Paula E. Petrik

Paula Petrik died January 18, 2023. A trailblazer in digital history and the history of childhood and adolescence, Petrik taught history at Montana State University, the University of Maine at Orono, and George Mason University. Her first book, No Step Backward: Women and Family on the Rocky Mountain Frontier, 1865-1900, appeared in 1987. Petrik came to AAS in 1988-89 to conduct research for “Playthings for the Republic’s Children: American Culture and the Business of Play.” That work helped lead to Small Worlds: Children and Adolescents in America, 1850-1950 (1992), coedited with Elliott West.