While studying the array of officials who made up New Jersey’s 19th-century criminal justice system, I often pore over aging coroner’s reports, trial transcripts, and police blotters. While doing that in South Jersey, I came across an unsettling Salem County Cold Case, the murder of Abigail Dilks in 1874. From the beginning, the mystifying case…
Month: July 2022
“Life in the Past Lane: Delaware Roads,” a New Humanities Program
Delaware Humanities has selected a new program I have been researching for inclusion in the speaker’s bureau and visiting scholar programs. The lecture, “Life in the Past Lane; Delaware Roads,” encourages people to get off the highway and enjoy some of the State’s most scenic, cultural and historic roads — along with the surrounding landscape…
Maryland Archives Adds Marriage Indexes for Cecil & Dorchester counties
The Maryland State Archives is gradually introducing new online records. And on 6/22/2002, the Archives announced that partial scans of the male and female marriage indexes for Cecil County are available online. The male index covers 1928-1977, while the female index is 1928-1935. Access is free. For Dorchester, the Archives added the Dorchester County marriage…
Discussing the History of African American Health Care
For years, I have studied African American health care, seeking to understand the history of practices before Black Americans gained access to mainstream medicine. This fieldwork has given me the opportunity to interview nurses, aides, physicians, and tradition bearers in communities across Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. So when the Association for the Study…