This past week, I was at the Corbin Memorial Library in Somerset County for a talk called “Stories Worth Repeating from Crisfield.” Over ten years ago, I wrapped up extensive fieldwork in the waterman’s town, digging up archival materials and interviewing sources. Those days down there talking to people, paging through newspapers, and digging around the…
Project Scholar For New Study Asking What Happens When Big Government Moves In and Families Move Out
I have just started working on an exciting new investigation that is seeking to answer questions about the impact the military has on people and communities when it uproots long-established families to create a wartime reservation. This particular migration occurred in Harford County, Maryland, as the government established Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1917, six months…
Working With Museum on Main Street Program to Reach Younger Audience With Oral History
The Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street (MOMS) was recently awarded a grant to engage underserved, rural youth in using technology to capture local stories related to the MOMS’ Journey Stories exhibit. As part of the grant, I will join another scholar as we conduct workshops in oral history methods for teachers, students and museum staff…
Reconstructing a Community’s Past as a Consulting Public Historian
For most of 2011, I’ve been doing fieldwork to document the public history of Havre de Grace around the time the British burned the town in May 1813. To aid in understanding this era, I just completed a study of the population and demographic characteristics of the community in the first third of the 19th…