America’s 740-mile canoeing waterway, figuring out COVID-19 travel testing, your office in Aruba?
|  | Tuesday, September 29, 2020 | | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPHS BY JARED SOARES | |
| By George Stone, TRAVEL Executive Editor
Time travel is possible—I’ve been doing it since I was a kid. All it takes is a station wagon. On family trips to living history museums—including Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, and Old Sturbridge Village, in Massachusetts—we learned about cookery, blacksmithery, and the ignominy of the pillory. Our journeys inevitably seemed to lead to the old-timey candy shoppe. As a child, these seemed like full days—and yet much was missing.
Our report on historic interpreters shows how, by accurately portraying figures from the past, people of color are revealing hidden narratives at living history sites. There’s a lot of history to be told, and a lot of sites at which to do the telling. From Virginia’s Colonial Williamsburg to Civil War forts to Victorian-era estates, there are nearly 200 living history museums in the U.S. (Pictured above, Adam Canaday, who portrays a journeyman coach driver, at Williamsburg, pictured below as well.)
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| Historic interpreters are museum professionals, historians, or actors who assume the clothing, trades, and, sometimes, actual first-person identities of notable figures from prior centuries.
“My goal is to increase accurate portrayals of Black Americans at historic sites and museums,” says Cheyney McKnight, a historic interpreter who specializes in portraying enslaved and free people of color during the 18th and 19th centuries in the U.S. “I don’t want to play into people’s fantasies. I cannot just sit around in a dress without talking about the wider implications of slavery.”
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| Accurate portrayal can be a labor of love, and interpreters intensively research their roles using original sources like diaries, court records, and wills. Beyond unbiased representation of the past, effective interpretation requires recognizing the lingering scars of racism—which can make people of color not feel welcome at historic sites.
Tellingly, some harmful dynamics from the past can creep into present-day recreations, says Braden Paynter, spokesperson for nonprofit International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, which helps historic sites, museums, and memorials tell stories that are both inclusive and easy-to-grasp. “There is an element of fantasy to living history museums and costumed interpretation that seems to give some visitors a strange sense of entitlement. It’s as if they receive permission to play with power roles,” he notes.
Williamsburg guides such as Janice Canaday (above left) tell the story of the white Randolph family as well as the 28 enslaved black people who lived on the property. Fellow interpreter Stephen Seals (at right) says, “I get to share the stories of my ancestors, of people who for so long didn’t have a voice.”
In our story, Jennifer Barger and Heather Greenwood Davis write: “These time-traveling guides and sites share a mission to educate visitors about history by immersing them in people, places, and activities. But institutions that employ—and try to depict honestly—people of color still have a long way to go.”
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS GILL | |
| Foliage, by canoe: Imagine watching the leaves turn while paddling 740 miles through northern New England, upstate New York, and Quebec. That’s possible via the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, the longest contiguously mapped water trail in the U.S. The waterway (pictured above) was a life-sustaining artery for Native Americans, who traveled back and forth along its length to trade food and supplies, Stephanie Vermillion reports for Nat Geo. The waterways were “not only our highways, but the basis of all life—and they still are,” Sherry Gould of the Abenaki Trails Project tells us.
Next steps: Most travelers polled have supported requiring COVID-19 testing before travel. Some countries that introduced airport testing, such as Iceland, also realized they needed a limited quarantine for arriving passengers, since the coronavirus was getting through despite negative results. The industry is pressing for a worldwide standard and tests with rapid results, CNN reports. Some nations are experimenting with an “immunity” passport, a physical or digital document certifying COVID-19 immunity, but it is unclear when those with antibodies could be reinfected, or catch a mutant strain of the virus.
What built these stately British homes? In many cases, it was the spoils from the brutal legacies of slavery and colonialism. The National Trust has identified 93 of its homes—about a third on its list—as linked to that, including Winston Churchill’s family estate. It wants that bloody legacy to be included in tours or stated at the property, much like more and more American plantation homes have finally had to acknowledge that enslaved people made these palaces possible. As in the U.S., some conservatives have fumed at exposing the true history, but Trevor Burnard, a professor specializing in slavery and emancipation at the UK’s Hull University, says the Trust’s report not only gives vital context to these buildings and estates, but makes them more interesting.
Your next office? Could it be in Aruba? That’s what Arthur Deane, a senior manager at Google, is thinking. Before the pandemic, Deane thought being in a physical office was essential. That was before he worked from the Caribbean island for a week in July; he is now thinking about making a longer trip there (or another place) where Americans can travel. He has time—Google’s U.S. offices aren’t opening until July 2021 at the earliest. And he’s not alone—many formerly office-bound employees are thinking of enlivening their work-from-home time with a faraway travel office, Jackie Snow writes for Nat Geo.
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| YOUR INSTAGRAM PHOTO OF THE DAY | |
| Closer to the sky: In this image by photographer Jun Michael Park, stars shine over Pangong Tso, in the Ladakh Himalayas. The lake, one of the highest in the world, is about 14,000 feet above sea level and extends from northern India to China.
Related: Surreal photos from a mystical ‘Moonland’
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY LOULOU D'AKI, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC | | A bright spot: While the big tourist islands in Greece have been hurting from fewer international visitors, less-known islands—which primarily cater to Greeks seeking sun, sea, and sport—are faring better. One example is Ikaria, which is getting interest for cooking, wine-tasting and surfing, in addition to the traditional summer festivals. The island is rethinking its style of tourism, as is the nation itself. “We don’t depend on mass tourism and we don’t depend on tourists from abroad,” Isidoros Plytas, owner of Ikaria Surf School, tells us. “Because we depend on Greeks, [the tourism decline] didn’t affect us so much.” (Pictured above, friends gathering at an island beach bar at sunset in August.)
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 | | It has taken my eyes a long time to get used to the brightness of this place. ... The fruits called persimmons that hang on the branches beneath my window; sometimes, they glow so against the blue sky that I would say are a color like ... new-beaten copper, flaring in sunlight. | | | | Geraldine Brooks | On the Algerian port of Oran;
from the novel Year of Wonders | | |
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| On Wednesday, Victoria Jaggard covers the latest in science. If you’re not a subscriber, sign up here to also get Rachael Bale on animals, Whitney Johnson on photography, and Debra Adams Simmons on history. | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY TUUL AND BRUNO MORANDI | | A strip of cloth: That’s what the word “sari” means in Sanskrit. For at least 5,000 years, Indian women have wrapped themselves in the dresses of silk, cotton, or linen. The sari has stood as a symbol of national pride, design, and craftsmanship, as well as regional identity, writes Charu Suri for Nat Geo. We’ve gathered a dozen photos of a variety of saris to accompany this story. (Pictured above, a woman’s crimson dupatta, or shawl, contrasts with the pastel walls of the “Blue City” of Jodhpur, in India’s Rajasthan state.)
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This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, and Jen Tse selected the photographs. Kimberly Pecoraro and Gretchen Ortega help produce this. Have an idea, a link, a story about a favorite sari? We’d love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. And thanks for reading!
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