Katherine Keenum

Ellen Day Hale's 1910 picture of a reclining woman with a guitar (taken here from a post at It’s About Time) can help me with the atmosphere of ANONYMITY in a way that photographs cannot. There’s something fresh and vivid  Read More 

Turkeys, a New World species, were introduced to Europe in the 16th C and quickly became associated with holiday celebrations, especially Christmas. When 19th C American students abroad wanted to celebrate their home country’s Thanksgiving holiday, therefore, the birds were available. The Hotel Baudy  Read More 

Dantan’s painting shows the Salon on a normal day, not the opening—one of the many days Jeanette and Effie went back together perhaps. (The 1880 Salon is the very one at which I have Jeanette’s painting of a vestibule in the Renicks’ house hang.)  Read More 

Breaking news: A Georgia O'Keefe painting has sold for a record price for a painting by a woman. I suppose this just upped the price (not the value!) of all her other work, but why does my heart sink that dollars dictate the discussion? Read More 

In thinking about the Circleville “back story” for my new heroine, Mattie, I wondered what games were played by Ohio children of her era. Outdoor Sports for Boys gave quick answers—and its (and Girls) points to the need for feminism! Among the  Read More 

A plot detail in ANONYMITY required advertising placards in subway cars. Were there any? This sheet music cover doesn’t show any, but I loved the attitude of the woman rider. Furthermore, I found the answer to my question here.

To listen to Theodore Norman and Arthur Gillespie's whoop-de-doo, racy Subway Glide, click here.

For the sheet music, click here or, in pdf format, here. Read More 

Blog tip: Any of you who read fantasy fiction know Terri Windling as a writer or editor. I have just stumbled across her blog Myth and Moor while researching Glasgow women artists (I think Amy Richardson may wind up in Glasgow). A visit to her page is a two-fer, Windling herself and Jessie M. King. Read More 

After yesterday's post on a Men Only saloon (and the results of this year's elections), I can't resist posting this image. I didn't document it properly so I can't tell you where I found it, but shall we agree, it speaks for itself?!?

A painting of Nymphs and Satyrs by William Adolphe Bouguereau lies in one of the oddball overlaps between my research for ANONYMITY and Where the Light Falls. In the published novel, Bouguereau is Jeanette’s teacher at the Académie Julian, and I saw his painting often when I visited the galleries while working in the library at The Clark. What you see here, however,  Read More 

Sunrise, 7:35 AM, November 13, 1872. Claude Monet dashes off his impression of the red sun over misty Le Havre harbor. Yes, no, exactly? Exactly, say researchers Donald Olson, a professor of astrophysics at Texas State University and Géraldine Lefebre, a curator at the Musée d'Art Moderne Aldreé Malraux in Le Havre. For more about their calculations, click here. Does it matter? Not a whit. Is it fun? Well, sure.

See also my earlier post, Impression: Sunrise. Read More