Daughters of Time: Historical Tales, Truths, and Tangents
Welcome to my new blog, where I live in the past to figure out the future.
The title comes from Josephine Tey’s novel The Daughter of Time. It’s the historian’s craft wrapped up in mystery, and the best explanation for what I do than just about anything out there.
My best friend Kay McDonough shared my enthusiasm for The Daughter of Time, which we re-read as often as our repeated readings of the Little House books when we were in 4th grade. Kay passed away in 2016. We were both students of history, daughters of time, and this blog is another way to honor her memory.
Louisiana Foster: Marin County’s Influenza Angel
When disasters hit, help can come from the most unlikely places. In September of 1918 the deadly influenza epidemic struck the San Francisco Bay Area. Cities and individuals met the crisis in ways which are unpleasantly familiar to us at the moment: closing...
America Enters The Great War
One hundred years ago today, the United States entered The Great War, World War I, which had begun in Europe in 1914. Years of American neutrality and pleas for peace began to crumble as 1917 opened. President Wilson, despite declaring that the U.S. would never enter...
It’s Your Birthday, Levi Strauss: Merchant, Philanthropist, Immigrant
Today is the 188th birthday of Levi Strauss, the man who gave blue jeans to the world. A good reason to take a moment to remember the famed San Francisco merchant and generous philanthropist whose causes ranged from orphanages to scholarships at the University of...
When worlds collide……with clowns
Anyone who studies or writes about California history will tell you that people, stories, facts, and weirdness will often intersect. Take, for example, my research about the doctors who worked at the Arequipa tuberculosis sanatorium, the topic of my next book. A few...
What’s a historian to do?
I've been pondering something for the last few days: why the heck did I start a history blog in the midst of some of the most unsettled current events since the Watergate era? There are historians out there providing context, really great context, for what is going...