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BECKY FIFIELD
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New Year’s Day – A Great Day to Run Away
Der Wöchentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote 9/17/1773. RL Fifield Photo. Library of Congress. Many of us choose some aspect of life to...

Becky Fifield
Jan 1, 20152 min read
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Don’t Confuse Geisha and Courtesans (Oiran and Tayu)
Images of geisha and courtesans are often mislabeled. For those unfamiliar with subtleties in the styling and wear of kimono, obi, and...

Becky Fifield
May 9, 20143 min read
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A Philadelphia Servant, 1787
The Accident in Lombard Street. Charles Wilson Peale. Winterthur Museum. 1962.88. A pie lays broken in the street, a distraught servant...

Becky Fifield
Nov 20, 20132 min read
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Oyster Shuckers
I used to hate oysters. Typically, tidewater Marylanders pat oysters in cracker meal, fry them, and if you need a condiment, slather on...

Becky Fifield
Sep 5, 20132 min read
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Digging in the Archives: Philadelphia City Archives
Nothing like a little research day on my birthday. Quarter Session Docket, June 1, 1767. Philadelphia City Archives. During my stay at...

Becky Fifield
Aug 8, 20132 min read
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Digging in the Archives: Swarthmore College’s Friends Historical Library
My time here at Winterthur is wrapping up. I took yesterday to visit two incredible local institutions, the Friends Historical Library at...

Becky Fifield
Aug 1, 20131 min read
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A Squeal of Delight at the Indianapolis Museum of Art: Miniature Dresses
RL Fifield. I attended the American Institute for Conservation’s Annual Meeting in Indianapolis at the end of May. The opening reception...

Becky Fifield
Jul 25, 20131 min read
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Historic Philadelphia Mapping Resources
My research on indentured and enslaved servants’ lives has led me to mapping out their existence on historic maps of Philadelphia. I’m...

Becky Fifield
Jul 5, 20131 min read
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Fun with Fraktur – Women’s Dress in a Drawing from Winterthur Museum
An embroidered apron at LACMA, similar in concept to those depicted in the Winterthur fraktur below. M.2007.211.131 I’m not a...

Becky Fifield
May 31, 20131 min read
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What I’ve Been Reading: Buying Into A World of Goods by Ann Smart Martin
Read this great book on 18th century commerce in the backwoods of Virginia. Ann Smart Martin’s Buying into the World of Goods: Early...

Becky Fifield
May 30, 20132 min read
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A Very Scary Moment in a Dark Alley: Trashing a Disney Princess Kitchen
I was scooting through my apartment building’s basement (a wonder in systems and architecture) on my way to pick up a package at the...

Becky Fifield
Apr 12, 20132 min read
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Connecting the Dots: Convict Servants in Maryland
Eddie Izzard puns on the Church of England: “Cake or Death?” For people found guilty of committing small crimes in England,...

Becky Fifield
Apr 4, 20133 min read
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Curious Objects: Portrait Collages at the National Portrait Gallery
Collage of engraved portraits on exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in “A Will of their Own: Judith Sargent Murray and Women of...

Becky Fifield
Feb 14, 20132 min read
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(Music Plays) Lydia, The Tattoed Lady – An eighteenth century woman’s tattoo
The New Yorker Photo Booth blog highlighted tattoed women and a book about them Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and...

Becky Fifield
Jan 28, 20132 min read
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Wildlife Sighting at Airport Restaurants
I had extra time to kill in the airport on Friday night. My flight fell right over the dinner hour and I’d had an early lunch. Airport...

Becky Fifield
Jan 24, 20131 min read
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Shifting Garment Styles, 1750-1790: What Research and Sketching Have in Common
I roll over this analogy in my mind as I work with my study of 1,000 runaway indentured and enslaved women and their 6,000 garments,...

Becky Fifield
Dec 21, 20122 min read
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Gender Bender: Flying Business Class
Business class on Cathay Pacific. A few times a year, my work takes me to places for which I get to fly business class. It’s definitely a...

Becky Fifield
Dec 13, 20122 min read
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Eating Alone
One of many meals I’ve eaten while dining alone. Dusseldorf. RL Fifield, 2012. I can travel a fair amount for my job. Anyone who travels...

Becky Fifield
Oct 11, 20122 min read
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Halloween Comes to Downton Abbey
I predicted in this post from April that people would be hot to trot for Downton Abbey influenced costumes this Halloween. True to form,...

Becky Fifield
Sep 29, 20122 min read
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Geisha and Maiko – Japanese Classical Dance
RL Fifield performing Botan with Ichifujikai in 2006. My height earned me male roles, along with accompanying tummy padding under my...

Becky Fifield
Sep 9, 20122 min read
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