Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant

14/08/2026

Humble fans! I (Kathryn) am going to be giving a talk for George Mason's Gunston Hall next Wednesday as part of their "History Bites" lecture series! Check it out.

🎙️ We're just one week away from our next episode of History Bites!

Join us Wednesday, August 19, at 12:30 p.m. as History Bites launches its new Women and Politics miniseries with women’s historian Kathryn Gehred.

Kathryn specializes in early American women’s history and co-edited The Papers of Martha Washington (2022), a publication of the Washington Papers Project at the University of Virginia. She currently serves as media editor for Encyclopedia Virginia and hosts Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant, a podcast showcasing letters written by women in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

🔔 Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified when the episode goes live:
https://tinyurl.com/ynws32tw

17/07/2025

New Episode alert!

In 1777, not long before the British Army occupied Philadelphia, the Continental Congress exiled Henry Drinker and 19 other prominent Quaker men. In today's letter, Elizabeth Drinker provides her husband, Henry, with an update on life in occupied Philadelphia and the Scottish officer who has recently taken up quarters in the Drinker home.

In this episode, Dr. Lauren Duval joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss this 1778 letter from Elizabeth Drinker to her exiled husband. Listen now on your favorite podcast app!

Dr. Lauren Duval joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss a letter from Elizabeth Drinker to her husband Henry dated February 26, 1778. In 1777, not long before the British …

04/07/2025

On this episode of Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant, Dr. Emily Sneff joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss a letter from Polly Palmer to John Adams dated 4 August 1776. In this letter, Palmer thanks Adams for sending her one of the earliest printings of the Declaration of Independence. In this episode, we explore Palmer and Adams’s lifelong friendship, their experience getting inoculated for smallpox together, and military movements during the War for Independence.
Listen now on your favorite podcast app or at

Dr. Emily Sneff joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss a letter from Polly Palmer to John Adams dated 4 August 1776, in which Palmer thanks Adams for sending her one of th…

22/04/2025

New episode alert! On this episode, Katy Gehred is joined by Diane Ehrenpreis, Curator of Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, to discuss a letter from Martha Jefferson to a Mrs. Madison dated August 8, 1780. In this letter, Mrs. Jefferson encourages women to join together to raise funds to support the Continental soldiers. This letter is one of only four known correspondences in Mrs. Jefferson’s hand, and in this episode, Diane and Katy discuss some of the ways Mrs. Jefferson’s words have been misinterpreted in the past.

Listen Now on your favorite podcast app or at

Diane Ehrenpreis joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss a letter from Martha Jefferson to a Mrs. Madison dated August 8, 1780 in which Mrs. Jefferson encourages women to j…

15/04/2025

Kathryn Gehred, host of Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant, recently joined Pamela Toler Author on History in the Margins to talk about how women's history is "real" history. You can read their entire conversation here:

Talking About Women’s History: Three Questions and an Answer with Kathryn Gehred By Pamela | March 27, 2025 | 0 Kathryn Gehred has a master’s degree in Women’s History from Sarah Lawrence College and was part of a team of editors who completed The Papers of Martha Washington, a transcribed col...

27/03/2025

New episode alert!

Dr. Emily Sneff joins Katy Gehred to discuss a letter from Polly Palmer to John Adams dated 4 August 1776. In this letter, Palmer thanks Adams for sending her one of the earliest printings of the Declaration of Independence.

In the episode, Gehred and Sneff explore Palmer and Adams’s lifelong friendship, their experience getting inoculated for smallpox together, and military movements during the War for Independence.

Listen now on your favorite app!
https://www.r2studios.org/show/your-most-obedient-humble-servant/Episode-58-our-unnatural-enemies-may-be-turned-from-us/

Read the full letter on the Massachusetts Historical Society's website https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-04-02-02-0047

Dr. Emily Sneff joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss a letter from Polly Palmer to John Adams dated 4 August 1776, in which Palmer thanks Adams for sending her one of th…

25/02/2025

New Episode Alert! On today's episode, George Mason University's Dr. Cynthia Kierner joins Katy Gehred to discuss why 18th-century widows who legally owned property had no say in how it was taxed. They dive into a letter from Richard Henry Lee to Hannah Lee Corbin dated March 18, 1778, which comes from Stratford Hall's collection. In the episode, we also explore religious conversion, cohabitation, and inflation! Listen now on your favorite podcast app.

https://www.r2studios.org/show/your-most-obedient-humble-servant/episode-57-those-tumultuous-assemblies-of-men/

Dr. Cynthia Kierner joins host Kathryn Gehred to discuss a 1778 letter from Richard Henry Lee to his sister Hannah Lee Corbin. In a lost letter, Hannah previously e…

28/01/2025

New episode alert! In today's episode, Dr. Jacqueline Beatty joins host Kathryn Gehred to discuss The Petition of Belinda from 1783. Using poetic language, Belinda Sutton petitions The Massachusetts General Court for the funds left to her by her enslaver Isaac Royall after he fled the colonies during the Revolutionary War she also describes her kidnapping and enslavement.

Listen now on your favorite podcast app and if you enjoy the show, please tell a friend!

https://www.r2studios.org/show/your-most-obedient-humble-servant/episode-56-the-most-dreadful-of-all-enemies/

Dr. Jacqueline Beatty joins host Kathryn Gehred to discuss The Petition of Belinda from 1783 in which Belinda Sutton petitions The Massachusetts General Court for t…

20/12/2024

NEW EPISODE ALERT! "An Insurrection Was Hourly Expected" is now playing. Ramin Ganeshram joins Katy Gehred to discuss excerpts from Janet Shaw’s Journal of a lady of quality; being the narrative of a journey from Scotland to the West Indies, North Carolina, and Portugal, in the years 1774 to 1776. Ganeshram and Gehred explore life under martial law in North Carolina and the fear and paranoia among white colonists because of a supposed insurrection by enslaved people.

https://www.r2studios.org/show/your-most-obedient-humble-servant/episode-55-an-insurrection-was-hourly-expected/

Ramin Ganeshram joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss excerpts from Janet Shaw’s Journal of a lady of quality; being the narrative of a journey from Scotland to the West …

19/12/2024

In the wake of the Stamp Act Crisis, the British chart a new course for empire in North America by imposing taxes on paper, paint, lead, glass, and tea, pitting Bri…