This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by John Wood Sweet, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and author.

The two discuss his book The Sewing Girls Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America and how narrative nonfiction helps us, the reader, get a glimpse into the past in ways we may have never thought were possible.

Please note/content warning: this episode discusses a historical sexual assault case. 

Related Episodes:

Episode 191: Mathew Pearl on Narrative Non-Fiction and The Taking of Jemima Boone

Episode 166: Picturing Frederick Douglass

Links:

• John Wood Sweet
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About My Guest:

John Wood Sweet is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and former director of UNC’s Program in Sexuality Studies. He graduated from Amherst College (summa cum laude) and earned his Ph.D. in History at Princeton University. His first book, Bodies Politic: Negotiating Race in the American North, was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Prize. He has served as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, and his work has been supported by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the National Humanities Center, the Institute for Arts and Humanities at UNC, the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale, the McNeil Center at Penn, and the Center for Global Studies in Culture, Power, and History at Johns Hopkins. 

About Maureen Taylor:

Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada.  She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira).  She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel, American Spirit, and The New York Times. Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com

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The post Episode 198: A Sewing’s Girl’s Tale with Author John Wood Sweet appeared first on Maureen Taylor.

In that month, George Washington Parke Custis, adopted son (and grandson) of President George Washington visited New York City.  In honor of the occasion there was a reception at the house of Alderman Peters attended by “the friends and companions in arms of the great Washington.” At that time, photography was still a relatively novel invention, but it’s quite possible that some of the attendees sat for a daguerreotype portrait before their death.

The following individuals were at the reunion. Their ages at the time (if known) are in parentheses. Not all were veterans. Some were well-known in New York while others were children of veterans.

Major Popham (93)

John Battin (93) of New York City

Major General Van Buren of Staten Island

Judge Miller

Judge Lynch

Thomas Lyell, Rector of Christ Church

William Mandeville

George B. Thorp

Elisha Whittlesey of Ohio

James M. Crane of Virginia

Samuel L. Waldo

Dr. John W. Francis

Isaac T. Hopper

Homer Curtis of Mount Vernon, Ohio

Jacob Hays

Dr. James E. Maney

Thomas Morris (born in 1771)

Teunis Quick (born in 1767)

A.S. Norwood (born 1770)

Philip Schuyler

Gilbert Smith (born 1772)

Sylvanus Miller

James Black of Newark, New Jersey

W. Vermilye

Joseph Weeks

Cornelius Bogert

R. Cheseborough

John W. Mulligan

Daniel B. Tallmadge

J.M. Matthews

A.L. Underhill

J.D. Beers

Judge Ogden Edwards

Geroge F. Hopkins

George Coggill

These are the only individuals named in the article, but according to the report about two hundred men who had served in the American Revolution came to pay respects to Custis.

Custis is the only known picture of any of the individuals in attendance that day.

If you know of any images of these men, please contact me at photodetective@maureentaylor.com.

Thank you for your help!

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The post Party for New York’s Men of Revolution appeared first on Maureen Taylor.