A Conversation with Sara Fitzgerald, Author of The Silenced Muse
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A conversation with author Sara Fitzgerald, who “un-silences” the woman who inspired many of T.S. Eliot’s most famous poems.
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Harriet Jacobs Walking Tour
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On Juneteenth (or any day), please join this tour of Harriet Jacobs in Civil War Alexandria that I put together for two special visitors!
Read MoreA Conversation with Katie Bowler Young, Author of Enrique Alférez, Sculptor
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Katie Bowler Young talks about the provocative subject of her 2020 biography and how she came to write about him.
Read MoreA Conversation with Ted Pulliam, Author of True Tales of Old Alexandria
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Ted Pulliam explained to me how previous research did double-duty in a new book, True Tales of Old Alexandria.
Read MoreWhat's in a Name: Confederate Street Re-naming in Alexandria, Virginia
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Streets named after Confederate generals and others—overdue for a change.
Read MoreA Conversation with Samira Meghdessian, Translator of Remembering Ramallah
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Samira Meghdessian talks about the joys and challenges of translating her uncle’s 60-year-old book from Arabic into English.
Read MoreA Conversation with Mary Collins, Author of A Play Book
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A treat for the head, heart, and hand—my conversation with author and friend Mary Collins.
Read MoreA Conversation with Eileen Bjorkman, Author of Fly Girls Revolt
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A great conversation with my writing colleague—author and pilot Eileen Bjorkman!
Read MoreInterviewing Lynne Olson at the Gaithersburg Book Festival
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A great conversation with Lynne Olson, author of a biography of French archaeologist Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt.
Read MoreOn to Richmond!
/Last night, I made a brief “trip report” to members of the Civil War Roundtable of the District of Columbia about a CWRDC-organized day trip to Richmond. About 10 of us boarded the train at Washington or Alexandria for what turned out to be a great day.
Here’s what we did:
Walked about a mile along the James River and Kanawha Canal. The canal (like the C&O and Alexandria Canals further north) was built in an attempt to circumvent the falls on the James River. The railroad pretty much doomed the canal system.
Visited Brown’s Island and its striking statuary. Used during the Civil War as a munitions site, it is now a recreational area with a huge Cinco de Mayo festival setting up when we were there.
Took a wooden boardwalk across the river, which has quotations in its flooring with different perspectives on the Federal entry into Richmond in April 1865.
Toured the American Civil War Museum on the grounds of the former Tredegar Iron Works, the largest such facility in the Confederacy.
Learned more about how enslaved and free Blacks, immigrant Whites, and true-believing White secessionists experienced the period.
Visited the “White House of the Confederacy” where Jefferson Davis and his family lived from 1861 to 1865.
Walked about 10,000 steps in total (various people’s step-counters gave slightly different accounts) to return to Richmond’s Main Street station for a 4:57 P.M. train home.
See below for a sampling of photos taken by me and other members of the group:
A Conversation with Brenda Mitchell-Powell, Author of Public in Name Only: The 1939 Alexandria Library Sit-In Demonstration
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Brenda Mitchell-Powell sheds light on an early civil rights sit-in—for equal access to the public library in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1939.
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A Conversation with Diana Parsell, Author of Eliza Scidmore: The Trailblazing Journalist Behind Washington’s Cherry Trees
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A conversation with Diana Parsell about the subject of her new biography and about the ups and downs of bringing the book to life.
Read MoreNotes from BIO Craft Lab
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Tips from accomplished biographers about how they create what they create.
Read More"For mercy’s sake, don’t let anybody see this letter": Sarah J.C. Whittlesey
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The letters of an Alexandria woman’s letters reveal her interior life.
Read MoreCampobello Island, Looked at from Two Countries
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A three-hour international trip from Lubec, Maine (USA), to Campobello Island, New Brunswick (Canada)
Read MorePilgrimage to Montgomery with the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project
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My account of the Oct. 6-10 pilgrimage from Alexandria, Virginia, to Montgomery, Alabama, with the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project.
Read MoreA Conversation with Meg Groeling, Author of First Fallen: The Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the North’s First Civil War Hero
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Read about Col. Elmer Ellsworth’s short but eventful life, which ended in a heroic death in Alexandria.
Read MoreBehind the Written Word: Q and A with Katy O’Grady
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Looking at scripts used by Japanese and Chinese women centuries ago, Katy O’Grady wondered how our brains can look at little shapes and instantly transform them into concepts.
Read MoreReturn to NARA I
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Surrounded by thousands of pages of original letters, telegrams, and reports. Heaven.
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