Women’s History Month – Hurray for History Detectives!

Saturday Vicki Leon, writer and history detective, gave a talk in honor of Women’s History Month. She was full of information about some fascinating and spunky women in history. Vicki entertained the packed room with stories about a woman general in Ancient Egypt, a very successful counterfeiter in New England, a 17 year who sculpted Lincoln, and many others. Her stories are full of women who did more than what was expected of them, and blazed a trail for future generations of women.

How does Vicki do her research? With hard work and persistence. She says she looks for the trouble-makers in history. And that the best stuff isn’t in the history books….but in letters, diaries, memoirs and works of art. It’s a great area for amateurs, who have a fresh perspective on research. Too many people give up when research gets tough or dull. Persistence is all. It’s a scavenger hunt. Vicki teaches workshops on doing research – from her talk I can imagine what fun that would be!

As a child, as well as wanting to be an artist and writer, I wanted to be an historian. At ten I particularly loved Tudor and Elizabethan history and I read everything I could find on the subject. I went about spouting 400 year old gossip about Court intrigues and misadventures. I would have loved Vicki Leon’s books then. I still do! Hurray for history detectives!