Chicago's Abraham Lincoln Book Shop

Chicago's Abraham Lincoln Book Shop

Watch my conversation with Bjorn Skaptason on Author's Voice at Chicago's Abraham Lincoln Book Shop.

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

Honoring Anna Lynch

Honoring Anna Lynch

Anna Lynch (1925-2017), much loved and respected, honored at the Lyceum on September 23.

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

Sgt. Major Christian Fleetwood: USCT Member, Medal of Honor Recipient, Diary Keeper

Sgt. Major Christian Fleetwood: USCT Member, Medal of Honor Recipient, Diary Keeper

Few first-person accounts by USCT are known, which is why the diary of Sgt. Major Christian Fleetwood caught my interest.

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

National Book Festival: At the Virginia Booth

National Book Festival: At the Virginia Booth

i got to volunteer at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities' booth at the National Book Festival.

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

The Athenaeum in Old Town Alexandria

The Athenaeum in Old Town Alexandria

Meredith Barber on the history of the Athenaeum building in Old Town Alexandria.

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

Point Lookout, Maryland: A Confederate POW Camp, a Union Fort, and a Place to Fish

Point Lookout, Maryland: A Confederate POW Camp, a Union Fort, and a Place to Fish

Point Lookout's location marked it for many things during the Civil War, including a large Confederate POW camp. 

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

Update--Appomattox Statue, Then and Now

Update--Appomattox Statue, Then and Now

The Confederate veteran has stood on Alexandria's main north-south thoroughfare for more than 100 years. What should happen to it now?

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

Solar Eclipse 1860

Solar Eclipse 1860

Julia Wilbur found an eclipse had a "baleful" effect on her mood.

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

The Harriet Tubman Byway on the Eastern Shore

The Harriet Tubman Byway on the Eastern Shore

A trip along the Harriet Tubman Byway is a good reminder of injustice and bravery.

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

Charles County, Maryland: Two Stops on a Summer Saturday

Charles County, Maryland: Two Stops on a Summer Saturday

A visit to the Thomas Stone Historic Site and Port Tobacco on a summer Saturday.

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

Tough Choices for a New Monument

Tough Choices for a New Monument

How to choose 8 people to recognize at the base of a monument to honor emancipation and freedom? With difficulty.

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

Q-and-A with Pamela Toler, author of Heroines of Mercy Street

Q-and-A with Pamela Toler, author of Heroines of Mercy Street

Historian and author Pamela Toler posed some questions to me about Julia Wilbur and Civil War Alexandria.

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

Society for Women in the Civil War: A Range of Topics

Society for Women in the Civil War: A Range of Topics

From a variety of primary sources, and from Mount Vernon to the Far West and back again.

Read More

An Exciting Day

An Exciting Day

in which I meet my book, bound, for the first time!

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

Susan Ireland's Boarding House on Seventh Street

Susan Ireland's Boarding House on Seventh Street

Among Susan Ireland's investments was the building where Clara Barton lived in the 1860s. But how did Ireland get her money, and how could she invest as a woman in that era?

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

Costumes from Mercy Street at the Lyceum

Costumes from Mercy Street at the Lyceum

Check out four costumes used on the PBS series Mercy Street--worn by Alice Green, Emma Green, Mary Phinney, and Jed Foster. 

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

"What an Immense City": Julia Wilbur Visits New York in July 1863

"What an Immense City": Julia Wilbur Visits New York in July 1863

Julia Wilbur does New York City--early July 1863. I follow her footsteps--late June 2017.

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

Bon Voyage to the Ship (for now)

Bon Voyage to the Ship (for now)

More than 200 pieces of an 18th century ship, each triple-wrapped and on its way to Texas A&M for conservation. A good event in Alexandria, the day after the shootings at Simpson Field.

Read More
Comment
Print Friendly and PDF

Mason's Island: or A Bully Little Island in the Potomac*

Mason's Island: or A Bully Little Island in the Potomac*

Notes from a talk about Theodore Roosevelt Island by NPS expert Brad Krueger, who also spurred my visit there last weekend.

Read More

For Mainers and Maine-Lovers: Amy Bradley in Alexandria

For Mainers and Maine-Lovers: Amy Bradley in Alexandria

A Maine woman made life less miserable for thousands of soldiers in Alexandria, VA.

Read More