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BECKY FIFIELD
The Still Room Blog
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New Year’s Day – A Great Day to Run Away
Der Wöchentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote 9/17/1773. RL Fifield Photo. Library of Congress. Many of us choose some aspect of life to...

Becky Fifield
Jan 1, 20152 min read
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Digging in the Archives: Philadelphia City Archives
Nothing like a little research day on my birthday. Quarter Session Docket, June 1, 1767. Philadelphia City Archives. During my stay at...

Becky Fifield
Aug 8, 20132 min read
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Digging in the Archives: Swarthmore College’s Friends Historical Library
My time here at Winterthur is wrapping up. I took yesterday to visit two incredible local institutions, the Friends Historical Library at...

Becky Fifield
Aug 1, 20131 min read
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Museum Monday – Working at Winterthur
I’m in residence at Winterthur Museum, Library, and Garden working on my 18th century runaway project and participating in a preventive...

Becky Fifield
Jul 8, 20131 min read
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Historic Philadelphia Mapping Resources
My research on indentured and enslaved servants’ lives has led me to mapping out their existence on historic maps of Philadelphia. I’m...

Becky Fifield
Jul 5, 20131 min read
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Vanishing History: Recording African-American Burial Grounds
On a Sunday afternoon in 1992, I was collecting fallen autumn leaves along Chapel Road outside Havre de Grace, Maryland where my...

Becky Fifield
Jun 14, 20132 min read
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What I’ve Been Reading: Buying Into A World of Goods by Ann Smart Martin
Read this great book on 18th century commerce in the backwoods of Virginia. Ann Smart Martin’s Buying into the World of Goods: Early...

Becky Fifield
May 30, 20132 min read
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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...

Becky Fifield
Apr 1, 20134 min read
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Shifting Garment Styles, 1750-1790: What Research and Sketching Have in Common
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,...

Becky Fifield
Dec 21, 20122 min read
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The Historic Fabric of Philadelphia: James E. Taylor’s Sketchbook
James E. Taylor. Photo: National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Using...

Becky Fifield
Oct 19, 20122 min read
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Runaway Scavenger Hunt
In researching the lives of indentured and enslaved women during the 18th century, I’m trying to rebuild their communities, to better...

Becky Fifield
Aug 5, 20121 min read
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Variety Among the 18th Century Lesser Sorts
Der Wöchentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote 9/17/1773. As part of my research on 18thcentury working class clothing, I have been studying...

Becky Fifield
Jul 20, 20122 min read
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Names of the Forgotten – Runaway Clothing Database Project
Maryland Gazette, August 9, 1787. Library of Congress. RL Fifield photo. The Runaway Clothing Database project uses newspaper runaway...

Becky Fifield
Jun 23, 20121 min read
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Following Eleanor Ferrell: A Runaway Indentured Servant
New: see the full article online here. If it doesn’t come up, go to the home page and search again. Abraham Emmit labeled her “an ill...

Becky Fifield
May 27, 20122 min read
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Hike up your woolen undies: A Treatise on the Propagation of Sheep
Baa. Cool it, already. Photo: Imaginactory. John Wily wrote the motivational pamphlet A Treatise on the Propagation of Sheep, the...

Becky Fifield
May 26, 20123 min read
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Downton Abbey is Hot – Now for some real servants.
I fully expect Masterpiece Classic’s Downton Abbey to inspire the costume choices of many next Halloween (see my post on Downton...

Becky Fifield
Apr 1, 20122 min read
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