Elizabeth D. Leonard


Elizabeth D. Leonard is an American historian and the John J. and Cornelia V. Gibson Professor of History at Colby College in Maine. Her areas of specialty include American women and the Civil War era.

Education

She earned an M.A. in US History in 1988 and a PhD in 1992 from the University of California Riverside.

Career

Leonard has been teaching at Colby College since receiving her PhD serving as an assistant, then associate professor from 1992 to 2003. She was interviewed in a C-Span special on the history of Augusta, Maine.
Leonard's research interests focus on the Civil War through the lens of gender as well as race.
With the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, Leonard defended scope for scholarship in the Civil War era, arguing that there were prominent figures from the time about whom little is known.

Awards

Between 2000 and 2003, Leonard was the Harriet S. and George C. Wiswell Jr. Research Fellow at Colby College in American History.
Her most recent book, Lincoln’s Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky won the Lincoln Prize in 2011.

Publications