I am a historian and writer whose research focuses on social history and community studies. For over four decades, I have worked extensively to encourage public interest and participation in preserving the past and to create an understanding between earlier eras and the present. Addressing my areas of scholarship, I have appeared on the Today Show, Maryland Public Television, and broadcast news programs, as well as in National Geographic, Southern Living, and Chesapeake Life.
I base my lectures and writings on extensive fieldwork, archival research with primary documents, and oral history interviews. I draw on this applied knowledge of the region’s community, social, and family history in talks, workshops, classroom lectures, and articles. My published works have appeared in Chesapeake Life, Delmarva Quarterly, Maryland Life, and many other magazines, newspapers, and historical society journals.
The area’s history has fascinated me since the late 1960s when I started volunteering at the Historical Society of Cecil County as a teenager. For nearly a half-century now, all of my adult life, I’ve had a wonderful time discovering historical traces in photographs, oral histories, documents, and material culture. In addition to rummaging through old books, documents, and crumbling newspapers as a way of investigating our past, I had the privilege of learning so much from many knowledgeable people during those rapidly passing decades.
I was able to lead the Historical Society of Cecil County through significant growth and transformation and I continue to volunteer with the organization. At the top of the 21st century, I had the opportunity to provide start-up leadership in developing a 62-acre living history museum, which was acquired by a municipality.
As an adjunct professor, I teach history courses at several universities and colleges. I have graduate degrees in history and the social sciences, and I am a visiting scholar for several humanities councils and organizations.