{"id":17395,"date":"2025-03-04T16:20:37","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T21:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=17395"},"modified":"2025-03-04T16:20:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T21:20:38","slug":"episode-628-vanda-krefft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-628-vanda-krefft","title":{"rendered":"Episode 628 – Vanda Krefft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 628:
\nVanda Krefft<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_628_-_Vanda_Krefft.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“Katharine Gibbs was not against marriage or family, but her main idea was that women cannot \u2014 must not \u2014 for their own wellbeing, depend entirely on a man.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>Biographer Vanda Krefft<\/a> returns to the show to celebrate her wonderful & illuminating new book: EXPECT GREAT THINGS!: How the Katharine Gibbs School Revolutionized the American Workplace for Women<\/a> (Algonquin Books). We talk about the turn of the (20th) century origins of Katharine Gibbs & her school, the legacy of her executive secretarial course for generations of women, “Gibbs Girls'” descendants’ desire to honor their family members, the incredible quality of faculty Gibbs was able to recruit, the risks women had to take to enter the professional workforce, and the Trojan Horse campaign of teaching women to learn how businesses work until they’re able to run them themselves. We get into Vanda’s desire to write about people who were overlooked in history, how this book veered away from her initial idea, how it required a different mode than her biography of William Fox<\/a>, the challenges of century-old research into women’s lives, what she had to learn about the history of women in America, the myth that the 1920s were liberating for women, and her interest in mid-century America. We also discuss how the Gibbs school declined when the family finally sold it in the late ’60s, what she’d like her next book to be about, her experience living in Santa Monica during the LA fires, a lengthy aside about publishing and the changes I’ve seen, getting inspired by Howard Fishman<\/a>‘s book on Connie Converse<\/a>, and a lot more. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read EXPECT GREAT THINGS!<\/a><\/p>\n

(And listen to our 2017 conversation<\/a>!)<\/em><\/p>\n

“Family members were wonderful, because they were thrilled that somebody was interested in their mother, their aunt, their grandmother, who had led a really significant life but in her lifetime nobody cared very much.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n