The Miniature Painter Revealed: A Q & A with Kathleen Lagone

The Miniature Painter Revealed: Amalia Kussner’s Gilded Age Pursuit of Fame and Fortune by Kathleen Lagone is another story of a woman who was famous in her own time and subsequently forgotten. No other female portrait artist had the notoriety or esteemed clientele that Amalia Kussner enjoyed. From the mid-1890s to 1910, having a Kussner…

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The Countess and the Nazis: A Q & A with Richard Jay Hutto

Months ago, a mutual friend introduced me to Rick Hutto. He thought we had things in common, including writing “lively, vibrant, deeply researched and highly entertaining historic narratives.” (That’s a compliment worth having!) Rick’s latest book, The Countess and the Nazi: An American Family’s Private War is the story of an American heiress who traded…

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Grace Drayton, Illustrator and Creator of an American Icon

  Grace Drayton (1878-1936)* was a well-known illustrator and cartoonist in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drayton grew up in Philadelphia’s art world. Her father was a lithographer by training and a well respected publisher of fine arts books and reproductions.**  She was one of seven siblings, most of whom had careers in…

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