An Introduction

Hello! As the new director/curator, I'll also be taking over blogging duties here at Alice News. I thought I’d introduce myself and tell you a little bit about some of the things I hope to write about over the next few months.

I started working at the Alice in April 2013 as the assistant to Director/Curator Amanda Palmer, and it didn’t take long for me to become enraptured with Alice and William Miner, the collection, and the town of Chazy (friends and family may have gotten a little tired of me continually dropping Alice Facts on them). Before I moved to Plattsburgh in the spring of 2012, I taught U.S. and European history at Saginaw Valley State University in Saginaw, Michigan, for two years, and before that I lived in Williamsburg, Virginia for seven years while completing my MA and PhD in U.S. History at the College of William and Mary. How fortunate for me that the Alice very nicely brings together colonial history with the late 19th and early 20th century!

I’ll continue to blog about events at the Alice, provide updates on renovations and conservation projects, and highlight interesting objects in the collection. But I’m also planning to write a series of posts about the Colonial Revival movement, exploring how Alice Miner’s collection fits into the larger context of collecting and preserving America’s past. Some of the topics I’m interested in include the Colonial Revival at World’s Fairs (did Alice and William eat at the New England Kitchen in Chicago in 1893?) and the china-collecting craze at the turn of the century (it was bigger than Pokémon).

Oh, and like Alice, I’m a great pet lover, so expect to see lots of dog and cat pictures here! My husband and I are the devoted servants of Peanut, a lively Jack Russell/corgi/beagle/???? mix, and Simon the cat, who I found hanging out behind the museum last summer.

See you around the Alice!

Some of Alice’s animal pals

Such a dignified creature. 

Simon has no time for your antics.