Books
Rosie’s Mom: Forgotten Women Workers of the First World War
Northeastern University Press, 2002
In 1917, American working women abandoned their jobs making dresses, sewing corsets, and canning foods to contribute to the war effort. Trading their ankle-length skirts and crisp white shirtwaists for coarse bloomers or overalls, they went into the munitions plants to face explosives, toxic chemicals, powerful metal-cutting machines, and the sullen hostility of the men in the shops.
Re-issued in paperback December, 2013.
The Tall Tale in American Folklore and Literature
University of Tennessee Press, 1987
In both folklore and American literature, the tall tale is primarily an interaction between teller and audience–a game played at the hazy border between the credible and the incredible, a challenge and an entertainment at the same time. The tall tale is also a social statement that identifies and binds a folk group by flaunting the peculiar knowledge and experiences of group members, and it is a tool for coping with a stressful and even chaotic world–for conquering life’s problems by laughing at them.
This book was selected by the library journal Choice as one of the outstanding academic books of 1987-88. Chapter 4 was reprinted in Sut Lovingood’s Nat’ral Born Yarnspinner, edited by James E. Caron and M. Thomas Inge, Univ. of Alabama Press, 1996.)
Exhibition Catalogs
Arming the Union: Gunmakers in Windsor, Vermont,
American Precision Museum, 2012
The Brass Era Auto: Motoring Into the Twentieth Century
Seal Cove Auto Museum, 2011
The brass era of the automobile—so named for the glittering brass headlamps and trim on most of the cars—lasted for about twenty years, from 1896 to 1916. During that time, the automobile went from being an experiment to a luxury to a necessary part of American life, and the auto industry itself was both emblem and instrument of a great cultural shift that was taking place. Where did such a powerful industry come from, and how is it connected to the sudden rise in the American standard of living and to the mechanization of the American Dream?
The Cutting Edge:Machines that Shape Our World, American Precision Museum, 2006.
Carriage Wheels to Cadillacs: Henry Leland and the Quest for Precision, American Precision Museum, 1999. (This exhibition catalog received honorable mention in the 2000 NEMA publications competition.)
Pedal Power: The Bicycle in Industry and Society, American Precision Museum, Windsor, Vermont, 1997. (This exhibition catalog won first place in the 1998 New England Museum Association publications competition for books under $10.)
Maxfield Parrish: Machinist, Artisan, Artist, American Precision Museum, Windsor, Vermont, 1995.
(This exhibition catalog took second prize in the design competition of the American Association of Museums, 1995.)
Edwin A. Link and the Air Age: Progress, Technology & the Romance of Motion, Roberson Museum and Science Center, 1994.
Other Publications
“Guns for Billy Yank: The Armory in Windsor Meets the Challenge of Civil War,” Vermont History, The Journal of the Vermont Historical Society, Summer/Fall 2011. Read the complete article here.
Industrial Revolution in the Upper Connecticut River Valley: an Overview, American Precision Museum, 2007.
Memo from the Valley, the semi-annual newsletter of the Upper Valley Teacher Institute, editor and chief writer, 2002-2008.
“Maxfield Parrish,” The Encyclopedia of New England Culture, Yale University Press, 2005.
Script for the interactive CD Ed Link: Inventor, Explorer, Roberson Museum and Science Center, 2003.
“Fast-Track Teacher Training: What Works?” Upper Valley Teacher Institute, November 2002. (This white paper was prepared as part of an advocacy effort in the state of New Hampshire.)
“The Cutting Edge: Vermont and Precision Manufacture,” Vermont Business Magazine’s Millennium Project, 1999.
American Precision Museum: Where the Past Meets the Future, American Precision Museum, 1998. (A fund-raising “case statement,” this piece won Joint Second Place, 1998 NEMA Publications Competition for development materials.)
“From Corsets to Cartridges: Bridgeport, 1916,” Tools & Technology, Fall, 1997.
“The Robbins & Lawrence Armory: Proving Ground for the American System,” Tools & Technology, Spring 1996.
“To Get Into the Air,” Timeline, Ohio Historical Society, July/August, 1993. (A history of Alexander Graham Bell’s involvement in The Aerial Experiment Association.)
Introduction and all front matter for “Register of the Edwin A. Link Collection,” Roberson Museum and Science Center, 1991.
“Man in Motion,” American Heritage of Invention and Technology, Spring/Summer, 1991. (A biographical essay on aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss.)
“Hitting a High Note,” New York Alive, March/April, 1989. (A history of the Tri-Cities Opera.)
“Life on the Color Line,” Timeline, Ohio Historical Society, October/November 1988. (A biographical essay on African-American writer Charles W. Chesnutt.)
“Drill Squads–A Teaching Opportunity,” Dance Teacher Now, March 1988. (An article in a trade journal.)
“Sam Patch,” Upstate, November 1987. (A biographical sketch of an American folk hero.)
“Backyard Sugaring,” Upstate, March 1986. (An essay on the business and pleasures of harvesting maple syrup.)
“A Nat’ral Born Durn’d Yarnspinner,” The Southern Literary Journal, Fall, 1985. (A study of the writings of George Washington Harris.)