Join educator, writer, and historian Elizabeth Kahn Kaplan as she talks on Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton in her talk “My Betsey: The Remarkable Wife of Alexander Hamilton”. Mrs. Kaplan will explore the widely different family backgrounds of Elizabeth Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton, yet their marriage was a great success. Eliza raised their eight children, survived public disgrace over his notorious affair with Maria Reynolds, was overcome with anguish after his fatal duel with Aaron Burr in 1804, but drew on inner strength and resolve to live for 50 more years as Hamilton’s widow, working tirelessly to salvage the reputation of this much maligned yet indispensable Founding Father while creating still-thriving institutions on behalf of orphans and public education in New York. She died at 97 admired by many and respected by all. The Broadway musical, Hamilton, recounted only a fraction of her remarkable life.
Elizabeth Kahn Kaplan is an educator, writer, and historian and lives in New York City.