As publication date approached for the Alexander Wilder letters, I began anticipating new directions for research once this multi-year project was completed. High on my to-do list was getting down to Blowing Rock, North Carolina, to pursue traces of the part time residence there of Genevieve Stebbins and Norman Astley around the turn of the twentieth century. Unexpectedly in late July I learned of an upcoming presentation by an academic scholar, Carrie Streeter at the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum (BRAHM). Her topic Genevieve Stebbins was described in the attached notice on the website of the Museum.
On a weeknight it was encouraging to see 49 in attendance for an event that required an admission fee for non-members of the museum. Carrie’s presentation was intriguing, and very well received. I learned much more about Stebbins’s early life than I had known, and some details about her time in Blowing Rock that were completely new.
Publication date for the Wilder Letters is expected to be later this month and will be announced here and on the Letters to the Sage Facebook page. The second print proofs are now in the mail, so final revisions should be finished by the last week of September. Streeter’s academic CV is found on her website carriestreeter.com