Andrew’s book, Here is Where, will be published in 2011. Here is Where is a guide to little-known historical sites in all 50 states. Andrew travels all over the country to find and research important, fascinating, and just plain weird bits of history that people may not know or have forgotten about.
In addition to writing Here is Where, Andrew founded the Legacy Project in 1998. The Legacy Project is a volunteer initiative that aims to “seek out and preserve the personal correspondence of our nation’s veterans, active-duty troops, and their loved ones.”
EARLY WORK
“I grew up not liking history. As a kid, history was about being forced to memorize dates.
“When my house burned down (when I was a college student at Columbia University), we lost our personal history. That's when I started the Legacy Project. I would read letters written by U.S. soldiers serving in wartime. It drew me in to the history of these wars.” The wars became “more about a young soldier writing to his fiancee about what he'd seen,” Andrew says, rather than about the battles or campaigns written about in most history books.
“I became interested in personal stories about massive events,” he says, citing the 1918 flu pandemic during World War I. There is a historical marker in Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas, that identifies the place where the first strains of the disease were observed in the U.S.
However, Andrew recently found out that “the flu pandemic was actually known about a month earlier. Now I'm tracking down the doctor who first diagnosed it.”
MOST EXCITING PART OF YOUR WORK
“Traveling and meeting people. Finding kindred spirits. . . . I rely a lot on informal guides. I like reading about the famous duel that nobody knows about and then trying to find where it happened.”
MOST DEMANDING PART OF YOUR WORK
“Researching and verifying the sites. I spend a lot of time in libraries and historical societies, looking up streets in city directories. Sometimes the streets move or change names over time. I try to be as careful as possible to authenticate a Here is Where site.”
HOW DO YOU DEFINE GEOGRAPHY?
“For me, not so much about places or location as it is about stories. Geography is a springboard to larger stories.
“The most heartbreaking thing I hear people say is that nothing ever happens in their town. They ask me why I'm here, and I tell them, and they'll say, 'I never knew that.'
“Here is Where is about looking at the world in a way you've never seen. It's about being passionate not about one thing, but about a lot of things that makes us feel alive. Geographic stories are relevant to our lives.”
GEO-CONNECTION
“I travel a lot. Travel reinvigorates me. I got to see parts of the country I never saw before. [To research Here is Where], I took a kayak to islands, I took subways, I hiked, and I rode in helicopters. I did some biking. It's fun to see people on trains, planes, etc. I meet people and I get to talking about what I do. After awhile they'll usually say, 'You know, my mom told me about this site . . .' We are all fellow travelers.”
Andrew was inspired to write Here is Where after learning about a little-known historical incident that took place in what is now an ordinary railway platform.
“I originally got started with the book after hearing about an incident that took place in New Jersey in 1864. A man had fallen off the train platform and would almost certainly have been killed were it not for another man who pulled him to safety. The man who fell was Robert Todd Lincoln, son of President Abraham Lincoln. The man who saved him was Edwin Booth. Edwin Booth's brother, John Wilkes Booth, would assassinate Abraham Lincoln within the year. I thought surely this story was fiction, until I found out that Robert Todd Lincoln wrote about the incident in his diary. My next thought was that there should be a marker at the spot on this New Jersey railway platform telling people what happened, but there's nothing to let people know what happened.
"I would like to use funding from the book to underwrite historical markers. It's a way to [show] all of us, but most especially young people, that history is alive and is happening all around us.
“With Here is Where, I want to reach that person who thinks history is nothing but names and dates. It's about empowering people to set out on their own journeys and tracking down their own sites. Young people can make history. Claudette Colvin is a great example of that. She was a teenager who challenged the bus segregation laws in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks.
“Some of the book is pure serendipity. One time while driving to a site I got pulled over for speeding. The police officer suggested I use my cruise control to stay within the speed limit. This got me to thinking, ‘Who invented cruise control?’ Turns out it was a blind inventor named Ralph Teetor who lives in Hagerstown, Indiana.”
SO, YOU WANT TO BE A . . . HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR
1. “Read as much as possible. Some of the best stories are asides in other books. Military, science, sports. Sometimes there is some overlap, like in the case of Moe Berg—he was a baseball player who was also a spy for the United States during World War II.”
2. “Turn off the TV and computer and go out in the world. Talk to people in the place you live. Talk to the historical society. Go past the guidebooks. Don't go to the usual tourist destinations. Or, if you do turn on the computer, do a search for ‘forgotten history’ in your town.”
GET INVOLVED
Submit your ideas for forgotten sites to HereIsWhereUSA@yahoo.com.

Real-World Geography: How people use geography and the geographic perspective in their everyday lives and real-world careers.
Illustration by Mary Crooks
1918 flu pandemic
Noun
(1917-1920) infectious disease that killed between 50 million and 100 million people worldwide, with healthy young adults being the most vulnerable. Also called the Spanish flu.
Abraham Lincoln
Noun
(1809-1865) 16th American president.
aside
Noun
short comment or remark that does not have to do with the main topic.
assassinate
Verb
to murder someone of political importance.
authenticate
Verb
to verify or establish as real.
blind
Adjective
unable to see.
Claudette Colvin
Noun
(1939-present) civil rights activist.
correspondence
Noun
direct communication between people.
cruise control
Noun
system or device that automatically maintains a vehicle's speed.
diagnose
Verb
to identify a disease or problem.
disease
Noun
harmful condition of a body part or organ.
duel
Noun
contest between two people, historically with deadly weapons such as swords or guns.
empower
Verb
to give authority or power.
fascinate
Verb
to cause an interest in.
fiancee
Noun
woman who is engaged to be married.
fiction
Noun
media, such as books or films, that are imaginative and not true stories.
funding
Noun
money or finances.
helicopter
Noun
aircraft that flies using rotating blades on top of the body of the craft.
hike
Verb
to walk a long distance.
history
Noun
study of the past.
incident
Noun
event or happening.
initiative
Noun
first step or move in a plan.
inventor
Noun
person who creates a new idea, machine, product, device, or process.
John Wilkes Booth
Noun
(1838-1865) American actor and assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.
journey
Noun
voyage or trip.
kayak
Noun
small canoe made watertight around the waist of the occupant and moved in the water with a single paddle.
kindred spirit
Noun
person who shares similar interests, attitudes, and emotions.
Moe Berg
Noun
(Morris Berg, 1902-1972) American baseball player and spy.
publish
Verb
to provide a written piece of work, such as a book or newspaper, for sale or distribution.
reinvigorate
Verb
to provide energy or passion.
Rosa Parks
Noun
(1913-2005) American civil rights leader.
segregation
Noun
separation.
serendipity
Noun
good luck.
soldier
Noun
person who serves in a military.
Spanish flu
Noun
(1917-1920) infectious disease that killed between 50 million and 100 million people worldwide, with healthy young adults being the most vulnerable. Also called the 1918 flu pandemic.
springboard
Noun
situation or idea that serves as a starting point for a project or program.
subway
Noun
underground railway; a popular form of public transportation in large urban areas.
travel
Noun
movement from one place to another.
troop
Noun
a soldier.
underwrite
Verb
to fund or contribute money to a project or program.
verify
Verb
to prove as true.
volunteer
Noun
person who performs work without being paid.
weird
Noun
unusual or bizzare.
World War I
Noun
(1914-1918) armed conflict between the Allies (led by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France) and the Central Powers (led by Germany and Austria-Hungary). Also called the Great War.
Websites