Katharine, 1976 by Trikosko, Marion S, Library of Congress
Katharine Meyer Graham was born on June 16, 1917, in New York City, the fourth child of Eugene Meyer and Agnes Ernst Meyer. She had a very upper-class upbringing thanks to her incredibly successful investor father who had a second career in politics and a third in newspaper publishing after he purchased the then-failing Washington Post. Katharine’s mother, Agnes, was a powerhouse art patron and philanthropist (with a spicy side of political activism) while maybe not the fuzziest of maternal figures, she was a product of her times and class.
We went with fifty friends on our latest women’s history tour to the City of Light! From a private nighttime tour of Versailles to a luncheon at Veuve Clicquot, through pastries shaped like apples at A. LaCroix patisserie, and an ocean of glorious onion soup, we filled our suitcases with treasures and our hearts with joy.
But perhaps the best souvenirs we all brought home were the lifelong friends we made along the way.
Very happy travelers on Liberty Island, September 2024
Three times a year a collection of History Chicks listeners embark on a Field Trip with us, this September that adventure was to New York City! Our travel organizer, Laura Hart of Like Minds Travel, put together an itinerary of experiences and places that feature some of our former subjects, this time over a 5-day weekend.
Gertrude, circa 1922 in her WSA sweater via Library of Congress
They said it couldn’t be done; that the deck, and the odds, were stacked against her, but Trudy Ederle listened only to her heart during her record-breaking swim across the English Channel. She was the first woman to accomplish this feat, and her record would hold for another 24 years, but there was a lot more to her life than one phenomenal swim.