Images

A mid-16th century painting of Portuguese carrack ships. Carrack and caravel ships were the mainstay of the Portuguese Empire, permitting the Portuguese to dominate the seas and bring precious cargo like spices back to Europe. (Royal Museums...

A 1635 map of Portuguese Cochin on the southwest coast of India. Cochin (modern Kochi) was a major hub of the spice trade and was colonised by Portugal in the early years of the 16th century. (Livro das Plantas de Todas as Fortalezas, António...

A pomegranate tree bearing fruits.

The Locusts-on-Hudson estate of Henry Brockholst Livingston (l. 1757-1823), built c. 1797. Image from a postcard of the 19th century.

The Point, home of Lydig Munson Hoyt (l. 1821-1868), designed by the architect Calvert Vaux (l. 1824-1895) and built between 1855-1857, taken from the Hoyt family under eminent domain in 1963. Image taken from a 19th-century postcard.

Wyndclyffe Estate, home of Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones (l. 1810-1876), the New York socialite who commissioned the building in 1853 and is thought to have inspired the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses", a reference to trying to match...

The south tower of the Wyndclyffe estate of Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones (l. 1810-1876) built in 1853, abandoned in 1950, and now in ruins. Rhinecliff, NY, c. 2005.

View of the west side of the estate of Wyndclyffe, built in 1853, once one of the grandest estates of the Hudson River Valley.

"The Point", home of the Hoyt family from c. 1857-1963, Staatsburg, NY, USA. Restoration efforts to save the historic structure, designed by Clavert Vaux, are presently underway.

Hopeland Estate, Staatsburg, NY, home of the architect and tennis professional Robert "Bob" Palmer Huntington (l. 1869-1949), who built the 35-room Tudor Revival mansion c. 1907. Mansion designed by Calvert Vaux and dismantled between 1940-1950...