Burns is the tenth-great-grandchild of Rebecca Nurse the grandchild of writer Armstrong Sperry.[2][3] They received an A.B. from Mount Holyoke College in 1980 and an M.A. from University of New Hampshire in 1991. Burns studied animation for two years in the Rhode Island School of Design's continuing education program.[4] Burns lives in New Hampshire.
Career
Burns's initial interest in the Salem Witch Trials led them to explore its North Andover analog. Bernard Rosenthal invited them to be the project manager and associate editor of the book Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt.[5][6][7] The book expanded on previous scholarship, including new court documents and corrected earlier scholarship errors.[8] Burns' attention to paleography helped sort out the errors and idiosyncrasies from the original recorders of the handwritten manuscripts which had last been transcribed in 1938.[7][9]
In addition to their work with the Salem and Andover events, Burns is a researcher into historical animated cartoons and gives lectures for the New Hampshire Humanities Council about cartoon history in the US.[4] They also created a font, Dana Library Hand, which was "inspired by a recommended penmanship style for librarians to use when writing out card catalogue cards."[14]
↑Karlsen, Carol F. (2008). "Salem Revisited". The William and Mary Quarterly. 65 (3). Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture: 489–494. ISSN0043-5597. JSTOR25096810. Retrieved 2024-12-09.