Pathfinder Magazine

Articles from Pathfinder Magazine

The Gun Barrel Fence on P Street (Pathfinder Magazine, 1920)

When compared to the historic events that took place on numerous other street corners in Washington D.C, the intersection of 28th and P streets barely makes the list, but the residence that stands on the north-east corner there is a twofer. The attached article explains just why the front and side fence is so unique to Washington history – and in later years the house would be purchased by Cold War diplomat Dean Acheson.

The Gun Barrel Fence on P Street (Pathfinder Magazine, 1920)

When compared to the historic events that took place on numerous other street corners in Washington D.C, the intersection of 28th and P streets barely makes the list, but the residence that stands on the north-east corner there is a twofer. The attached article explains just why the front and side fence is so unique to Washington history – and in later years the house would be purchased by Cold War diplomat Dean Acheson.

Prohibition Killings (Pathfinder Magazine, 1929)

Two sources have been combined on one printable page in order to assess the body count that was created as a result of the murders that the prohibition laws had wrought. The complete number is not here – just the last four years:


1933, the year Prohibition was rescinded, seemed to have been the bloodiest year in this study – with 12,123 people murdered (being 9.6 per 1000,000 souls). The numbers began to drop from there: 1934 through 1936 saw a steady decline in urban homicide.

The Foreign-Born Population in the Early ’30s (Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

A brief notice from the 1930 Census reporting on that percentage of the United States population that was born on foreign shores. Within the confines of this small paragraph some details were provided as to how many arrived prior to 1900, how many between 1901 and 1910; 1911 and 1919; 1920 and 1930. Additional information appears concerning the assorted racial make-up of these new American and how many of them originated from both quota and non-quota nations.

A Spy Within the CPUSA (Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)

These seven paragraphs from THE PATHFINDER magazine served to introduce their readers to Herbert Philbrick (1915 – 1993) and his efforts to expose the subversive elements within the Communist Party U.S.A..


For nine years Philbrick labored as an F.B.I. mole deep within the Cambridge Youth Council, the Young Communist League and the CPUSA until he made good his resignation by serving as a surprise government witness at a conspiracy trial in which numerous high profile American Reds were indicted (among them William Z. Foster, Eugene Dennis, Robert George Thompson, Gus Hall, Henry Winston, and ex-New York councilmember Benjamin Davis).

The First Lady’s Story (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

A column from a 1937 issue of PATHFINDER MAGAZINE included these two seemingly random tales from the life of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The brief remembrance on the second page is a bitter-sweet story about young Eleanor and her mother’s vision of her as a hopelessly plain-looking girl.


Read a 1951 profile of a future First Lady: the young Nancy Reagan.

Did Stalin Want the U.S. to Recognize China? (Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)

Felix Morley (1894 – 1982), one of the senior Washington columnists in the early Cold War era, summarized the various concerns involved in the diplomatic recognition of Communist China as well as the surprising issue as to whether or not it was what the Soviet Premiere actually preferred at the time?

There is good reason to believe that the Communist high command in Moscow does not want us to recognize the new Communist government of China

But in recent years we have mixed up diplomatic recognition and moral approval. The absurd result is that we recognize Russia and not Spain, and are at present opposed to recognizing China even though we fear that may be cutting off our nose to spite Stalin’s face.

Gowns (The Pathfinder Magazine, 1947)

The fashionable gowns will be one of two extremes: pencil slim or big skirted like a puff ball. Whatever its cut, its color may be anything from soft dove grey to something called satan red. Fabrics are rich and lustrous, particularly the nontarnishable metallic materials. Newest is aluminum, colored gold or silver and woven into lame or onto rayon or even wool in gleaming designs.

Dealing with Lightning (Pathfinder Magazine, 1946)

When the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics was let-in on the secret that the U.S. Army intended to manufacture and deploy wooden gliders, a red light went on in their collective heads as they all remembered how susceptible wood and canvas aircraft had been in attracting lightning bolts. This article outlines the steps that were taken to remedy the problem.

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