Some Stories Can Be Researched. Others Must Be Remembered.
Author • Storyteller • Educator • Creator of The Traveling Memory Museum
For nearly nine decades, Elaine has witnessed history not from a distance, but through everyday life — through family, community, change, resilience, and the ordinary moments that rarely make it into history books.
Today, she brings those memories into conversation, giving audiences something increasingly rare: the opportunity to encounter history through the voice of someone who lived it.
Conversations That Stay With You
Elaine invites audiences into conversations that feel personal, familiar, and deeply human. Her stories spark recognition—of people, places, traditions, and moments in their own lives—and often leave listeners thinking about the memories they want to preserve and pass on.
Signature Talks
I Remember It Well: Why Our Stories Matter
Every life contains history worth preserving. Through stories drawn from family, community, change, traditions, struggles, celebrations, and everyday life, Elaine reveals the extraordinary history hidden inside ordinary experience — the moments that rarely make it into history books but become the record of a life.
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Through her stories, audiences begin to see their own lives differently. History does not belong only to famous people or major events.
We are all carrying pieces of it—and the stories we remember are part of what we leave behind.
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Ideal for: Libraries, conferences, cultural institutions, community organizations, family-history programs, and intergenerational events.
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Growing Up in Philadelphia: A Living History
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Elaine didn't learn mid-century Philadelphia only through books. She lived it.
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Through vivid firsthand stories, she takes audiences into the Philadelphia of her childhood and young adulthood—its neighborhoods, people, institutions, traditions, opportunities, limitations, and everyday rhythms.
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Her memories reveal something historical records alone cannot fully capture: what it felt like to live there. The places people gathered, the ways communities changed, the things families valued, and the ordinary experiences that became part of a city's history.
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Ideal for: Museums, historical societies, libraries, colleges and universities, Philadelphia organizations, and local-history programs.
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Before the Stories Are Gone
What happens to a family's history when the people who remember it are no longer here to tell it?
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Elaine explores what disappears when questions go unasked, memories go unrecorded, and stories go unpreserved—and why the stories carried within families and communities deserve to be treated as part of our historical record.
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Audiences leave with more than appreciation. They leave looking differently at the elders, photographs, traditions, names, and stories in their own lives—and with a renewed urgency to preserve them while there is still someone to ask.
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Ideal for: Genealogy and family-history groups, libraries, museums, senior communities, cultural organizations, and intergenerational programs.
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87 Years, and I’m Not Finished Yet
What does nearly nine decades of living teach you about beginning again?
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At 87, Elaine is still writing, publishing, creating, learning, building, and imagining what comes next. Her life challenges the assumption that growing older means becoming less curious, less involved, or less capable of making a meaningful contribution.
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With warmth, humor, and the perspective that only time can give, Elaine shares what she has learned about reinvention, curiosity, purpose, and continuing to participate fully in life.
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This isn’t a conversation about staying young. It’s about refusing to stop becoming.
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Ideal for: Women’s organizations, conferences, senior communities, colleges and universities, faith communities, professional organizations, and programs focused on aging, purpose, and lifelong learning.
Some History Can Only Be Told by Those Who Lived It.
Elaine brings audiences something no textbook, archive, or presentation can reproduce: firsthand memory. Through stories, humor, reflection, and conversation, she shares not only what happened, but what it was like to live through it.
Conversations with Elaine
Conversations worth having. History worth remembering.
Featured Talk
Elaine presents one of her signature talks, drawing on firsthand memories, history, humor, and storytelling. Each talk can include time for audience questions and conversation.
Moderated Conversation
Sit down with Elaine for an interview-style conversation about her memories, experiences, and the history she has lived through—a natural fit for fireside chats, cultural programs, conferences, and special events.
Interactive Storytelling
Elaine shares stories of her own, then invites the audience into the conversation with prompts that help them remember the people, places, and experiences that have shaped their lives.
Virtual Conversation
Elaine can join audiences from anywhere for an online talk, interview, or moderated conversation—bringing her stories and conversation to groups who may not be able to gather in person.
Bring the Traveling Memory Museum to Your Event
For select events, Elaine’s storytelling can be paired with an interactive Traveling Memory Museum experience.
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Guests don’t just listen to Elaine’s stories. They’re invited to think about their own—the people they remember, the places they grew up, the photographs and keepsakes they’ve held on to, and the stories in their families that deserve to be remembered.
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Depending on the event, the experience can include curated displays, storytelling prompts, audience participation, and opportunities for guests to share and preserve their own memories.
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It’s a chance to do more than hear about the past. It gives people a reason to remember their own stories—and perhaps finally ask about the ones they haven’t heard yet.
Some history can be researched. Some history must be remembered.
Bring Living History Into the Room
Every year, firsthand memories become harder to recover. Elaine’s work is rooted in a simple belief: the stories carried by ordinary people are part of our history, and they deserve to be heard while the voices that carry them are still here.
​For nearly nine decades, Elaine has witnessed a changing America through the intimate lens of family, community, work, womanhood, aging, and everyday life. She brings more than memories to an audience. She brings the perspective of someone who was there—and the wisdom to help others recognize the history they are carrying, too.​
For conferences, libraries, museums, universities, cultural organizations, and intergenerational gatherings, an engagement with Elaine offers something increasingly rare: the opportunity to encounter history through the voice of someone who lived it—and to leave with a deeper understanding of the stories we are all responsible for carrying forward.