Historians use a lot of different sources when they research the past. Many rely on primary source documents, documents that were written by official government bodies or those written by the people who witnessed the events or changes historians are studying.

But how do you uncover the voices and stories of people who didn’t know how to write or whose families didn’t preserve much of their writing? 

Maeve Kane, an Associate Professor of History at the University at Albany and author of Shirts Powdered Red: Gender, Trade, and Exchange Across Three Centuries, ran into this very problem as she sought to recover the lives of Haudenosaunee women. Maeve overcame this challenge by researching a different type of historical source—the cloth Haudenosaunee women traded for and the clothing they made and wore.

Maeve’s Website | Book 

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/403

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