Category: Uncategorized

Delaware has a strong collection of old newspapers available for historical and genealogical research.  These serials, including the city dailies in Wilmington and many weeklies in communities all over New Castle, Kent, and Sussex counties, provide an invaluable resource for those studying the past.  But, too, there is a seldom-used collection of African-American newspapers published…

As a visiting scholar and member of the speakers’ bureau at the Delaware Humanities Forum, I lecture on several subjects examining the past in the First State.  The one on temperance and prohibition has received lots of attention lately, as organizations invite me to outline historical attempts to regulate the consumption of alcohol.  This subject…

At a rapid pace these days, old newspapers are being digitized and made openly available to researchers, and as I work on projects I often find additional collections of these valuable publications.  Some are completely digitized and fully text searchable, while on demand PDFs make up others.   Either way, as we undergo a revolution in…

I often have the opportunity to investigate rich, deep, and varied narratives about the past in unfamiliar towns and communities.  The distinctive heritage of these places, along with the complex forces that connect communities and families to their roots, is something I enjoy digging up during my research. One unconventional technique I have honed over my decades of…