By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — If you want to understand San Francisco’s self-inflicted housing crisis, look no further than the city’s very first zoning law, commonly known as the Cubic Air Ordinance, which set a disturbing standard for the city's eventual missteps. Proposed in 1870, during a time of rampant real-estate speculation in a boomtown renowned for its lawlessness, the new law required boarding houses to offer a minimum amount of space per tenant. Officials claimed this would promote safer housing and improve...

American Engraved Powder Horns

By Stephen V. Grancsay — The period of the French and Indian War was a map-making era. Since much of the country was not chartered, it is perfectly logical that a map should be engraved on a powder horn. For the horn was the indispensable accessory of the settler's rifle, the greatest of all American map makers. The great pathfinder, Christopher Gist, in 1750, as the agent and surveyor of the Ohio Company, was sent to explore the region west of the Alleghenies. While on this journey, King Beaver and Captain...