Searching for Hidden Figures of History

The  notion of hidden history has been around for years, but it leaped into headlines with the 2016 appearance of the book and movie, Hidden Figures.  For many people, the concept is not new. Many have plowed through the Census looking for long-lost relatives. Others have submitted DNA to "23 and Me" to understand their own past. A few, including author Patsi B. Trollinger, have become obsessed with finding persons and events overlooked in traditional historical narratives for reasons of gender, race, class, or even age. Trollinger currently is completing a nonfiction manuscript about a series of groundbreaking conversations that took place in the 1840s between Lyman Draper and a remarkable figure of hidden history named Rachael Johnson. Trollinger will offer a quick look at several types of traditional and nontraditional sources she has used, noting the value and shortcomings of each.  Those sources have included:

• Lyman Draper Manuscripts on microfilm and the book Guide to the Draper Manscripts
• Secondary sources for context, including official state histories
• Internet and telephone work to contact genealogical societies, historical societies, and museums in four states
• Anecdotal information and memoirs
• Reports and narratives about groundbreaking research