Month: February 2015

In the 19th century, a variety of directories were published.  These include mercantile serials, city directories, state gazetteers, newspaper directories, and volumes for the professions, such as doctors and lawyers.  These publications are valuable sources when doing local and family history research. Fortunately for researchers many of the older volumes are available from online, as…

The Enoch Pratt Free Library has many excellent resources for those digging into state, local, and family history.  Those materials include microfilm reels containing practically every extant newspaper in Maryland, including all the county weeklies.  In the serials department, you will also find the Evening Sun and the Baltimore News American, papers which genealogists and…

“The New York History Blog,” one of the newsfeeds we follow, shared a post a couple of years ago about attempts to celebrate the Empire State’s past through “history month.”  Created by a 1997 law, the initiative resulted in some activities, but largely enthusiasm waned after a few years Bob Weible, the State Historian of…

Many heritage institutions across the country are trying a new participatory approach to stimulating conversations about the past.  Called “pop-up museums,” the idea is that people bring personal objects and stories to an event.  As the activity unfolds, anyone may stand up to discuss their item or share a story.  This type of approach stimulates the…