Need a Historian for Hire?

I can help with that! I have over a decade of experience researching and writing about local history. I have particular experience with:

Architectural research like National Register of Historic Places nominations or Historic Tax Credit research
Documenting buildings with digital photography
Writing, preparing and leading a specified walking tour of Winchester for a small group, or helping you design a self-guided tour to meet your needs
Writing historical markers or other explanatory texts and finding relevant historic images to illustrate your project (think Civil War Trails markers)
Tracking developments for a niche topic, especially in Winchester or Frederick County, VA
Editorial help for books and publications; fact checking and clarity are specialties
Bonus! Familiarity with creating files for print to multiple online providers to their specifications

Does it seem like I could help you? Drop a note in the contact form (see the sidebar) and tell me about your project!

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Ambrotypes, Melianotypes, and Firnotypes, Oh My! Photography after the Civil War

An ad placed in the Winchester News for August 18, 1865 shows Winchester getting back to some semblance of normalcy. One of those signs was Nathaniel Routzahn, a local photographer, noting a reduction in prices for his services to previous costs. His prices before the war? According to an 1859 ad , they ranged anywhere from 50 cents to $50. An 1858 invention to display photographs like a slideshow, advanced by the knobs on the top of the cabinet in The American Journal of Photography . The inventor believed "it has numbered the days of the fashionable album." Suppose you were hankering for a portrait. Mr. Routzahn's company offered several options, so let's take a look to explore what each type of image was: Ambrotypes : This is an image printed on glass, which first proliferated in the United States in the 1850s. While they were cheaper to produce and clearer than the earlier daguerreotype, by the time of this ad, ambrotypes were falling out of favor, in part due t

Building Winchester in 1896

While perusing local news items in the July 16, 1896 Daily Item , several notes on construction projects and locations in Winchester jumped out. Let's see if we can track down where these building may be, and if they are still in existence. Miss Marie Wood, daughter of Col. Robt. C. Wood , of New Orleans, is the guest of her aunt, Mrs. B. T. Dandridge on Braddock street. This was a well-known house that no longer stands. Mrs. B. T. Dandridge is Betty Taylor Dandridge , who acted as First Lady when her mother declined the role. The house, located at 116 N. Braddock St., was demolished in 1934, but several images of it are available at the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives . Mr. J. S. Haldeman, of the creamery on Kent street, received yesterday 5000 pounds of milk and manufactured 387 pounds of butter. One of Haldeman's buildings still stands at 21-25 South Kent St. ( another building in the complex was demolished to provide parking). Although much altered by later uses, the buildin

Bisulphide of Carbon - Across the Country on One Tank of Fuel?

The People's Voice from April 17, 1880 continues to turn up weird and delightful stories. In "Supplanting Steam," the article claims the invention of a new fuel source that could be used with current steam engines with minimal alterations (essentially adding a condenser). The extraordinary properties of bisulphide of carbon have been long known, but no one has hitherto discovered the means of utilizing its forces until recently, when its union with petroleum solved the difficulty. This substance, bisulphide of carbon, is more commonly known today as carbon disulfide . Petroleum, of course, needs no introduction (but in this invention, it seems to have been used primarily as a lubricant). The article claims this combination, when heated in the steam chamber to "lukewarm" temperatures around 140-200 F (60-94 Celsius), "acts precisely as steam, only more dense, and with greater force...It is claimed that three-fourth of the fuel required for steam is save

Relic on the Lethe

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