Melissa Strobel is the owner of the visual reference blog "In the Swan's Shadow". She started reenacting in 1996 as a founding member and later president of the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Co. I. Over the years she has participated in many units, and has run many living history events, both large and small and spanning many time periods. Her first love has always been Gettysburg, and the stories of the civilians living there at the time. She also has a deep interest in historical cookery and herbalism, ranging from the medieval period to the 19th century. She is also a member of the Society of Creative Anachronism, where she has served as an officer and chapter president. Melissa attended Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, where she studied American History and Sociology. She has worked with and for several local historical societies and museums, and formerly was the archivist and curator for West Overton Museums, the birthplace of industrialist Henry Clay Frick and the property of his Mennonite grandparents, who settled there in the early 1800s.
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