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Maria and Metamorphosis: The Art of Maria Sibylla Merian

Maria and Metamorphosis: The Art of Maria Sibylla Merian

NOTE: This post is in honor of Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), whose work I  discovered as I researched women pioneers in the field of nature art and writing. From the first paintings I saw of her flowers and butterflies, I knew my MSM odyssey had […]

A Natural Influence: Nature and the Brontë Sisters, Part Three

A Natural Influence: Nature and the Brontë Sisters, Part Three

Part Three: Emily I’m sure it has happened to you: You just know you and your favorite author or historical figure would have been “besties”. That’s just how I feel about Emily Brontë. She loved to walk and felt walking benefitted both her body and […]

A Natural Influence: Nature and the Brontë Sisters, Part Two

A Natural Influence: Nature and the Brontë Sisters, Part Two

Part Two: Charlotte and Anne Above print from the original image “Country Scene with Cattle” by Anne Brontë, 1836. Pencil. Original art courtesy of the Brontë Parsonage and Museum. Note: This is part two of a three part series on the Brontë sisters. Part one […]

A Natural Influence: Nature and the Brontë Sisters, Part One

A Natural Influence: Nature and the Brontë Sisters, Part One

Part 1: Walking the Brontë Way I know as Clay and I step off the bus, that I want to remember everything about this early October day, starting with breakfast in the bakery (hot chocolate and pastries). We will need this energy for our long […]

Nature, Writing, and the Friends Literary Society of Waterford, Virginia

Nature, Writing, and the Friends Literary Society of Waterford, Virginia

Amos and Mary Janney, Quakers from Bucks County, Pennsylvania , moved south to the Catoctin Valley of Virginia about 1733. The community grew as more Quakers followed the Janneys to build mills, plant farmlands, and build houses and shops. The area, then part of Fairfax […]

“Dear Arthur. . .Mother is Sending a Jar of Apple Butter” – Letters from the Civil War

“Dear Arthur. . .Mother is Sending a Jar of Apple Butter” – Letters from the Civil War

Lyman and Ruth Strong sent their thoughts and love (along with the apple butter) to their son, Arthur, on Christmas Day 1862, from Seville, Ohio. Arthur had enlisted in November, 1861, at age 16, one of thousands of young men who would receive letters from […]

Why I am Passionate About History: Anne S. Frobel’s Diary

Why I am Passionate About History: Anne S. Frobel’s Diary

Sometimes, in the throes of research, when one is least expecting it, comes a moment when a particular kind of light shines on a word or phrase, and in that moment one’s purpose becomes clear. One experiences an epiphany of sorts. Just such a moment […]

Current Events – Stories of Two Rivers

Current Events – Stories of Two Rivers

Last week, my husband, Clay, and I kayaked with friends on two historic rivers. On Monday, we paddled a stretch of the Potomac in Maryland, and on Wednesday, we paddled (and carried, due to low water) our boats down the Shenandoah. For our Potomac trip, […]

These Walls Do Talk – Civil War Graffiti and the Stories It Tells

These Walls Do Talk – Civil War Graffiti and the Stories It Tells

Countless stories began and ended during the Civil War – stories told in letters home to mothers, sweethearts, brothers and sisters; experiences put to paper by lamp or firelight in diaries and journals; words shed like tears on the pages of survivors’ memoirs. But other […]

Celebrating National Women’s History Month: Women in Art and Literature – Lida Dutton, Lizzie Dutton, and Sarah Steer – Civil War Journalists

Celebrating National Women’s History Month: Women in Art and Literature – Lida Dutton, Lizzie Dutton, and Sarah Steer – Civil War Journalists

. . . Let us be up and doing – old and young – we have no time to idle; every quickly flitting moment is to be improved, every space filled up. Words to inspire. These lines graced the third edition of The Waterford News, a […]