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...

Who Makes Collections Care Happen? Easy. Technicians dust artwork. But that’s a little simplistic view of both the work of  a valuable,...

My first thought when intercepting this recipe from The British Housewife by Martha Bradley (1756) was “who would think to ferment...

Work took me to Germany in late 2012. I’ve already written about the food I ate, Christmas Markets, and train travel from Munich to Bonn...

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,...

McSorley’s. 2003. I just finished Dwight Garner’s “A Critic’s Tour of Literary Manhattan” in The New York Times (December 14, 2012). I’m...

At the risk of overloading my regular readers with posts on Germany, I’ll simply post a couple of photos from Christmas Markets in Munich...

Munich Hauptbahnhof. RL Fifield 2012. I had a crazy scheme for last week’s trip to Germany. My last visit was to Dusseldorf and Cologne....

Has anyone else been outraged by the clips on WNYC when they ask people on the street “Who is Beethoven?” followed by soundbites of...

We are thinking today of the families and communities scarred by yesterday’s events in Newtown, Connecticut. I’ve changed my post this...

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...

I had a terrible time finding restaurants on this trip. But unless I’m feeling frisky for meat-centered meals (unlikely), I usually...

Hauptbahnhof. It has to be my favorite German word. Feeling adventurous, I decided to fly directly to Munich and check out the city...

I’m one of the lucky ones. To gain the most entry-level job at most museums, a graduate degree is required. The discipline depends on the...

The Leaky Faucet features two of the weirder Muppets, The Martians. Their octopus-like lower halves are topped with wide flexible mouths...

The Leaky Faucet features two of the weirder Muppets, The Martians. Their octopus-like lower halves are topped with wide flexible mouths...

Answer: Corsets. The Royal Worcester Corset Factory was the largest U.S. employer of women in 1908. Elizabeth Freake and Baby Mary....

Once again Transit Tuesday is busting in on Museum Monday. RL Fifield 2012. The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is located in Strasburg,...

Mourning miniature, 1788. Brooklyn Museum. 21.474. Twinkies. I’ve had a few. I’ve had more pink Snowballs and Suzy-Q’s than Twinkies. I...

RL Fifield. 2008. It’s something about the light of shops shining out onto the sidewalks, people wrapped in coats, the tall buildings...