“It is perhaps the case that men can make better history and that history can make better men.”
— Barrows Dunham, Heroes and Heretics: A Social History of Dissent, 1964
Blog Post #4 - November 18, 2024 - Newark, DE
Well, we made it three weeks before a break. That’s not terrible.
It has been a busy couple of weeks, including my presentation at Atlantic Cape Community College’s Star Party, classes ramping up expeditiously, shooting a few videos at Goldin, and a few of my articles coming out in print.
In our classes this week, we are reading Michael E. Woods’s Emotional and Sectional Conflict in the Antebellum United States (2014) and Rachel Hope Cleves’s Unspeakable: Life Beyond Sexual Morality (2020). I am especially interested in understanding the latter book and how a historian can discuss morally abhorrent actions.
In addition to the best Pokémon in the world in Doug, I also worked with a signed Harry Potter book and an incredibly unique jewelry item. I take pride in that I’m not beholden to any company directive and get to pick out the items that matter to me first and foremost. All I can hope to do is soak as much information as I can possibly handle and one day everything will work out. Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be back to working full-time in auctions again.
A rather unique Pokémon card that I got to see this week is this Doug Ferguson GX, misspelled by CGC, that is up for sale now.
A god-awful picture of me, but I was glad to present some history at Atlantic Cape Community College’s Star Party on November 8th about Professor Albert F. Porta’s predictions about the end of the world in 1919. It is always fun to talk about history outside of my specialty and these events let me do so. However, the great work of the University of Michigan on the topic should be commended first and foremost: https://heritage.umich.edu/stories/professor-portas-predictions/
What did I do this weekend?
This weekend was comparatively quiet. Bria and I binge-watched all of the V/H/S horror movies in less than one week as we both caught up on homework. This week will be a tough one, as I have a presentation at the Salem County Historical Society on Sunday, November 24th about the life of Tamar Davis. I also am hoping to get some of my assignments done before December comes as I would like to give my full attention next month to the historiography paper that is due on December 9th.
Bria and I also made it to our first college sporting event of the year. Just don’t tell the University know that we only went to get our free t-shirts and then leave at halftime. Bria didn’t even want hers!
Blog Post #3 - October 28, 2024 - Newark, DE
Halloween is here. Let loose the ghosts!
I love this time of year. It is cool without being freezing, warm without being sweltering, and is the calm before the storm of final papers and end of the term assignments.
In our classes this week, we are reading Kate Brown’s Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters (2013) and reviewing our first book reviews in the Antebellum America class. I also received another copy of Leigh Eric Schmidt’s Village Atheists: How America’s Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation (2017) that I am excited to reread.
I’m going to be working on an article length explanation of the Graf Brothers and their family (their father worked for L.N. Rosenthal and their brother owned a portrait painting company). It is strange, though, to learn a bit about our background as German immigrants that came over around 1850. I’ve never really thought of myself as having an ethnic background before (and I still don’t), but is kind of neat to start pulling these bits together.
Maybe I will eventually do one of those genetic tests and see what is actually there as the Grafs are only a small bit of the pie.
My partner, Bria, and I at Laurel Hill Cemetery on October 26, 2024 (Photograph by me)
October has me thinking about historical ghosts, such as this article from Bangor Daily Commercial newspaper on December 23, 1903.
What did I do this weekend?
I only became interested in my family genealogy in August, but have found a good bit. On my mother’s side, we are descended from Charles L. Graf, of the Graf Brothers company in Philadelphia. Charles died in 1900 and was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, so we decided to visit during one of their great tours.
It was a great night and we had a ton of fun. Afterwards, we stopped in at an Applebee’s, where we got our faithful chicken tenders and french fries (no sauce please!) and a couple of drinks. I will have to go back soon to get a view of the gravestones during the daylight.
Company trade card for the Graf Brothers company held by the Library Company of Philadelphia. Link: https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A79218
Blog Post #2 - October 21, 2024 - Newark, DE
So, I haven’t given up on this blog yet. That’s a win.
With all jokes aside, I’ve had a busy week, though it was in a sense that you don’t often realize until the week is finished. I’m still feeling really good and received some good news about a short article I wrote going into print in a couple of weeks. I will share more information once it is out.
In our classes this week, we are reading Wendy A. Woloson’s Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America (2020) and Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration (2003). Very different topics, but intriguing nonetheless.
Another interesting part of the weekend was the fact that I had been in Salem earlier in the day to start working on my exhibition review project for our Museum Studies class. While I never had the chance to see the Salem Oak in person before it came crashing down in 2019, the pictures I have seen of it are striking. I am interested in the question of historical memory and what will not happen that the town’s icon is lost. Will they change their imagery? How long does it last? Will children that grew up without it continue to care about it? I am not sure if I will be able to answer those questions, but I will try.
I hope to have more to update you with in a week. It should be a busy week, so I hope that I survive.
Ruins of the Salem Oak, Salem, New Jersey - October 13, 2024 (Photograph by me)
What did I do this weekend?
My partner and I had a blast going to a party on Friday that our friends, Laini and Gaige, threw at the Abel and Mary Nicholson House in Salem, New Jersey. A few weeks ago, we had found a common denominator in our interest in patterned brick architecture, a decidedly West Jersey architectural style done by the Quakers. While I was about to host an author on the style at the North Pemberton Railroad Station Museum, Gage takes care of the historic home in South Jersey. The house blew me away, especially as the moonlight hits the glaze just right. A reminder of the important tradition that we seek to study.
It was nice to see the rest of our cohort outside of a classroom. I’m excited to see us all grow throughout our time in the program, though it does make me wonder what we will be like in four years. I guess only time will tell.
My friend Bob Thompson’s great book is an invaluable tool for this topic. See, Robert Thompson, Patterned Brick Architecture of West New Jersey (Galloway: South Jersey Culture & History Center, 2023).
Blog Post #1 - October 16, 2024 - Newark, DE
This website exists due to a practical requirement, that being to complete an assignment in my MSST600 class, Introduction to Museums and Public Engagement. However, I’ve been wanting to create a personal website and blog for a while now, so perhaps we can pull together a couple stones to throw.
I’d like to set a couple of ground rules for this portion of the website for what I want to accomplish. I would like to post an update each week chronicling updates to my interests and research. This I aim to do as a time capsule towards my continuing progress as a historian, but also in the hopes that, if I ever do succeed at being a historian, others may view my growth over time.
I have also been trying to make time to have fun. About a week ago, my partner and I decided to meet with our friends Courtney and Kim (pictured above) to go to an “emo night” in Philly at a bar titled Kung-Fu Necktie. I would love to read a history about punk culture in Philadelphia. While a book is currently lacking, there is an excellent oral history project, conducted by LOUD! FAST! PHILLY! creator Joseph A. Gervasi, available online that interviews bands and scene members that were important to the city’s culture. Here is a link to their work: https://loudfastphilly.com/.
I hope to have more to update you with in a week. I have assignments starting to stack up so hopefully I will have some free time soon.
With that being said, then what have I been working on?
Aside from my schoolwork, which consumes most of my time, I have been working on local history. I think that there is a wealth of information waiting to be written about that concerns the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Birmingham, located in Pemberton Township, is a great example of how small towns developed in early America. Starting as a forge in 1803, the area that would become known as Birmingham featured at various points a cloth dying factory, a mill for food production, a popular destination inn (pictured above), and chemical production companies (including water softening chemicals). Throughout all that time, Pine Barrens folk have lived and died in the town, which continues to face threats of industrialization. It would be a damn shame to see it disappear. I hope to say more about my research soon, but I have to keep it under wraps for now.
Whitesbog, New Jersey - October 13, 2024 (Photograph by me)