Calling all nonfiction history reviewers! Write for us at @draftingthepast.bsky.social! cc: @katecarp.bsky.social
Elizabeth Reese
@elizamreese.bsky.social
Historian of grief and public memory | Senior Manager of Interpretation at Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House | Writing about Edwin Booth, celebrity, and grief | Author of Marquis de Lafayette Returns (History Press, 2024) | www.elizabethmreese.com
A brief gender historian rant-- Journalists & pundits widely agree that the woman constantly at the president's side & with access to his social media clearly has enormous political influence & power. /1 🗃️
Always fun to pull a research letter that was originally mailed just a few blocks from where you're sitting.
Historian/research friends: The AdobeScan app has become almost unusable with the AI "upgrades." I frequently have to retake images when information is cut off (even when auto detect is turned off!), it lags, and you can't email PDFs. What is your favorite app for archive/reading room visits?
Sunday scaries hit harder after three perfect days on top of a mountain in the Blue Ridge.
As I'm in the midst of making my own database for my research, please share your own database tips and tricks. Where do you store it? What does it help to organize? How do you use it?
Finally got my act together and joined @shgape.bsky.social today!
Trying to distract myself while waiting for ~~~news and I've read five books since Sunday. My favorite was Kindred by Octavia Butler. WOW. I had to keep reminding myself it was written almost fifty years ago: it felt so modern.
I had a great time in Richmond presenting at my first @scwhistorians.bsky.social conference! It was great to connect with old and new friends and get valuable feedback on my current research. Sad to be missing the amazing panels today but for good reason: opening our new exhibit at Woodlawn today!
If you're in the Baltimore area and want to hear me share some of my research on Edwin Booth, I'll be speaking at Tudor Hall in Bel Air on Sunday, June 14 at 2pm. spiritsoftudorhall.blogspot.com/2025/12/make...
This is a great opportunity to recognize that Arlington House was never legally Lee's, but instead inherited by his daughter. Part of the land was inherited by Maria Syphax, Custis' Black daughter. There has been a massive push by Syphax and Lee descendants to remove Lee's name from the site. 1/2
Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR)@hcrichardson.bsky.social · 3mo agoMay 23, 2026
In a little over a week, I went from thinking we had found two new photographs of an elusive Booth sibling 🙌 to concluding we actually were actually back down to just one 😞. Meet the non-brother who eerily resembled Edwin Booth: lincolnconspirators.com/2026/05/20/j... @elizamreese.bsky.social
Joseph Booth’s Photographic Doppelgänger
The Booth family of Harford County, Maryland, is best known for its fame and infamy. The infamous John Wilkes has gone down in history for assassinating Abraham Lincoln, with his crime sadly oversh…
lincolnconspirators.com
Editing/revising my book proposal in current times feels like this:
Wonderful afternoon talking about my book at Woodlawn historic site! Great to present in the room I first sat in 3 years ago to talk to staff about the project. Thanks to @elizamreese.bsky.social for inviting me! They’re doing awesome work there, really exciting to see it all come together.
Yesterday I wrote 1,000 words for a project I had tabled for over two years and today I got my first big journal byline! (Thank you @sarageorgini.bsky.social and the NEQ team!) I feel the fog of the past few months/coming out of grad school lifting!
Just over a week until publication day and the book tour in support of THY WILL BE DONE is up over 15 dates! Come see me this spring/summer or invite me to come speak near you!
This morning I spoke about Lafayette's impact on the semicentennial at the US Capitol and this afternoon I got some research and writing done in the most beautiful library in the world, where multiple people asked if I was a lawyer.
Hey! It's me!
Southern Poverty Law Center@splcenter.org · 6mo agoSouthern museums like the SPLC's Civil Rights Memorial Center, the Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House and Atlanta's APEX Museum help defend truth, confront hard histories and preserve Black history. 📲Catch up on the latest episode of #ApathyIsNotAnOption this weekend: https://bit.ly/4kkwX7U
If you are wondering what words the all-male Congress found so "blasphemous" that they felt compelled to literally scrape them off the monument, they were: ''Woman, first denied a soul, then called mindless, now arisen, declared herself an entity to be reckoned.''
Jill Hasday@jillhasday.bsky.social · 6mo agoOn this day in 1921, Congress reluctantly accepted a sculpture memorializing women’s 19th A victory. Congress relegated the memorial to the Capitol’s crypt & painted over the feminist inscription. The statue stayed entombed in the crypt for 76 years. The inscription is still not restored. #WeTheMen
The museums/history field is notoriously difficult to break into. As we work to make our historic site more accessible, can you share the below job posting to widen the reach? I know there are candidates perfect for this position just out of my digital reach and I need your help!
Elizabeth Reese@elizamreese.bsky.social · 6mo agoNOVA/DC AREA HISTORY FRIENDS Do you have students, friends, colleagues et al. who are bilingual/ASL proficient? I am looking for those with these skills & an interest in American History to become interpreters at Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House, a site of @savingplaces.bsky.social
NOVA/DC AREA HISTORY FRIENDS Do you have students, friends, colleagues et al. who are bilingual/ASL proficient? I am looking for those with these skills & an interest in American History to become interpreters at Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House, a site of @savingplaces.bsky.social
Woodlawn, on the grounds of George Washington's Mount Vernon, is one of a number of historic home museums in the U.S. that share an expanded history of the enslaved Black people who lived and worked on their grounds. Read more from our Weekend Read: https://bit.ly/4txXrqL
There is a lot of despair out there. But I find so much hope and inspiration in my work and it was an honor to share it with @splcenter.org Visit your local historic site. Get involved. Be inspired. We cannot do this without community.
Southern Poverty Law Center@splcenter.org · 6mo ago📣 Check out the new #ApathyIsNotAnOption episode: https://bit.ly/4kkwX7U Honoring #BlackHistoryMonth, we're uplifting Southern museums — the SPLC's #CivilRights Memorial Center, Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House & #Atlanta's APEX Museum — and how they defend truth and preserve Black history.
“I’ve reviewed over 50 sticky toffee puddings” is an incredibly powerful way to begin a video
Our historic house museum is closed due to the freeze, but we managed some visitors this afternoon
It's a wonderful time of the year where every doctor I've ever visited emails me to say they will be closed tomorrow due to the snowstorm.
Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is educate normal people on complex subjects in ways that are engaging and digestible.