Becky FifieldJan 5, 20162 minApple of My Eye: Lead Pesticide Use in 1920s OrchardsOrchard workers at Mt. Pleasant Orchard, near Havre de Grace, Maryland, c. 1915. Over the Christmas holiday, I unearthed a small journal...
Becky FifieldJan 6, 20151 minMaryland Preparations for the Sick, 1881‘Tis the season for illness. Cooking tomes of the past often included a chapter of recipes to be made for the ill and infirm. Certainly,...
Becky FifieldOct 16, 20143 minThe Zoo, the Park, and a Baltimore BefuddlementI’m not an expert on Baltimore, by any means. I’ve never lived there. I was born in Towson and grew up in Carroll County. But Baltimore...
Becky FifieldJun 13, 20141 minMaryland Material Culture: Bushel BasketQuiz: What does a Marylander most often associate with a bushel basket? Sure, you can put fruit or vegetables in it (pick-ur-own or...
Becky FifieldJun 10, 20142 minTransportation Tuesday – B&O Centenary Pageant, 1927Ladies in nymph-like attire twirling and leaping through fields – sounds like the turn of the century pageantry movement to me. The...
Becky FifieldDec 24, 20131 minChristmas Dinner on the RailsChristmas generally takes us to Maryland. While the Amtrak train I take travels over the Pennsylvania Railroad into Baltimore’s Penn...
Becky FifieldNov 27, 20132 minCrossing Wright’s Ferry on the Susquehanna, 1787The Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge over the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, in the vicinity of Wright’s Ferry. U.S. Library of Congress,...
Becky FifieldNov 5, 20132 minTransit Tuesday: Maryland *facepalm*OK, we all know it, I’m obnoxiously devoted to my home state. So when I read current “transit” news about Maryland transportation...
Becky FifieldSep 5, 20132 minOyster ShuckersI used to hate oysters. Typically, tidewater Marylanders pat oysters in cracker meal, fry them, and if you need a condiment, slather on...
Becky FifieldAug 5, 20131 minMuseum Monday – Chester County Historical SocietyChester County Historical Society. In addition to Swarthmore College’s Friends Historical Library, Wednesday also took me to the Chester...
Becky FifieldJun 14, 20132 minVanishing History: Recording African-American Burial GroundsOn a Sunday afternoon in 1992, I was collecting fallen autumn leaves along Chapel Road outside Havre de Grace, Maryland where my...
Becky FifieldJun 6, 20132 minGardening and MemoryThe garden as family member, visible toward the right back. Photos marking family events and visits always took place in the yard. My...
Becky FifieldMay 29, 20132 minWanderlust Wednesday: 24 Rather Staid Hours in BaltimoreA conference, a presentation, a cancelled train, and dinner at the Red Star in Fells Point. All in 24 hours. The annual meeting of the...
Becky FifieldApr 5, 20131 minA Maryland Breakfast: Fried Red Tomatoes in Cream GravyI recently visited my great uncle, Uncle B, in Arizona. Having left our ancestral seat for a life of western adventure in 1947, we don’t...
Becky FifieldApr 4, 20133 minConnecting the Dots: Convict Servants in MarylandEddie Izzard puns on the Church of England: “Cake or Death?” For people found guilty of committing small crimes in England,...
Becky FifieldApr 1, 20134 minMuseum Monday: Maryland State Archives in 2013The stepped structure of the Maryland State Archives on Rowe Blvd, Annapolis. For a building built in 1984, I think the Maryland State...
Becky FifieldMar 15, 20131 minScarlet Fever!The house on Paradise Road, Aberdeen, Maryland. My grandfather, S. Lee Bowman, returned from World War II in 1946 to marry Gurnice...
Becky FifieldMar 13, 20132 minPost Offices for SaleWhat is Westminster, Maryland’s claim to fame? Westminster, Maryland’s RFD Historical Marker. Besides being my childhood hometown, it was...
Becky FifieldFeb 22, 20131 minCommunities Past: Former Commerce in Rock Run, Harford County, MDRock Run United Methodist Church. Harford County was a site of early Methodist activity in America. Rock Run, Harford County, Maryland....
Becky FifieldJan 29, 20132 minTransit Tuesday: How do you get to Annapolis without a car?I was peeved. During my Christmas break in Maryland, a winter storm blew in on the day I’d picked to spend some time at the state...