Historian
Irvin Sullivan served his country in World War I, and then returned to his native Hagerstown. He was one of many African Americans from Washington County who fought in the Great War and are largely forgotten today. Next …
Continue Reading about Irvin Sullivan, Black WWI Veteran from Washington County
Rosamund Clifford, a.k.a. Fair Rosamund, lived in twelfth-century England and was King Henry II's mistress. I wrote a light-hearted post about her in 2014 for the Oxford University Press Blog. You can read it there. The …
Recently a colleague of mine emailed to ask me, “Do you have any advice re. the request below? Not asking you to do the research, just wondering if you have any tricks?” She was working with a researcher who knew when her …
Continue Reading about Finding Local Black Ancestors: A Genealogy Road Map
Any reading list is idiosyncratic. Here are seven African-American history books I especially recommend. What they have in common is that each reveals a vast amount about black history as part of American history. In one way …
Continue Reading about Seven African-American History Books to Change Your Perspective
If you share my love of local history in western Maryland—especially African-American history—of public history and teaching, or of medieval English history, I hope you’ll find a trove of interesting stuff here. I’m going to …
Continue Reading about Welcome to the Amt-iquary Blog and Website
Local Slave Life When St. Mark’s Episcopal Church-Lappans, about six miles south of Hagerstown, Maryland, was founded in 1849, all eight of the church’s charter members owned slaves, and the original plans for the …
Continue Reading about African-American History at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
