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Forever Belle is the intriguing story of a nineteenth-century socialite, Sallie Ward Lawrence Hunt Armstrong Downs (1827–1896). Beautiful, charming, and kind—but also reckless and bold—she was born in Scott County, Kentucky, to a family of means beset by tragedy—early deaths, suicides, and even murders. Sallie basked in the national spotlight, appearing in newspapers as far-flung as Milwaukee and Charleston, written up for her exploits, which included such scandalous behavior as smoking cigars, dressing in “Turkish pantalets,” wearing rouge, and getting divorced.

Such a character invites romanticizing, and in this new biography, Randolph Paul Runyon does much to ground Sallie Ward in reality, fact-checking stories such as her infamous horse ride through the Louisville market house and examining his subject in the context of her wealthy family. Runyon carefully details his subject’s life, beginning with her aristocratic origins as the descendant of slaveowners, merchants, and politicians who stole land from Native groups and grew rich off the labor of enslaved people. He accurately covers Sallie’s madcap adventures and charitable actions, faithfully representing her legacy as a Kentuckian, a mother, and a grandmother. Illustrated with images of the family, their property, and their lavish grave markers, this volume provides an entertaining and informative glimpse into the world of antebellum privilege in a border state, as well as an examination of the birth of celebrity for its own sake. Forever Belle, finally, is also the story of an early if conflicted feminist: a woman who believed she should have control over her own appearance, actions, political views, and marital status.

RANDOLPH PAUL RUNYON is emeritus professor at Miami University of Ohio. He is the author of Ghostly Parallels: Robert Penn Warren and the Lyric Poetic Sequence, Order in Disorder: Intratextual Symmetry in Montaigne’s “Essays,” and The Assault on Elisha Green: Race and Religion in a Kentucky Community.

Presented by the University of Louisville’s Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute in collaboration with the Filson Historical Society. A reception will be held from 4:30-5:25 pm with the lecture following from 5:30-6:30 pm.

Tech-Intentional™ Schools Are the Future. Why it matters, what it looks like, and how it works!

Brains haven’t changed; technology has. Children haven’t changed; childhood has. In an era when young people’s mental health has prompted a Surgeon General’s warning, the average 8-year-old spends over seven hours per day on screens (outside of school), and schools regularly dole out iPads to kindergartners, how can we prepare children for a future that grows more technological by the day while preserving and protecting the skills and experiences we know children need to thrive? The answer is by reshaping schools using a Tech-intentional™ framework.

A former classroom teacher, Emily Cherkin, aka The Screentime Consultant, has spent many years working with parents, schools, and families in her quest to build a more tech-intentional world.

In Astride: Horses, Women, and a Partnership That Shaped America, Eliza McGraw weaves together stories of women who pioneered in worlds such as Thoroughbred breeding, the circus, and horse rescue at a time when American women in general internalized the lessons of horsewomen: take chances, take up more space, and learn to get back on. From tamers to caretakers and performers to teachers, all worked with horses to buck the status quo. Expressing the idea of femininity with athleticism and authority, these trailblazers changed the way America understood women. Richly illustrated with period photographs, Astride demonstrates that even small changes can advance the fight for progress.

Eliza McGraw is the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award–winning author of Here Comes Exterminator! The Longshot Horse, the Great War, and the Making of an American Hero and a contributing writer for EQUUS magazine.