Stamp That Tax

From British Colonial days to America’s Civil War, governments foreign and domestic used stamps to levy taxes.

Marin Magazine Features the Black Family

Marin Magazine article features Marriage, Murder, and Betrayal in Nineteenth-Century California.

Not Silk, Plaid

When not intimidated by his second wife, James Black railed against her spendthrift habits. “I’ll not cover her back in silk out of my money,” he thundered during an atypically long monologue. After Black’s death in 1870, the oft-wed Widow Black traded her usual taffeta for a riotous plaid dress, immortalized in a luxurious setting