Jezebel then uncommon life of Anne Hutchinson, the woman who defied the puritans. Boston Public Library and partnership of historic boston cohosted this hourlong event. I want to start by telling you we have been offering charter day activities for a long time and our speaker this evening is a veteran. In 2005 she spoke on the lawn of three house in the and the three 75th anniversary of bostons naming and she spoke about her ancestor Anne Hutchinson and that is the year first church in boston finally released her from the excommunication given semicenturies before. Given so many centuries before. Eve laplante has published articles, essays, and five nonfiction books. Two of them are especially relevant. One is american jezebel, which is for sale outside after the talk and it tells the true story ancestor, Anne Hutchinson, the one who was finally got back into the church. The second ancestor we will mention this evening is the book witch judge, and that won the 2008 massachusetts book award for nonfiction. Recently, i do that evewhen it was, laplante offers praise for her forebears. She sees Anne Hutchinson and samuel not as the dark puritans many imagine them to be, but they remained living president s presences, even models of rectitude, into the 21st century. Please welcome eve laplante. [applause] eve thank you, rose, and thank you to the boston Public Library and thank you all for coming. Onight before we started i wanted to think where would be an the 17th century in boston. We would be in the waters of the south bay, probably swimming. Of the most was one interesting things about writing about the 17th century was trying to go back in places we know and envision what they were like then. About here to talk monstrous birds and powerful and powerful midwives, the battle over womens bodies and 17th century boston. There is a wonderful phrase when i was writing the biography of Anne Hutchinson. It is one of my favorite quotes and is spoken by a history professor who writes about womens roles in American History. , the problem of Anne Hutchinson is the problem of the public woman. What is the problem of the public woman . The problem is the term itself, public woman is an oxymoron. In early america, a public woman did not exist, and im not talking about a prostitute. I am talking about a woman who had a formal public role in society as a leader of some kind. Women in 17thcentury new england could not teach in public or speak in public. They cannot lead as governors nor judges nor ministers and they cannot vote. They could not defend their country as soldiers. They could not hold property in their own name, and they cannot sign a legal document. Why, you may ask . Thingsould not do these because they are inferior to men and unable to handle deep thoughts. The rare woman who achieved anything in a male domain was said to have acted above her sex. She was a man in petticoats. An english clergyman explained ,hat legislation, jurisprudence government in all its executive functions, commercial enterprise, all of these pursuits and occupations were assigned to men, demand the efforts of a mind imbued with comprehensive reasoning, which women lacked. A philosopher then explained that women are incapable of penetrating truths that are difficult to discover. Everything abstract is incomprehensible because of the delicacy of their brain fibers. That is a quote. I rationality and powerlessness of women all comes down to neurology, or what some people call bureausexism ne urosexism. Those things i have said about how women were seen is all true. It is also not a joke that the 21stwomen in century still hold relatively little public power. To digress briefly from our subject, women in america a century ago still could not vote. 50 years ago, no woman had served on the Supreme Court and just a few served in congress. Nearly 400 years into the american experiment, fewer than 20 of our National Legislature is female, and that is a historic high. Through her than 5 of major american corporations have women than 5 of fewer major american corporations have women at the helm. Served 45 times as americas chief executive. No woman ever has the only female candidate for president was met with crowds of americans crying hang her and lock her up as if she were a which. Witch. If she were a which brings me back to the 17th century, where women had no formal power grade there was power women had, private power, domestic power, and even some educational and religious power within their own homes and the homes of other women. They taught children how to read and understand the bible, the text of the world people lived in in boston. ,omen raised children and crops cared for land and gardens in complex households, they grew herbs used as medicines and healed the sick and cared for the wounded. Womens greatest realm of power was in childbirth. Midwifery was an exclusively female domain. Birth is such a significant time, especially in an era where so many women or babies died at birth, but this was a crucial domain and life in the 17th century. Women, although powerless in public, were charged with saving ,he lives of women and babies including those of new englands most powerful men. Who winthrop, the governor led the move to banish Anne Hutchinson from massachusetts, had recently welcomed her into his home to deliver one of his children and tend to his wife. As a scholar has written, women provided a large part of the medical care in early colonial , a practice that tied them to all parts of their communities and gave them access to social and legal authority. , held by women serving as domestic healers and medical practitioners, how dangers for them. The 17th century had its own special concept of medical malpractice. A deadrth resulted in mother or a dead or to form infant, the midwife could be held accountable. ,f a monstrous birth occurred the term on birth covered any , that it had to be someones fault, either the parents or the midwife. Early boston, as in early modern europe considered a monstrous birth a side of sin in someone near the infant. Thus a midwife who attended at a monstrous birth could be seen as an ally of the devil or a witch. Betweenthe Association Midwives and witchcraft and female power. There is the paradox the unique realm of power held by women as private healers bled into their public role as witches. As an example, lets look at Anne Hutchinson, who in addition to being a religious leader was a midwife, a skill she had learned in england from her mother. Anne hutchinson was born in lincolnshire in 1591 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the first, one of the rare women in history to roll an empire. Anne hutchinson was the daughter of a midwife, who was a cousin of the poet laureate and a rebel it a rebellious puritan minister who taught his gifted daughter his skills interpreting and teaching about scripture. Anne hutchinson grew up to be a midwife and a female preacher, teaching other women about their ,aith and the bible in her home which was an acceptable activity for a high status puritan woman in england. Hutchinson continued both of these activities, midwifery and teaching other women about scripture, in boston, where she moved with her husband and 12 children in 1634. The bible talk she gave and her parlor were so popular with women that they soon attracted as many as 80 people at a time, including influential men like , who ing sir henry vane 1636 defeated the colonys founder, and the race for governor. Winthrop called her between the court and a charge of heresy and behaving in a manner not fitting for her sex. This is a quote it was not tolerable for women to teach men. During two days of interrogation, hutchinson butnded herself brilliantly her male judges, faced with the threat to public order, banish term from Massachusetts Bay colony. A few weeks before that trial, Anne Hutchinson had been present at a socalled monstrous birth. It had been a difficult earth for a young woman, so the midwife who was attending her had sent for Anne Hutchinson, hoping she could help. Unfortunately, the baby girl had a condition that is now known her brain was undeveloped. She died soon after birth. Hutchinson and the reverend john cotton decided to bury the babys body secretly to prevent to protect the family from the public shame that would naturally follow a monstrous birth. People gossiped about the baby and governor winthrop eventually heard about it. He ordered that mistress hawkins be questioned hutchinson cannot be questioned because she was banished. He ordered that the corpse be exhumed and examined. This is premuch all a quote what i am going to read you now, from the journal of governor winthrop. Iny things were observable the birth and discovery of this monster. The midwife was notorious for familiarity with the devil. All of the women present at the birth were taken with such a violent vomiting, and others had their children taken with convulsions. As the child died, the bed where the mother lay shook violently. Order, the child was taken up from its grave and revealed to be a 17th century version of rosemarys baby. Us attack max of a woman child a satanic mix of a woman beast, though it was much corrupted, horns and scales were found. It was so monstrous and misshapen that the light has scarce been heard of. The ears were like an ape and crew on the shoulders. The breast and back were full of sharp prickles. On the side,s were instead of toes it had three clause with talents like a young faooal. Whole. Two great place no forehead, but a horns. Four warns four this was a monstrous birth, but it did not make sense to governor winthrop. Mistress dyer had been such a proper woman. Then he remembered how close married dyer was with Anne Hutchinson, so close that her husband and children were among the group that accompanied it Anne Hutchinson and her family in banishment, moving with them to rhode island. It did make sense. Monstrance errors like hutchinsons begot monstrous births. One reason Anne Hutchinson was such a threat to the governor was she did work as a medical practitioner. He described her in his journal as a woman very helpful in times of childbirth and other occasions of bodily infirmities, and well furnished with the means and purposes who readily insinuated herself into the affections of many. Her medical skills gave her too much power. Her friend and mentor, the minister john cotton wrote that at her first coming to boston she was wellrespected and esteemed of me. I heard she did much good in our and in womens meetings child travails, wherein she was not only skillful and helpful but readily fell into good discourse with the women about their spiritual estate. This was not quite such a negative view as john winthrop. Anne hutchinson had been one of cottons close spiritual allies in england where they had collaborated for 20 years in the old city of boston. Anne hutchinson had more people resort to her for counsel about matters of conscience and clearing up spiritual estates than any minister. Of annesource hutchinsons authority was her remarkable maternal skill. Having married William Hutchinson at 21, she proceeded to bear 15 healthy infants, mostly in england. 1613,rstborn came in francis in 1620, of elizabeth in 1622, william in 1624, and inin 1620 six, mary in 1628, catherine in 1630, i am getting tired just listing these kids. There was a second william because the first had died in 1631 and a second susan for the same reason. Hutchinson lost two daughters to the plague. In 1636, here in the familys new home, Anne Hutchinson gave birth to a boy. I year later, at the time of her trial, she was 46 years old and pregnant for the 16th time. In the course of that pregnancy, Anne Hutchinson endured two public trials, spent a winter apart from her family, she was banished and excommunicated, and she walked the 60 miles from boston to rhode island in the snow. Deliveredexile, she what appeared to be a monstrous birth. It was actually a lateterm miscarriage. In modern times, a wellrecognized gynecological condition that is now removed soon after detection so it does not become cancerous. Then, it was a wondrous sign of Anne Hutchinsons inherent evil. More divine proof she had been justly expelled. Reports of Anne Hutchinsons abnormal birth came to boston courtesy of a young rhode island minister who saw her after her delivery when she nearly died from blood loss. When the reverend john cotton, her former ally and friend heard of her unnatural birth, he made use of it in public at the next lecture day, choosing this medical matter, which to us seems like an intensely private thing, as his text to preach on. Congregationld his , a likely sign of mistress hutchinsons error and heresy. Hutchinsons miscarriage became the talk of boston. Winthrop wrote to the minister in rhode island to request a fuller account of hutchinsons monstrous birth. He reported what he heard. Bigress hutchinson, being with child and growing toward the time of her labor, brought , but 30 monstrous births, or thereabouts at once, some bigger and some lesser. Few of any perfect shape, none of them of human shape. These things are so strange i am almost loath to be the reporter of them. See how the wisdom of god visited judgment to her scene in every way. Look as she had misshapen opinions, so she must bring forth to form monsters. Opinionswere about 30 in numbers that the ministers had gathered, things they did not like she had said, so many monsters. As those were public, this has now come to be known and famous over all these churches and a great part of the world. In 17th century boston, the contents of a womans uterus where the subject of religious and political debate. Positions were signs of gods intervention and the world, exposing people sends. Womens bodies were subject for men to preach about an apart for their religious and social meeting. Were there other uses of womens bodies in the puritan mind . Reproduction was the main purpose of a womans body. Once that earthly function was fulfilled, women became to men,nt, in contrast whose bodies were believed to be resurrected as bodies after death. There was quite a bit of debate among 17thcentury ministers ,bout exactly which male organ how much of the stomach, whether certain organs were resurrected in heaven or not, they took this extremely seriously. Cotton mather explained that after death the soul of the mail the soul of the male escape to their earthly bodies to assume a heavenly body from see and hearn along angels, which are also male. In puritan theology, have an is place,rely masculine which leads me to a hopeful final note arising from the salem witchcraft crisis of 6092 of 1692 in which massachusetts murdered 20 innocent people. That crisis had some positive creationincluding the of the First Independent judiciary and the western hemisphere, the Supreme Judicial Court of massachusetts, which was created as a direct result of the trial. The notion of an independent judiciary was created, as well as that was the last witchcraft execution on this comment on. His continent another positive outcome of the witchhunt was a change of heart and one of the nine judges. Trial, he after the called for a public fast day of repentance and stood up in his church to a knowledge his personal shame and blame for having killed innocent people. Repentance is well known, as is the fact that he was the author of the first antislavery American History, which he published in 1700, when one in five bostonians owned slaves. Next well known is what he did 30 years later as an old man, when he considered the possibility that women are equal to men. 1724, whensummer of the retired judge was spending long hours at the side of his while water hannah waiting on my dear child in her last sickness, as he put it. To help hise could dying daughter, sitting with her and praying and singing songs. When she fell asleep, he read. One of the books he read was called the british apollo and published in london in 1711. It was the sort of book you keep in your guest bathroom. It contained 2000 answers to curious questions approved of by many of the most learned and ingenious of cambridge and oxford. This is a q a book, thinks you might wonder about. He read some of the british apollo allowed to his daughter. On page 200 he came to a question that seemed unsuitable for sharing with her. The question was, is there now, or will there be at the resurrection any females in heaven . This was a relevant question according to the text, since there seems to be no need of them there, and the british apollos reply was since sexes are corporal distinction, it follows that there cannot be any ,istinction of sex is in heaven our rising bodies will not be distinguished into sexes. Resurrection, the dead are, as the angels of god, male. This question troubled him. Since there seems to be no need of them there, it especially irritated him. In his view, there would be no needless things in heaven because heaven is a magnificent dallas furnished with the most rich and splendid entertainments. So many of the women he had loved were dead, he felt sure that god was their father and heaven is their country. He could see no convincing evidence that womens bodies are less likely to be resurrected that men, although this was the teaching of his church. The 72yearold judge took up an diary and an old begin to address the issue of whether the bodies of women deceased shall be raised up and remain in their own sex. He titled his work and aramaic expression used in the gospel of arise. At means maiden, using the Research Methods he acquired at Harvard College in the 16 70s, he gathered additional text and stated his these this stated his nieces that those who created both sexes will restore both in heaven. Is there no need for a daughter to seek god, yet he be a rate king and he is the most loving and tender hearted father. Need is not relevant, he concluded. God has no need of any creature. Erasmus provided proof that women have an equal share in the resurrection, noting the beautiful variety with which god has been pleased to a door in his works, he wrote that it is past dispute that in the resurrection word in the resurrected world, mary shall enjoy her own body and john cell enjoy his. That, and the resurrected world, hillary shall enjoy her own body and donald or barack shall enjoy his. Then he invoked the concept of the right of women which was a remarkable thing two centuries before women could vote. In myte that any opinion so many women are such good lawyers and of such good understanding they have no reason to be afraid of lacking rights. None of his early descendents saw fit to save a copy of the printed version. Most historians assumed this late essay on gender equality was never published. In januaryhing is, 1625, he reported in a ledger pounds ford two printing and folding two have sheets. It was it was published, but no one else commented on it, and no copy is known to survive in this world. At the massachusetts historical society, which holds the papers, you can find the draft in its original diary, the version he would have handed to the printer, bartholomew green. Included in it is the back of my biography so you can see for yourself how a salem witch judge transforms himself into an early proponent of equal rights for women. Taking one small step in the long battle over womens bodies. Thank you very much. [applause] should i just take questions . Ok. Do we have any questions . Comments . High. I appreciated your talk. Mention of when only brief mention of women of. Olor was slavery we are talking about women as midwives and in colonial loot colonial new england. Is it possible to reframe the conversation to include the fact that we are talking primarily about white women of a certain class and ability . And what would it look like if we were to include the stories of women of color in particular, black women and brown women who were owned by other people, who also birth, pregnancy, and children with disabilities being born . You. Ank i dont think we have to reframe it. Most of the records are the journals of the well educated wealthy man. We have very few records of women of any color. Things when iny wrote my book about and hutchison, people have heard of her. Poet . Said isnt that the and there was another puritan woman in the 17th century and her name was ann bradstreet. There really is only room for one woman in this entire century. We dont think the women were important. We have portraits and journals of the very privileged men. Theont have portraits of women, even the richest ones. If you get down to the slaves there are no records. You look, you delve into these mens journals justifying facts peoples lives. The documents have to be there or the remains of the privies that people left that they have in the 17th century. You have to get some data. Data, we dont have more information about a whole lot of women in this period. Becertainly doesnt have to reframed. It is certainly the case there about poortle known people, male and female. There arent a lot of records about these people at this time. Im speaking as a white person. That youracknowledge labor is fantastic, but you are speaking as a white woman. We do tendolar to frame things from that white feminist lens. Reframe, i mean acknowledge the lens that we are speaking from. Aprilis a whole world of that are documented that are being completely ignored. When you say this is the experience of women in colonial new england, im asking, as to say, can we reframe that end acknowledge that is not the experience of women of colonial new england . It is the experience of precious few women in colonial new england, and there is an entire world that is very well and primarily ignored by white feminist scholars. Blackere are great feminist scholarships that we could be working to center. The population of new england that this time was probably more than 60 native american. There are many scholars who study that. It is not my area of expertise. So i am not commenting on that. The lives ofd these specific people and tried to date into the relatively minimal documentation of even wealthy peoples lives. But absolutely, all of these stories need to be told. Any more questions . The microphone goes to you. I have been a midwife for 22 birthsnd have given 2000 since beginning of my training. Not a whole lot has changed since the last century. Have colleagues in jail when something doesnt go well in the hospital it is an act of god. A lot of things havent changed just yet. Thank you for the comment. I do research on scottish lookedd culture and have at women there a lot. Im wondering if the scottish midwives were the people responsible for handling the when people died. There is minimal evidence that they are the ones who laid out the corpses and handled them. I wonder if theres any evidence that midwives in early colonial or later were responsible for the body of people at the end of their lives as well as the beginning. What do you mean responsible . Preparing the body after death. Wrapping it in a winding sheet, laying it out. I dont know a lot. My subject is the political function of this job. I can do just that. I just had a quick question. The descriptions are so wild and i wasactually was wondering how they can piece together what may have been considering the wildly inaccurate description that was going around at the time. Washe notion that the baby an cephalically was if you take away the talents and horns and scales and crazy embellishments, the way the head has shrunk and lacking, i think doctors people said thats what that was based on this description. It should never have been carried to terms. It is the same, doctors have looked at it and that is most likely what it was. I heard you mention a lot about the salem witch trials. I personally have been researching it for a while. I was curious because a lot of it was women accusing other women. What do you think that has to do would it be offensive power over women . You are asking why women would accuse other women of eing witches . Kind of the thought process behind the witch trials in general, especially when it comes to young girls accusing older women, what would be the thought process . Girls alwaysung had things they didnt like about older women. And politicalcial and economic crisis. Convened tos explanation. D an there were charges of witchcraft all the time. Men, the nine judges of the court, decided to take seriously anyoneharges and hang who did not confess that they were allied with the devil. Most people in that situation would confess to save their life area more than 100 people did. And the 20 people who died, there were 14 women and six men. Refusedeople who died to confess an alliance with the devil, which is rather remarkable and makes them all quite heroic. Really it was a political and social problem. Same with thethe monstrous with the infants. There is a meaning to this, there is a sign of something, and we have to find out who the culprit is. So the witchcraft trials are a fromo deflect attention military disasters and political disasters. Wives of thee ministers and Close Friends of work used, the whole thing stopped. It was all hangings are witchcraft here, it was still going on in europe. It was imported from europe. Its not like they are its not like the p writtens invented it here. The puritans invented it here. It wasnt really a personal people,ke between a few it was a social and political phenomenon. My opinion. I just had a question about what happened to and hutchison after she was in rhode island, and if things were any better in rhode island, was it any different they are . She nearly died from an abnormal pregnancy. Whole bunch of people who went with her and there was a conflict. She settled in portsmouth, which is why she is considered a cofounder of Roger Williams with rhode island. Providencemerger of and rhode island. A smaller island south of providence that merged under the crown in under the 1663. There were conflicts over who would get the port in newport. Hutchison, william a wealthy textile merchant who had supported her in all of these journeys, he wanted to come here. Sheld have been wanted to come here. He would have been happy to stay in new england. Then they moved, they walked to rhode island. She is still being sort of attacked. She was sending missionaries down to confess evil. She spit at these boston men who came to try to get a confession. So she lost her great supporter. She then decides to move outside of english settlements. The english were still everywhere in rhode island and connecticut and massachusetts. And she moved among the touch, who were among the dutch, who are more accepting. She lived in a Dutch Community there with her six or seven younger children. She has many grandchildren at this point and older children living in boston and rhode island. Childrener younger with her and they had a little farmhouse above the hutchison river. The dutch that she was living among were having a fiveyear war. The indiansh and were warning each other, we are coming through and we would burn down your houses. This was going back and forth for a long time. When they warned the dutch they it was ang through, backandforth retaliation kind of thing, all the dutch left. And and hutchison and an hutchison didnt leave. She caused a lot of problems for john winthrop. Tocouldnt get enough people send his soldiers. She may have felt that the native americans would have recognized her and not have hurt her. And there was a european woman there with all of her children and sons and soninlaw. The immediately scalped them all and put all the bodies in a house and burned the house to the ground. Realized, i guess what had happened is they were leaving after doing this, burning down the dutch settlement. Daughters had been away from the house picking blueberries at the time and heard this whole slaughter of most of her family. The native americans came upon this child, and i guess spoke with her. They took her, which is very common, young girls or women various taken by native american tribes. They realized to her mother was and they knew and heard of her. Himself aftermed anne hutchison. Susan hutchison was raised by native americans and learned their language. Then at 18, it couldnt have been for years, she lived with them for seven or eight years, came back to boston and married an englishman and had about 15 kids, like her mother. She was completely bicultural. There is a nice novel written about her, the story of susan hutchison. Anne hutchison has this tragic and mysterious death at the age of 51, i believe. Have time fore one more question, maybe two. I have a question on churchs doctrine. Werepuzzled because you saying the bible is the book people learn from and studied from at the time. Preachers were saying that women would not be gentile, foror your all one in christ. How do they manage took nor bing it seems so clear . The quotes was there shall be no distinction of sex in heaven. It is like there is no distinction and they are all male. Beyond that i wasnt present when they were discussing which organ, there was a lot of discussion. Guess as to have a resolve that problem. You mentioned the judge and the manuscript he wrote and the fact that there is not only no printed copy the no recording or responses. To that the attribute it to records not Holding Onto Things or do people think it was a ridiculous idea and dismiss it . I dont think we know. He offended a number of his neighbors. It was very common to own a slave. I think he was embarrassed at times. Hey snubbed him it was a subject of conversation. Now i consider a very important document. Why nobody saved him, i could not tell you. It seems important that he wrote it. It seems as though we should know this about puritans. They believed heaven worked, which is talking about the way the world worked. It is part of our heritage as americans. Supreme Judicial Court came out of the salem witch trials and leads to our constitutional notion of the separation of powers, the judges are separate from executive and legislative. That is fundamental to our nation. That came out of the salem witch trials. That women are not capable of doing things that men fundamental to our consciousness as americans. Need to understand that as part of our nations history. I think there is just one more question. Hutchisonstand anne built her house across the street from governor winthrops. Thatere any evidence governor winthrop saw that as a personal affront . Commented know if he on it in his diary. I cant give you the exact rate. She still has the footprint. It is rather remarkable. But we have the footprint foruse it werent down in a it turned down it burned down. We also know the winthrop building is across the street. What i discovered after i published american jezebel is at the time of his trial he actually didnt live in that house. The house he lived in mostly is where the state house is now. I think there is a marker there. You would be of a say when he moved from one house to the other. I think at the time of her child they all lived three minutes from one house to the next. I think they were the wealthiest people. When the hutchisons first arrived her husband immediately asked to be a judge in the court. With powerhe people in the society. As far as how close they lived, they lived very close, and he didnt want her around any longer. Im used to speaking to a crowd and being heard. There are questions, our friend will be here. Learnis so much more to about the 17th century and the peer 10 realities. You can join us and plan your life this way. You can certainly come to our event on friday area did on friday. There is a service in first church. Take a look at your brochure. And the book american jezebel is for sale outside. Thank you so much. [applause] this weekend on American History tv, tonight at eight eastern, Sonoma State University professor discusses the evolution of the National Park system. A case of setting aside an already natural landscape. He was doing was making nature out of what at the time was old sheeps meadows. A big grassy area called the sheeps meadow, and that is why. Architect and preservationist on saving slave houses. Its important to do this. Built are is a pink from the landscape. Documenting them through the database is also a way to share information and learn from them. Then on oral histories, we continue our series on foot of journalists with an interview with lucian perkins. She is yelling at these freshmen lining up against the wall. In that photograph ran everywhere in the world. Im convinced that story may help get a job at the post. Only on cspan3. It became clear that my impression of breitbart is having an outside influence on the 2016 election was an understatement in the extreme. Research, breitbart was the driving force on the right side of the political spectrum. Eight, contribute in writer will hilton talks about his feature story down the breitbart hold. I think this gets to the the way i always heard people talk about and continue to talk about breitbart. It is this shouting machine. More Reality Organization as it functions on a daytoday basis. At eight eastern on cspans q and day. Next, the journeys of Christopher Columbus to the americas, including jamaica, panama, and the caribbean. Argues that the explorers interactions with the Indigenous People caused them irreparable harm, which is often overlooked. This is recorded at the runway inlery in washington dc 2002. It is about an hour and a half. To the smithsonian and all its various forms, shapes, and values for asking me to come here. When i was 11 years old after my first visit to washington and my first look at two of the museums on the mall, American History history, i decided there were two jobs in the country wanted to do. I either wanted to work for the smithsonian and or work for the national geographic. I have written for geographic, but this is as close as im going to