Browse Collections (82 total)

These are the crucial connections between river-based and overland transport. Sites for the loading and unloading of goods - of sweating and swearing and haggling. Sites of expertise and ambition. The wharves and piers in these 15 towns witnessed the shipment of enormous quantities of timber and iron, butter and hemp, grain and tea. Think of them…

Catherine the Great wanted to build a new urban landscape. The empire responded.(Sort of. Eventually.) Empress Catherine II, who ruled Russia 1762-1796, was a planner. She planned to build a new Russia. An enlightened Russia. An empire without rival. An empire with expansive borders and a robust urban landscape. She knew what she wanted to create…