High in the main gallery of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., flanked by the Spirit of St. Louis and the Wright Flyer, hangs the Bell X-1. The stubby-winged, orange and white, bullet-shaped machine - piloted by Colonel Chuck Yeager - was the first airplane to shatter the sound barrier.

Tom Wolfe's book, The Right Stuff and the movie based on it, helped make the X-1 one of the world's most famous airplanes. However, the opposite is true of Lawrence Bell (1894 - 1956), the man who built the X-1, relatively unknown outside of aviation circles.

Bell did not build the vast numbers of aircraft that men like Douglas, Boeing and Piper did, but his company established a record of innovation that few can match...

To read more of Stuart Leuthner's story, see page 6 of the Spring 2006 Heritage Magazine. Suscribe now!

Mabel Dodge Luhan (1879-1962) is scarcely known today in her hometown. For those who do know her name, she is considered society's bad girl, who lacked discretion, couldn't follow the rules and told tales out of school. But she was much more than that. She became of American cultural history in the first half of the 20th century. She drew a wide variety of well-known artists, writers, intellectuals and freethinkers into her circle of influence. Her biographer Lois Rudnick (1984) says she became " a leading symbol of the New Woman: sexually emancipated, self-determining, in control of her own destiny" and "She presided over what was perhaps the most famous salon in American history."

To read more of John H. Conlin's story, see page 26 of the Spring 2006 Heritage Magazine. Subscribe now!