Stuff You Missed in History Class

Tracy talks about her visit to the Bunker Hill monument. She then describes a very early morning start when she went to visit Oxford on her recent trip to England.

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Elizabeth Blackwell was born in London in the early 18th century, and was known in her lifetime for her achievements as a botanical illustrator. 

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Very soon after it was completed in 1842, the Bunker Hill monument started to be about a lot more than just the battle that took place on June 17, 1775. 

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This 2021 episode talks about several specialists – most with some involvement with the Nazi party – who entered the U.S. and became citizens through Operation Paperclip.

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Holly talks about the agreement known as the Pact of the Catacombs and recent developments related to it. There's then discussion of Daguerre's Legion of Honor medal.

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On September 16, 1890, Louis Le Prince vanished. He was never seen or heard from again. While that is the most well-known thing about him, he had a whole life before that which involved some very intriguing things.

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The story of the Roman catacombs is vastly different than that of the catacombs of Paris, as Rome’s are much older and were created for very different reasons.

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This 2021 episode covers Operation Paperclip, which was the U.S. effort to bring German scientists to work in the U.S. after World War II. 

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Tracy talks about how she first became interested in Casimir Pulaski's story, and how her focus changed during research. She also talks about selecting episode topics and later learning the subject is problematic.

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Rebecca Smith Pollard published a book of poems to mark the U.S. centennial in 1876, and also a novel with some questionable messages. She also developed a method to teach children to read that was ahead of its time.

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Pulaski is often built up into an almost mythic figure who represents patriotism, bravery, freedom, independence, and the U.S. as a melting pot. a nation of immigrants. But there’s also a very different version of his story.

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This 2022 episode covers the 1901 discovery of  Ada Maria Redpath and her son Jocelyn Clifford dead in their home. What exactly happened between the two of them is something we will likely never understand.

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Holly and Tracy talk about how frequently the U.S. Post Office has stopped criminals, and about E. Virgil Neal using his intellect for shady business dealings.

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In the early 20th century, Neal's company Force of Life was investigated for fraud. But somehow, Neal managed to get through the scandal and went on to found a cosmetics company that became very successful. 

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E. Virgil Neal’s career started out with writing successful textbooks, but then took a turn into being a stage hypnotist and then a series of dicey mail-order businesses.

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This 2022 episode covers Hortense and Marie Mancini, who tried to make a place for themselves in 17th-century Europe, defying all kinds of conventions along the way. 

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Tracy talks about a book that she didn't use for research on Viola Roseboro'. Holly talks about how wealth inequality has shaped science history.

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Boyle is frequently described at the first modern chemist, but his work encompassed much more than that. Among other things, he was a founding member of the Royal Society.

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Viola Roseboro’ isn’t well-known today, but she played a big behind-the-scenes role in the careers of a lot of American writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, shaping what’s thought of as the American literary canon. 

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This 2016 episode covers the May 30, 1948 flood that destroyed Vanport, Oregon. What really makes the story more than a historical footnote is how it ties into the racial makeup of both Portland and Oregon at the time.

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Tracy talks about a strange statement in a paper she read while working on the Carlos J. Finlay episode. Holly shares her amusement at the pact Hartlib and his friends made.

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Samuel Hartlib doesn’t exactly spring to mind when thinking about influential figures of the 17th century. But he served as a sort of conduit for information and connections among them as he sought to promote his ideas regarding theology and education.

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Carlos Juan Finlay was a Cuban doctor who did a lot of work to understand the spread of Yellow Fever. But Walter Reed got most of the credit.

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This 2022 episode covers Deborah Sampson, who could count William Bradford and Myles Standish in her family tree. That tree didn’t include Robert Shurtliff; that was the alias Deborah used to enlist in the Continental Army.

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Holly shares a quote from Daniela Lippi about the importance of ongoing learning in the restoration profession. There is then discussion of the nerve-racking construction of Disneyland.

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Disneyland's opening seemed like an impossibility throughout the construction process. Holly interviews filmmaker Leslie Iwerks about her new film "Disneyland Handcrafted," which shares the journey from an empty dirt lot to the theme park we know today.

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In 1993, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy was damaged by a car bomb. But this story starts in the 16th century with painter Bartolomeo Manfredi, and reaches all the way to the 2000s with an extraordinary restoration project.

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This 2019 episode covers the Regulator War, aka the War of the Regulation, aka the Regulator Movement. It was a North Carolina event which arose in response to unfair taxes, poor representation and corruption.

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Tracy shares why Bhagat Singh Thind rocketed to the top of her topics list. Holly shares a story of bad cat behavior.

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The Carrington Event was a massive geomagnetic storm that happened in 1859. It led to expanded understanding of solar phenomena.

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United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind was a 1923 case that hinged on what it meant to be white.

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This 2023 episode covers the Insular Cases, which are SCOTUS cases regarding rights of people in U.S. territories. 

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Holly talks about how small the circle of London intellectuals was in John Graunt's time. Then there is discussion of disco balls in bathrooms.

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There are so many things in our modern world that we presume are fairly recent inventions. But the three things we’re going to talk about in this instance are quite old, but they have close associations with the recent past.

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John Graunt was a shopkeeper in 17th-century London who followed his own curiosity to a rather grand result. His work gave rise to the fields of demography and epidemiology.

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This 2019 episode marked 100 years since a wave of racist violence in the U.S. that became known as Red Summer. In many ways, Red Summer was a response to (but NOT caused by) two earlier events: the Great Migration and the return of black soldiers who had fought in World War I.

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Holly and Tracy commiserate about sending greeting cards. Tracy talks about how she shifted away from an episode exclusively about Frances Thompson.

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The Memphis Massacre was a truly horrific wave of destruction and violence, including sexual violence, against the Black community of Memphis just a year after the end of the U.S. Civil War.

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Humans have been exchanging tokens of friendship since before recorded history. From calling cards to Valentines to Christmas cards, the modern greeting card industry evolved.

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This 2019 episode covers the color blue, the most popular color in many parts of the world. But many ancient languages didn’t have a word for blue, and some languages still don’t.

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