Author

My writing examines photographs and archives as material, social, and historical objects. I am interested in what images reveal, what descriptions make visible, and how collaborative research can restore names, relationships, and context to the historical record.

Books

Through a Woman’s Eye: The Early 20th Century Photography of Alabama’s Edith Morgan (2015)

Contributed the essay “More than Black and White” to this volume, edited by Marian Perdue Furman, with a foreword by Harvey H. Jackson, and published by NewSouth Books. The book presents one hundred photographs by Edith Morgan (1875–1939), whose albums documented Black and white residents of Camden, Alabama. My essay provides biographical context and compares Morgan’s work with that of contemporary women photographers and other photographers in the region.

People of the Big Voice: Photographs of Ho-Chunk Families by Charles Van Schaick, 1879–1942 (2011)

Coauthored with Tom Jones, Michael Schmudlach, Amy Lonetree, and George A. Greendeer and published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. This peer-reviewed visual history identifies more than ninety percent of the people represented in 330 photographs, with captions incorporating English and Ho-Chunk names. My opening essay, “A Long View,” considers Charles Van Schaick, the stewardship of his archive, and portrait photography as historical evidence.

Learn more about People of the Big Voice

Selected writing

  • “How do the physical qualities of objects determine what is saved and what is discarded in an archive?” The Order of Multitudes, Yale University, 2020.
  • “Connecting to a Native American Past Through Photographs,” History Happenings, 2011.
  • Essays and collection announcements on the Peter Palmquist collections, visual materials, and newly available archival collections.
  • Book reviews for Journal of the West, New England Archivists Newsletter, and Michigan Historical Review.

Recent presentations