her current research includes this biography of catherine beecher to be published soon by westview press and the american, lives of american women series. and her next book will be a biography of 19th century new york african-american oyster man thomas downing. i have questions for all of them to start things off, and i will make sure that they keep their answers brief enough that you will have time to ask questions too. first i want to ask all of them very briefly to tell me who your subject is and what were her most important accomplishments. cindy, do you want to start? >> thank you. thank you all for coming. i hope that nobody had too much difficulty with the subways. other than poor carol. [laughter] so my subject is catherine beecher who was a 19th century women's reformer and educator. catherine beecher is different from some of the other biographies in that she really does reflect more 19th century developments than 20th century developments. her -- i sometimes say that she was a little bit like the martha stewart of her age in that she really was a proponent of a kind of lifesty

her current research includes this biography of catherine beecher to be published soon by westview press in the lives of american women series. and her next book will be a biography of nineteenth century new york african-american oystersman thomas downing. i have questions for all of them to start things off and i will make sure they keep their answers brief enough that you will have time to ask questions too. i want to ask all of them very briefly to tell me to your subject is and what were her most important accomplishments. cindy you want to start? >> thank you all for coming. i hope nobody had too much difficulty with the subways. my subject is catherine beecher a nineteenth century woman reformer and educator. catherine beecher is different from some of the other biographies in that she really does reflect more nineteenth century developments than 20th century developments. she was a little bit like a martha stewart of her age in that she really was a proponent of kind of wife style land rhetoric about the sort of emphasis on domesticity and motherhood and she herself was neither. b