Elizabeth Therese Brennan Moynihan (1929–2023) was an American historian and writer.
Born in Norfolk County, Massachusetts in 1929, to Therese Russell Brennan, a newspaper editor, and Francis Brennan, a chemical factory foreman, her early life was marked by economic hardship during the Great Depression.[1]
Moynihan attended Boston College but could not complete her degree due to financial difficulties.[1] She began her career in politics, volunteering in John F. Kennedy's 1952 Senate campaign and Adlai Stevenson's presidential campaign.[1] She later moved to New York, working in Governor W. Averell Harriman's 1954 campaign, where she met her future husband, Pat Moynihan.[1]
Her involvement in her husband's political career was notable, particularly in strategizing against his electoral challengers.[1] [2] During her husband's ambassadorship to India in the 1970s, Moynihan developed an interest in Mughal history.[1] [3] She is credited with the discovery of a lost garden built by Emperor Babur, a find acknowledged by The Times as significant in the field of archaeology.[1] [4]
Moynihan authored Paradise as a Garden: In Persia and Mughal India (1979), and edited The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the Taj Mahal (2000), detailing the rediscovery and restoration of the Mehtab Bagh.[1] The project involved collaboration with Indian scholars and contributed to the preservation of historical sites.[1]
Moynihan was also a founding trustee of the Leon Levy Foundation in New York, advocating for the preservation of historical sites.[1] Her work in Mughal studies and preservation efforts are recognized as significant contributions to the field.[1]