It's recently been estimated that Americans spend $19.5 billion on Valentine's Day. Whether you go all in or prefer to recast the holiday as "Singles Awareness Day," people have been baring their heart and soul through love notes for centuries. In early America, as long as quill, ink, and paper were on hand -- one …
Reading early America (for fun!)
I am a reader. Since I was very young, I’ve had an affinity for libraries, for the smell of books, the crispness of their pages, and the music made by the words inside. As a historian, my career as a scholar compels me to read - both widely and deeply - in order to understand …
Whose Milk? Changing US Attitudes toward Maternal Breastfeeding
Earlier this year, delegates from around the world met in Geneva, Switzerland for the World Health Assembly. Debates emerged around the topic of promoting maternal breastfeeding and sparked a heated confrontation between the United States and the nation of Ecuador. Looking for some historical context to the "Breast is Best" campaign? Read my latest article …
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Where’d you go, Alexander? Finding death in the archives
TW: suicide I encountered Alexander Duncan in the spring of 2016. Reading through the business correspondence of James Murray, a Scottish merchant who settled in Wilmington, North Carolina in the early 1730s, I found Murray's connection with Duncan, another Scottish merchant in the port town. By the 1760s, James Murray had relocated to Boston where …
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All the single ladies? Reading single women in early America
Earlier this year I made the decision to read more books by and about women. While this was meant to apply to my selection of fiction for the year, it has also sparked interest in reading more nonfiction by women--both for work and for relaxation. Besides, women also know history! Last weekend I began reading …
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