Shining Tree of Life : The New Yorker
Article about the Shakers
John Quincy Adams and the Mole People Myth
The title alone should get teachers interested in following the link; it's academic click clickbait. Yet this essay describes in detail the way a story can be injected into popular understanding and take on a life of it's own, without much truth to begin with. A worthwhile read.
There is a depressing irony in the Smithsonian Institution being the chief propagator of this falsehood. The Smithsonian owes its very existence to John Quincy Adams
There is a depressing irony in the Smithsonian Institution being the chief propagator of this falsehood. The Smithsonian owes its very existence to John Quincy Adams.