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Volunteering in America has a history almost as long as our country. Benjamin Franklin is generally credited with starting the trend by instituting a volunteer firehouse in Philadelphia in 1736. But volunteering likely predated him since people who cite Franklin’s gusto for communal fire fighting clubs say that he likely got the idea from similar organizations he…

One of the outlandish things that women in the Victorian era did was to adapt the cage crinoline as a way to achieve the sought after full skirt. Made of wood, steel, or horsehair, the crinoline was a stiff underskirt that made a woman’s skirt a force to be reckoned with.  While women reveled in…

Christmas in Hannibal, Missouri-Margaret’s Childhood Margaret Tobin (later Brown) celebrated her very first Christmas in Hannibal, Missouri. She was born in 1867, just after the Civil War, to hard working Irish immigrants John and Johanna Tobin. When Margaret was three years old, Christmas became a United States holiday. Christmas trees became popular in England and…

While the Molly Brown House Museum, aka the House of Lions at 1340 Pennsylvania Avenue in Denver, is undeniably the most famous residence of Margaret Brown, this was not the only house which she spent her time in. After she separated from J.J. in 1909, Margaret not only traveled even more than she had before,…

Fifty years ago, on December 11th, 1970, a non-profit officially incorporated as Historic Denver, Inc.  Concerned citizens had watched the demolition of several iconic Denver buildings in years prior, so this group banded together and started with saving 1340 Pennsylvania Street.  Designed by William Lang and occupied by Titanic survivor and social activist Margaret Tobin…

Armistice Day, 1918. Courtesy of Denver Public Library 102 years ago, a powerful strain of the flu swept the globe, infecting one third of the world’s population. Despite being called the Spanish Flu, is believed to have begun at US Army Camp Funston in Kansas earlier in 1918, and spread across the world via troop…

Giving thanks for a special event, for home and for family has a long tradition in the cultures across the world, but the American idea and tradition of Thanksgiving Day for Margaret Brown’s family and for many of us has evolved from simple proclamations of thanksgiving to God to an event centered around the home,…

Throughout 2020, we have been commemorating the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment which made it possible for most women to vote. Did you know that this year Colorado women will be celebrating 127 years of voting? On November 7th, Colorado marks the anniversary of the 1893 referendum which gave the women of…

Victorians were curious people interested in nature, the sciences, anatomy, botany, and morbidity. For upper-class citizens, collecting scientific objects showed that they were sophisticated and educated. The Victorians were interested, some even to the point of obsession, in beauty, death, and finding rare items that were visually appealing. Some collections were so extensive that they…

It is a well-known fact that Margaret Brown traveled to many places throughout the world. From New York to India, Paris to Moscow, she visited dozens of places over the course of her life, often picking up artifacts, art and inspiration along the way. One of the most striking and prominent examples of this in…