On the Kancamagus Highway of White Mountains National Forest, New Hampshire. October 23, 2017.
Autumn/fall covers the New England region in colour. It slowly comes alive with vibrant autumn hues of auburn & scarlet, the seasonal reduction in chlorophyll, green pigments found in leaves, ensuring the region’s millions of maple, hickory & dogwood trees yield spectacularly to tones of vivid autumnal purple, gold, orange and yellow.

YALE UNIVERSITY – STERLING MEMORIAL LIBRARY || Cross Campus, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. September 28. 2017.
I’m not too sure which is more important for getting accepted into Yale, money or brains. Either way, I suspect you need copious amounts of both. Founded in Saybrook, Connecticut in 1701 as the Collegiate School, relocated to New Haven in 1716, and renamed Yale College in 1718, this is the 2nd oldest Ivy Leaguer after Harvard (founded 1636). The Alma mater of 5 US presidents, including 4 of the last 6, the campus is, as one might expect, a rather picturesque riot of thick Gothic buildings. One of over 260 buildings gracing the vast campus complex, the library building seen here, the Sterling Memorial Library, more resembles a cathedral than a library (externally at least, where it displays some impressive relief work above the front entrance doors). Completed in 1930 and today serving as Yale’s primary library, it houses some 4 million volumes, most of which are stored in the building’s seven-storey tower, a.k.a. the Stacks, the library’s dominant feature.

Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. September 28, 2017.

Hewitt Quad, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. September 28, 2017.

Ye olde books behind protective glass in the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. September 28, 2017.

Walking through Old Campus, the oldest part of the Yale University campus, New Haven, Connecticut. September 28, 2017.

Branford, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. September 28, 2017.

The entrance to the Merritt Parkway on the New York/Connecticut state line. September 28 2017.

Being enticed on the edge of New England itself. Fall foliage as seen from New York State Route 9N/Lake Shore Drive, Adirondacks, Upstate New York on Day 26. October 22, 2017.

Buildings of Church Street Marketplace, Burlington, Vermont. October 22, 2017.

Approaching Vermont & New England. Crossing Lake Champlain, and the New York-Vermont state line, en route from Essex, New York to Charlotte, Vermont. October 22, 2017.

The spire of the 1816 Unitarian Universalist Church, the oldest remaining place of worship established by white settlers in Burlington, at the north end of Church Street as seen from Church Street Marketplace, Burlington, Vermont. October 22, 2017.

CHURCH STREET MARKETPLACE || Church Street Marketplace, Burlington, Vermont. October 22, 2017.
A lot of Burlington life seem to revolve around its central Church Street Marketplace, an award-winning redbrick-heavy pedestrian mall running for 4 blocks. A leafy & strollable precinct of shops, cafes, bars & restaurants which opened in September 1981, the so-called ‘gem in the crown of the Queen City of Burlington’ was inspired by the transformation of the main shopping district in the Danish capital of Copenhagen from traffic-snarled eyesore to attractive pedestrian mall.

Church Street Marketplace, Burlington, Vermont. October 22, 2017.

EVERYONE LOVES A PARADE || The ‘Everyone Loves a Parade‘ mural off Church Street Marketplace, Burlington, Vermont. October 22, 2017.
Thirty-eight metres (124 feet) long, 5 metres (16 feet) high and turning heads since 2012, the Everyone Loves a Parade mural off Church Street Marketplace is kind of unmissable. You could spend a long time analysing its contents, a chronological look at 400 years of Burlington & Vermont state history, from the 1609 arrival of Samuel de Champlain – explorer, settler, the Father of New France & Quebec City & the first European to map & document Lake Champlain – right up to the present day. A work by renowned Canadian muralist Pierre Hardy, known for his inventive and meticulously-detailed large-scale pieces, it employs the Trompe-l’oeil (French for ‘trick the eye’) art technique in which highly realistic imagery creates the illusion that the subjects depicted are three dimensional. As the mural itself states, ‘the people in this mural are builders, leaders, and stars who contributed to what Burlington and Vermont are today.’ Who knew Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the US (1923-1929), and John Deere, of tractor fame & inventor of the first steel plow, were Vermonters, or that British author Rudyard Kipling wrote and illustrated his 1894 literary classic The Jungle Book while living in Vermont? Well I didn’t, not until today that was.

Epic US Road Trip 2017. Day 27. On the fall roads of rural Vermont en route to the New Hampshire state line. October 23, 2017.

State House in Montpelier, Vermont. October 23, 2017.

MAIN STREET || Main Street, Montpelier, Vermont. October 23, 2017.
You could, and definitely should, walk up one side of State Street & down the other. Take a left (or right) on Main Street. Do the same there (walk up one side, down the other). You’ll hit the ‘city limits’ on either town artery soon enough. And that’s Monteplier. From one end of the town, from one side to the other in well less than an hour. You’ll always be enclosed by verdant hills & en route you’ll saunter past many a period building, inviting cafe, artisan store, boutique & church. You might see a few souls, a few fellow tourists even, although not too many of either. No doubt good times are to be had here, but I suspect you’ll struggle to find a party (if that’s your want), or someone in a hurry. Montpelier’s not that kind of place, or at least it doesn’t come across as such. I don’t know why but my abiding memory of Montpelier’s Main Street, apart from the obvious (how small & quiet it is), is their parking meters – they only accept cards.

UNITARIAN CHURCH OF MONTPELIER || The Unitarian Church of Montpelier, Main Street, Montpelier, Vermont. October 23, 2017.
The Unitarian Church of Montpelier has been ‘a religious home for open-minded Vermonters since 1864’, ‘an inclusive congregation welcoming all people of all ages, classes, ethnicities, genders, physical abilities and sexual orientations.’ They certainly have a nice, welcoming home, one of the standout edifices, and easily the tallest, on Montpelier’s Main Street.

The gold leaf dome of the intimate & impressive State House in Montpelier, Vermont. October 23, 2017.

STATE HOUSE || State House in Montpelier, Vermont. October 23, 2017.
Topping the (short) list of Montpelier’s must-sees, the town’s Italian Renaissance Revival-style State House is the third incarnation of Vermont’s Capitol Building – the structure standing today, built between 1857 & 1859, incorporates the portico of the second, 1830’s State House, it destroyed by fire in January 1857. Like everything else in Montpelier, the building is small & intimate. It’s topped by a distinctive 17.4-metre-tall (57 feet) dome that was gilded in 24-carat gold leaf in 1907 (the dome was originally clad in copper and finished to imitate an Italian red tile roof), the whole shebang topped by a 4.2-metre-tall (14 feet) statue of Agriculture.

LOBBY || The lobby of the State House in Montpelier, Vermont. October 23, 2017.
The checkered marble floor of the lobby of the Vermont State House is striking and houses a marble 1872 bust of Abraham Lincoln as donated to the state of Vermont in 1910 upon the death of its creator, American neoclassical sculptor Larkin Goldsmith Mead (the bust was a study piece in preparation for the large bronze statue Mead created for Lincoln’s tomb in Illinois).

REPRESENTATIVES HALL || The Representatives’ Hall of the State House in Montpelier, Vermont. October 23, 2017.
The second floor Representatives’ Hall of the Vermont State House is home to the 150-member Vermont House of Representatives. Meticulously restored to its 1859 appearance by the private non-profit organisation Friends of the Vermont State House, it looks and feels every bit the museum exhibit it could very easily pass for. The dominant feature of the room, overlooked by an historic portrait of George Washington (which was rescued from the fire that destroyed the previous State House), is its central bronze & gilt chandelier. An original, it is one of America’s most important surviving gas fixtures.

GOVERNORS OFFICE || The Governor’s Office of the State House in Montpelier, Vermont. October 23, 2017.
Another State House room restored to its 1859 appearance using replicas of the original carpet, draperies, gasolier and some furniture, the Governor’s Office, housing portraits of various 19th-century governors, is used when the legislature is in session or for ceremonial occasions, although it would almost feel like a shame to do so given its immaculate presentation to self-guided tourists like me on this particular day.

At the junction of Washington & N Main Street in Barre, Vermont. October 23, 2017.

BARRE – SOLDIERS & SAILORS MEMORIAL || The granite Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial in Vermont City Park, Barre, Vermont. October 23, 2017.
As one might expect of the so-called Granite Capital of The World, Barre displays more than a few granite statues and sculptures, most of which were carved by Scottish & Italian immigrants who began emigrating to Barre in the 1880s in the search for employment in Barre’s then burgeoning neophytic granite industry. Probably the town’s most recognized granite sculpture, located at the junction of Washington & N Main Streets on the edge of Vermont City Park and overlooked by the town’s impressive 1907 Aldrich Public Library, is the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial, also known as “Youth Triumphant”. Carved from Barre granite by local artists Gino Enrico Tosi, Enrico Mori and John Delmonte, it depicts a noble young warrior supplicating for peace. A preset-day trademark of Barre, it was adopted as the city seal soon after its erection in 1924.

#IPulledOverForThis. Passing through the village of Chelsea, just one of the many picturesque antique villages in Vermont’s rural Orange County. October 23, 2017.

MOXLEY COVERED BRIDGE || At the 1883 Moxley Covered Bridge on the first branch of the White River, Moxley Road, Orange County, Vermont. October 23, 2017.
Given the options available, we were very selective in our choice of Vermont covered bridge and, if I do say so myself, we chose well. Built by an Arthur Adams in 1883 & listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the Moxley Bridge survives to this day as Chelsea’s only 19th-century-era covered bridge. The one-lane, parallelogram-shaped, single span multiple truss structure is 17 metres (57 feet) long and 5.2 metres (17 feet) wide. We spent a bit of time taking a look around, undisturbed the whole time – the photogenic structure doesn’t seem to get much traffic meaning the creaking 134-year-old & counting bridge should be around for a few more years yet.

CONNECTICUT RIVER BYWAY || Mile marker 116 of New Hampshire Route 10, a stretch of the Connecticut River Byway that runs for 500 miles through portions of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont. Near Haverhill, Grafton County, New Hampshire. October 23, 2017.

Lincoln, in the White Mountains and the western gateway to the White Mountains National Forest, New Hampshire. October 23, 2017.

Thumbs-up by the side of New Hampshire Route 112 at the entrance to White Mountains National Forest and the start of the Kancamagus Highway of the White Mountains, New Hampshire. October 23, 2017.

On the Kancamagus Highway of White Mountains National Forest, White Mountains, New Hampshire. October 23, 2017.

Driving the Kancamagus Highway through White Mountains National Forest of the White Mountains, New Hampshire. October 23, 2017.

OVERLOOKS & SCENIC VISTAS || At the Hancock Overlook of the Kancamagus Highway through White Mountain National Forest, White Mountains, New Hampshire. October 23, 2017.
Various overlooks along the course of the Kancamagus Highway provide ample opportunity for pulling over and enjoying the far-off views of the valleys & rolling peaks of the White Mountains. One of the first overlooks out of Lincoln, the Hancock Overlook provides picnic areas & a covered pavilion with interpretive panels, seen here. The overlook also provides access to the Hancock Notch trail, one of the forest’s hiking trails providing easy and popular access to 4,420 feet (1,347 metre) Mount Hancock, just one of the White Mountain’s 48 peaks that reach over 4,000 feet (1,219 metres).

Fall colours at the parking lot of the Sugar Hill Scenic Area of the Kancamagus Highway through White Mountains National Forest, White Mountains, New Hampshire. October 23, 2017.

At the Kancamagus Pass, the highest point of the Kancamagus Highway through White Mountains National Forest of the White Mountains, New Hampshire. October 23, 2017.

Fall colours of the White Mountains as seen from US Route 302/White Mountain Trail, New Hampshire. October 23, 2017.

Bienvenue. When an epic US road trip takes liberties. At Tim Hortons having just crossed over the border from Vermont, USA. Stanstead, Quebec, Canada. October 24, 2017.

Main Street, Littleton, Grafton County, New Hampshire. October 24, 2017.

LITTLETON || Main Street, Littleton, Grafton County, New Hampshire. October 24, 2017.
With a network of over 22 miles of hand-built trails in the hills surrounding the town, little Littleton prides itself on being a walkable community. The town’s Main Street, lined as it is with unique & inviting independently owned businesses, is eminently strollable too and probably the biggest attraction of ‘The Glad Town’, and a patriotic one at that; there are almost as many fluttering Stars & Stripes hanging from the lampposts lining Main Street as there are banners reminding people to ‘Be Glad!’ It’s a bit of a smile-inducing Americana overload, and a rather photogenic one at that.

Proudly Made in Canada & for sale in Quarter Petite Champlain, Basse-Ville (Lower Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 24, 2017.

QUEBEC VIEUX/OLD QUEBEC || Photographing the Saint Lawrence River from the balcony of the Hotel Terrasse Dufferin, Haute-Ville (Upper Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 24, 2017.
Location, location, location. We’ve a balcony overlooking the famous Quebec City Terrasse Dufferin, an elevated boardwalk at the edge of Cap Diamant (Cape Diamond) & the tip of UNESCO-listed Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec) that overlooks the narrowing of the Saint Lawrence River from which the city derives its name (from the native Algonquin Indian word Kébec, meaning ‘where the river narrows’). We’re staying at the Hotel Terrasse Dufferin, a 187-year-old creaking (in a good way) Dame built in 1830 and that’s a mere stone’s throw from the uber-swish 5-star Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, a hulking Quebec City landmark that easily dominates the city skyline and is said to be the world’s most photographed hotel. We can see it from our balcony, something the Fairmont doesn’t seem to offer.

Open top tour buses can’t penetrate the narrow confines of Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec) Basse-Ville (Lower Town) but you’ll see them navigating the streets of Haute-Ville (Upper Town) without too much issue. Place d’Armes, Haute-Ville (Upper Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 25, 2017.

Funiculaire. Rue Sous-le-Fort, Basse-Ville (Lower Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 25, 2017.

CHATEAU FRONTENAC || Château Frontenac as seen from Terrasse Dufferin, Haute-Ville (Upper Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 25, 2017.
Beauty is firmly in the eye of the beholder where the Château Frontenac is concerned, although, and whatever about its visual aesthetics, one cannot but be impressed by its sheer presence. Easily Quebec City’s most recognisable (& intrusive) landmark, it is a 5-wing hulking & confused-looking mass of red brick, pitched roofs, ornate gables, dormers, towers & turrets (its original designer, Bruce Price, was going for the ‘picturesque eclecticism’ effect said to be popular at the time) that dominates the city skyline, its prominence further exaggerated by its perch atop Cap Diamant (Cape Diamond) towering over the Dufferin Terrace & overlooking the Saint Laurence River. Built in 7 stages between 1892 and 1893, it was constructed for the Canadian Pacific Railway company (CPR) as one of a series of Château-style hotels designed to encourage (wealthy) people to ride the rails. The fortress-like design is said to evoke the romanticism of the 14th- & 15th-century château of the French Loire Valley while expressing the prevailing romantic view of Quebec as a French medieval city. Added to numerous times over the years (in the late 1900s, in the mid 1920s & again in the 1990s), the building was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1980 and today is operated as the Fairmont Hotels and Resorts 5-star Fairmont Le Château Frontenac Hotel. With 600+ rooms spread over 18 floors, it is said to be the most photographed hotel in the world, thanks in no small part to its prominence on the city skyline.

CENTRAL TOWER || A portion of the Château Frontenac’s central tower as seen from Terrasse Dufferin, Haute-Ville (Upper Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 24, 2017.
Unless you step way back, or have a wide angle lens, you’re not going to capture all of the Château Frontenac when admiring it from the Terrasse Dufferine. Seen here is the structure’s central tower. Not part of the original design or construction, it was added in 1924 as part of an expansion becoming easily Château Frontenac’s most dominant architectural feature in the process.

MALTESE CROSS STONE || The Maltese Cross Stone in the walls of Château Frontenac, Haute-Ville (Upper Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 25, 2017.
It’s easy to miss it amid the mass of towering red brick, but discerning types might notice the 370-year-old stone emblazoned with a Maltese cross that’s embedded on the vault of the Château Frontenac’s carriage entrance hall. In 1647, Charles Huault du Montmagny, a Knight of the Order of Malta & first Governor & Lieutenant-General of New France, had this stone set into the Saint-Louis Châteaux (see below). In 1892, as work commenced on Châteaux Frontenac, the stone was mounted over a pedestrian gate. Its current location dates back to the mid-1920s when it was moved once again during construction of the Château Frontenac’s lofty central tower.

Overlooking the Saint Laurence River from the Victoria gazebo of the Terrasse Dufferin, Haute-Ville (Upper Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 24, 2017.

TERRASSE DUFFERIN & SAINT-LOUIS FORTS & CHATEAU || On the wet planks of Terrasse Dufferin, Haute-Ville (Upper Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 25, 2017.
Laid in 1879 under the direction of Lord Dufferin – author, traveller, linguist, professional diplomat and Governor General of Canada from 1872-1878 – Dufferin Terrace is a 671-metre-long wooden plank walkway interspaced with period gazebos and benches pilfered from Château Frontenac. The terrace was laid over the site of the Saint-Louis Forts and the Saint-Louis Châteaux. A major archaeological site today hidden by the terrace planks, the forts, dating to 1620, were the first fortification built in Quebec City while the Châteaux has vestiges linked with most of the governors of the French regime and the majority the British governors of the colonial period.

GOVERNORS WALKWAY, PLAINS OF ABRAHAM & CITADELLE DE QUEBEC || A portion of Quebec City as seen from the Plains of Abraham & Citadelle de Québec (the Citadelle of Quebec), Haute-Ville (Upper Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 25, 2017.
A leafy, 650-metre-long wooden walkway, the Governors’ Walkway, built in 1958 to commemorate Quebec’s 350th birthday, provides access from the Dufferin Terrace to the Plains of Abraham. Named after an Abraham Martin (1589-1664), who arrived here in about 1620 and pastured his livestock on the land, it’s still a large expanse of grazeable land to this day, an oasis of greenery in the heart of the city that’s especially popular with early morning joggers. Offering great views down over Quebec City, as seen here, the Plains is the location for the star-shaped Citadelle de Québec (Citadelle of Quebec), an intact fortress that forms the centrepiece of the almost 5-kilometre-long ramparts that surround the old city. Since the French regime, all governor generals, the ruling monarchy’s representative in Canada, have lived near the tip of Cap Diamant (Cape Diamond). Even today, the second official residence of the present Governor General, Julie Payette (only in the job since October 2 last), is located behind the protective walls of the Citadelle de Quebec (the Governor General’s primary residence is Rideau Hall in the Canadian capital of Ottawa).

PETIT-CHAMPLAIN || Rue du Petit Champlain, Basse-Ville (Lower Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 24, 2017.
Located at the foot of Cap Diamant (Cape Diamond) in the atmospheric Basse-Ville (Lower Town), everyone seems to gravitate towards Petit-Champlain, or maybe it’s the tight confines that make it feel that way. Both one of Quebec City’s earliest residential areas and one of the oldest commercial streets in North America, it was once a small port side village with fur trading posts and elegant two- and three-storey French-influenced homes. An expansive modern-day urban restoration project has turned the Quartier Petit-Champlain into a touristy picture-perfect district of cobblestone streets lined with one-of-a-kind boutiques, bistros & coopérative des artisans et commerçants (Cooperative artisans and traders), the perfect place to stock up on all those proudly-Made-in-Canada hoodies & toques.

FUNICULAIRE || The Funiculaire as seen from Rue Sous-le-Fort, Basse-Ville (Lower Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 25, 2017.
Climbing at steep 45-degree angle and covering a distance of 64 metres (210 feet), the Quebec City Funicular first opened in 1879 as a wood-encased & steam-powered climb, albeit for only 6 months of the year – it went into year-round service when it was electrified in 1907. Undergoing a major revamp with modern technology following a fatal accident in 1996 (when a cable & emergency brake failure saw it crashing down into the lower station), it reopened in 1998 technically as an inclined elevator. Initially serving as a convenient alternative to the horse & buggy transportation of passengers and merchandise between the upper and lower towns, today it’s primarily a convenience for tourists, ferrying them from Terrasse Dufferin of the Upper Town to the tight, cobblestone delights of the Lower Town (which is also accessible from the Terrasse Dufferin via the Escalier Casse-Cou, the Breakneck Stairs, the city’s oldest flight of stairs).

PLACE ROYAL || Place-Royal, Basse-Ville (Lower Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 25, 2017.
The cradle of French civilization in the New World, and it all started here in this picturesque little square, Place-Royale, of present-day Old Quebec’s Lower Town. Although a French explorer by the name of Jacques Cartier built a fort on the site in the 1530s, Quebec was officially founded here with the establishment of a trading post by Samuel de Champlain on 3 July 1608, the first permanent French settlement in North America on the site of a long-abandoned St. Lawrence Iroquoian settlement called Stadacona (the name ‘Canada’ likely comes from the Iroquois word ‘kanata’ meaning ‘village’ or ‘settlement’, that settlement being Stadacona). Today Palace-Royale, also the location for the 1688 Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, the oldest stone church in North America and said to have been built on the exact spot where Champlain set up his Abitation 8 decades prior to the church’s arrival, is just like the rest of the district emanating from it – immaculately restored and busy with tourists.

SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN || Monument Samuel-De Champlain, Haute-Ville (Upper Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 25, 2017.
There was bound to be a Champlain monument around here somewhere, somewhere being at the northern end of Terrasse Dufferin & pride of place in front of both Château Frontenac and the Funiculaire station to the Lower Town. Erected in 1898 to commemorate the city’s founder and ‘The Father of New France’, the plinth of the 16-metre-tall (53 feet) Monument Samuel-De Champlain informed me that Champlain also ‘Explored The West Indies from 1599 To 1601’, ‘Acadia (a term used by a 1524 French expedition to describe the Atlantic coast and an area that roughly corresponds to the present-day French-speaking parts of the Canadian Maritime Provinces & the US state of Maine) From 1604 To 1607’, ‘Discovered The Region Of The Great Lakes,’ ‘Led Several Expeditions Against The Iroquois From 1609 To 1615,’ was ‘Successively Lieutenant Governor And Governor Of New France’ & that he ultimately ‘Died At Quebec’ in 1635.

CATHEDRAL-BASILICA NOTRE-DAME DE QUEBEC || The interior of the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec, Haute-Ville (Upper Town), Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec), Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. October 25, 2017.
A parting shot from Quebec City, that of the interior of the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec. And yes, of course it’s old. Dating to 1647 and the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec, it’s the parish church of the oldest North American parish north of Mexico and the first church in present-day USA or Canada to have been elevated to the rank of minor basilica (by Pope Pius IX in 1874).

Leaving Quebec. Entering New Brunswick. At the Quebec-New Brunswick provincial border on the Trans-Canada Highway north of Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada. October 25, 2017.

TRANS-CANADA HIGHWAY || Heading south on Autoroute 85/the Trans-Canada Highway in Quebec, Canada. October 25, 2017.
Staying in Canada in getting to eastern Maine tacks on over 100 miles of dashboard time to the drive from Quebec City, the incentive being that you get to drive a 560 kilometre (350 mile) stretch – from Quebec City to Longs Creek, New Brunswick – of Canada’s famed Trans-Canada Highway. Opened in the early 1960s and traversing all ten Canadian provinces, it runs from coast to coast, from the Atlantic to the Pacific & vice versa, for a whopping 7,821 kilometres (4,860 miles) making it one of the longest routes of its type in the world. There wasn’t a whole lot to see on the road today (the rain didn’t help), about the most photogenic part of the drive the distinctive white-on-green maple leaf Trans-Canada route markers we’d encounter every so often.

NEW BRUNSWICK || At the New Brunswick-Quebec provincial border on the Trans-Canada Highway north of Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada. October 25, 2017.
Lost? Not quite, although we were never supposed to be here (but obviously are). We had to come to Canada to get wet (and to find me donning long pants, even though it’s still unseasonably mild/warm throughout the whole of North America right now). We’re hoping the rain goes away when we cross back over into the US tomorrow, Epic US/Canada Road Trip 2017 Day 30 (of 33).

In her element. Nerida, the Eastport Mermaid, getting a good old drenching by the waterfront in a very wet Eastport, Maine, my 50th and final US state. October 26, 2017.

The Hartland Bridge, Hartland, Carleton County, New Brunswick, Canada. October 26, 2017.

HARTLAND BRIDGE || The Hartland Bridge, Hartland, Carleton County, New Brunswick, Canada. October 26, 2017.
Dating to 1901 and comprised of 7 small Howe Truss bridges joined together on 6 piers, this is, as the text states, the longest covered bridge in the world (although it wasn’t built as a covered bridge). Throughout its 116 years, it has suffered from fire damage, partial collapse, vehicular ‘incidents’ & even vandalism. Although a pedestrian walkway was added in 1945, the bridge has seen very few major structural changes over the years – it’s still the one-lane bridge it always was, a courtesy system in place seeing traffic waiting at one end for a clear run at the crossing.

Hartland Bridge, Hartland, Carleton County, New Brunswick, Canada. October 26, 2017.
Forget the Trans-Canada Highway. This alone is worth coming to this remote part of a remote Canadian province for. Maybe. Actually, probably best to just stop by if, you know, you happen to be in the area. We did.

Hartland Bridge, Hartland, Carleton County, New Brunswick, Canada. October 26, 2017.
No doubt resulting from a hangover from the old days, the bridge is still listed as being 1,282 imperial feet long, a tad over 390 metres.

ROUTE 3 || Attention. Moose & bears by Route 3 having finally left the Trans-Canada Highway. Lawrence Station, Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada. October 26, 2017.

SAINT STEPHEN || At the Canada/US border crossing in Saint Stephen, Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada. October 26, 2017.
Saint Stephen, the border town with the US and the southern terminus of New Brunswick Route 3, wasn’t looking its best on this particular wet & drab day and if not for this awesome Maple Leaf thumbs-up photo op just before crossing the border then we wouldn’t have stopped in the town at all. And yes, it was still raining.

REMOTE DOWNEAST MAINE || Satellite radio failure. I’d like to blame the rain, but it was more than likely the remoteness. On US coastal Route 1 in (very remote) eastern Maine. October 26, 2017.

EASTPORT || Aptly named Water Street in Eastport, Maine. October 26, 2017.
Interestingly, Eastport is the only US owned principality that has been under rule by a foreign government – it was held from 1814 to 1818 by British troops under King George following the conclusion of the War of 1812. Equally interesting is the fact that the town was once second only to New York City as the country’s largest trading port. Granted, that was a long, long time ago – in the 1830s – and Eastport isn’t as interesting, or busy, these days, but still. I know someone who grew up here. I can’t blame him for leaving. Admittedly I didn’t see Eastport at its best today, but the vacant 1880’s red brick units lining picturesque Water Street tells me that not a lot happens around here even when the sun shines. I would have liked to stick around a tad longer, but the driving rain – at its horrible worst today here in Eastport, whose streets resembled mini rivers – ensured that wasn’t going to happen.

ANGEL JUARBE JR MEMORIAL || The Angel Juarbe, Jr. Memorial Statue, Eastport, Maine. October 26, 2017.
Eastport was a washout, but I still braved the driving rain to capture a few pictures of a few statues overlooking the city’s small port – Nerida, The Eastport Mermaid (2015) & this, a statue erected in 2001 for Fox Television’s filming of its reality mini-series, Murder in Small Town X. The statue is now a tribute to Angel Juarbe Jr., a New York City fireman who won the $250,000 grand prize in the mini-series and soon after lost his life as one of the first responders to the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001.

LUBEC || The sign by the side of Maine State Route 189 at the entrance to the town says it all. Lubec, Maine, the easternmost town in the US. October 26, 2017.

WEST QUODDY HEAD || || West Quoddy Head of Quoddy Head State Park, Lubec, Maine, the easternmost point of land in the contiguous US and the closest piece of US terra firma to the continent of Africa. October 26, 2017.

WEST QUODDY HEAD LIGHT || West Quoddy Head Light at West Quoddy Head of Quoddy Head State Park, Lubec, Maine. October 26, 2017.
There has been a lighthouse here since as early as 1808 guiding ships through the Quoddy Narrows separating this point of land, a small easterly-pointing peninsula a 6 mile drive from ‘downtown’ Lubec, from Canada’s Campobello Island. The distinctive & squat 15-metre-high (49 feet) candy-striped brick lighthouse in situ today, the easternmost building in the US, dates to 1858 and utilises an old-fashioned 3rd order Fresnel lens, the only one of its kind still in use along the coastline of Maine. One of the most famous lighthouses in the country, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in July 1980, 8 years before it was automated in 1988 when the last of a string of keepers left. The former keeper’s house now serves as a museum and visitor’s center, closed when we came calling – the whole area was deserted, cold, wet & generally uninviting.

Mulholland Point Lighthouse of Campobello Island across the Lubec Narrows from Lubec, Maine. Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. October 26, 2017.

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND || Lubec, Maine as seen from Narrows Road across Lubec Narrows on Campboello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. October 26, 2017.
A bridge, the Roosevelt Memorial Bridge, from Lubec crosses over Lubec Narrows to Campboello Island, a 14-kilometre-long by 5-kilometre-wide island that’s part of Canada (New Brunswick to be precise). The island goes nowhere – it’s a dead end, ‘Alcatraz’ according to the Canadian border official who granted us access back into Canada mere hours after departing the country further north in Saint Stephen. Somewhat bizarrely, we told the official we’d only be a few minutes (in Canada). True enough, and with nothing to see on the island (not now, out of season), we were back in Lubec, back in the US state of Maine, but not before capturing a few pictures in, emm, Canada.

ROOSEVELT CAMPOBELLO INTERNATIONAL PARK || By the side of New Brunswick Route 774 near Roosevelt Campobello International Park, Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. October 26, 2017.
Most of the less than 1,000 people who live on Campobello Island are employed in the fishing or tourism industries. Its remoteness is underscored by the fact that there is no road connection to the rest of Canada (only seasonal ferry connections) and that it was only connected to the US mainland in Lubec with the opening of the Roosevelt Memorial Bridge in 1962. It was this remoteness that in the late 1800s started to attract wealthy Canadians & Americans, among them the Roosevelt Family. They made Campobello Island their summer home starting in 1883, 50 years before, in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt would become the 32nd President of the USA. Today the island’s 11 km² Roosevelt Campobello International Park, created in 1964 and officially opened in 1966 by then US President Lyndon B. Johnson & Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson, preserves the house and surrounding landscape of the Roosevalt Family retreat and is Campobello Island’s main draw. In a unique show of cross border neighbourly cooperation, the park is administered jointly by the Canadian & American governments and equally staffed by Americans and Canadians making it the only park of its kind on earth.

MULHOLLAND POINT LIGHTHOUSE || Mulholland Point Lighthouse overlooking Lubec Narrows on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. October 26, 2017.
Perched at the southern end of Campobello Island to guide vessels through Lubec Narrows, the small passage between the island (& Canada) and the US mainland at Lubec, Mulholland Point Lighthouse was completed in 1884. Decommissioned in 1963 (the navigational lights of the new Roosevelt Memorial Bridge made its light redundant) & officially part of the Roosevelt-Campobello International Park since 1984, today the 13.5-meter-high, white, octagonal wooden building, characterized by its red lantern, is nothing more than a nice photo op, even on miserably dank days like today.

Falltastic. A portion of the All-American Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine. October 27, 2017.

Islands in the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf of Maine as seen from the granite summit of Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on Mount Desert Island (and the US Eastern Seaboard), Maine. October 27, 2017.

Main Street, Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Maine. October 27, 2017.

BAR HARBOR || Main Street, Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Maine. October 17, 2017.
First settled by Europeans in the 1760s as Eden, by the Gilded Age of the late 1800s the town was attracting the rich & famous who yachted, played golf and hobnobbed at exclusive waterfront garden parties in lavish estates, inns & hotels (many of the earlier town structures succumbed to a massive fire in 1947). The town changed its name in 1918 to Bar Harbor (the name relates to a sandbar, exposed at low tide, that connects the town to the offshore Bar Island, a portion of which is seen here in the distance across Mount Desert Narrows), a name which would become synonymous with the super-wealthy elite – presidents played golf here & many powerful & influential types kept a presence on the island, including the Rockefeller family who would donate to the federal government about one-third of the land to the island’s present-day 198 km² Acadia National Park (to save it from snooping lumber interests). The town remains a summer destination to this day and still manages to project an air of exclusivity, although it can be a tad overrun especially during the May through October cruise season when some 250,000 people disembark from the town’s marina to explore the quaint downtown.

The town of Bar Harbor (left) and the water & islands of Frenchman Bay as seen from the granite summit of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine. October 27, 2017.

Roadside displays on the Park Loop Road of the Acadia All-American Road en route to the summit of Mount Desert Island’s Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine. October 27, 2017.

Driving a portion of the All-American Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine. October 27, 2017.

JORDAN POND || Reflections on Jordan Pond off the Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine. October 27, 2017.
One of 22 lakes and ponds in Acadia National Park, Jordan Pond is small (187 acre/0.75 km²) but still boasts a popular 3.6-mile (5.8 kilometre) shoreline nature trail loop. The water is clear and a no-go zone for humans – the pond serves as the water supply for the Mount Desert Island town of Seal Harbor.

On a portion of the All-American Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine. October 27, 2017.

THUNDER HOLE & SAND BEACH || A portion of the wave-lashed southeastern coast of Mount Desert Island near Thunder Hole as seen off the All-American Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park, Maine. October 27, 2017.
The coastal-hugging portion of the Park Loop Road on southeastern Mount Desert Island is pure surf-pounded coastal Maine. This portion of the road passes the so-called Thunder Hole where the wild Atlantic waves crash into a deep narrow chasm with such forces as to create a thundering boom. In the distance, across Newport Cove and where the Park Loop Road emerges onto the coast, is Sand Beach, Acadia’s only sand beach and a popular swimming area during the warmer months – the water’s a bit too cold and wild this time of year.

Getting among the fall foliage and shadows off the All-American Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine. October 27, 2017.

A Carriage Road intersection with the All-American Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine. October 27, 2017.

CARRIAGE ROAD & BRIDGES || A stone Rockefeller Carriage Bridge of the park’s Carriage Road spanning the All-American Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine. October 27, 2017.
As well as the Park Loop Road, Acadia offers over 45 miles (73 kilometres) of car-free interconnected Carriage Road, historic packed-gravel roads & granite stone bridges, 17 in total and almost all of which are still in use today. The vast network of trails, popular with hikers, cyclists and equestrian types, were engineered and financed between 1915 & 1933 by financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874-1960), who also donated one-third of present-day Acadia National Park’s land.

Day 32. Sandy, wind-swept New England. Race Point Beach, Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. October 28, 2017.

BUSY MAINE || On Interstate 95 crossing the 6-lane Piscataqua River Bridge (built in 1972) and the Maine-New Hampshire state line. Kittery, southwestern Maine. October 28, 2017.
Six lanes, three in each direction. You won’t see this in the quieter reaches of rural New England. It’s a bit different down here at the southwestern tip of Maine at the Maine/New Hampshire state line and the end (start if you’re heading north) of Interstate 95, the only two-digit Interstate highway in the state of Maine which runs for 303 miles (488 kilometres) from here northeast to the border with New Brunswick, Canada.

Busier roads. Still, to us, something of a New England anomaly. Cape Cod bound. South on Massachusetts Route 3 south of Boston, Massachusetts. October 28, 2017.

Race Point Beach, Provincestown, Outer Cape, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. October 28, 2017.

Among the dunes of Race Point Beach, part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, Provincetown, Outer Cape, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. October 28, 2017.

RACE POINT || Race Point Beach at Race Point, Provincetown, Outer Cape, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. October 28, 2017.
Race Point Beach is a 70-mile (112 kilometer) drive around the curve of Cape Cod from where it’s severed from the mainland (at the Cape Cod Canal). This is the end of the road, as far as you can go on the Cape Cod peninsula. Just one of some 60 public beaches on the Cape, it’s a wide sandy expanse curving around the peninsula’s Race Point that’s backed by extensive reed-heavy dunes, par for the course around here. Known for its rougher waters (it’s a tad exposed up here at the extreme tip of the peninsula), this stretch of Outer Cape coastline has become infamous for summertime great white shark sightings (come to think of it, 1975’s classic Jaws was set in a fictional Martha’s Vineyard town). Bustling during the warmer summer months, I didn’t see anyone braving the waters on this chilly late October afternoon despite the calm waters.

HISTORIC US ROUTE 6 || It’s all West from here at the start/end of Historic U.S. Route 6, Provincetown, Outer Cape, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. October 28, 2017.
Free-spirited Provincetown, the sparsely populated Outer Cape’s largest settlement & a major gay & lesbian resort destination, is the start/end of Historic U.S. Route 6. Possessing a somewhat changeable disposition, the road has varied its routing a few times since since its formation in 1926. Once the longest route in the country (in the good ol’ days when it terminated in Long Beach, California), today it only runs for 3,205 miles (5,158 kilometres) from here to Bishop, California, or less than half the 7,100+ miles we’re covering over the course of this 33-day Epic US Road Trip 2017.

NAUSET LIGHT || Nauset Light, Eastham, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. October 28, 2017.
Lighthouses to aid navigation first appeared along the Cape Cod coastline in 1797 with the erection of Highland Light (or Cape Cod Light). Located on the Atlantic-facing coast about 10 miles south of Race Point, this is still the oldest and tallest of the many operational beacons on the Cape and its various islands. A further 16 miles south of Highland Light is Nauset Light. First erected in 1838 as three small & stumpy brick towers set 45 metres (148 feet) apart, the so-called ‘Three Sisters’, the present-day 15-metre-tall (49 feet) Nauset Light dates to 1923 (the original 1923 location is some 100 metres east of the present site, the former site deemed too susceptible to coastal erosion thus necessitating a late 1996 relocation). In the care of the National Park Service (most of the Cape’s lighthouses are operated by the US Coast Guard), Nauset Light is one of the most distinctive beacons on the Cape Cod coastline and probably the Cape’s most photographed. It was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 and sits adjacent to a restored oil house which was used to store fuel in a bygone era. Today its beacon – alternating white and red every 10 seconds – is fully automated for use as a private navigation aid.

The pillar of the Van Wickle Gates of Brown University displaying the Seal of The City of Providence, Rhode Island, one of America’s oldest & most historic cities and the last stop in the last state on the last day. October 29, 2017.

Kennedyville. The John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum on Main Street, Hyannis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. October, 29, 2017.

KENNEDY LEGACY TRAIL || Join the dots. Following the markers on the Kennedy Legacy Trail, Hyannis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. October, 29, 2017.

JFK MEMORIAL || The bronze bust of the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Veterans Memorial Park, Hyannis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. October, 29, 2017.
The Hyannis John F. Kennedy Memorial was dedicated in July 1966, less than 3 years after his November 22, 1963 assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald during a presidential motorcade through Dallas, Texas, one of the most iconic and controversial moments in modern US history. The graceful memorial – with a central water feature, reflecting pool and terrace – is one of two memorials found in the town’s small Lewis Bay-fronting Veterans Memorial Park, the other being The Cape And Islands Korean War Memorial.

VETERANS MEMORIAL PARK || The small beach of Veterans Memorial Park overlooking Lewis Bay, through which JFK often sailed during his time in Hyannis Port. Ocean Street, Hyannis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. October, 29, 2017.

Quaint. 431 Ocean Street, Hyannis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. October, 29, 2017.

A sleepy Sunday morning on Main Street, Hyannis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. October, 29, 2017.

JFK HYANNIS MUSEUM || Outside the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum, Main Street, Hyannis, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. October, 29, 2017.
Yes of course there’s a JFK museum here, the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum located at 397 Main Street Hyannis in the town’s former Town Hall building. Currently exhibiting a centennial celebration of JFK entitled ‘JFK at 100, Life & Legacy’, the museum is ‘a multi-media exhibit designed to open a window on the days JFK spent on Cape Cod, featuring a range of photographs spanning the years 1934-1963’, so says a display outside the not-yet-open-on-this-day museum meaning I didn’t get to compare its exhibits with those of Boston‘s awesome John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum that I was fortunate enough to visit in 2013.

Inscription on the northern facade of the impressive marble Rhode Island State House as seen from Smith Street, Providence, Rhode Island. October 29, 2017.

RHODE ISLAND STATE HOUSE || The northern facade of the Rhode Island State House as seen from Smith Street, Providence, Rhode Island. October 29, 2017.
The obvious centrepiece of the rather lofty and somewhat sterile northern Downtown & eastern Smith Hill administrative district of the city, the neoclassical Rhode Island State House is easily one of the country’s grandest Capitol buildings, once, that is, you look beyond the incongruous white marble & red brick paving leading to the building itself. It was constructed of white Georgian marble (a whooping 9,300 cubic metres, or 15 million bricks of the stuff) over a 10-year period between 1895 and 1904 at the very height of Rhode Island’s Industrial prosperity. The second State House to be built in the City of Providence (& 7th overall in the state of Rhode Island), it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and underwent a massive renovation in the 1990s. The first building with an all-marble dome to be built in the US, its soaring marble dome is the fourth-largest self-supporting marble dome on earth and is topped by a 3.5-metre-tall (11 feet) gold-covered bronze statue of the Independent Man. Originally named ‘Hope’, after the rather concise Rhode Island state moto (small state, small motto), the statue represents freedom and independence in reference to the independent spirit which led Roger Williams to settle and establish his colony back in the 1630s.

The College Hill neighbourhood as seen from Smith Street in northern Downtown, Providence, Rhode Island. October 29, 2017.

COLLEGE HILL HISTORIC DISTRICT || Thomas Street in the College Hill Historic District of Providence, Rhode Island. October 29, 2017.
It was here in 1636, on the eastern banks of the Providence River, that Roger Williams laid out his original 120-acre settlement after being banished from Massachusetts. Almost 4 centuries on, today College Hill boasts one of the most well-preserved districts of historic homes & buildings in the US: among the array of photogenic edifices here one will find Roger Williams’ First Baptist Church in America (founded in 1638, present building dating to 1775); the Central Congregational Church (built 1893); the Old State House (built 1762); and the Greek Revival Providence Athenaeum, the fourth oldest library in America (built 1838). Designated the College Hill Historic District in 1970 and as one of the Great Places in America in 2011 by the American Planning Association, College Hill survives today as an an historic, leafy, affluent, hip & artsy neighbourhood where among the historic edifices you’ll also find coffee shops, galleries, stores and restaurants. Needless to say it’s a nice district to amble around, if a little hilly in places, especially if history and architecture are your thing.

BENEFIT STREET || Benefit Street, College Hill, Providence, Rhode Island. October 29, 2017.
The College Hill district is transected by Benefit Street, the heart of College Hill. Built as a ‘benefit’ to the community and stretched perpendicularly crossing the original homestead strips, it’s a largely residential street but is also the location for the city’s 1762 Old State House, an historic building that served as a meeting place for Colonial and later state legislatures prior to the building of the present-day Rhode Island State House.

The 1901 ornamental wrought iron Van Wickle Gates, the College Hill main entrance to the campus of Brown University & symbol for the campus and its long history as the city’s preeminent educational institute (seemingly Brown tradition insists that students only use this main entrance twice during their time as a student). October 29, 2017.

UNIVERSITY HALL & MAIN GREEN || University Hall on the edge of Main Green on the campus of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. October 29, 2017.
On a campus awash with historic buildings, Brown’s Georgian University Hall, built in 1770 & originally known as the College Edifice, was the first and is thus the oldest building on campus. Looking rather good for its 247 years, the building traces its origins right back to the founding of the city – it was constructed on a piece of land that had belonged to the original Brown family ancestor and co-founder of Providence, the Reverend Chad Brown (c. 1600–1650), one of the first ministers of the First Baptist Church in America. Designated a National Historic Landmark in July 1962 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in October 1966, the building has been used for many different purposes over the years and currently houses the office for the president of Brown along with other administrative offices. University Hall is just one of many beloved buildings surrounding Brown’s Main Green, from where this picture was captured. While quiet today, a Sunday, this is the heart of campus life, a grassy & leafy park that serves as a student hub for activities, concerts, exhibits & general student body gatherings.

BRUNO THE BEAR || The Bronze Bruno, a statue of Bruno the Bear, the Brown University mascot, overlooking Main Green on the campus of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. October 29, 2017.
By the turn of the 20th century Brown was searching for a mascot, for a symbol to represent its fledgling athletic teams as a counterbalance to the Yale Bulldog and the Princeton Tiger. A burro (a small donkey), terrified by rowdy college football crowds, didn’t make the cut in 1902, two years before the 1904 introduction of the Brown Bear that’s closely associated with the university today. A live bear first appeared at a football game in the fall of 1905, something that was to become a Brown tradition up until sense prevailed in the 1960s when a growing sensitivity to the treatment of animals signalled the end of Brown’s long and colorful succession of live bears, all affectionately christened Bruno. Brown University campus, as one might expect, pays homage to their beloved mascot, displaying 5 different representations of Bruno. The most recognisable of the lot and the go-to Bruno for most campus-goers is the Main Green’s The Bronze Bruno. Setting the standard for campus bear statues since the 1920s, it’s a 7-foot-tall (2.1 metre) tall life-size replica of the Kodiak Brown Bear that was created in 1923 by animal sculptor Eli Harvey. Beneath the statue, on the front of the pedestal, the aspirational text reads: “Given By Alumni and Undergraduates/To Brown University/To Symbolize Those Qualities Of/Strength Courage Endurance/Which Go Far To Make Men Invincible/MCMXXVIII.”

JOHN CARTER BROWN LIBRARY || Outside the John Carter Brown Library, Main Green, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. October 29, 2017.
Main Green’s 1904 Beaux-Arts style John Carter Brown Library is an independently funded research library of history and the humanities founded in 1846 from the private collection of book collector John Carter Brown (1797–1874). Housing a collection of some of Christopher Columbus’s original documents and maps, the library’s rare book, manuscript and map collections encompass a variety of topics related to the history of European discovery, exploration, settlement and development of the New World until circa 1825.