Marni / Susan

Marni (left) with roommate Margaret Ray at graduation, 1975.

Marni à Paris, 2022.

Susan in 2020.

Excitement and joy.  That’s what you hear in the voice of Martha A. Sandweiss, aka Marni, Princeton history professor emerita, when she talks about her research. She talks about Aha! moments.  She gets almost giddy acknowledging the superpowers of a historian (and for those of you who missed the memo: it’s okay now to say “a”—not “an”—historian).

Sandweiss’s energy is so captivating that we have, with apologies, mostly edited out the contributions of her interviewer, Susan Hodara, who is mostly heard saying, “That’s amazing.” Which it is. Especially when Marni dives into the research for her latest book which is prompted by a photo taken at Fort Laramie in 1868, depicting “six big white men, fresh from the Civil War, standing to each side of a young Native girl wrapped in a blanket.”

Who was the girl? Why was she there?  Marni, who describes herself as “a historian who thinks with and about images, especially photographs,” has spent years uncovering the history behind the image.

Alas, there wasn’t time to discuss Marni’s other projects, among them the Princeton and Slavery Project, which grew out of a research seminar she taught, or such previous books, as “Passing Strange,” about Clarence King, a celebrated 19th century explorer and writer, who chose to pass as Black.  Trust us:  it’s amazing.