The Sibling Effect: What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal About Us

A senior writer at Time magazine explores what scientists and researchers are discovering about sibling bonds, the longest- lasting relationships we have in our lives.
Nobody affects us as deeply as our brothers and sisters-not parents, not children, not friends. From the time we-and they-are born, our siblings are our collaborators and co-conspirators, our role models and cautionary tales. They teach us how to resolve conflicts and how not to, how to conduct friendships and when to walk away. Our siblings are the only people we know who truly qualify as partners for life.
In this groundbreaking book, renowned science writer Jeffrey Kluger explores the complex world of siblings in a way that is equal parts science, psychology, sociology, and memoir. Based heavily on new and emerging research, The Sibling Effect examines birth order, twin studies, genetic encoding of behavioral traits, emotional disorders and their effects on-and effects from-sibling relationships, and much more.
With his signature insight and humor, Kluger takes big ideas about siblings and turns them into smart, accessible writing that will help anyone understand the importance of siblings in our lives.

A senior writer at Time magazine explores what scientists and researchers are discovering about sibling bonds, the longest- lasting relationships we have in our lives.
Nobody affects us as deeply as our brothers and sisters-not parents, not children, not friends. From the time we-and they-are born, our siblings are our collaborators and co-conspirators, our role models and cautionary tales. They teach us how to resolve conflicts and how not to, how to conduct friendships and when to walk away. Our siblings are the only people we know who truly qualify as partners for life.
In this groundbreaking book, renowned science writer Jeffrey Kluger explores the complex world of siblings in a way that is equal parts science, psychology, sociology, and memoir. Based heavily on new and emerging research, The Sibling Effect examines birth order, twin studies, genetic encoding of behavioral traits, emotional disorders and their effects on-and effects from-sibling relationships, and much more.
With his signature insight and humor, Kluger takes big ideas about siblings and turns them into smart, accessible writing that will help anyone understand the importance of siblings in our lives.

Arrochar, Staten Island, New York City, New York, United States

Henry Hobson Richardson, considered by many to be the greatest nineteenth century American architect, built a house for himself and his family in Arrochar, on Staten Island in 1868. The Richardson family lived there from 1869 until 1874 when they moved to Brookline, Massachusetts so that Richardson could supervise the construction of Trinity Church in Boston. The Staten Island house is a large, Stick Style residence with a high mansard roof, showing Richardson’s understanding both of the prevalent styles in American home building as well as the influence of his years studying and traveling in France. The house survives on what is now a busy thoroughfare, having been converted in 1946 to physicians’ offices. It is a striking reminder of a period in Staten Island history when the borough was a rural enclave, home to numerous prosperous and enlightened men who were looking for beauty and community near an urban environment. Although the wall cladding has been changed and there have been some additions on the first story, the tall mansard with its numerous dormers and chimneys, the iron roof cresting, and the variety of exterior shapes and picturesque outline continue to suggest the vibrancy of the life that was once lived here. This building survives as one of only two in New York City attributable to Henry Hobson Richardson.

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS


Arrochar, Staten Island

Staten Island had experienced a huge influx of population beginning in the 1810s due to the widespread economic and social changes caused by Manhattan’s rapid growth and commercialization. The island began to attract many wealthy businessmen from New York, who were looking for real estate investments, residences and retreats from the hubbub of the city. The pace of development increased after several epidemics in Manhattan in the 1820s and 30s, as well as the Great Fire of 1835. Staten Island was easily accessible by ferry to lower Manhattan, yet the area remained rural and idyllic. The initial increase in population was “concentrated on the north and eastern shores,” and “was so intense that dividing lines between developments blurred: by 1840, the area appeared to many observers as ‘almost a continued village.’ ”

There were, however, numerous distinct new settlements including Clifton, a suburban area south of Stapleton, founded in 1837. One section of Clifton, located on a high point of land overlooking the Narrows and Fort Wadsworth was originally very rural. Numerous large estates were built in this area after the Civil War, and it came to be called Arrochar. The name derived from the hills of Arrochar on the northern end of Lach Lomond in Scotland, the family estate of Wall Street attorney William W. MacFarland, who built his new residence on Staten Island in 1880.

Prior to and during the Civil War, Staten Island was home to a community of forward-thinking men (many of them abolitionists), that included Frederick Law Olmsted, Judge William Emerson (brother of Ralph Waldo), newspaper editor Sidney Howard Gay, and prominent man-of-letters George William Curtis. Growth continued after the Civil War, as hundreds of wealthy families built villas and large estates on the still undeveloped land.

Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886)

Henry Hobson Richardson was born to a wealthy family at Priestly Plantation in Louisiana. After a private schooleducation, Richardson attended Harvard University, where he became interested in architecture. After graduation, Richardson traveled in England and Europe, finally settling in Paris where he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and the atelier of Jules-Louis Andre, whichhe attended intermittently between 1860 and 1865. Richardson was only the second American (after Richard Morris Hunt) to study at this important institution. Stranded in Paris during America’s Civil War, Richardson’s funds were cut off and he worked for French architects Theodore Labrouste and Jacques Ignace Hittorff to support himself.

Richardson returned to this country in 1865, settling in New York City. In the same year, Frederick Law Olmsted also came back to the city to begin work with Calvert Vaux on Prospect Park. All three men participated in the newly founded American Institute of Architects, as well as the Century Club, a group of artists, architects, and men of letters, and it is clear that the men became friends. Richardson lived first in Brooklyn while trying to start an architectural practice. In 1867, Richardson began a partnership with Charles Dexter Gambrill (1832-1880), another Harvard graduate. It appears that this was purely a convenient business arrangement with no artistic collaboration between them. The firm lasted until 1878 however, and it is credited with only one extant work in New York City, the renovation of the Century Club.

By 1866 Olmsted had convinced Richardson to move to Staten Island, where he, like

An interior shot of TGM 214J. Pure nostalgia, I remember United Autos ex-Eastern Scottish VRs with the same window configuration and upholstery, although they were all withdrawn in 1980 bar open-top 637. Uniteds VRs still had a light blue vinyl flooring and green rexine panelling which has been replaced on this Fleetline with wood panel effect laminate. Different!