United States
Flags of the United States line both side of a road.
“The diversity of America is a strength of the country, and I don’t think that we use that. We don’t talk about our strengths. I mean, having so many diverse people in this country from all aspects of all over the world, and we don’t use that. I think we should talk about who we are – that melting pot that we’ve become.”
–Steve Stoute
The lyrics in the anthem America the Beautiful expresses it best–the United States of America really is beautiful.
O beautiful for spacious skies…For amber waves of grain…For purple mountain majesties…Above the fruited plain!…America! America!…God shed His grace on thee…And crown thy good with brotherhood…From sea to shining sea!
The United States really is a beautiful and wonderfully diverse country. When you travel to each of the 50 States and even within each State you will feel as if you’re traveling to another country.
The United States is a country built by immigrants and each corner of this country is influenced by a variety of cultural diasporas including former enslaved people from Africa and the West Indies. Even traces of Native American culture can be found despite earlier efforts to erase them from the narratives of American history.
The United States has not always been the land of the free but it has always been the home of the brave.
As Paul Tsongas said, “America is hope. It is compassion. It is excellence. It is valor.”
On January 13, 1888, a small group of explorers and scientists, 33 in all, gathered at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC. (A place where DC members of the famed Explorers Club, including World Footprints, meet today.) They proposed to organize a society "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural, historical, and natural resources." Two weeks later, they incorporated the National Geographic Society . Alexander Graham Bell, the Society's second president, proposed a magazine, sales of which would help fund the Society's activities. In 1899, Bell's son-in-law Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor was named the first full-time editor of National Geographic magazine. He served the organization for fifty-five years (until 1954), and members of the Grosvenor family have played important roles in the organization since. Bell and Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor devised the successful marketing notion of Society membership and the first major use of [...]
New York City's La Guardia Airport opened on this day in 1938. Located in Queens County on New York's Long Island, the airfield was originally named Glenn H. Curtiss Airport but it was re-named after Fiorello H. La Guardia, a former mayor of New York City who presided over the airport's construction. It's central location and proximity to the city center make La Guardia a favorite hub for many travelers. La Guardia is the smallest of the city's three primary airports behind JFK and Newark's Liberty International.
A mere 88 years ago, women had no Constitutionally guaranteed right to vote in elections. In January of 1918, President Woodrow Wilson announced that he was supporting a new amendment to the US Constitution that would give women the right to vote. The House of Representatives passed the 19th amendment, but it failed in the Senate after a series of delays. The National Woman's Party began a campaign to oust members of Congress who voted against the 19th Amendment - with great success. The following year, both Houses of Congress were overwhelmingly pro-suffrage. On May 21, 1919 the House of Representatives passed the 19th amendment by a vote of 304 to 89 and in June, the Senate passed it by a margin of 56 to 24. After ratification by the States, the Nineteenth Amendment was certified on August 26, 1920. Beginning in the 1800s, women organized, petitioned, and [...]
Don Vicente Martinez Ybor, a Spaniard, came to Florida from Cuba. He first set up his cigar-making factory in Key West but found his mostly Cuban workers often left to return home.
Cowboys. Covered wagons. Campfires. Welcome to Casper, Wyoming’s sweet little secret, centrally located and ideally suited for autumn travel.
Dade Battlefield is a small state park in Bushnell, Florida that tells a big story of one of America’s most forgotten wars. The Second
World Footprints won recognition as a top travel podcast, receiving a Gold Award in the 2021 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition.
World Footprints commemorates the anniversary of the terrifying attack that changed the world and brought heroes to the front-line. You will hear from survivors their first-hand account of the events as they experienced them.
When we think of cultures on the brink of extinction the mind usually wanders to earth based cultures world wide being infringed upon by modern development. Another common image is that of oppressed peoples being forced to assimilate, flee, or possibly be put to death in a hostile regime takeover. Unfortunately these are familiar headlines in our modern era. All of these are very accurate and very real. But there is another cultural heritage in jeopardy…one a lot closer to home, only about 300 years old, (not very old in terms of culture) and I would argue, dying quickly. It's the American culture. But what exactly IS the American culture and how does one experience or preserve it? From the very beginning, America was a nation made up of over 500 nations, and that was before the first Europeans ever set foot on the continent. The American culture then, has always been [...]
San Antonio invites tourists from around the globe, offering them an immersive experience of Mexican and Texan culture.
What once was old is now new in Florida’s Marion County. One of the “newest” attractions in the city of Ocala, has roots going back nearly 100 years, commemorating an epic FBI shootout with a notorious gang that ended the era of gangsters in the United States.
While most tourists may flock to the Californian coast for a road trip (and fairly so), travelers searching for something different should set their gaze on the Midwest towards South Dakota.
