7 Questions with Karen Q, Historical Portrayer, Tour Leader, Historian, and Author

 

    

    Karen Q, aka Karen Quinones, is the founder and historian at Patriot Tours, NYC. Patriot Tours conducts historic walking tours of New York City, focusing on the American Revolution and Founding Era. She's been operating since 2005 and have recently branched out into video tours.

 

    She also appears as an 18^th Century character, “Mrs. Q”, a successful merchant in 18^th Century NYC, at reenactments and conduct specialized tours in character. Mrs. Q live streams Friday nights at 7pm ET on Facebook and YouTube as PatriotToursNYC. She is the author of Theodosia Burr: Teen Witness to the Founding of the New Nation.  The Patriot Tours website is https://patriottoursnyc.com/ ,

YouTube page https://www.youtube.com/c/PatriotToursNYC

1. How and when did you get  hooked on history? 

In my teens, in upstate NY, where I become fascinated with the founding of the small city I grew up in and the families who settled it. That continued and grew as I moved to NYC and became a professional on Wall Street. Every day I passed some of the most historic sites in the city and grew more and more interested in learning about them. Eventually, I left my Wall Street profession and became a full-time historian.

2.          What role does history play or has it played in your personal life? 

All of our family vacations are history vacations! Battlefields, historic sites, everything is about American history. 

3.          How does history play  a part of your professional life/career? 

Patriot Tours NYC is my business and until the pandemic, was highly successful. My Revolutionary War Walking Tour is one of the “must do” things for history buffs visiting NYC. My mission is to teach about the American Revolution and Founding in a way that is exciting, engaging, and fun. I use a unique, structured, story-telling format that unfolds as the tour moves from place to place.

4.          Why is studying/knowing history important? 

Everything we experience in modern life has happened before. The better we understand how those events played out, the decisions people made, and the results of those decisions, the better prepared we are to face challenges in our own lives.

5.          What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why? 

The American Revolution and Founding Period. It is a unique time in human history and especially Western Civilization. Many different things came together to make it happen – from new philosophies of human rights, ideas about government, and economic conditions in the American colonies. It all came together at the right time to cause the founding of a unique nation – the United States of America, with a unique governing Constitution.

6.         How did you get started as Mrs. Q, and what does your New York tour include? 

 I got started in 2002, after I decided to leave the stress of Wall Street.  After three years of research, I launched the Revolutionary War Era Tour of Lower Manhattan. The tour includes a walk through the colonial city, including stops at St. Paul’s Chapel and Graveyard, Trinity Church Graveyard, Federal Hall, Fraunces Tavern, and more. I supplement the tour narration with original prints and documents for everyone to see, to help recreate the time period.   I also have a popular tour about the lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr!

7.      You’ve also written Theodosia Burr: Teen Eyewitness to the Founding of a New Nation.  How did you come to choose Theodosia as your subject? 

When researching the private life of Aaron Burr, I became fascinated with his views about women. Mr. Burr was a century ahead of his time, believing that women could achieve the same intellectual goals as men. (His wife was an extraordinarily brilliant, educated, and talented woman.)  Together, they decided their only child, a daughter, would be educated in the manner of a firstborn son – with what was then considered a “masculine” education. Theodosia learned all the subjects a young man would understand, including reading Latin and Greek. The teachers at Princeton College taught her when she became qualified for entrance. Unable to attend in person, the men went to her home in NYC to provide instruction. Theodosia, a young woman, could not be admitted to the college. She was unique in 1790s America. Her experience is fascinating and inspirational to all teenagers struggling to find themselves against the grain of accepted society.