Unsung History

Kelly Therese Pollock

A podcast about people and events in American history you may not know much about. Yet.

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Episodes

Eliza Scidmore
Yesterday
Eliza Scidmore
Journalist Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore traveled the world in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, writing books and hundreds of articles about such places as Alaska, Japan, China, India, and helping shape the journal of the National Geographic Society into the photograph-heavy magazine it is today. Scidmore is perhaps best known today for her long-running and eventually successful campaign to bring Japanese cherry trees to Potomac Park in Washington, DC.Joining me in this episode is writer Diana Parsell, author of Eliza Scidmore: The Trailblazing Journalist Behind Washington's Cherry Trees.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “My Cherry Blossom,” written by Ted Snyder and performed by Lanin’s Orchestra on May 12, 1921, in New York City; audio is in the public domain and is available via the Discography of American Historical Recordings. The episode image is "Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore [signature]," The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library Digital Collections, 1895 - 1910. Additional Sources:“Cherry blossoms’ champion, Eliza Scidmore, led a life of adventure,” by Michael E. Ruane, The Washington Post, March 13, 2012.“Eliza Scidmore,” National Park Service.“Beyond the Cherry Trees: The Life and Times of Eliza Scidmore,” by Jennifer Pocock, National Geographic,March 27, 2012.“The Surprisingly Calamitous History of DC’s Cherry Blossoms,” by Hayley Garrison Phillips, Washingtonian, March 18, 2018.“Cherry Blossoms, Travel Logs, and Colonial Connections: Eliza Scidmore’s Contributions to the Smithsonian,” by Kasey Sease, Smithsonian Institution Archives, August 18, 2020.“Celebrating Eliza Scidmore: Nat Geo’s First Female Photographer,” by Kern Carter, Writers are Superstars, May 14, 2023.“The American Woman Who Reported On Japan’s Entry Into World War I,” By Diana Parsell, Doughboy Foundation, August 8, 2023.“The woman who shaped National Geographic,” National Geographic, February 22, 2017.“Photo lot 139, Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore photographs relating to Japan and China,” National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Foreign Missionaries & American Diplomacy in the 19th Century
Mar 11 2024
Foreign Missionaries & American Diplomacy in the 19th Century
In 1812, when the United States was still a young nation and its State Department was tiny, American citizens began heading around the world as Christian missionaries. Early in the 19th Century, the US government often saw missionaries as experts on the politics, culture, and language of regions like China and the Sandwich Islands, but as the State Department expanded its own global footprint, it became increasingly concerned about missionary troubles.Joining me in this episode is Dr. Emily Conroy-Krutz, Associate Professor of History at Michigan State University and author of Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Jesus, Love of My Soul,” written by Charles Wesley and performed by Simeon Butler March and Henry Burr on February 25, 1916; the audio is in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is from the Jubilee Story of the China Inland Mission, Marshall Broomhall, Morgan & Scott, London, 1915; it is in the public domain.Additional Sources:“Were Christian missionaries ‘foundational’ to the United States?” by Emily Conroy-Krutz, The Washington Post, October 18, 2018.“Into All the World: the Story of Haystack [video,]” Chaplain Rick Spalding, Williams College, September 25, 2013.“American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions historical documents,” Global Ministries.“The life and letters of Samuel Wells Williams, LL.D., missionary, diplomatist, Sinologue,” by Frederick Wells Williams, 1889.“Missionary Movement - Timeline Movement,” The Association of Religion Data Archives.“The Foreign Missionary Movement in the 19th and early 20th Centuries,” by Daniel H. Bays, National Humanities center.“A History of the United States Department of State, 1789-1996,” Released by the Office of the Historian, July 1996.“About,” United States Department of State.“In 200-year tradition, most Christian missionaries are American,” by Daniel Lovering, Reuters, February 20, 2012.
Tammany Hall, FDR & the Murder of Vivian Gordon
Mar 4 2024
Tammany Hall, FDR & the Murder of Vivian Gordon
In 1931, Judge Samuel Seabury was leading an investigation for Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt into corruption in New York’s magistrate courts when a witness in the investigation named Vivian Gordon was found murdered in the Bronx. Because of the public demand for answers in this high-profile murder case, FDR could no longer keep his uneasy peace with Tammany Hall and expanded the scope of Seabury’s investigation. What Seabury’s team uncovered brought down Mayor Jimmy Walker and began to topple the Tammany Hall stranglehold on New York City politics.Joining me in this episode is writer Michael Wolraich, author of The Bishop And The Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is by Daniel Carlton on Pixabay and is available for use via the Pixabay Content License. The episode image is “Mid-town Manhattan, looking northeast toward Chrysler Building,” photographed by William Frange, ca. 1931; there are no known restrictions on publication and the image is available via the Library of Congress.Additional Sources:“The Politics and Iconography of Tammany in the Early American Republic,” by Keith Muchowski, Journal of the American Revolution, August 19, 2021“Boss Tweed’s Rise and Downfall | New York: A Documentary Film [video],” PBS.“The corrupt N.Y. congressman who was sentenced to prison — and escaped,” by George Bass, The Washington post, July 2, 2023.“The Case For Tammany Hall Being On The Right Side Of History,” NPR Fresh Air, March 5, 2014.“How an Unlikely Alliance Saved the Democrats 100 Years Ago,” by Terry Golway, Politico Magazine, September 17, 2018.“Franklin D. Roosevelt: Life Before the Presidency,” by William E. Leuchtenburg, UVA Miller Center.“Samuel Seabury,” Historical Society of the New York Courts.“The Insane 1930s Graft Investigation That Took Down New York’s Mayor—and Then Tammany Hall,” by Erin Blakemore, History.com, Originally posted April 17, 2019, and updated April 22, 2019.“The Dead Woman Who Brought Down the Mayor,” by Rachel Shteir, Smithsonian Magazine, February 25, 2013.“Jimmy Walker May Have Been NYC's Most Corrupt Mayor, but Damn Was He Fun,” Avenue Magazine, December 2, 2021.“Jazz Age Mayor and Villager, Jimmy Walker,” by Sarah Bean Apmann, Off the Grid, June 18, 2020.
The Combahee River Raid of 1863
Feb 26 2024
The Combahee River Raid of 1863
Starting in November 1861, the Union Army held the city of Beaufort, South Carolina, using the Sea Islands as a southern base of operations in the Civil War. Harriet Tubman joined the Army there, debriefing freedom seekers who fled enslavement in nearby regions and ran to seek the Union Army’s protection in Beaufort. With the intelligence Tubman gathered, she and Colonel James Montgomery led 150 Black soldiers on a daring raid along the Combahee RIver in June 1863, destroying seven rice plantations in the heart of the Confederate breadbasket, causing $6 million worth of damages and liberating 756 people from enslavement on the rice fields.Joining me in this episode is Dr. Edda Fields-Black, Associate Professor of HIstory at Carnegie Mellon University and author of COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is "Dangerous," by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. The episode image is Mcpherson & Oliver, photographer. “2nd South Carolina Infantry Regiment raid on rice plantation, Combahee, South Carolina,” by Mcpherson and Oliver, published in Harper’s Weekly, July 4, 1863; the image is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress.Additional Sources:“Port Royal, Battle of,” by Stephen R. Wise, Encyclopedia of South Carolina, Originally published June 20, 2016, and updated August 22, 2022.“Nov. 7, 1861: The Port Royal Experiment Initiated,” Zinn Education Project.“The Port Royal Experiment,” The Lowcountry Digital History Initiative (LDHI).“Port Royal Experiment: Reconstruction Era in Beaufort, South Carolina with Park Ranger Chris Barr [video],” National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT), August 23, 2022.“Life on the Sea Islands (Part I),” by Charlotte Forten Grimké, The Atlantic, May 1864.“Life on the Sea Islands (Part II),” by Charlotte Forten Grimké, The Atlantic, June 1864.“Harriet Tubman’s Great Raid,” by Paul Donnelly, The New York Times, June 7, 2013.“After the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman Led a Brazen Civil War Raid,” by Alexis Clark, History.com, Originally published November 1, 2019, and updated August 29, 2023.
The History of Ice in the United States
Feb 19 2024
The History of Ice in the United States
Today, Americans consume 400 pounds of ice a year, each. That would have been unfathomable to people in the 18th century, but a number of innovators and ice barons in the 19th and 20th centuries changed the way we think about the slippery substance. Joining me in this episode is writer Dr. Amy Brady, author of Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks–A Cool History of a Hot Commodity.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “All She Gets from the Iceman is Ice,” written by Arthur J. Lamb and Alfred Solman and performed by Ada Jones in 1908; the song is in the public domain and is available via the Internet Archive. The episode image is: “Girls deliver ice. Heavy work that formerly belonged to men only is being done by girls. The ice girls are delivering ice on a route and their work requires brawn as well as the partriotic ambition to help," taken on September 16, 1918; image is in the public domain and is available via the National Archives (NAID: 533758; Local ID: 165-WW-595A(3)).Additional Sources:“The Stubborn American Who Brought Ice to the World,” By Reid Mitenbuler, The Atlantic, February 5, 2013.“Tracing the History of New England’s Ice Trade,” by Devin Hahn and Amy Laskowski, The Brink: Pioneering Research from Boston University, February 4, 2022.“The Bizarre But True Story of America's Obsession With Ice Cubes,” by Reid Mitenbuler, Epicurious, September 26, 2016.“The Surprisingly Cool History of Ice, by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, Mental Floss, February 10, 2016.“Keeping your (food) cool: From ice harvesting to electric refrigeration,” by Emma Grahn, National Museum of American History, April 29, 2015.“When Everyone Wanted to Be the Iceman,” by Kelly Robinson, Atlas Obscura, August 23, 2019.“The History of Human-Made Ice,” by Amy Brady, Discover Magazine, December 2, 2023.“The Dawn of New York's Ice Age,” by Edward T. O'Donnell, The New York Times, July 21, 2005.“The History of the Refrigerator,” by Mary Bellis, ThoughtCo, Updated on October 31, 2019.“A Chilling History: on the science and technology of portable coolers,” by Laura Prewitt, Science History Institute, July 24, 2023.No chill: A closer look at America’s obsession with ice,” by Haley Chouinard, Business of Home, December 23, 2020.“Climate-Friendly Cocktail Recipes Go Light on Ice,” by Amy Brady, Scientific American, July 1, 2023.
The History of Blue Jeans
Feb 12 2024
The History of Blue Jeans
If you’re like most Americans – or most people on earth – you have a pair of jeans, or maybe five, in your wardrobe. There’s a decent chance you’re wearing jeans right now. These humble pants were invented by a Reno tailor in the 1870s in response to a frustrated customer whose husband kept wearing through his pants too quickly. How, then, did they become a global phenomenon expected to exceed $100 billion in sales by 2025? Joining me to help answer that question is historian, writer, and screenwriter, Dr. Carolyn Purnell, author of Blue Jeans.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Blue Jeans,” composed by Josef Pasternack and performed by the Peerless Quartet in 1921; audio is in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is “Five Idaho farmers, members of Ola self-help sawmill co-op, in the woods standing against a load of logs ready to go down to their mill about three miles away,” photographed by Dorothea Lange in Gem County, Idaho, in October 1939 for the Farm Security Administration; the image is in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress.Additional Sources:“The Origin of Blue Jeans,” by Joseph Stromberg, Smithsonian Magazine, September 26, 2011.“The History of Denim,” Levi Strauss & Co., July 4, 2019.“Riveted: The History of Jeans [video],” PBS American Experience Season 34, Episode 1, February 7, 2022. “Durable and enduring, blue jeans turn 150,” by Jessica Green, NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, May 23, 2023.“Behind 150 years of the world’s most famous denim jeans,” by Gordon Ng, Vogue Singapore, May 3, 2023.“How Denim Became a Political Symbol of the 1960s,” by Brandon Tensley, Smithsonian Magazine, December 2020.“Throwback Thursday: Levi’s — Right For School?” Levi Strauss & Co., September 24, 2015.
The History of Pinball
Feb 5 2024
The History of Pinball
In January 1942, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia sent New York City police out on an important mission; their objective: to find and destroy tens of thousands of pinball machines. But some of pinball’s most important innovations, including the development of flippers, happened in the decades that it was banned in New York and many other US cities. This week we dig in to the fun – and sometimes surprising – history of pinball.  Joining me in this episode is illustrator and cartoonist Jon Chad, author of Pinball: A Graphic History of the Silver Ball. I’m also joined by a special guest co-host, my son, Teddy.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Caterpillar,” by Gvidon, available for use under the Pixabay content license. The episode image is “Playing the pinball machine at the steelworkers' Serbian Club in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania,” photographed by Jack Delano, 1941, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives.Additional Sources:“The Backstory: The Comte d’Artois, pinball’s original wizard, lived life at full tilt,” by By Brendan Kiley, Pacific NW Magazine, December 1, 2019.“The Human Side of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette,” by Joe McGasko, biography.com, October 14, 2020.“Bagatelle patent model patented by Montague Redgrave,” Smithsonian.“Baffle Ball,” The Internet Pinball Database Presents.“Bally MFG Company, est. 1932,” by Andrew Clayman, Made in Chicago Museum.“That Time America Outlawed Pinball,” by Christopher Klein, History.com, Originally published November 15, 2016, and updated October 5, 2023.“How the Mob Made Pinball Public Enemy #1 in the 1940s,” by Allison McNearney, Daily Beast, November 14, 2021.“Chicago once waged a 40-year war on pinball,” by Ryan Smith, Chicago Reader, May 5, 2018.“How One Perfect Shot Saved Pinball From Being Illegal,” by Matt Blitz, Gizmodo, August 16, 2013.“‘These Things Are Works of Art’: Chicago’s History as the Manufacturing Center for Pinball Machines,” by Meredith Francis, WTTW Chicago, January 26, 2024.“An Industry Suffers as Few People Play a Mean Pinball Anymore,” Washington Post, July 30, 2000.“Inside America's Last Great Pinball Factory,” by Peter Rugg, Popular Mechanics, March 27, 2017.“The Inside Story of Pinball's Renaissance,” by Mike Mahardy, IGN, May 20, 2017.“A Look At The Unlikely Resurgence Of Pinball In The Mobile Age [video],” NBC News, October 1, 2017.Pinball Map
The History of US Foreign Disaster Relief
Jan 29 2024
The History of US Foreign Disaster Relief
In 1812, the United States Congress voted to provide $50,000 to assist victims of a horrific earthquake in the far-away country of Venezuela. It would be another nine decades before the US again provided aid for recovery efforts after a foreign rapid-onset natural disaster, but over time it became much more common for the US to help in such emergencies. This disaster relief, provided via a three-pronged response from the State Department, the military, and the voluntary sector, especially represented by the American Red Cross, serves both humanitarian and diplomatic functions for the United States. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Julia Irwin, the T. Harry Williams Professor of History at Louisiana State University and author of Catastrophic Diplomacy: US Foreign Disaster Assistance in the American Century.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Palloncini sweet and happy piano song,” by Pastichio_Piano_Music, available for use under the Pixabay Content License. The episode image is “Personnel of Commander Carrier Division 15, showing theprime minister of Ceylon the supplies that the US Navy was delivering to flood victims in his country in early 1958,” Image courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command.Additional Sources:How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr, Picador USA, 2020.“The City of Earthquakes,” by Horace D. Warner, The Atlantic, March 1883.“Founding and early years of the ICRC (1863-1914),” International Committee of the Red Cross, May 12, 2020.“A Brief History of the American Red Cross,” American Red Cross. “American Empire,” American Yawp.“December 28, 1908: The Tsunami of Messina,” by David Bressan, Scientific American History of Geology, December 28, 2012.By David Bressan on December 28, 2012“USAID History,” United States Agency for International Development.“Where We Work,” United States Agency for International Development.
LSD, the CIA & the History of Psychedelic Science
Jan 22 2024
LSD, the CIA & the History of Psychedelic Science
In 1938, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally developed the potent psychedelic LSD, although it would be several years before Hofmann realized what he’d created. During the Cold War, the CIA launched a top-secret mind control project, code-named MKUltra, experimenting with LSD and other psychedelic substances, drugging military personnel, CIA employees, and civilians, often without their consent or even their knowledge. At the same time, the CIA was funding university research on psychedelics, involving scientists like Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson and counterculture luminaries like Ken Kesey and Allen Ginsberg. Although mid-20th Century scientists had seen therapeutic promise in psychedelics, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, which classified LSD, along with psilocybin, MDMA, and peyote, as Schedule I drugs, defined by the DEA as having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Joining me in this episode is Dr. Benjamin Breen, Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is Psychedelic Atmospheric Dream Guitar, by Sonican, available for use via the Pixabay Content License. The episode image is a photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash; free to use under the Unsplash License.Additional Sources:“Your employer may be adding another health benefit to its roster: psychedelic drugs,” by Sonya Collins, Fortune, January 19, 2024.“Psychedelics gave terminal patients relief from their intense anxiety,” by By Meryl Davids Landau, The Washington Post, January 13, 2024.“People were using psychedelic drugs in Bronze Age Europe, study finds,” by Sheena Goodyear, CBC Radio, April 12, 2023.“Prehistoric peyote use: alkaloid analysis and radiocarbon dating of archaeological specimens of Lophophora from Texas,” by Hesham R El-Seedi, et al, Journal of ethnopharmacology, 2005, vol. 101,1-3: 238-42.“'Apparently Useless': The Accidental Discovery of LSD,” by Tom Shroder, The Atlantic, September 9, 2014.“The Evolutionary Origins of Psychedelics,” by Noah Whiteman, Time Magazine, November 29, 2023.“A brief history of psychedelic psychiatry,” by Mo Costandi, The Guardian, September 2, 2014.“Margaret Mead: Human Nature and the Power of Culture,” Library of Congress.“History of CIA,” Central Intelligence Agency.“What We Know About the CIA’s Midcentury Mind-Control Project,” by Kat Eschner, Smithsonian Magazine, April 13, 2017.“The CIA’s Appalling Human Experiments with Mind Control,” by Brianna Nofil, History.com.American Trip: Set, Setting, and the Psychedelic Experience in the Twentieth Century, by Ido Hartogsohn, 2020.“What to know about Colorado’s psychedelic law,” by Andrew Kenney, Colorado Public Radio News, June 21, 2023.
Clotilda: The Last U.S. Slave Ship
Jan 15 2024
Clotilda: The Last U.S. Slave Ship
In 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, the last slave ship landed in the United States from Africa. The transatlantic slave trade had been illegal in the US since 1808, but Alabama enslaver Timothy Meaher and his friends were so sure they could get away with it that they made a bet and hired Meaher’s neighbor, William Foster, to captain a voyage to Africa. Foster and his crew smuggled 110 terrified kidnapped Africans to Mobile Bay, taking them from a homeland they loved to cruel enslavement in the deep South, and changing their lives forever. Joining me in this episode is historian Dr. Hannah Durkin, author of The Survivors of the Clotilda: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave Trade.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Slow Thoughtful Sad Piano (This Cold Feeling),” by Ashot Danielyan; the music is available via the Pixabay content license. The episode image is “Abaché and Kazoola ‘Cudjoe’ Lewis,” by Emma Langdon Roche from Historic Sketches of the South, published in 1914 and now in the public domain.Additional Sources:“Historical Context: The Constitution and Slavery,”by Steven Mintz, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.“The Slave Trade Clause,” National Constitution Center.“Congress votes to ban slave trade: March 2, 1807,” by Andrew Glass, Politico, March 2, 2009.“The Execution of Nathaniel Gordon,” The New York Times, February 22, 1862.“Some Economic Aspects of the Domestic Slave Trade, 1830-1860,” by Robert Evans, Southern Economic Journal 27, no. 4 (1961): 329–37. “The Atlantic Slave Trade Continued Illegally in America Until the Civil War,” by John Harris, History.com, January 28, 2021.“Historical Timeline,” Clotilda: The Exhibition at Africatown Heritage House, operated by the History Museum of Mobile. The Clotilda Descendants Association“The ‘Clotilda,’ the Last Known Slave Ship to Arrive in the U.S., Is Found,” by Allison Keyes, The Smithsonian, May 22, 2019.“Last survivor of transatlantic slave trade discovered,” by Sean Coughlan, BBC News, March24, 2020.“Exploring the Clotilda, the last known slave ship in the U.S., brings hope,” by Debbie Elliott and Marisa Peñaloza, NPR Morning Edition, June 15, 2022.“Descendants of Alabama slave owner say they're ‘figuring out next steps’ to make amends,” by Anderson Cooper, Aliza Chasan, Denise Schrier Cetta, and Katie Brennan, CBS News, November 19, 2023.
The History of Mormonism
Jan 8 2024
The History of Mormonism
In 1830, amid the Second Great Awakening in the burned-over district of New York State, Joseph Smith, Jr., and Oliver Cowdery ordained each other as the first two elders in what they then called the Church of Christ. Within eight years, the Governor of Missouri issued an executive order that members of the church, by then known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state,” driving 10,000 of the faithful to flee to Illinois. This week we discuss the turbulent–and often violent–history of Mormonism and look at the religion’s complicated relationship with the country in which it originated. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Benjamin E. Park, Associate Professor of History at Sam Houston State University and author of American Zion: A New History of Mormonism.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “O My Father,” Composed by Evan Stephens with lyrics by Eliza R. Snow; performed by Trinity Mixed Quartet on September 18, 1923; the audio is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is "The Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA,” Photo by David Iliff; License: CC BY-SA 3.0.Additional Sources:“Timeline: The Early History of the Mormons,”PBS American Experience.“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Fast Facts,” CNN, December 1, 2022.“Mormonism: Guide to Materials and Resources,” The Special Collections & Archives department of the Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University.The Joseph Smith Papers“Doctrine and Covenants 132,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.“The Brink of War: One hundred fifty years ago, the U.S. Army marched into Utah prepared to battle Brigham Young and his Mormon militia,” by David Roberts, Smithsonian Magazine, June 2008.“How Mormonism Went Mainstream,” by Benjamin E. Park, Time Magazine, September 21, 2023.“Latter-day Saint membership passed 17 million in 2023, according to a new church statistical report,” by Tad Walch, Deseret News, April 1, 2023.“The Mormon Poetess Dead,” The New York Times, December 6, 1887.
The History of College Radio
Jan 1 2024
The History of College Radio
Almost as soon as there were radio stations, there were college radio stations. In 1948, to popularize FM radio, the FCC introduced class D non commercial education licenses for low-watt college radio stations. By 1967, 326 FM radio signals in the United States operated as “educational radio,” 220 of which were owned and operated by colleges and universities. The type of programming that these stations offered varied widely, from lectures and sporting events, to various kinds of musical shows, but toward the late 1970s, a new genre of college rock appeared on the scene. Record labels took note as college DJs discovered up-and-coming new artists, although they sometimes stopped playing those artists once they made it big.Joining this week’s episode is historian Dr. Katherine Rye Jewell, a Professor at Fitchburg State University and author of Live from the Underground: A History of College Radio.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “College Days by Charles Hart, et al., 1919, in the public domain and retrieved from the Library of Congress. The episode image is “Don Jackson, a senior, delivering a news broadcast at the Iowa State College radio station,” photographed by Jack Delano at Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa in May 1942; photograph in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information. Additional Sources:“The Development of Radio,” PBS American Experience.“Marconi’s First Wireless Transmission,” by Kath Bates, Oxford Open Learning Trust, November 28, 2018.“Marconi's first radio broadcast made 125 years ago,” by Jonathan Holmes, BBC News, May 13, 2022.“Radio's First Voice...Canadian!” by Mervyn C. Fry, The Cat's Whisker - Official Voice of the Canadian Vintage Wireless Association Vol. 3, No. 1 - March 1973.“History of Commercial Radio,” Federal Communications Commission.“Which college radio station was the first in the United States?,” About College Radio, Radio Survivor, Updated March 14, 2023.“About WRUC 89.7,” WRUC.union.edu.“Celebrating 90 Years of Broadcasting at Curry College,” Curry College.“What Is "College" Rock?” by Shawn Persinger, Premier Guitar, July 15, 2023.“When college radio went mainstream—and 20 bands that came with it,” by Matthew Everett, Yardbarker, November 7, 2017.“10 Legendary Bands that Wouldn’t Be Legendary without College Radio,” by Dave Sarkies, College Radio Foundation, September 21, 2020.“U2 Rock Fordham University: On the Ground at the ‘Secret’ Set,” by Jenn Pelly, Rolling Stone, March 6, 2009.“All that is left is R.E.M. Steeple – Celebrating the beginning of Athens’ legendary band,” by Joe Vitale, UGA Wire, April 5, 2020.“‘60 Songs That Explain the ’90s’: R.E.M. and the Leap From College-Rock Gods to Mainstream Icons,” by Rob Harvilla, The Ringer, September 29, 2021.“REM: The band that defined, then eclipsed college rock,” by Mark Savage, BBC, September 21, 2011.“History Timeline,” Corporation for Public Broadcasting.“History,” NPR.“Left of the dial: College radio days,” by Daniel de Vise, The Washington Post, June 26, 2011.“Technology and the Soul of College Radio,” by Jennifer Waits, Pop Matters, April 19, 2010.“The Enduring Relevance of College Radio,” SPIN, November 10, 2020.“College Radio Maintains Its Mojo,” by Ben Sisario, The New York Times, December 5, 2008.
Love Actually & the Healing Power of Christmas Films
Dec 25 2023
Love Actually & the Healing Power of Christmas Films
What makes a Christmas movie a Christmas movie? How do Christmas movies react to – and help us heal from – collective trauma? How can a British Christmas movie feel quintessentially American? We discuss all that and more this week at the 20th Anniversary of Love Actually, with G. Vaughn Joy, a film historian, writer, podcast host, and PhD candidate at University College London.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The first mid-episode musical selection is “The First Noel,” from Christmas Songs and Carols (1912) by Trinity Choir; in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The second mid-episode musical selection is “Jingle Bells,” from Favorite Colleges Songs (1916) by Victor Male Chorus; in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is from a publicity poster for Love Actually. Films Discussed:It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)The Bishop’s Wife (1947) A Christmas Story (1983)Die Hard (1988)Love Actually (2003)The Holiday (2016)Red Nose Day Actually (2017)Klaus (2019) Additional Sources:“From Fiction to Film: ‘The Greatest Gift’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’” by Elizabeth Brown, Library of Congress Blog, December 21, 2018.“How World War II shaped ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’” by Rachael Scott, CNN, December 25, 2021.“What ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Teaches Us About American History,” by Christopher Wilson, December 16, 2021.“How A Christmas Story Went from Low-Budget Fluke to an American Tradition,” by Sam Kashner, Vanity Fair, November 30, 2023.“What’s That Building? The real-life locations from ‘A Christmas Story,’” by Dennis Rodkin, WBEZ Chicago, December 21, 2023.A Christmas Story House.“Love Actually,” by Roger Ebert, RogertEbert.com, November 7, 2003.“FILM REVIEW; Tales of Love, the True and the Not-So-True” by A.O. Scott, The New York Times, November 7, 2003.“Love Actually Is the Least Romantic Film of All Time,” by Christopher Orr, The Atlantic, December 6, 2013“25 Surprising Facts About ’Love Actually’ for Its 20th Anniversary,” by Kristy Ruchko, Mental Floss, Posted on November 6, 2018 and Updated on November 13, 2023.“The Visible Magic of Asking ‘Why?’ A Contemporary History Approach to Klaus (2019),” by Vaughn Joy, Review Roulette, December 24, 2023.
Mollie Moon
Dec 18 2023
Mollie Moon
Stories of the Civil Rights Movement don’t often center the fundraisers, often Black women, whose tireless efforts made the movement possible; today we’re featuring one of those women. Mollie Moon, born in 1907, the founder and first chairperson of the National Council of Urban League Guilds, raised millions of dollars for the Civil Rights Movement, using her charm and connections to throw charity galas, like her famed Beaux Arts Ball, where everyone wanted to be seen. Her long service to the movement eventually earned her the President's Volunteer Action Award from President George H. W. Bush in 1989.Joining this episode to tell us all about Mollie Moon and the funding of the Civil Rights Movement is Dr. Tanisha C. Ford, professor of history in The Graduate Center, at CUNY, and author of Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Crazy Blues,” composed by Perry Bradford and performed by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1921; the recording is in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is from the cover of Our Secret Society; Image: Harper Collins. Additional Sources:“Socialite Mollie Moon Used Fashion Shows to Fund the Civil Rights Movement,” by Tanisha C. Ford, Harper’s Bazaar, March 8, 2021.“Mollie Moon, 82, Founding Head Of the Urban League Guild, Dies,” by Peter B. Flint, New York Times, June 26, 1990.“Mollie Moon: A Real Voice,” by Lev Earle, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester, March 25, 2021.“Henry Lee Moon (1901-1985),” by Susan Bragg, BlackPast, June 19, 2011.“Louise Thompson and the Black and White Film,” by Denise Lynn, Black Perspectives, AAIHS, April 15, 2021.“Harlem Community Art Center,” Mapping the African American Past, Columbia University.National Urban League Guild.“Funding a Social Movement: The Ford Foundation and Civil Rights, 1965-1970,” by Rachel Wimpee, Rockefeller Archive Center, November 4, 2020.
Jewish War Brides of World War II
Dec 11 2023
Jewish War Brides of World War II
In the ravages of post-World War II Europe, some Jewish women survivors of the Holocaust found the beginnings of a new life when they met – and married – American (and Canadian and British) men serving with the Allied forces. These women were part of a much larger group of war brides, who came to the United States in such large numbers that they required a change in immigration law, but these Jewish war brides faced additional challenges, from language barriers to the memory of the trauma they’d experienced to finding a community in their new home. Dr. Robin Judd, Associate Professor of History at the Ohio State University and author of Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides after the Holocaust, joins this episode to help us explore the story of these women.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Hava Nagila - Orchestra Clarinet,” by JuliusH, available for use via the Pixabay content license. The episode image is “Hanns Ann Alexander wedding 1946,” taken on May 19, 1946, and posted on Flickr by David Lisbona; the image was adapted for use under CC BY 2.0 DEED. Additional Sources:“Displaced Persons,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.“Coming To America: The War Brides Act of 1945,” The National WWII Museum, December 28, 2020.“Here Came The War Brides 60 Years Ago, a Vast Wave of British Women Followed Their New Loves to a New Land,” by Tamara Jones, The Washington Post, February 12, 2006.“Band of Sisters,” by Sarah Kewshaw, The New York Times, July 6, 2008.“America Denied Refugees After the End of World War II—Just As We Are Today,” by David Nasaw, Time Magazine, September 17, 2020.“Statement by the President Upon Signing the Displaced Persons Act,” Harry S. Truman, June 25, 1948, Truman Library.“Flory Jagoda: Singer Songwriter, Storyteller, and Composer,” Ladino Music Today as a Tool of Storytelling and Preservation, Curated by Laurel Comiter, Gabriel Mordoch, and Gabriel Duque, University of Michigan Library.
Merze Tate
Dec 4 2023
Merze Tate
Scholar Merze Tate, born in Michigan in 1905, overcame the odds in what she called a “sex and race discriminating world,” to earn graduate degrees from Oxford University and Harvard University on her way to becoming the first Black woman to teach in the History Department at Howard University. During her long career, Tate published 5 books, 34 journal articles and 45 review essays in the fields of diplomatic history and international relations. Her legacy extends beyond her publications, as the fellowships she endowed continue to support students at her alma maters.Joining me in this episode is historian Dr. Barbara Savage, the Geraldine R. Segal Professor Emerita of American Social Thought and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Merze Tate: The Global Odyssey of a Black Woman Scholar.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is "Trio for Piano Violin and Viola," by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. The episode image is “Portrait of Merze Tate;” photograph taken by Judith Sedwick in 1982 and housed in the Black Women Oral History Project Collection at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America; there are no known copyright restrictions.Additional sources:“Merze Tate Collection,” Western Michigan University Archives.“Who was Dr. Merze Tate?” Western Michigan University.“Merze Tate: Her Legacy Continues,” Merze Tate Explorers.“WMU's Merze Tate broke color barriers around the world [video],” WOOD TV8, February 18, 2021.“Merze Tate,” by Maurice C. Woodard. PS: Political Science & Politics 38, no. 1 (2005): 101–2. “Vernie Merze Tate (1905-1996),” by Robert Fikes, BlackPast, December 22, 2018.“Merze Tate,” St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford.“Diplomatic Historian Merze Tate Dies At 91,” Washington Post, July 8, 1996.“Merze Tate College,” Western Michigan University.
Black Civil Rights before the Civil Rights Movement
Nov 27 2023
Black Civil Rights before the Civil Rights Movement
The beginning of the Civil Rights Movement is often dated to sometime in the middle of the 1950s, but the roots of it stretch back much further. The NAACP, which calls itself “the nation's largest and most widely recognized civil rights organization,” was founded near the beginning of the 20th Century, on February 12, 1909. As today’s guest demonstrates, though, Black Americans were exercising civil rights far earlier than that, in many cases even before the Civil War. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Dylan C. Penningroth is a professor of law and history and Associate Dean of the Program in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at the University of California–Berkeley and author of Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Hopeful Piano,” by Oleg Kyrylkovv, available via the Pixabay license.The episode image is “Spectators and witnesses on second day of Superior Court during trial of automobile accident case during court week in Granville County Courthouse, Oxford, North Carolina,” by Marion Post Wolcott, photographed in 1939; the photograph is in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives. Additional Sources:“8 Key Laws That Advanced Civil Rights,” by Mehrunnisa Wani, History.com, January 26, 2022.“The Reconstruction Amendments: Official Documents as Social History,” by Eric Foner, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.“(1865) Reconstruction Amendments, 1865-1870,” BlackPast.“14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868),” U.S. National Archives.“March 27, 1866: Veto Message on Civil Rights Legislation,” Andrew Johnson, UVA Miller Center.“Andrew Johnson and the veto of the Civil Rights Bill,” National Park Service.“Grant signs KKK Act into law, April 20, 1871,” by Andrew Glass, Politico, April 20, 2019.“Looking back at the Ku Klux Klan Act,” by Nicholas Mosvick, National Constitution Center, April 20, 2021.“Reconstruction and Its Aftermath,” Library of Congress The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship.
The Long History of the Chicago Portage
Nov 20 2023
The Long History of the Chicago Portage
When Europeans arrived in the Great Lakes region, they learned from the Indigenous people living there of a route from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, made possible by a portage connecting the Chicago River and the Des Plaines River. That portage, sometimes called Mud Lake, provided both opportunity and challenge to European powers who struggled to use European naval technology in a region better suited to Indigenous birchbark canoes. In the early 19th century, however, the Americans remade the region with major infrastructure projects, finally controlling the portage not with military power but with engineering, and setting the stage for Chicago’s rapid growth as a major metropolis.Joining me in this episode is Dr. John William Nelson, Assistant Professor of History at Texas Tech University and author of Muddy Ground: Native Peoples, Chicago's Portage, and the Transformation of a Continent. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is "Water Droplets on the River," composed and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons.The episode image is a photograph of a statue that depicts members of the Kaskaskia, a tribe of the Illinois Confederation, leading French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette, to the western end of the Chicago Portage in the summer of 1673. The statue was designed by Chicago area artist Ferdinand Rebechini and erected on April 25-26, 1990. The photograph is under the creative commons license CC BY-SA 2.0 and is available via Wikimedia Commons. Additional sources:“Chicago Portage National Historic Site,” National Park Service.“STORY 1: Chicago Portage National Historic Site/Sitio Histórico Nacional de Chicago Portage,” Friends of the Chicago River.“Portage,” Encyclopedia of Chicago.“The Chicago Portage,” Carnegie Mellon University Libraries Digital Collection.“Marquette and Jolliet 1673 Expedition,” by Roberta Estes, Native Heritage Project, December 30, 2012.“Louis Jolliet & Jacques Marquette [video],” PBS World Explorers.“Cadillac, Antoine De La Mothe,” Encyclopedia of Detroit.“Chicago’s Mythical French Fort,” by Winstanley Briggs, Encyclopedia of Chicago.“Seven Years’ War,” History.com, Originally posted on November 12, 2009 and updated on June 13, 2023.“Treaty of Paris (1783),” U.S. National Archives.“The Northwest and the Ordinances, 1783-1858,” Library of Congress.“The Battle Of The Wabash: The Forgotten Disaster Of The Indian Wars,” by Patrick Feng, The Army Historical Foundation.“The Battle Of Fallen Timbers, 20 August 1794,” by Matthew Seelinger, The Army Historical Foundation.“History of Fort Dearborn,” Chicagology.“How Chicago Transformed From a Midwestern Outpost Town to a Towering City,” by Joshua Salzmann, Smithsonian Magazine, October 12, 2018.“Chicago: 150 Years of Flooding and Excrement,” by Whet Moser, Chicago Magazine, April 18, 2013.
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy
Nov 13 2023
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy
Before Europeans landed in North America, five Indigenous nations around what would become New York State came together to form the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. When the Europeans arrived, the French called them the Iroquois Confederacy, and the English called them the League of Five Nations. Those Five Nations were the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas; the Tuscaroras joined the Confederacy in 1722. Some founding father of the United States, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin admired the Haudenosaunee and incorporated their ideas into the U.S. Constitution. Despite that admiration, though, the United States government and the state government of New York did not always treat the Haudenosaunee with respect, and Haudenosaunee leaders had to navigate a difficult terrain in maintaining their sovereignty. Today we’re going to look at the relationship between the Haudenosaunee and the United States through the stories of four individuals: Red Jacket, Ely S. Parker, Harriet Maxwell Converse, and Arthur C. Parker.Joining me in this episode is Dr. John C. Winters, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi and author of The Amazing Iroquois and the Invention of the Empire State.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Falling Leaves (Piano),” by Oleksii Holubiev, from Pixabay, used under the Pixabay Content License. The episode image is “Red Jacket (Sagoyewatha),” painted by Thomas Hicks in 1868; the painting is in the public domain and can be found in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Additional Sources:Haudenosaunee Confederacy“Haudenosaunee Guide For Educators,” National Museum of the American Indian.“The Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Constitution,” by Jennifer Davis, Library of Congress, September 21, 2023.“Indian speech, delivered before a gentleman missionary, from Massachusetts, by a chief, commonly called by the white people Red Jacket. His Indian name is Sagu-ua-what-hath, which being interpreted, is Keeper-awake,” Library of Congress, 1805.“The Graves of Red Jacket,” Western New York Heritage.“Red Jacket Medal Returned to Seneca Nation [video],” WGRZ-TV, May 17, 2021.“Ely S. Parker,” Historical Society of the New York Courts. April 2, 2015in From the Stacks“‘We Are All Americans:’ Ely S. Parker at Appomattox Court House,” by Mariam Touba, New York Historical Society, April 2, 2015.“Engineer Became Highest Ranking Native American in Union Army,” by David Vergun, DOD News, November 2, 2021.“Building to be Named for Ely S. Parker First Indian Commissioner of the BIA Recognized,” U.S. Department of the Interior, December 15, 2000.“‘The Great White Mother’: Harriet Maxwell Converse, the Indian Colony of New York City, and the Media, 1885–1903,” by John. C. Winters, The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 21(4), 279-300. “Harriet Maxwell Converse,” PBS.org.“Harriet Maxwell Converse,” Poets.org.“Research and Collections of Arthur C. Parker,” New York State Museum.“Arthur C. Parker and the Society of the American Indian, 1911-1916,” by S. Carol Berg, New York History, vol. 81, no. 2, 2000, pp. 237–46.
Gun Capitalism & Gun Control in the U.S. after World War II
Nov 6 2023
Gun Capitalism & Gun Control in the U.S. after World War II
In 1945, the population of the United States was around 140 million people, and those Americans owned an estimated 45 million guns, or about one gun for every three people. By 2023, the population of the United States stood at just over 330 million people, and according to historical data from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the number of guns produced and imported for the US market since 1899 exceeds 474 million firearms. Even assuming some of those guns have broken or been destroyed or illegally exported, there are easily more guns than people in the United States today. How and why the number of guns rose so precipitously in the US since World War II is our story today.Joining me to help us learn more about guns in the United States in the second half of the 20th Century is Dr. Andrew C. McKevitt, the John D. Winters Endowed Professor of History at Louisiana Tech University and author of Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture, and Control in Cold War America.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Johnny Get Your Gun,” composed by Monroe H. Rosenfeld and performed by Harry C. Browne, in New York on April 19, 1917; the audio is in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is a Hi-Standard ad from 1957. Additional sources:“How Many Guns Are Circulating in the U.S.?” by Jennifer Mascia and Chip Brownlee, The Trace, Originally posted March 6, 2023, and Updated August 28, 2023.“The Mysterious Meaning of the Second Amendment,” by James C. Phillips and Josh Blackman, The Atlantic, February 28, 2020.“Timeline of Gun Control in the United States,” by Robert Longley, ThoughtCo, updated on January 08, 2023.“Do Black People Have Equal Gun Rights?” by Charles C. W. Cooke, The New York Times, October 25, 2014.“Gun Control Is as Old as the Old West,” by Matt Jancer, Smithsonian Magazine, February 5, 2018.“The NRA Wasn't Always Against Gun Restrictions,” by Ron Elving, NPR, October 10, 2017.“How NRA’s true believers converted a marksmanship group into a mighty gun lobby,” by Joel Achenbach, Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz, Washington Post, January 12, 2013.“Opinion: The reality of gun violence in the US is bleak, but history shows it’s not hopeless,” by Julian Zelizer, CNN, April 1, 2023.“Firearms and Federal Law: The Gun Control Act of 1968,” by Franklin E. Zimring, The Journal of Legal Studies 4, no. 1 (1975): 133–98.“Remarks Upon Signing the Gun Control Act of 1968,” by President Lyndon B. Johnson, The American Presidency Project.“The Inside History of How Guns Are Marketed and Sold in America,” by Olivia B. Waxman, Time Magazine, August 19, 2022.“The Supreme Court will hear a case that could effectively legalize automatic weapons,” by Ian Millhiser, Vox, November 3, 2023.