Blog Posts
(in chronological order by time period covered)
An Actual Privateer: William Parker, 17th century privateer
The First English Settlers in New England: John Parker and the Popham Colony, 1607
Heresy, Whaling, and Coffee: Edward Starbuck and the settlement of Nantucket, 1659
Who Needs the Mason-Dixon Line (1681)?
Her Children Sign from the Breast: Deafness in Colonial America, 1684
The Dominion of New England, 1685-89
A Manifest Incongruity: Rev. Nicholas Noyes and the Salem Witch Trials, 1692
Refugees in London: German immigrants to England and New York, 1710
The Motherlode of Erismans: Early Mennonites in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 1717
Flying Camps, Prison Ships, and the Battle of Long Island: Jacob Holtzinger in the American Revolution, 1776
Down the Ohio River: Thomas Longley's journey to Kentucky, 1788
Friends of Humanity: Thomas Longley and the Kentucky Baptists, 1805
The Phalanstery is Man's True Home: Abner Longley and utopian socialism, 1844
The Grimké Brothers: The abolitionist Grimké sisters and their Black nephews, 1830s-1910s
Lost on the Lady Elgin: A shipwreck on Lake Michigan, 1860
Wide Awake in 1860: Servetus Longley and the 1860 election
11,670 Miles: Christopher Erisman in the Civil War, 1861-65
Starvation and Bad Treatment: Union prisoners at Andersonville, GA, and Florence, SC, 1864-65
Juneteenth and the XXV Army Corps, 1865
Occupation Legislator: Veterans of the 66th USCI during Reconstruction, 1865-75
Every Family Has a Maverick, Part 1: Walter Collins in the Civil War, 1862-66
Every Family Has a Maverick, Part 2: Walter Collins after the Civil War, 1866-1909
Brave Women: Kate Mifflin Loud at Ft. Lancaster, 1867
A Well-Known Furniture Manufacturer: George Hunzinger, 19th C chair designer
Fonetic Speliŋ: Elias and Margaret Longley innovate in shorthand and typewriting, 1840s-1880s
She Has Always Exercised and Enjoyed Those Rights: Margaret Vater Longley, suffragist, 1840s-1900s
The Road to Fort Washakie: The Loud family at Fort Washakie, 1895-7
The Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Washakie, 1895-7
The Life of an Officer’s Wife, Fort Washakie, 1895-7
It Was a Most Thrilling Sight! Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, 1896
The Real McCoy: A case of 19th century identity theft, 1897-1900
Sir Knight: Masonic Knights Templar in the 19th and 20th centuries
The Erisman Grocery Company: Ft. Worth, TX, around 1910
Why Reindeer? The Van Valin family in Alaska, 1913
At Home in the Arctic: The Van Valin family on the Wanamaker Expedition, 1917
When Uncle Sam Was Ready, Things Moved Fast: The 26th Army Corps of Engineers in WWI, 1917-19
Drilling Rigs and Boomtowns: The Nort Texas Oil Boon, 1920
Airship Dreams: The wreck of the USS Shenandoah, 1925
Nettie’s Story: Nettie Roberts and the New Jersey Village for Epileptics, 1930s
The Only Thing You Can Do Is Refuse To Forget: WWII massacre at Katyn, 1939
Jack Dempsey’s Rolex: Boxer Jack Dempsey and his attorney Fred Erisman, 1959