Abby Epplett, Historian

On Thursday, June 29 at 7:00 p.m. I watched a webinar via Zoom that focused on the life and work of American painter George Clair Tooker . The talk, called George Tooker: Modern Life & Magical Realism , was lead by Jane Oneail of Culturally Curious . I last heard Oneail speak a month ago in May when she presented Revolutionary Design: Modern Architecture in New England . Like last time, the event was sponsored by the Greater Manchester Integrated Library Cooperative or GMILCS , which describes itself as “a nonprofit consortium of public and academic libraries in New Hampshire”. The talk began with an introduction to the life of George Tooker. He was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1920 to an Episcopalian family. His mother was half Cuban, and Tooker considered himself to be mixed-race but passed as White. He began painting around 1927 at age seven, and by the time he was a junior in high school, he was accepted into the prestigious Phillips Andover Academy in Massachusetts. ...

A few weeks ago, I visited Moore State Park in Paxton, MA. This beautiful public park covers about 400 acres of woodlands, meadows, and waterfalls on Turkey Hill Brook . Locals know the site for its flowering bushes, including azaleas, mountain laurels, and rhododendrons, and the site has the remains of buildings from the 18 th through early 20 th centuries. The park is even listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Moore State Park Historic District . More recently, in 2003, the American Chestnut Foundation planted blight-resistant trees in the park.

Yesterday, June 22, at 6:30 p.m., I joined rangers from Blackstone River Valley National Historic Park during their walkabout “Wonders of Whitinsville”, an hour-long tour of the mill village with an overview of the Whitin family and local industrial history. Part of the material overlapped with the Whitinsville Self-Guided Tour available on the National Park Service website , but the three rangers leading the tour provided plenty of additional information about the number of textile looms in the mill buildings, family dynamics, and the relationship between mill owners and mill workers.

Back in late May 2023, I visited Rocky Point State Park , formerly an amusement park in Warwick, RI managed by Rhode Island State Parks (RISP) with funding from the City of Warwick and the Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) . Together, these organizations have transformed the area into a kite flying field, oceanfront beach, and ADA compliant trails, along with supporting the Rocky Point Park Pathways Project by Leadership Rhode Island . Since 2017 , a series of pathway signs detail the history of the park using text and images.

A few weeks ago in May 2023, I visited Browne House in Watertown, MA , yet another restored late 17 th century building owned and maintained by Historic New England (HNE) . Lest you become bored by my obsession with houses constructed in a style known as First Period , American colonial , or Post-Medieval English , fear not! For this house is different and special, as they all are. Browne House was officially the “first fully documented restoration” of an old building in the United States. While not a perfect restoration, and certainly contrary to modern standards, the house shows not only how the Browne family may have lived at the time the house was constructed sometime between 1694 and 1710, but also how early 20 th century historians and architects learned to reconstruct old buildings.

This blog celebrates its first birthday today. Abby Epplett, Historian began on May 31, 2022 with the publication of “How Do You See the World?” Experience & Mapparium about the Christian Science Plaza in Boston, MA. This is the 125 th blog post. I have published about one article every three days over the course of a year. In addition to writing on Blogger , the platform hosting this blog, I have republished seven articles on the crowdsourced blog Mainly Museums , and another post is on the way. Other publications and activities related to this blog include Instagram  posts and stories, tweets on Twitter, and reviews on Google Maps. My blogs are occasionally featured in online newsletters sent out by local organizations.

On Thursday, May 25 at 7:00 p.m., I watched the Zoom webinar Revolutionary Design: Modern Architecture in New England hosted by Jane Oneail of Culturally Curious . This organization is based in Manchester, NH and focuses on history throughout New England. Each program is sponsored by a New England organization, with this webinar funded by Manchester City Library . Oneail focused her talk on five buildings, each constructed by a different architect.

A few months ago, I received a perfect gift, the revised and expanded second edition of Old Testament Parallels: Laws and Stories from the Ancient Near East . Few other readers will be quite so pleased by the book as I was, but for those who are interested in mythology from Egypt, the Akkadians, and other ancient cultures, this is an easy-to-read primer. Authors Dr. Victor H. Matthews of Missouri State University and Dr. Don C. Benjamin of the Kino Institute of Theology wrote the book with the intention of creating “a readable, affordable, and portable anthology of ancient Near Eastern law and stories”, beginning with their first edition published by Paulist Press in 1991. I read the 1997 edition, which includes black-and-white illustrations and runs about 380 pages in length. Along with this book, the authors co-wrote The Social World of Ancient Israel 1250-587 B.C.E. in 1993, while Dr. Matthews published Manners and Customs in the Bible in 1988. I knew a conside...

Earlier today—May 21, 2023—I attended the Fish Passage Celebration, an intertribal gathering and collaboration with local river advocates. Held at Old Slater Mill in Pawtucket, RI, which is part of Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (BRVNHP) , the event lasted from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and culminated in a short parade through the historic area of Pawtucket. This event is a sequel or follow-up to an event last fall, Be the Voice of Kittacuck , which recognized one of the original names of the Blackstone River.

Anyone who enjoys the American version of the appraisal show Antiques Roadshow , which just finished its 27 th season on GBH Boston (PBS) and shows no signs of slowing down, will love the podcast companion Detours . Started in January 2020, the podcast is now in its third season. Adam Monahan , who has served as a longtime producer of Antiques Roadshow , hosts the podcast. Frequent guest appearances include executive producer Marsha Bemko , appraisers and antiques experts, and former guests from Antiques Roadshow . I have so many favorite episodes from this podcast that I cannot describe all of them! Some of the best include Season 3, Episode 6, “Good Grief” about a Charles Schulz comic strip collection related to a Hallmark greeting cards licensing deal; Season 2, Episode 8, “If It’s Brown, It’s Down” about the downturn of the early American furniture market; and Season 1, Episode 2 “A Soldier for Sale” about a prop from the Laurel & Hardy movie Babes in Toyland ...