Bio

As a graduate student, Meredith Henne Baker studied American History and Museum Studies at the College of William and Mary, and it was there she uncovered the story of this pivotal Virginia event.  She currently writes from Richmond, where she lives with her family. The Richmond Theater Fire, winner of the 2012 Jules and Frances F. Landry Award and the 2012 Phi Alpha Theta Best First Book Award, is her first book. She has been a featured speaker on Virginia history for events with the Historic Richmond Foundation, the Smithsonian, the Virginia Forum, Wilton House, the Library of Virginia, the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, and others and she was a 2021 Virginia Humanities Fellow with a research residency at the Library of Virginia. Hear her Banner Lecture at the VMHC here.