Every place has a visible story.

This series looks for the one underneath.

Explore The Stories

READ THE STORIES
Featured stories from Story Behind The Place

Stories
Groton, Connecticut
Season 2, Feature Story
Groton, Connecticut
Season 2, Feature Story

In 1781, America’s most infamous traitor returned to the state where he was born—and Groton would never forget what followed.

Today, a submarine rests along the town’s waterfront.

How those two stories came to belong to the same place is the story behind Groton, Connecticut.

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Season 2, Feature Story
Richmond, Indiana
Season 2, Feature Story
Richmond, Indiana
Season 2, Feature Story

A piano factory in Indiana. A converted lumber kiln beside a railroad track. And a decision that changed American music forever.

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Season 2, Feature Story
Hilton Head Island
Season 2, Feature Story
Hilton Head Island
Season 2, Feature Story

Most people know it for the beaches and the golf. What happened here in 1861 changed American history. Almost no one knows the story.

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Season 2, Feature Story
John photographs Roosevelt Island through a fence while working on a Story Behind The Place feature.

Most travel content tells you where to go. This isn't that.

Story Behind the Place looks at the decisions, events and forces that made places what they are today.

A bridge nearly demolished. A cannon that failed spectacularly. A recording studio that helped change American music. Each one starts with a place. What happened there is the story.

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SEE THE PLACES
Explore the photography of Story Behind The Place

The words tell the story. The photographs let you see the place.

Sunrise reflected in the calm tidal waters at Fish Haul Beach on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

Sunset over the rocky breakwater and Caribbean Sea in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Upper Spokane Falls flowing through downtown Spokane, Washington, that powers the city's hydroelectric power plant.

Spokane Falls, Washington

Explore The Photographs

BRING THE STORY HOME
Discover the print collection from Story Behind The Place

Selected photographs from stories are available as photographic prints, framed prints, and canvas wall art.

Shop Prints