Julia Henri works full-time as a published writer and photographer from her studio located in the forests of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. She began her journalism career at the Boston Herald, where she worked her way through the newsroom to staff writer, covering crime and investigative stories. She has since written and photographed for numerous newspapers, magazines, trade publications, and auction houses, with experience in both print and television newsrooms.

Henri’s path to journalism was an unusual one. She began her education as a cellist and pianist at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music while also studying journalism at the University of Cincinnati. Later, on scholarship at Massachusetts College of Art, she studied graphic design and illustration while continuing to write and photograph.

A fascination with fourteenth- and fifteenth-century illuminated manuscripts led to years of study in Renaissance drawing and painting methods, historic pigments and materials, vellum and parchment, gilding, and related techniques. She also researched fifteenth-century illuminated manuscripts in the Rare Manuscripts Department of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. In contrast, Julia studied crime and mystery writing at Interlochen Center for the Arts, an experience that became a lasting inspiration for her own storytelling.

Today, Henri writes and photographs “Juicy History,” her popular independent publication on Substack. She searches for stories that have not been told before and investigates the truths behind them. These often begin with an unfamiliar painting, an old book or overlooked photograph, historic clothing, an object in a museum collection, or quirky tales of everyday life as published in a vintage or centuries-old periodical.

Before establishing “Juicy History,” Henri spent years in the fine-art and high-end auction worlds as an Accredited Member of the International Society of Appraisers, working with major museums and libraries, prominent private collections, and significant estates. Her specialties ranged from fine art and historic costume and textiles to photography, antiquarian books, historic documents and manuscripts, as well as glass and decorative objects. The discipline of authentication and establishing an honest written provenance through substantiated research continues to shape her work. She wants to know what an object is, where it came from, what can be proven about it...and what cannot. The story counts.

Henri is currently at work on a long-form nonfiction project drawn from unpublished oral-history interviews, personal correspondence, photographs, and archival records. The project compares stories and letters documenting a time of profound change in American history with what can actually be found in the historical record.

“Juicy History” is independently researched using historic documents and legal records, never-before-published images, handwritten letters, periodicals, oral histories, and interviews with academics. All photographs are either taken by Julia Henri or fully credited to their sources. No AI-generated writing is published.

Read Julia Henri’s latest work at “Juicy History” on Substack.

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