Becky Fifield
Apple of My Eye: Lead Pesticide Use in 1920s Orchards
Orchard workers at Mt. Pleasant Orchard, near Havre de Grace, Maryland, c. 1915. Over the Christmas holiday, I unearthed a small journal...
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BECKY FIFIELD
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Becky Fifield
Jan 6, 20151 min read
Maryland 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,...
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Becky Fifield
Oct 16, 20143 min read
The Zoo, the Park, and a Baltimore Befuddlement
I’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...
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Becky Fifield
Jun 13, 20141 min read
Maryland Material Culture: Bushel Basket
Quiz: What does a Marylander most often associate with a bushel basket? Sure, you can put fruit or vegetables in it (pick-ur-own or...
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Becky Fifield
Jun 10, 20142 min read
Transportation Tuesday – B&O Centenary Pageant, 1927
Ladies in nymph-like attire twirling and leaping through fields – sounds like the turn of the century pageantry movement to me. The...
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Becky Fifield
Nov 5, 20132 min read
Transit 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...
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Becky Fifield
Sep 5, 20132 min read
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...
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Becky Fifield
Aug 5, 20131 min read
Museum Monday – Chester County Historical Society
Chester County Historical Society. In addition to Swarthmore College’s Friends Historical Library, Wednesday also took me to the Chester...
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Becky Fifield
May 29, 20132 min read
Wanderlust Wednesday: 24 Rather Staid Hours in Baltimore
A conference, a presentation, a cancelled train, and dinner at the Red Star in Fells Point. All in 24 hours. The annual meeting of the...
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Becky Fifield
Apr 5, 20131 min read
A Maryland Breakfast: Fried Red Tomatoes in Cream Gravy
I 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...
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Becky Fifield
Apr 4, 20133 min read
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,...
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Becky Fifield
Apr 1, 20134 min read
Museum Monday: Maryland State Archives in 2013
The stepped structure of the Maryland State Archives on Rowe Blvd, Annapolis. For a building built in 1984, I think the Maryland State...
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Becky Fifield
Mar 15, 20131 min read
Scarlet Fever!
The house on Paradise Road, Aberdeen, Maryland. My grandfather, S. Lee Bowman, returned from World War II in 1946 to marry Gurnice...
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Becky Fifield
Mar 13, 20132 min read
Post Offices for Sale
What is Westminster, Maryland’s claim to fame? Westminster, Maryland’s RFD Historical Marker. Besides being my childhood hometown, it was...
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Becky Fifield
Feb 22, 20131 min read
Communities Past: Former Commerce in Rock Run, Harford County, MD
Rock Run United Methodist Church. Harford County was a site of early Methodist activity in America. Rock Run, Harford County, Maryland....
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Becky Fifield
Jan 17, 20132 min read
Vernacular: Puddle Ducks
I love the word vernacular. You can stuff all that’s particular to a specific region into the term. Can’t explain it any other way? It...
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Becky Fifield
Jan 15, 20132 min read
Transit Tuesday: The Walking City
Colleagues of mine were up from DC this week for the Alliance for Response NYC program “Community-Based Recovery After Superstorm Sandy”...
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Becky Fifield
Jan 9, 20131 min read
Travel By Design: Painted Advertisements
How did you used to make money off your barn or shed? Allow a hand painted sign to advertise on the side. Here are a few from the...
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Becky Fifield
Nov 9, 20121 min read
A Visit to the Drugstore, 1786
Halloween’s passed us by, but here’s a tale of horror from the late eighteenth century: a visit to the drugstore. This advertisement...
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Becky Fifield
Oct 27, 20121 min read
Photo: Memories of Summer
Marylanders recognize this scene. The wet smear of spice-reddened shattered carapace across moist newspaper says it all: it must be the...
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