Photo by Kjeld Mahoney, Scituate
About Me
I explore history, using archives, old photos, deeds, and detective skills to tell and show what happened. I dig deep.
I give public talks on history.
I document the history and architecture of old houses. Over 50 are now published in the Massachusetts online database called MACRIS. My forms are unusually detailed. They cover most areas of the ancient seaside town of Scituate, MA, and parts of Boston, particularly those important for woman suffrage.
​My work has been published, including in peer-reviewed historical journals. "Sunnycroft: A Scituate Summer Estate," New England Journal of History, Volume 79, Issue 1, Fall 2022, https://www.nejh.org/current-issue.
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I published four books so far, described on this website.
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Ditching the Marshes (2022). History and sources on salt marshes.
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Seacoast Scituate By Air (2022), with Gary Banks and Bill Richardson. Aerial photos with historical commentary.
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On a Cliff: A History of Third Cliff in Scituate, Massachusetts (2021). This richly illustrated book is the first devoted to scenic Third Cliff, tracing the transformation of seacoast Scituate from Native American and colonial farmland of the 1600s into a summer destination of the 1900s, with a popular summer colony. Acclaimed by academics, enthusiastically welcomed by residents.
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Summer Suffragists: Woman Suffrage Activists in Scituate, Massachusetts (2020). A surprising number of nationally known suffragists spent summers in Scituate. Their stories are timely, 100 years after America adopted the 19th Amendment that gave women the vote in 1920, and still relevant today.
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I continue researching and writing works that explore Scituate's history.
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I am a retired attorney. I graduated from Dartmouth College and Boston University School of Law. I live in historic Scituate. I am a member of the Scituate Historical Society, a volunteer for the Scituate Historical Commission, a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and a member of the New England Historical Association.
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Download my resume/CV here.