Margaret Kennedy “Betsy” Ross Caswell

Guest Post by Cameron Neubauer

Margaret Ross Lansdowne

My chosen Twitter character is Margaret Kennedy “Betsy” Ross Caswell. She connects to the Mitchell family as Zachary Lansdowne’s widow. During Billy Mitchell’s life, he was controversially liked and disliked. In general, the US War Department was opposed to Billy’s ideas about aviation and actively ignored him. In contrast, the public opinion tended to side more with Billy and his ideas. Lansdowne was known for agreeing with most of Bill’s stances on the War Department and especially aviation. Lansdowne died in the Shenandoah disaster after expressing concern about the safety of the trip. This resulted in Margaret speaking out to the public against the US War Department and serving as witness in Billy Mitchell’s court martial.

For this reenactment of the Mitchell family history, with historical imagination, I am going to use this character to attempt to portray the public’s opinion of Bill during the timeline with a focus on events pertaining to the late 1800s to early 1900s. I will be able to use historical events that have happened surrounding Billy’s life using the class bibliography in chronological order. My tweets will be reactions to these current events but will also portray a few historical events happening broadly in America and around the world, including but not limited to the Spanish American war, World War I, Women’s Suffrage movement, trendy advertisements, popular entertainment, common hardships, etc. For my profile, my handle is @MrsLansdowne_ since she was most commonly known as Zachary Lansdowne’s widow. I also found a picture of her for the profile picture.