Last weekend, I pushed it. I bought two tomatoes at the local farmer’s market on 67th street. New York state tomatoes are okay (they aren’t tidewater Maryland tomatoes, alas), and I thought I’d have just one more shot at a tomato sandwich. But the cold must have gotten to them: they were mealy inside, just like I’d bought Florida fresh market tomatoes at the supermarket in January (which I don’t do). It’s like eating pink styrofoam. When the weather settles into the cool, the

George Harrison Bowman, child of John Bowman and Ann Baker Both of my great great great grandparents died in 1857, leaving my fifteen year old great great grandfather  (at right) an orphan. Interestingly, he never appears in the census until after his marriage in 1880 when he was nearly forty years old. Where he lived and how he supported himself up until his service in the Civil War and before his marriage to Harriet Evans of Webster (outside Havre de Grace) has yet to be di

I was inspired by this salted paper print from the 1850s of people posing for a photograph on a Baltimore and Ohio engine. I thought about the women in their stays and hoops, and wondered if they were boosted up onto that ledge, or if they walked out from the cab to rest upon their perch. Either way, it’s not easy with your torso confined (I had to crawl up into a 5 ton troop transport in eighteenth century stays to be transported for a reenactment once – a National Guardsman

I was looking in the mirror, thinking my hair needed a little color. Here’s what I found in the Baltimore Sun, January 19, 1866 America’s Historical Newspapers, American Antiquarian Society. #MarthaWashington #cosmetics #hairdye #Baltimore #Maryland

Hagerstown? Where’s that? I recently attended a living history event at Fort Frederick State Park in Big Pool, Maryland. Restaurants are few and far between in western Maryland, but one of my favorites anywhere is the Schmankerl Stube in Hagerstown. I convinced friends to give it a try. Charlie Sekula is the Stube’s wonderful host, greeting guests at the door. His regionally-clad waitstaff are trained for two weeks before they are allowed to wait on guests. They are formal an

I like July 4th. I’ve met people who don’t, but I can’t identify. I grew up attending the east coast’s largest July 4th parade in Havre de Grace, Maryland. It’s a time I associate with classic cars, waving men and women I don’t know, candy thrown, cheap crap hawked from shopping carts that Mom won’t buy you, beating bass drums, bearded feather-wearing and banjo playing strutting Mummers, steamed crabs, bagpipes, and fireworks. I also like that we should be celebrating July 2,

Acronym Quiz: What does CCC stand for? Fort Frederick, RL Fifield 2012. The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942.  While most noted for civil engineering projects like Hoover Dam and the creation of woodsy infrastructure inside our national and state parks, the CCC also had a big hand in restoring historic sites. Inside the CCC Museum at Fort Frederick. RL Fifield 2012. I had forgotten that Fort Frederick, a stone fort b

I was looking for some family members using the American Antiquarian Society’s America’s Historical Newspapers database, and found this advertisement for Rock Run Beer. Lower Ferry was located between Havre de Grace and Perryville, Maryland. Rock Run beer was likely made at an area named Rock Run, approximately six miles from Havre de Grace up the Susquehanna River and Tidewater Canal. Today, you can visit Rock Run, a Lock house, the Stump Mill (1794), the Carter-Archer House

I was compiling a list of objects with a Maryland theme from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection for the fun of it. My mother’s family has been rooted along the lower Susquehanna and Chesapeake Bay for nearly 400 years. It was fun to find this early nineteenth century watercolor of crossing the Susquehanna at Wright’s Ferry, described as being near Havre de Grace. Nearly fifty miles away, I would hardly describe Havre de Grace as being near present day Columbia, Penns

Tomatoes – it runs in my Maryland family’s veins. We had not one, but three commercial tomato packing houses in my family. Millard Fillmore Bayless, my great-grandmother’s uncle, ran one of the family packing houses in Perryman, while her father ran one in Aberdeen. Here in the 1920 census, it lists that they canned corn, though family lore also states that they canned tomatoes.  Ancestry.com. It’s at this time of year that the waiting begins. The plants are slipped into the

Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen (1873) has several recipes for fostering yeast from potatoes, including potato and hops mixtures, on page 231. One of the recipes indicates that one pound of it makes eighteen loaves of bread. Here is another recipe: Yeast with Potatoes Two medium-sized potatoes, boiled soft. When lukewarm, put them through a colander, and mix them with two table-spoons of flour, one table-spoon of brown or white sugar, and one and a half tea-spoonfuls of sal

Click here for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Gibb Archaeological Consulting Crew, Cole Cemetery site, Aberdeen, MD, 2010. GAC photo. And then, my family members went on vacation. Like many families, they visited the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. But unlike your average Washington, D.C. tourist, the Coles stayed several months. Thanks to Doug Owsley, Forensic Anthropologist and member of the Department of Anthropology, I learned more about my ances

Click here for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Gibb Archaeological Consulting Crew, Cole Cemetery site, Aberdeen, MD, 2010. GAC photo. And then, my family members went on vacation. Like many families, they visited the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. But unlike your average Washington, D.C. tourist, the Coles stayed several months. Thanks to Doug Owsley, Forensic Anthropologist and member of the Department of Anthropology, I learned more about my ances

This post is a continuation of a series chronicling the relocation of my family cemetery, including my 4th Great Grandparents James Cole and Elizabeth Gilbert, in Aberdeen, Maryland in 2010. Click here to read Part I and Part II. Charles Darwin and his son, William. Today, many consider being inbred as more of a joke than a reality. It implies you grew up in the country, perhaps in often maligned West Virginia. But when families stay generation after generation in one area ou

This post is a continuation of a series chronicling the relocation of my family cemetery, including my 4th Great Grandparents James Cole and Elizabeth Gilbert, in Aberdeen, Maryland in 2010. Click here to read Part I and Part II. Charles Darwin and his son, William. Today, many consider being inbred as more of a joke than a reality. It implies you grew up in the country, perhaps in often maligned West Virginia. But when families stay generation after generation in one area ou

I was using this Martenet Map of Harford County from 1878, viewable on the Library of Congress website, to do some family research. I was as intrigued by the business enterprises going on in the Halls Cross Roads area. This area was mostly farms and vegetable packing houses, but the small city of Havre de Grace was nearby, full of stores, mills, warehouses, and wharves. Baltimore, Wilmington, and Philadelphia were all short train rides from Aberdeen or Oakington stations on t

I was using this Martenet Map of Harford County from 1878, viewable on the Library of Congress website, to do some family research. I was as intrigued by the business enterprises going on in the Halls Cross Roads area. This area was mostly farms and vegetable packing houses, but the small city of Havre de Grace was nearby, full of stores, mills, warehouses, and wharves. Baltimore, Wilmington, and Philadelphia were all short train rides from Aberdeen or Oakington stations on t

Manhattan Tomato Harvest, 2011. I come from a gardening family, and at this time of year, I’m biding my time until garden season. My great grandfather was listed in the 1930 Census as “Superintendent” for an “Orchard Farm.” This was Mt. Pleasant Orchard on Chapel Road, which began in 1757 and was recently destroyed by development in 2001. It has a beautiful view of the Chesapeake Bay. My grandfather’s garden had more square feet than the Cape Cod house he built in 1947. Pulli

Manhattan Tomato Harvest, 2011. I come from a gardening family, and at this time of year, I’m biding my time until garden season. My great grandfather was listed in the 1930 Census as “Superintendent” for an “Orchard Farm.” This was Mt. Pleasant Orchard on Chapel Road, which began in 1757 and was recently destroyed by development in 2001. It has a beautiful view of the Chesapeake Bay. My grandfather’s garden had more square feet than the Cape Cod house he built in 1947. Pulli

Travel by Train, Denver Colorado. RL Fifield photo, 2007. Bumping around the Internet, I came upon this group of images of North American train stations. Some I recognized, while others were from towns I have never considered. As I looked at the first photos, more photos kept loading, until there were hundreds. Frame ones with gingerbread. Adobe ones. Victorian ones. Richardsonian Romanesque ones.  Art Deco ones. Lost beauties and sterile Amtrak replacements c. 1975. Every to