as an exploratory journey through that old party question: if you could have a drink with anyone in history, who would it be? History is full of people you’d love to have a drink with. Let’s meet a few.
as an exploratory journey through that old party question: if you could have a drink with anyone in history, who would it be? History is full of people you’d love to have a drink with. Let’s meet a few.
Have a drink with: Anne of Brittany Iron will, heart of gold, death before dishonor Ask her about: Being an early modern #girlboss For Women’s History Month in March, we’re diving into conversation with Rozsa Gaston, the author of a four-book series of historical fiction on Anne of Brittany, the only woman to be twice…
Have a drink with: Claire Heliot “Sentimentalist and lion tamer.” Ask her about: herding cats In 1905, the New York Hippodrome opened its doors with a banner performance of A Yankee Circus on Mars, a freewheeling half-circus, half-opera in which the King of Mars, acting as an intergalactic talent scout of sorts, comes to Earth…
Have a drink with: Anna Jarvis Don’t even get her started on “Candy Day.” Ask her about: Her mother. Anna Jarvis was a public school teacher and devout Methodist, and widely regarded as one of the inventors of the Mother’s Day holiday. She would not seem to be the type of person who would try…
Have a drink with: Fanny Fern Reform yourselves, gentlemen! Ask her about: Menswear styles for fall “Fanny Fern” was the pen name of Sarah Willis Parton, a popular 19th century writer who advocated for women’s independence, kept her pencil sharp and her wit sharper, and insisted on being paid handsomely for her output: she got…
Have a drink with: Jenny Lind The one and only Swedish Nightingale Ask her about: The hot concert tour of 1850 The Greatest Showman, a movie musical about the life and legend of P.T. Barnum, is a colorful, kinetic romp through the most recognizable part of Barnum’s entertainment oeuvre, with Hugh Jackman at the fore…
Have a drink with: Marie Tussaud Utility, amusement, severed heads. Ask her about: working motherhood Looking forward to Halloween, I’m at Atlas Obscura today writing about Madame Marie Tussaud, the 19th century entertainer and artist who got her start making death masks of decapitated French revolutionaries. Marie left France at forty years old, with her…
Have a drink with: Bathing Suit Lizards Stockingless bathers! Ask them about: Beachy fun, pig roasts, union cosplay. If you’re thinking about ways to enjoy your summer, rest assured: the past can help. As it turns out, just like you, people in the early 20th century spent plenty of time thinking about things like bathing…
Have a drink with: Thomas Nashe It was the merry month of February… Ask him about: Valentine’s Day plans Though he lived in Elizabethan England, Thomas Nashe was not an unfamiliar figure to modern thinking: in his twenties, Nashe was out of college, short on funds and trying to make it as a writer in…
Have a drink with: Agnes Rogers The future is female. Ask her about: Equality, dignity, good manners, mild snark. The other day I was reading a lifestyle blog talking about the challenge of living a halfway sane female existence in the face of social pressures that demand women be simultaneously effortless, clean, intelligent, ambitious, authentic, confident and…
Have a drink with: La Befana Auguri. Va bene. Ask her about: Getting stuff done. In Catholicism, January 6 is the feast of the Epiphany: the last of the twelve days of Christmas and the day on which the three visiting kings are said to arrive to meet the baby Jesus. And in Italian legend,…
