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…
Saving Voices of the Past – A Workshop on Documenting Memories and Stories With Oral History at Havre de Grace, Dec. 6
To help residents of Havre de Grace and Harford County preserve eyewitness accounts of the past, I am doing an oral history workshop at the town library on Dec 6th, 2011, at 6:30 p.m. The program presents the methods for gathering and preserving history through interviews with people by recording their memories and stories. It…
Two New Programs on the War of 1812 as Part of the 200th Anniversary Speakers Bureau Series
In conjunction with the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, the Maryland Humanities Council is offering a special speakers bureau series focusing on that conflict. I am pleased to be selected to serve as one of the presenting scholars. Here are the descriptions of my two programs: Spread the News: The War of 1812 on the…
Delaware Public Archives, One of the Best Around
While wrapping up research at the Delaware Public Archives a few days ago, an attractive poster proclaiming October as national archives month caught my attention. This got me to thinking about how repositories such the one in Dover serve an important function, preserving governmental records, manuscripts, photographs, and others materials from the past. Unlike a regular library where…