Presenting Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, the first picture on this blog to be featured in color!

Eliza has gained popularity thanks to the Hamilton musical, which, as you probably know, brought up a lot of the awesome things she did. But did you know she was part of a spy ring? On a visit to the Schuyler mansion last summer, I found out that during the American Revolutionary War (and a little after), Philip Schuyler ran a spy ring with two of his daughters, Eliza and Angelica. They read mail and charmed officers into sharing information. Eliza mainly acted as a courier of intelligence.

Pretty cool, huh?

This is a rendition of Ewen Montagu, a British Naval Intelligence officer during World War II. He was the mastermind behind Operation Mincemeat, a weird but brilliant plan involving dressing up a corpse and filling his pockets with fake intelligence to make the Axis powers think an upcoming Allied invasion was of Greece and not Sicily, the real target. I love the way this guy thought. If you want to learn more, I strongly recommend Ben MacIntyre's book on the subject, Operation Mincemeat. It's a story of elaborate attention to detail and remarkable creativity, and definitely worth checking out.