Scholars portray historical figures in period costume
The Colorado Humanities History Speakers Bureau brings engaging living-history scholars to communities throughout Colorado. We help non-profit organizations, such as libraries, schools, and museums, identify and book a speaker from our vetted list of scholars, and help promote the event in their local community. Our speakers and their characters are listed below.
Interested in being a part of the History Speakers Bureau? While we are not currently accepting new speakers for our History Speakers Bureau, please check back soon for updates or email Jennifer Macias at jennifer@coloradohumanities.
What Others Are Saying
“What better way to learn about a time in history than to see and hear someone portray a person from a particular place and time.” – Rangeview Library District in Thornton audience member
Speakers
Gail Beaton
Rosie the Riveter
Presented by Gail M. Beaton: “Rosie the Riveter,” the name given to women war workers during World War II, lived and worked throughout the United States welding, making bullets, and doing a wide variety of factory jobs for the war effort.
Between 1941 and 1945, Colorado had its own “Rosies” working at the Remington Arms Factory in Denver. Located at the site of the present day Denver Federal Center, the Denver Ordnance Plant produced as many as six million bullets a day for U.S. troops. “Gail Murphy” is a composite character drawn from the records and memories of these women war workers.
Gail M. Beaton, a teacher of U.S. History, has taught for more than 26 years in Colorado public schools at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. She has two M.A. degrees; one in U.S. History and another in Public History from the University of Colorado/Denver. Gail has been acknowledged as an outstanding teacher by the Public Service Company and the Denver Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her essays have been published in various history journals.
Suggested Reading: Bullets for the Yanks: Colorado’s WWII Ammunition Factory by Christine Pfaff. Colorado Heritage Magazine, Summer 1992., Rosie the Riveter Revisited: Women, the War, and Social Change by Sherna Berger Gluck. Twayne Publishers, 1982., The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s by Susan M. Hartmann. Twayne Publishers, 1982.
Hal Bidlack
Alexander Hamilton
Presented by Hal Bidlack: General Hamilton was a self-made man in an era when the term meant much more. He rose from poverty and an ignoble birth to become a general, a leader, and the founder of our economic and legal systems. Perhaps most impressive is the breadth of his service. He served nobly in three arenas: in uniform, in office, and with the quill. After serving as George Washington’s closest aide, General Hamilton earned a combat command where he led his troops from the front, and was the first man over the walls during the climactic Battle of Yorktown. At the age of 32, he was this nation’s first Secretary of Treasury. He was the author of a variety of pamphlets calling for the American Revolution, and was the principal author of the Federalist Papers, perhaps the greatest writing on American political thought ever crafted.
Hal Bidlack is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force and is currently assigned to the United States Department of State in Washington. He holds all his academic degrees from the University of Michigan, including a Ph.D. in political science, and regularly portrays Hamilton around the country as well as on the public radio program, The Thomas Jefferson Hour.
Suggested Reading: Alexander Hamilton, American by Richard Brookhiser. The Free Press, 1999., Alexander Hamilton: A Biography by Forrest McDonald. W.W. Norton & Company, 1979., Selected Writings and Speeches of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Morton J. Frisch. American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1985.
Jessica Downing-Ford
Abigail Adams
Presented by Jessica Downing-Ford: Abigail Adams (1744-1818) was born to a minister father and humanitarian mother. They instilled in her a deep sense of service, as well as a passion for education—qualities which made her the object of John Adams affection. Married in October of 1764, their lives became inextricably woven into the fabric of this country. Abigail witnessed the revolution from their farm in Braintree, Massachusetts, while John was serving in the Continental Congress. After the war she traveled to Europe accompanying John on his diplomatic assignments. Abigail served as our first Second Lady and our second First Lady. She felt strongly that women should be formerly educated and have rights independent of their husbands. In a time when Coverture was law, Abigail made and kept “Money which I call mine.” An avid letter writer, more than two thousand of her letters still exist creating an unparalleled narrative of her time.
Jessica Downing-Ford graduated Emerson College with a BFA in Performing Arts but it was several decades later that she discovered her love of Chautauqua. She enjoys bringing Abigail Adams to life for students of all ages, as well as coaching those pursuing their own performances. She is a founding member of the Grand Valley History Players and is currently researching new characters.
Suggested Reading: Abigail Adams, A Writing Life by Edith B. Gelles. New York, Routledge, 2002., Abigail Adams, A Life by Woody Holton. New York, Simon & Schuster, 2010., Dear Abigail, The Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters by Diane Jacobs. New York, Ballantine Books, 2014.
Susan Marie Frontczak
Clara Barton
Presented by Susan Marie Frontczak: Hear Clara’s tribute to the soldiers who serve in our armed forces and their families. Find out how she worked her way through government red tape both to care for the wounded on the Civil War battlefield and years later – when women still had no political standing – to convince the United States government to bring the Red Cross to America. Clara Barton invites us to look at care and compassion on a far-reaching scale. Her wit, fortitude under fire, and dedication to the cause of humanity stand as a role model for all time.
Prior to her Chautauqua work, Susan Marie Frontczak built a storytelling repertoire on literature and history. Frontczak recognizes that Barton was a colorful storyteller of her own life, as evidenced by the vast stores of primary documents available through the Library of Congress, making for rich mining in bringing her story to life on the Chautauqua stage.
Suggested Reading: The Story of My Childhood by Clara Barton. Baker & Taylor Company, 1907., A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War by Steven B. Oates. The Free Press, 1994., Clara Barton, Professional Angel by Elizabeth Brown Pryor. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987
Erma Bombeck
Presented by Susan Marie Frontczak: Erma Bombeck captured with poignancy and humor the daily life of a new American phenomenon: the suburban housewife. Believing you had to be able to laugh at life to get through it, she captured the essence of the housewife’s daily struggles in her column “At Wit’s End” three days a week, eventually appearing in 900 newspapers across the country and in books such as I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression and The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank. She brought to American awareness the life of women whose lives otherwise felt invisible and taken for granted. She let women across America know: You are not alone. In fact, we number in the millions. I, too, am an American housewife, and I will laugh by your side.
Find out how Erma got started as a humorist. And chuckle along as she pokes fun at kids, pets, husbands, household appliances, and especially herself in her absurd attempt to be everything the books, magazines, and advertisements say we are supposed to be. Over the course of 30 years Erma Bombeck produced a vast supply of priceless material that teaches us, “If you can laugh at it, you can live with it.”
Susan Marie joins millions of Erma Bombeck fans in the U.S. and around the world in celebrating one of the 20th century’s most prolific writers and humorists. As a teen, Susan Marie competed with her mother to see which of them could snag the monthly Good Housekeeping magazine first, in order to read Erma Bombeck’s column.
Marie Curie
Presented by Susan Marie Frontczak: Arguably the most famous woman scientist, Madame Marie Curie (1867-1934) changed the world in which we live through her discovery of radium and radioactivity. Marie Curie was the first European woman to receive a doctorate in Physics; the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize; the first woman to teach at the University of Paris; and the first person to receive a second Nobel Prize. Through collaboration with the medical community, the Curies discovered and established the first successful radiation treatments of cancer. Furthermore, both by example and in running her own laboratory, Marie Curie opened the doors of science to women world-wide.
But Marie Curie had to conquer significant obstacles before even making it into the laboratory. From the political oppression of her childhood, to financial straits, to the tragedy that forced her into single motherhood as well as further world prominence, Curie’s life as scientist, mother, and teacher reveals a compelling journey.
In portraying Maria Skłodowska-Curie, across the U.S. and abroad, Susan Marie pays homage to their shared Polish heritage. Susan, like Marie, enjoyed school and promotes awareness that academic enthusiasm can lead to outstanding achievement. Marie Curie’s perseverance in purifying a grain of radium from a ton of pitchblende, in part, inspired Susan to major in Engineering at Swarthmore College, and earn a master’s degree from the Wang Institute of Graduate Studies. She worked as an engineer for fourteen years before pursuing full time writing and presenting.
Suggested Reading: Madame Curie: A Biography by Eve Curie. Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1937., Marie Curie, A Life by Susan Quinn. Simon & Schuster, 1995., Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity by Naomi Pasachoff. Oxford University Press, 1996.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Presented by Susan Marie Frontczak: Meet first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Starting in the 1920’s Eleanor worked to advance minimum wage, maximum hours, laws against child labor, women’s rights, women’s representation in government, civil rights, and other progressive causes. No other “first lady” had ever taken on such a public role. She continued to advance these causes while her husband was in office. She often served as her husband’s “eyes and ears” across the United States by inspecting factories, inner city tenements, military camps, etc. – because FDR’s polio confined him to a wheelchair. After his death, she became a delegate to the newly formed United Nations and led the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Behind this public life is the story of a little girl who lost both parents before the age of ten, a debutante who felt trapped by society’s expectations, and a young wife who raised five children before emerging as one of the 20th century’s most influential women.
Because Mrs. R’s life is too big to fit into one Chautauqua program, Susan Marie has developed multiple programs set in different phases of Roosevelt’s life. Programs set respectively in the midst of the Great Depression, or during World War II, or at the United Nations, and others now take Frontczak nationwide.
Combing through over a thousand linear feet of Eleanor Roosevelt papers at Hyde Park, New York, Susan Marie finds Eleanor Roosevelt’s life almost too big to hold, and yet she is convinced this first lady’s story has a great deal to offer the world today. She believes that Mrs. Roosevelt’s civil and inclusive approach can guide us as we move forward.
Suggested Reading: The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt, De Capo Press 1961., Eleanor and Franklin by Joseph P. Lash, New American Library 1971., Eleanor Roosevelt, Volumes 1, and 2 by Blanche Wiesen Cook. Penguin Books Vol 1 1992, Vol 2 1999.
Mary Shelley
Presented by Susan Marie Frontczak: Teen-age mother, behind-the-scenes supporter of social reform, romantic, and scholar, English writer Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) may be best known as the author of Frankenstein, but there is much more to be learned about her, both personally and psychologically.
As well as becoming a significant author in her own right, Mary Shelley bore the combined burden and blessing of being the only offspring between eminent authors Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. Likewise, she enjoyed both attention and passion, and sustained rejection and isolation for becoming the wife of the outspoken and controversial poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. With stridently vocal parents and husband, Mary sought a gentler path of persuasion, opening her novels with the admired status quo, and ever so gradually leading the reader to a new point of view.
Themes include ostracizing someone based on their appearance; responsibility to abandoned and disadvantaged members of society; and moral choices related to technological advances.
Susan Marie was originally invited to develop a living history of Mary Shelley in connection with the American Library Association’s traveling exhibit “Frankenstein, Penetrating the Secrets of Nature.” The Chautauqua program now takes her nationwide. Frontczak is fascinated by the writer’s process – how an author like Mary Shelley rearranges elements from her own life, adds a bit of imagination, and constructs a novel that continues to challenge us almost two centuries after it was written.
Suggested Reading: Mary Shelley by Miranda Seymour. Grove Press, NY 2000., The Godwins and the Shelleys., Frankenstein by Mary Shelley., (For children) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley adapted by Larry Weinberg. True to the original story, reading level grades 3 & 4. Random House, New York 1982. ISBN 0-394-84827-6.
Angel Vigil
El Vaquero
Presented by Angel Vigil: Diego Martín, el vaquero, the Spanish colonial cowboy, is a true American hero. He was the first cowboy to ride the open ranges and sleep under the stars; the first cowboy to tame the wild horses of the plains and deliver vast herds of cattle across great distances; and the first master of the basic eternal cowboy skills-riding and roping. El vaquero was the repository of highly practical and effective Spanish wisdom and experience in the ways of horses and cattle, developed over generations on the open plains of European Spain and New Spain in the Americas. His language gave us the words we now accept as common cowboy “lingo.”
Diego Martín, el vaquero, is a composite character based upon traditional vaquero stories and histories. His story is the living history of the origins and development of traditional cowboy practices in the American West.
An award-winning author, educator, and storyteller, Angel Vigil is Retired Chairman and Director of Drama of the Colorado Academy Fine and Performing Arts Department in Denver. Angel’s. awards include the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education, a Heritage Artist Award, a Colorado Council on the Arts Master Artist Award, the Mayor’s Individual Artist Fellowship, and the Colorado Theatre Educator of the Year Award. He is also the author of six books on Hispanic culture and arts and his book on the cowboy west is Riding Tall in the Saddle, the Cowboy Fact Book.
Suggested reading: Dary, David. Cowboy Culture, A Saga of Five Centuries. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1989., Mora, Jo. Californicos, The Saga of the Hard-riding Vaqueros, America’s First Cowboy. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1949., Rojas, Arnold R. Last of the Vaqueros. Fresno, Calif.: Academy Library Guild, 1960., Vigil, Angel. Riding Tall in the Saddle: The Cowboy Fact Book. Greenwood Village, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 2002., Vigil, Arnold, ed. Enduring Cowboys: Life in the New Mexico Saddle. Santa Fe, N.M.: New Mexico Magazine, 1999.
Elsa Wolff
Amelia Earhart
Presented by Elsa Wolff: Arguably the most famous Aviatrix of her time, Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) was much more than a noted pilot. She pushed through social barriers and served as a role model and inspiration to many – both men and women – because of her courage, determination and spirit of adventure. In a time when girls were expected to behave like ladies, Amelia pushed through social expectations even from a young age. Overcoming a family who moved frequently and an alcoholic father, she continued to look for meaning and adventure in her life. Amelia’s life story reveals the developing world view from the turn of the century into the Great Depression, including: the development of the machine age and aviation; the rising role of women in unconventional careers; and the impact of marketing on public image. She became an American hero during a time when there was a national obsession with record setting/breaking as the world was suddenly looking at Americans as trend-setters, whereas for centuries America had been trying to emulate Europe. Amelia spoke out with passion on the issues of women striving for equality in education, career opportunity and wages. A supporter of the nation’s new airline industry, she also helped pave the way for people to look at travel by airplane as a viable and reliable means of transportation.
Storyteller, singer and speaker for over 10 years, Elsa Wolff, who enjoys bringing literature to life for children and adults alike, has recently developed the Character of Amelia Earhart for Living History Presentation. Elsa shows the same courage, poise and spirit of adventure as Amelia Earhart and will captivate the audience with her personable portrayal of aviation’s “Queen of the Air”.
Suggested Reading: Amelia Earhart, 20 Hrs., 40 Min. (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928), Amelia Earhart, The Fun of It (Chicago, Ill.: Academy Chicago Publishers, 1932), Amelia Earhart, Last Flight (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1937) Compiled GP Putnam, Soaring Wings by George Putnam, (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1939), The Sound of Wings by Mary S. Lovell (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989)
Annie Oakley
Annie Oakley, born Phoebe Ann Moses, was the most famous American woman of her day. Now in her late 50’s, Annie speaks of her life and experiences from her humble roots in rural Ohio, to taking center stage as champion shooter and star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. You’ll hear stories of challenges she faced in and out of the arena. Annie made her mark while competing in a sport and world dominated by men, all the while maintaining her reputation as a dignified lady.
Maria Von Trapp
Presented by Elsa Wolff: The Sound of Music won five Academy Awards. It was not generally known that the movie was based on a real story. There really is a Maria von Trapp and her life story is even more captivating and surprising than the popular film. Matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers, Maria von Trapp (1905-1987) is a woman of passionate faith and uncompromising determination. Her life takes her from orphan to Baroness, from postulant at Nonnberg Abbey to mother of 10 children. Maria boldly leads her family from being refugees leaving Nazi-invaded Austria to becoming an internationally known singing group in America and around the world.
In this program, Maria enjoys comparing what people think they know about her from the musical with the true story. Sharing memories from pre-WWII Austria to the 1965 release of The Sound of Music, you’ll learn the story of the Trapp Family and their journey to a new home in America. The family faced many mountains to climb with challenges, set-backs and hard work. Maria’s is a story of overcoming and the faith to keep on trying.
Storyteller, singer and speaker for 16 years, Elsa Wolff was excited to add Maria von Trapp to her Chautauqua characters. Having spent 5 years living near the Austrian Alps, Elsa feels especially connected to the von Trapp family history. Using humor, story and music, she draws the audience in with this personal portrayal of Maria von Trapp.
Suggested reading: Maria von Trapp – Beyond The Sound of Music by Candice Ransom. Carolrhoda books, Inc. Minneapolis, MN, 2002., The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp 1949., Yesterday, Today and Forever: The Religious Life of a Remarkable Family by Maria Augusta Trapp, 1952., Maria: My Own Story by Maria Augusta Trapp, 1972
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