Author: James Breig

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Bio
James Breig is a veteran author who specializes in history. His most recent book is “Star-Spangled Baseball: True Tales of Flags and Fields” about the links between the sport and flags. He is also the author of a nonfiction book about WWII, "Searching for Sgt. Bailey: Saluting an Ordinary Soldier of World War II" and co-author of "The Mystery of the Multiple Mothers," a novel. All three are available at www.amazon.com. His articles have appeared in newspapers and national magazines, including the Colonial Williamsburg Journal (search for them at www.history.org/journal) and History Magazine. He has won many national awards for his opinion writing, media columns and feature articles.
History Lessons

When Liberty Bell went west, flags welcomed it

Liberty Bell float at the exposition.

Think of Philadelphia, and you think of the Liberty Bell. Think of the Liberty Bell, and you think of an immovable object. But not always. The normally sedentary icon of the United States went on a coast-to-coast tour 100 years ago, and American flags welcomed it everywhere it went. One of its destinations was thousands… continue

History Lessons

Windy City flutters many flags

Chicago's city flag. (Chicago Public Library)

Chicago is known as the Windy City, and its unique history of flags – from a poet who was intensely interested in them to a football stadium that honors veterans – has given those breezes plenty of cloth to play with. The poet, Wallace Rice, was born in 1860, the year another Illinois resident, Abraham… continue

History Lessons

How Wright and Whistler flew and drew flags

Wright flies around flag on Statue of Liberty island in 1909. (Library of Congress)

Wilbur Wright, the 20th-century co-inventor of the airplane, and James McNeill Whistler, the 19th-century painter, seem unlikely candidates to have a connection to flags. But, if you have sharp vision, you can see that they do. WRIGHT’S DARING FLIGHT On October 4, 1909, Wright took off from Governor’s Island in the Hudson River near Manhattan…. continue

History Lessons

Fire stations famously fly flags

A modern Slackwood fire helment.

More than a century ago, the dedication of a firehouse in New Jersey was a major extravaganza, complete with – as a newspaper headlined – “New Fire House, New Fire Engine, New Flag and Big Time.” On the first Saturday in August 1907, the citizens of Slackwood, N.J., gathered to celebrate the completion of the… continue