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Elizabeth De Wolfe, Ph.D., professor of history and co-founder of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, recently published an article on true crime inspired sensational fiction in Nursing Clio, an open access, peer-reviewed, collaborative blog project that ties historical scholarship to present-day issues related to gender and medicine.

According to De Wolfe, true crime-based accounts in mid-nineteenth-century sensational fiction, published in inexpensive, lurid pamphlet-novellas with bright yellow covers, exposed the dangers of the big, bad city for country girls turned cash-earning urban workers.

True-crime inspired sensational fiction featuring working women continued beyond the 1860s, when the workforce of New England textile mills shifted from native-born white New Englanders to immigrant laborers. 

DeWolfe has taught and served the ɫ����Ƶ community for 23 years. Her research interests are in 19th century American women’s history. She has several notable works including The Murder of Mary Bean and Other Stories.