World War II, as well.

Amazon, $32.50

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage Book

In the early 1900s, Anglo Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton led several expeditions to the South Pole, where few had ever ventured before. His most notable and perilous journey occurred from 1914 to 1916 aboard the ship Endurance, which became stuck in an ice floe and sank to the ocean floor. Shackleton and his crew were forced to traverse the dangerous Antarctic tundra in search of safety, resulting in one of history’s most improbable and fascinating adventures. These events are chronicled in Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, a book reviewers and critics consider to be among the most well-written historical pieces in recent history. This nonfiction book reads like a fictitious novel with thrilling developments at every turn — so you can rest assured the history buff in your life won’t be able to put it down.

Amazon, $13.59-$52.64

Chronology Card Game

Chronology is a family-friendly card game that allows players to show off their history knowledge. Each player is dealt cards depicting a historic event and the year in which it occurred. They are then asked to put those events in chronological order — the winner being whoever puts 10 events in the correct order first. Some of the cards feature better-known milestones such as the moon landing, but there are more challenging cards mixed in where history buffs will truly shine.

Amazon, $19.99

Any Date Newspapers

Unless you were a baby genius, chances are you weren’t reading the newspaper on the day you were born. But as adults, it’s fun to look back at what the world was like when we came into it, and one of the best ways to do so is by gifting someone a newspaper from their exact birthdate. These authentic replica newspapers look just as they did on the day they were first printed, and are the perfect gift to commemorate a birthday or an event of similar magnitude. You can choose from publications such as The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, and The Dallas Morning News, just to name a few, to localize the experience for your loved ones.

Any Date, $69.99

Historical Apparel

For the history buff in your life who also loves to dress up, nothing will beat this line of historical-themed apparel from Gearhumans. Featuring hoodies, shorts, sweaters, and even baby onesies, these fun gifts are designed to resemble attire worn by the Vikings, military garb worn by Napoleon, outfits worn by George Washington, and much more. Each piece is carefully crafted with colorful and intricate patterns, with dozens of options available.

Gearhumans, $29.95-$48.99

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity Book

Back in high school history class, we were taught that our prehistoric ancestors were very primitive and warlike. Well, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity is a book that challenges those preconceptions and encourages the reader to reimagine their views on early human history. Using recent archaeological and anthropological findings, authors David Graeber and David Wengrow offer up a dramatic alternative viewpoint about social evolution, touching on important topics such as early agriculture and politics. The perfect gift for any stickler for accuracy, it will help readers see early history in a completely different way.

Amazon, $15.09-$22.29

Fine Art Jigsaw Puzzles

Indelible artistic works such as Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” or Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” can provide a glimpse into the cultural psyche of their time. And while original works can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to hang in your living room, there’s a much cheaper, and much more fun alternative. These fine art jigsaw puzzles are perfect for any history-loving family, and come in a wide array of designs ranging from Renaissance classics to more contemporary pieces. 

Wentworth Puzzles, $52.50-$185

National Trust for Historic Preservation Membership

Founded in 1949, the National Trust for Historic Preservation oversees the upkeep of many historic buildings and neighborhoods throughout the U.S. So for the history buff who has everything, try gifting an annual subscription to help support these preservation efforts. Members receive a magazine filled with photos and articles, as well as discounted admission to dozens of historic sites around the country. Some of the sites include James Madison’s Montpelier estate in Virginia, the historic Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island, and the ancient Acoma Sky City of New Mexico.

Savingplaces.org, $50-$250

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View-Master (1939)

Long before virtual reality headsets, the View-Master offered a window to the world, displaying stereoscopic 3D images of popular travel destinations. The original version, known as Sawyer’s View-Master, was introduced at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and was intended to replace the traditional postcard. The stereoscope quickly became popular with adults and children alike. You can find a contemporary version of this classic toy at Target for $9.99. For a more personalized experience, you can customize your own reel viewer disk at Uncommon Goods — it’s  $34.95 for one reel viewer and a reel redemption code, and $16.95 for each additional reel.

Slinky (1945)

Invented by mechanical engineer Richard James at a Philadelphia shipyard in 1943, the Slinky was an accidental discovery that came out of the development of a line of sensitive springs designed to stabilize fragile equipment on ships. Two years later, James demonstrated the toy — named by his wife, Betty James — at Gimbels department store in Philadelphia and sold his entire stock of 400 toys within 90 minutes. Today, the Slinky comes in a variety of colorful, plastic styles, but the original Slinky is still the most popular version. You can buy it on Amazon for $3.59.

Mouse Trap (1963)

Created by two employees at Marvin Glass and Associates and sold by Ideal in 1963, Mouse Trap was one of the first mass-produced 3D board games. The game’s engaging Rube Goldberg-style design involves collaborative and competitive gameplay. Unlike other board games where players race or strategize to a simple endpoint, Mouse Trap’s interactive design is all about players collaborating to build an intricate mechanism where each piece sets off a chain reaction, ultimately resulting in a tiny plastic cage dropping down to “trap” an opponent’s mouse-shaped game piece. Originally designed as a fun way to teach engineering concepts, Mouse Trap combines the thrill of strategy with the satisfaction of building. This family favorite has been updated and is available from major retailers and on Amazon for $21.28.

Mr. Potato Head (1952)

Invented by George Lerner and launched by Hasbro in 1952, Mr. Potato Head was originally sold as a kit of 30 plastic parts meant to be inserted into real potatoes. It became the first toy ever advertised on television, earning the company more than $4 million in its first few months and spurring other toy companies to start their own television marketing campaigns. In 1953, Mrs. Potato Head was introduced, and by 1964 the toy had evolved to include a plastic potato body with holes for facial features and limbs. Available at most toy retailers, Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. Potato Head, along with a Potato Head family-of-three kit, are also available on Amazon for $5.00 to $19.99.

Etch A Sketch (1960)

Invented in Paris by electrician André Cassagnes in the late 1950s, the Etch A Sketch used a unique internal system of a stylus and pulleys to create an electrostatic charge that would hold aluminum powder to the glass screen. Discovered by the Ohio Art Company at the 1959 Nuremberg Toy Fair, the mechanical drawing toy was launched during the 1960 holiday season and quickly became a symbol of mess-free creative play. Two large knobs control the vertical and horizontal movements of the internal stylus, allowing users to draw images as simple or as elaborate as they like. This red-framed classic continues to offer a screen-free way to entertain and challenge the imagination. Available at most toy retailers, including Amazon for $23.99, the Etch A Sketch also comes in a mini version.

Lincoln Logs (1916)

The building kits known as Lincoln Logs were first conceived in 1916 by John Lloyd Wright, the son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Inspired by his father’s earthquake-proof design for the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, John began marketing his toy cabin construction kit in 1918 and received a patent two years later. He named the product Lincoln Logs for Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood log cabin in Kentucky. This classic American toy is still widely available from toy retailers such as Fat Brain Toys, which offers the 268-piece Lincoln Logs Classic Farmhouse for $129.95. A smaller 111-piece set is also available on Amazon for $45.07.

The Game of Life (1960)

One of America’s oldest board games, The Game of Life — or Life, as it’s typically known — started its own life in 1860 as The Checkered Game of Life. The first board game invented by Milton Bradley, it originally included squares for disgrace, intemperance, poverty, and ruin as it guided players on a morality journey where success or failure was based on decisions made along the way. To celebrate its centennial in 1960, the Milton Bradley Company released an updated version of the game, changing the name to The Game of Life and shifting the focus from moral lessons to a modern life journey through experiences such as college, marriage, career choices, and family. The most recent updates to The Game of Life include the ability to adopt pets and an impressive 31 career options, and the game rules encourage players to “choose a path for a life of action, adventure, and unexpected surprises.” You can spin the wheel on the contemporary version of The Game of Life for $21.99 at Amazon.

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Surnames Can Tell Us About Our Ancestors’ Occupations

For many people in the United States, surnames hold clues to their ancestors’ European origins as well as their occupations. Names such as Baker, Miller, Sawyer, and Smith each tell a story about the jobs that were once an important part of a community. The last name Baker refers, of course, to someone whose occupation was baking, while the name Miller, from the Middle English “mille,” references a person who owned or worked in a grain mill. The name Sawyer comes from the Old English “sagu,” referring to one who saws wood and signifying a family whose profession was in lumber or woodworking. Similarly, the name Smith is derived from the Old English word “smitan,” meaning “to smite” or “strike,” indicating someone who worked with metal, such as a blacksmith or goldsmith. Other common examples include Taylor, Fisher, Wright (as in wheelwright), Cooper (barrel maker), Hunter, Thatcher, Brewer, Cook, Glover, Shepherd, and Gardner. 

Occupational names are common in languages other than English, too, such as Geiger, a German surname meaning “fiddle player”; Notaro, an Italian occupational name meaning “clerk”; Fisker, a Dutch surname meaning “fisherman”; Patel, an Indian surname meaning “landowner”; and Favre, a French surname meaning “blacksmith.” The surnames Müeller (German), Mulder (Dutch) and Melnik (Russian), and Molinero (Spanish), are all equivalent to the English last name Miller. 

As societies evolved, these occupational surnames stuck, even as descendants of those original bakers or smiths moved into different lines of work. Their names remain a connection to their ancestors and the roles they played in their communities. 

Surnames Can Reflect Our Ethnic Heritage

Beyond occupations, surnames can also be tied to geography. In many cultures, last names were derived from a family’s place of origin. For instance, English surnames such as Hill, from the Old English “hyll,” and Wood, for the Old English “wudu,” refer to natural landmarks, while the Italian surname Carrara is derived from the Latin word for “quarry” and comes from the name of a city in Tuscany known for its marble quarries. In Spanish-speaking cultures, common names include Fernández, meaning “son of Fernando,” and Lopez, meaning “son of Lope,” emphasizing a patronymic naming tradition similar to that of the Vikings. 

Some other common Spanish names meaning “son of-” include Perez, “son of Pedro,” Alvarez, “son of Alvaro,” Sanchez, “son of Sancho,” and Diaz, “son of Diego,” while Spanish geographical names include Rivera from the Spanish word ribera, meaning “bank” or “shore,” and Vargas, from the Spanish and Portuguese word varga, meaning “flooded field,” “pastureland,” or “slope.” 

In Asia, surnames carry rich historical significance as well. The most common surname in China, as well as the world, is Wang, meaning “king” or “monarch,” while Li was the surname of Chinese emperors of the Tang dynasty. The most common surname in Japan is Satō and, like other popular surnames such as Itō and Katō, it is linked to the powerful Fujiwara clan that controlled the Japanese government for four centuries.

African surnames originated through a mix of Indigenous traditions and external influences, including colonization, religion, and migration. In West Africa, surnames often indicate the ethnic group or clan a person belongs to, such as Diop, a surname that comes from the Diop clan of the Wolof people of Senegal. The influence of Islam and the Arabic language is reflected in the surnames of North Africa. The most common surname in Egypt, for instance, is Mohamed, which is associated with the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, while the Sudanese surname Elmalik means “the king” or “the owner” in Arabic.

There Are More Than 6 Million Different Surnames in the U.S.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 6.3 million different surnames were reported in the 2010 census. Centuries of immigration and forced migration from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, as well as the existing Indigenous populations, contributed to making the United States home to one of the most diverse arrays of surnames in the world. As people from different countries settled in America, they brought their surnames with them, often adapting, abbreviating, or anglicizing them over time to make them easier for English speakers to pronounce or to avoid discrimination. While many of us today may be far removed from the origins of our surnames, they still connect us to our past. 

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The Trickster God Loki

The idea of 13 being unlucky may have originated with, or at least have been bolstered by, a story in Norse mythology involving the trickster god Loki. In this particular myth, 12 gods are having a dinner party at Valhalla when a 13th — and uninvited — guest arrives. It is the mischievous Loki, who sets about contriving a situation in which Hoder, the blind god of darkness, fatally shoots Balder the Beautiful, the god of joy and gladness, with an arrow. It’s possible that this ill-fated myth helped cement the number’s connection to chaos and misfortune in Nordic cultures, and in Western civilization more widely. 

The Last Supper

Christianity has also helped fuel the superstition surrounding the number 13. In the New Testament — as in Norse mythology — there is a fateful gathering centered around a meal, in this case the Last Supper. At the dinner, Jesus Christ gathers with his Twelve Apostles — making 13 attendees in total. Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, is often considered to have been the 13th guest to sit down at the Last Supper, which might have contributed to the number’s negative connotation. This, in turn, may have led to the notion of Friday the 13th being a day of misfortune or malevolence, as the Last Supper (with its 13 attendees) was on a Thursday, and the next day was Friday, the day of the crucifixion.

A Notorious Neighbor

It’s also possible that 13 gained a bad reputation because of the squeaky-clean nature of the number 12. In Christian numerology, 12 symbolizes God’s power and authority and carries a notion of completeness (a concept also found in pre-Christian societies). Its neighboring numeral may have suffered as a result, being seen as conflicting with this sense of goodness and perfection, further adding to the potent and enduring idea that the number 13 is unlucky. 

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Simply having a roof doesn’t necessarily make a structure a true covered bridge, though. Underneath every authentic covered bridge is its truss system, a network of beams, often in the shape of triangles, that distributes the weight of the bridge and the load it carries on its deck. The trusses, though rugged in appearance, require precision, and building one often took a whole village — quite literally. Dozens, if not hundreds, of skilled workers from the community were involved: sawyers to prepare the rough-cut logs, timber framers to properly place the beams, and stonemasons to build the abutments, to name a few. 

While the bridge coverings were primarily a form of protection, they also became symbols of, and important to, the communities that built them. They served as gathering places and even inspired local lore — such as the tradition of couples sharing a covert kiss under the roof, inspiring the name “kissing bridges.”

Covered bridges began appearing in the United States in the early 1800s; one of the earliest and most famous examples was Philadelphia's Permanent Bridge, built by architect Timothy Palmer over the Schuylkill River in 1805. By the mid-19th century, covered bridges were a common sight in the American countryside; estimates suggest that as many as 10,000 were built by the peak of their popularity in the 1870s. Though they’ve become emblematic of bucolic Americana, they weren’t unique to the U.S. In ancient China, for instance, covered bridges — known as corridor bridges — served as multifunctional structures, housing community events and shops, or providing a place to rest. Similarly, covered bridges in Switzerland, such as the artwork-adorned Kapellbrucke (or “Chapel Bridge”) in Lucerne, have been around for centuries and remain admired for their intricate designs and historical significance.

While covered bridges were once a common sight across the American landscape, fewer than 1,000 remain today. Despite the protection and reinforcement a covering offered, it wasn’t always enough in the face of floods, fires, or neglect over time. Remaining structures in states such as Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Indiana continue to be preserved and restored, connecting travelers not only to the other side of the river, but to the past.

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By the medieval period in Europe, the Christian church introduced more structured wedding rituals, including the presentation of a wedding band as part of a sacred union performed by a priest. But rings were still just for the bride. Interestingly, men did, for a time, wear engagement rings, long before they started wearing wedding rings. Gimmel rings, popular during the Renaissance era, consisted of two interlocking bands that were separated and worn individually during an engagement period, and then put back together to be worn as one band by the bride after marriage. But the one-sided wedding ring exchange persisted for centuries, all the way until the Second World War. 

In the 1940s, as family values and stability were emphasized in the uncertainty of World War II, marriage rates soared in the United States. Jewelers jumped on the chance to promote men’s wedding rings — and it worked. During World War II, many deployed men wore wedding rings as a comforting reminder of their wives and families back home. By the late 1940s, about 80% of U.S. couples gave rings to each other during their wedding ceremonies, compared to just 15% at the end of the Great Depression. Social norms began to change, too, and as marriage became increasingly viewed as a partnership of equals versus an exchange of property, double-ring ceremonies became the norm, and remain so today. 

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