Welcome to the history tricks where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

And here's your 30 second summary.

Mary Cassatt had always been an independent thinker, but once she became a member of the radical group of artists known as the Impressionists, she sidestepped

expectations of gender and the traditional rules of artistic

expression and forged a singular style all her own.

The end. Let's talk about Mary Cassatt.

But first, let's drop her into history.

In 1865, Martin Delaney became Major Martin Delaney when he became the first African American to receive an Army Commission.

Sculptor Edmonia Lewis moved from the US to Europe to continue her artistic career in Rome.

Future Queen Liliu Kalani represented the royal family

when she traveled from the Kingdom of Hawaii

to England and met Queen Victoria. The book Alice in Wonderland by Charles Dodson under his pen name

Lewis Carroll was first published. P.T. Barnum's American Museum in New York City

burned to the ground on July 19th with General Order Number 3, which

emancipated 250,000 enslaved people of Texas, a holiday still celebrated, Juneteenth, was formed.

Liquid soap, billiard balls, and the coffee perculator received their first U.S. patents.

Clara Barton opened the Missing Soldiers Office in Washington, D.C. at the conclusion of the Civil War.

Novelist Rudyard Kipling was born and President Abraham Lincoln died.

And in 1865, Mary Cassatt took her career into her own hands when she moved from the US to Europe.

Mary Stevenson Cassat was born on May 22, 1844 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, the fourth of the five living

children of Robert Simpson, Cassotte and Catherine Kelso Johnston Cassotte. Both of Mary's parents were descendants of families with similar

trajectories in the USA.

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