If last year was about being stuck at home playing tomb raider in our own closets (thanks, COVID), this year is about being out in the field. Quite literally, in my case. The world and its cultural institutions are re-opening, and this happy historian has enjoyed free-ranging all over Northwestern Pennsylvania once again!
While my research topics have been diverse, it seems there is one uniting factor: cemeteries. A study trip to the Warren County Historical Society in late spring took me from a cozy archives with late 18th-century manuscripts to a rural Revolutionary War burial ground tucked away south of the city. I was on the hunt for one of America’s most iconic cultural figures, but if you want to know more, you’ll have to check out the fall issue of Western Pennsylvania Historymagazine. Hint: apple trees play a big role.
Then it was off to Woodlawn Cemetery in Titusville, perhaps the most important graveyard in the county and home to over 12,000 burials (and counting). Again, I don’t want to give too much away, but I’m excited to be working with the Titusville Historical Society on a truly ambitious project—to document and publish this critical cultural landscape so that it can be used, studied, and preserved by the next generation of historians, genealogists, archaeologists, funeral professionals, and community members.
And that’s only the first half of the summer! There’s lots more to come, with trips planned to Erie and Avella and everywhere in-between. I’m just itching to do some research, a bit of sight-seeing, and install an exhibit in time for a local festival. May your summer be just as nerdy, and just as fun!
The Free-Range Historian 