This is a great little Facebook post from the Jamestown Rediscovery Project: What’s an archaeologist’s white whale? A copper alloy spoon, apparently! Director of Archaeology Dave Givens always wanted to find a copper spoon – it was one thing he...
Some on the right believe that Colonial Williamsburg’s commitment to telling the full story of the 18th-century city means that the world’s largest living history museum is going “woke.” I would argue that Colonial Williamsburg is trying to tell a...
Our guest on this episode, public historian Alena Pirok, explains how John D. Rockefeller’s vision of Colonial Williamsburg eventually gave way to a vision of the site championed by an early 20th century clergyman who saw ghosts. Join us for a conversion...
Here is Anne Buress at The Harvard Gazette: In a recent virtual curatorial discussion, Houghton librarian John Overholt took an item from the Colonial North America collections to share with his audience. Rather than highlighting a letter from John Hancock or a...
Robert Watson is Distinguished Professor of American History at Lynn University. This interview is based on his new book, George Washington’s Final Battle: The Epic Struggle to Build a Capital City and a Nation (Georgetown University Press, 2020). JF: What led...
This is a great list for those interesting in getting a long view on our current coronavirus crisis. Thanks to the good folks at the Omohundro Institute for compiling it....
I am glad to see the release of Disestablishment and Religious Dissent: Church-State Relations in the New American States, 1776-1833. Carl Esbeck of the University of Missouri and Jonathan Den Hartog of Samford University have edited a very useful book for...
Sarah Pearsall is University Senior Lecturer in the History of Early America and the Atlantic World at the University of Cambridge. This interview is based on her new book, Polygamy: An Early American History (Yale University Press, 2019). JF: What...
Kelly A. Ryan is Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Professor of History at Indiana University-Southeast. This interview is based on her new book Everyday Crimes: Social Violence and Civil Rights in Early America (New York University Press, 2019). JF:...
“History for All the People,” a blog of the State Archives of North Carolina, recently announced that the state’s General Assembly session records are now online. Here is a taste of the post: After three years, The General Assembly Session...
Benjamin “BJ” Armstrong is Assistant Professor of War Studies and Naval History at the U.S. Naval Academy. This interview is based on his new book Small Boats and Daring Men: Maritime Raiding, Irregular Warfare, and the Early American Navy (University...
More James Craft from Burlington, NJ: “[Saw] Man on a Hogshead with a Label fixed to his breast with these words: ‘I Thomas Butler, stand here, for unlawfully killing and stealing a Steer graizing in the Pines.” James Craft Journal, November...
Yes, as Sam Haselby reminds us, this is true. Here is a taste of his piece at Aeon: “Muslims of Early America“: The writing of American history has also been dominated by Puritan institutions. It might no longer be quite...
(This is the first post in a series on the word “evangelical” in the eighteenth-century and today). If the Jonathan Merritt dust-up had a positive result, it was that it got historians thinking again about the meaning of the word...
Here is the Stanford press release: Stanford will rename some campus features named for Father Junipero Serra, the 18th-century founder of the California mission system, but will retain the Serra name and the names of other Spanish missionaries and settlers...
Cameron B. Strang is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Nevada-Reno. This interview is based on his recently released book Frontiers of Science: Imperialism and Natural Knowledge in the Gulf South Borderlands, 1500-1850 (Omohundro Institute/University of North Carolina Press,...
Elisabeth Ceppi is Associate Professor of English at Portland State University. This interview is based on her new book Invisible Masters: Gender, Race, and the Economy of Service in Early New England (Dartmouth University Press, 2018). JF: What led you to write Invisible...
Victoria Johnson is Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College of the City University of New York. This interview is based on her new book American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early...
Jackie Mansky, the humanities editor at Smithsonian.Com, reminds us that “fake news” has a long, long history in the American republic. Here is a taste of her piece, “The Age-Old Problem of ‘Fake News’“: Earlier echoes of John Adams’ frustrations...
Cornell University is the host of “Freedom on the Move,” a digital database of fugitive slave ads from North America. Here is a taste of Allison Meier’s article on this resource at Hyperallergic: Readers of the May 24, 1796 Pennsylvania Gazette found...
