Class of: 1978

Mary Ann (Maitland) Mayer

Mary Ann (Maitland) Mayer (Sargent’78) of Barnstable, Mass., published Kissing the Shuttle: A Lyric History (Blackstone River Books, 2018). “Written at the intersection of poetry and history, this collection weaves together original poems, archival photographs, and descriptive captions to trace the history of New England’s textile mills, ‘King Cotton,’ and the tuberculosis epidemic,” Mary Ann writes. “It shows the human face of industrialization against a backdrop of connected events, and features pioneering initiatives to curb tuberculosis, including Rhode Island’s open-air schools, which began a national public health movement. The book has been praised by the historian laureate of Rhode Island as ‘a blend of both triumph and tragedy.’”

From the Winter-Spring 2019 issue.