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About Me

I am a historian and curator of American Material Culture who specializes in labor, landscape, and material culture in the early American South and Atlantic World. I am a Ph.D. student and Jefferson Scholars Foundation Fellow at the University of Virginia and hold an M.A. from the University of Delaware and the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. My award-winning M.A. thesis, “Who Built the City on the Severn? Slavery, Material Culture, and Landscapes of Labor in early Annapolis,” foregrounded the lives of enslaved artisans and documented their work throughout the city. Prior to my M.A., I studied history and art history at Towson University where I graduated with the Sander Senior Prize in History.

I currently work as a guest curator at Historic Rock Ford and the John J. Snyder Gallery of Early Lancaster Decorative Arts in Lancaster, PA. There, my research will support reinterpretation of the Snyder decorative arts galleries and a future exhibition on historically underrepresented craftspeople of early Lancaster County. I began my museum career in curatorial departments at Historic Annapolis and Hampton National Historic Site and held the 2020-2021 Sewell C. Biggs Curatorial Fellowship at Winterthur.

I have lectured and presented research on topics from English abolitionist ceramics to Maryland backcountry furniture, and have received grants, awards, and fellowships from the Jefferson Scholars Foundation and Center for the Study of the Age of Jefferson at the University of Virginia, Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, the Decorative Arts Trust, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Vernacular Architecture Forum, Homewood Museum at Johns Hopkins University, and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts.

Recent Publications

“‘For Hire of Your Negro Sawyer’: Enslaved Artisans in Early Annapolis, Maryland” in African American Material Culture on the Southern Landscape, eds. Torren Gatson and Tiffany Momon, (University of South Carolina Press, In Progress)

Review of Hayden R. Smith, Carolina’s Golden Fields: Inland Rice Cultivation in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1670-1860 in H-Net Environment, July 2021.

“The Contributions of Enslaved Artisans in Annapolis and Charleston: New Research and Resources” with Dr. Tiffany Momon, in The Magazine of the Decorative Arts Trust.

 

 

Media Coverage

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Country Focus

United States

Expertise by Geography

Atlantic, British Isles, Caribbean, North America, United Kingdom, United States

Expertise by Chronology

3, 4, 5, 6

Expertise by Topic

American Revolution, American Founding Era, Art & Architectural History, Food History, Labor, Local & Regional, Material Culture, Museums, Public History, Race, Rebellion & Revolution, Slavery, Urban History