Dina Vargo

Historian and fellow Boston By Foot Guide Dina Vargo writes about overlooked in moments in Boston history in her second book. This book includes dark moments in Boston history like anti-Catholic Pope's Night riots, the boy serial killer Jesse Pomeroy, and the Tyler Street Massacre in Chinatown. It also covers disasters like the Summer Street Trolley Disaster, the Pickwick Club collapse, and the Zoo Shipwreck. All is not grim in Boston history, though, as this book also cover civil rights activists William Monroe Trotter activism that went straight up to President Woodrow Wilson and the settlement house social worker who became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, Amelia Earhart. If you like Boston history, this book is a quick and fun read from which you might learn a thing or two.… (mehr)

This slender volume is chock full of stories of about two dozen women of Boston who bucked the societal norms of their sex and made an impact of history. These women include leaders, innovators, and activists, but they also include witches, madams, and murderers. Examples of the former include Revolutionary political writer Mercy Otis warren, art collector Isabel Stewart Gardner, celebrity chef Julia Child, and groundbreaking marathon runner Kathrine Switzer. One of my favorite chapters is called Biker Babes and tells the story of women who biked their way into history in the late 19th-century bike craze, including Kittie Knox whose cycling skill had to break through segregation in addition to other barriers. Some of the other stories are more sordid, but all are well-researched and entertaining and arranged chronologically from colonial times to the present day. The author is a colleague of mine from Boston By Foot, so I may be biased, but I think I'd recommend this collection of important Boston women regardless.… (mehr)