Former director of education at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, and author of An Uncommon Cape: Researching the Histories and Mysteries of a Property, Eleanor Phillips Brackbill graduated from Antioch College, earned an MA in art history at Boston University, completed a curatorial fellowship in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program, and studied in the art history doctoral program at City University of New York. Following twenty-five years as an educator, she embarked on a second career writing about history. She lives with her husband in Portland, Maine, and is currently working on her next book, another story steeped in the history of the American West.