I guess when you go to visit an historic site, you want to find out what happened. What happened here? Why is this place important? Why do a lot of people come here looking at this? And that's very similar to the book. I discovered that there were 130 corset businesses in the city over the course of 120 years or so. What happened here? Like, what caused that? Why were there so many? So it's when the questioning mind kicks in. How did this happen? What can I learn about it? What were their lives like? Those definitely relate to spending your childhood going to foreign countries and learning about new places. I think those tie together.
Anne Marie Murphy received her bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Bowdoin College in 1982, started working several film industry positions, and did some freelance writing for local newspapers. Later Anne Marie went back to school to earn her degree in Critical Studies of Film and Television and started her own company called Eastern Script, the first script clearance house outside of Los Angeles county. Anne Marie came to the city of Worcester, and started volunteering at the Worcester Historical Museum Library. During the peak of COVID in 2020, Anne Marie wanted to explore the women working in the Worcester corset industry and took the free time as an opportunity to do so. Anne Marie struck gold on information of women working in Worcester and is now publishing a book, City of Corsets, on the many women business owners and seamstresses throughout the late nineteenth century to early twentieth. During this interview Anne Marie shares her experiences in childhood living in Brussels and how they shaped her personal and professional life today.