One wrote of her experiences during the American Revolutionary era, and the other is helping tell that story as co-director of Ken Burns’ The American Revolution documentary on PBS, starting November 16, 2025.
Elizabeth “Betsy” Jacqulin Ambler was born on March 11, 1865, in Yorktown, Virginia, to Rebecca Burwell Ambler and Jacqulin Ambler. Both sides of Betsy’s family were quite wealthy, even after only a couple of generations in the American colonies. But wealth could only protect them for so long once the Colonists sent a We’re Fed Up letter to King George III, and the American Revolution began.
Betsy’s father was very active in Virginia politics and felt that the family wasn’t safe in Yorktown. This decision kept the family on the move for nearly four years, eventually settling in the new capital of the state, Richmond. When Betsy began a written correspondence with a friend during this time, she unintentionally started keeping a record of the war experience: not of a male soldier or officer, not of battles and strategy, but of a child and then a young woman living as a refugee in her own country. We learn about the fear of moving ahead of advancing troops, of a family trying to stay together, but also of a teenager flirting with soldiers, and so much more.
We’ll tell you the story of her life, her loves and losses, her philanthropic endeavors, her thoughts on our late 1700’s baby democracy. The reason that we know all of this is because not only did she write those letters, later in life she began to organize them, rewrite them, annotate them, and, in doing so, created an organized primary source, a historical record.
On November 16th, PBS begins airing a new Ken Burns’ documentary The American Revolution. Betsy is one of the “voices” in the six-part series, and we sat down with one of the co-directors of the series, Sarah Botstein, to talk about her experience sharing Betsy’s story. We talk about working with Ken Burns for 30 years, how the series was created, and personal accounts of her work and the series. The American Revolution premieres on November 16, 2025, on PBS.
Registration is now open for the June 3-7, 2026 Field Trip to Chicago! It’s a long weekend of subjects near and dear to all of our history-loving hearts! Visit Like Minds Travel for more information and to register!
Shownotes are under construction, please come back later for our media recommendations and sources.
Catherine de Medici lived in a century defined by the contributions of remarkable women, and she distinguished herself as one of the most remarkable of them all.
One of the first things Catherine did was take Chateau de Chenounceau back from her husband’s long-time mistress, Diane de Poitiers.
In this second part of Catherine’s story, we follow Queen Mother Catherine beginning as a close advisor to her son, King Francis II. No longer an apprentice or observer in the art of intrigue, when Francis died about a year and a half later, she was named the only regent to her young son, King Charles IX. How was that possible in a court full of men greedy for power? She was sharp, strategic, and brave in ways that defied cultural expectations. She would be this way for the rest of her life with one primary goal: to be the custodian of her family’s legacy on the throne of France against all opponents.
We left Miep right after she decided, with zero hesitation, that she would do whatever was necessary to keep the people in the attic safe as they hid from the Nazi persecution of the Jewish population.
For the next several years Miep would risk her life daily to fulfill that promise, and her Miep’s story is quite documented. One of the most important things she did was to collect from the annex and keep safe the writing collection of a 15-year-old Anne Frank until after the war. We know how she, Jan, and the other four helpers–Bep Voskuijl, Victor Kugler, Johan Klieman, and Johan Voskuijl– kept the Frank and Van Pel’s families, and Fritz Pfeffer safe for two years in the attic. In the slightly wider world, we know how the Nazi government captured, transported to concentration camps in other countries, tortured, and slaughtered millions of mostly Jewish people but also resisters, Black, Roma, and gay people… including all the former inhabitants of the secret annex with the lone exception of Otto Frank.
The time that Miep spent caring for those in hiding was not pleasant in Amsterdam, there was severe food shortages and more and more control by the Nazi military until, in 1945, the war ended and the rebuilding began. Otto Frank returned to Amsterda and moved in with Miep and Jan for the next seven years. He edited, published, defended, protected, and made sure that his daughter Anne’s legacy, her diary, was read and understood by as many people as possible throughout the world so that atrocities like this may never happen again.
Miep did what she could to support him until he passed away in 1980, then she took up his work until her death at 100 in 2010.
When Otto Frank, Anne Franks father, received the news that Anne and Margot had died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, helper Miep Gies was with him in the office. In this video, she explains how she gave Otto Frank the diaries of Anne Frank. She had saved these papers from the moment the people in hiding were arrested. #annefrank#miepgies#ottofrank#diary#legacy#woii#after
Miep said this of her work during the war: “My story is a story of very ordinary people during extraordinary times, times the like of which I hope with all my heart will never come again. It is for all of us ordinary people, all over the world, to see to it that they do not.”
Time Travel With The History Chicks
Perhaps more than any other subject, this is not an exhaustive list of materials on Miep, Anne, the Holocaust, WWII…it’s simply the ones that we used and can recommend.
Books!
Miep’s memoirWho betrayed the family? By Rosemary Sullivan (also in audiobook narrated by Julia Whelen) One of three versions, this is the most recent, the Definitive VersionFrom Bep’s perspective by her son, Joop Van Wijk-VoskuijlBy Angela WoodBy Carol Ann LeeBy Corrie Ten BoomBy Tim BradyBy Nina Siegal
Kids books:
By Meeg Pincus, Illustrated by Jordi SolanoBy Barbara Lowell, illustrated by Valentina Toro
There were many investigations aimed at revealing the person who betrayed those hiding in the attic, the first one was only a year after the war ended. Here’s an article on one from Anne Frank House website.
Moving Pictures!
1995 documentary based on Miep’s memoirfrom 1988 starring Mary SteenburgenThe most recent adaptation of Miep’s memoir, currently on Disney+ (It’s very good)
We wrap up our coverage of this brave, trailblazing woman who defied convention, governmental oppression, violence, and financial hurdles (to name a few) to begin the Greenbelt Movement which not only planted 40 million trees and counting, but helped empower women around the world work for bettering themselves and their own communities from the ground up!
Her funeral with glimpses of her unique coffin, her children, and some archival footage of Wangari herself.
Time Travel With The History Chicks
Books!
Her memoirby Wangari Maathaiby Wangari MaathaiBy Namulundah Florence
So many kids’ books!!
by Eucabeth OdiamboPart of the Rebel Girls seriesBy Gwendolyn Hooks, Margaux Carpentierby Jeannete Winterby Maureen McQuerry and Robin Rosenthal
And off-topic but discussed (IYKYN) :
By Libba BrayBy Gwendolyn Hooks and Colin Bootman
Web!
The Green Belt Movement is still very active, here is their website with lots of information about their mission. their work, and their history, and the Wangari Maathai Foundation has a lot of information as well.
The Greenbelt Movement is still active around the world, here is a very recent article about how they are still standing up to the government of Kenya: The Nation (e-paper)
Here is some information on Sagana State Lodge in Kenya where Princess Elizabeth learned she was Queen Elizabeth while Wangari was in school nearby: Sagana Lodge
The Bowery Boys New York City History podcast has several episodes that discuss parts of Central Park, this is a good one to start with: The early years of Central Park.
***We don’t usually add things to our shownotes that we didn’t talk about on the show, but a lovely friend of the show, ELizabeth, shared the One Tree Planted organization with us which is part of the Trillion Tree program that we did talk about. Check them out and help plant trees all over the world!
Wangari Maathai understood the vital connections between living things and the Earth; of local communities and the wider world. It is true that many trees make a mighty forest, and Maathai’s Green Belt Movement made it clear to us all that the most important change for the greater good is one that each individual makes in their own backyard… a philosophy which would earn her the Nobel Peace Prize.
The map that Beckett found up high in an antique store.
Georgia Theresa Gilmore was born on February 5, 1920, in Montgomery, Alabama, where she lived and worked her entire life. And,as we explain in the podcast, that life was far from easy. By the time she was in her 20s she had a long list of jobs including laundress, railroad tie-changer, midwife, and the one that she used to solely support her growing household of six children, her mother, and various extended family: a cook.
