Alias Agnes

The Notorious Tale of a Gilded Age Spy

Elizabeth A. DeWolfe

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9781985902244, 9781985902237
• eBook ISBN: 9781985902251
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Jane Armstrong Tucker was a Boston stenographer scrabbling to get by as a single woman in the Gilded Age, until she was offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Madeleine Pollard was a Kentuckian with humble roots who had used charisma to work her way into the parlors of the Washington, DC, elite. Tucker hid behind an alias—Agnes Parker—but Pollard had a secret, too.

Alias Agnes details the story of Jane Tucker, who took a job as an undercover detective with a ten-week mission. Her target: Madeleine Pollard, former mistress of Congressman William C. P. Breckinridge, whom she had sued for breach of promise when he failed to marry her. Exploring the intricacies of this trial and a scandal that captivated the nation, author Elizabeth A. DeWolfe demonstrates that a shared lack of power did not always lead to alliances among women. DeWolfe uncovers the strategies women used to make their way in the world, drawing parallels between the previously forgotten and incomplete tales of Tucker, Pollard, and the women who testified in the trial—from formerly enslaved persons, to white socialites, to single government clerks, to divorced physicians.

Written in engaging prose with all the intrigue and suspense of a detective tale, Alias Agnes chronicles the lives of women at the cusp of the twentieth century—the opportunities that beckoned them and the challenges that thwarted their dreams.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedcation
• Contents
• Author’s Note
• Prologue
• Chapter 1. Hastily, Jane
• Chapter 2. My Dear Mr. Rodes
• Chapter 3. A Considerable Surprise
• Chapter 4. No Mistakes
• Chapter 5. Pitiful Stories
• Chapter 6. The Stenographer’s Guide to Spying
• Chapter 7. So Darned Clever in My Work
• Chapter 8. A Fellow Woman, Ambitious and Smart
• Chapter 9. The Only Chance a Girl Will Get
• Chapter 10. Hems to the Tops of Her Shoes
• Chapter 11. So like a Woman
• Chapter 12. Happiest Woman in Washington
• Chapter 13. French Dressing
• Chapter 14. Treacherous Type-Writers, She-Fanatics, and the Short-Haired Women of Boston
• Chapter 15. The Eve of My Waterloo
• Chapter 16. The Trouble with All Detective Stories
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• A Note on Sources
• Notes
• Index
• Illustrations