Stuff You Missed In History Class

Part two of the spring 2025 installment of Unearthed! features the potpourri category, plus drones/radar/lidar, books and letters, animals, edibles and potables, shipwrecks, swords (sort of) and cats.  Research: Roque, Nika. “Maria Orosa, fellow World War II heroes laid to rest at San Agustin Church.” GMA Integrated News. 2/14/2025. https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/936107/maria-orosa-fellow-world-war-ii-heroes-laid-to-rest-at-san-agustin-church/story/ Adam, David. “Does a new genetic analysis finally reveal the identity of Jack the Ripper?” Science. 3/15/2019. https://www.science.org/content/article/does-new-genetic-analysis-finally-reveal-identity-jack-ripper Jeffries, Ella. “These Everyday Artifacts Tell the Story of Harriet Tubman’s Father’s Home as Climate Change Threatens the Historic Site.” Smithsonian Magazine. 3/14/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-everyday-artifacts-tell-the-story-of-harriet-tubmans-fathers-hom

The first part of our springtime edition of Unearthed! for 2025 features so many updates! There are also finds related to Egypt and artwork.  Research: Roque, Nika. “Maria Orosa, fellow World War II heroes laid to rest at San Agustin Church.” GMA Integrated News. 2/14/2025. https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/936107/maria-orosa-fellow-world-war-ii-heroes-laid-to-rest-at-san-agustin-church/story/ Adam, David. “Does a new genetic analysis finally reveal the identity of Jack the Ripper?” Science. 3/15/2019. https://www.science.org/content/article/does-new-genetic-analysis-finally-reveal-identity-jack-ripper Jeffries, Ella. “These Everyday Artifacts Tell the Story of Harriet Tubman’s Father’s Home as Climate Change Threatens the Historic Site.” Smithsonian Magazine. 3/14/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-everyday-artifacts-tell-the-story-of-harriet-tubmans-fathers-home-as-climate-change-threatens-historic-site-as-climate-chang

This 2016 episode covers George Wallace, one of the most prominent voices against the Civil Rights Movement and its objectives. He spent multiple campaigns for both governor and president on an explicitly pro-segregation platform.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tracy shares how she went from concern that there wouldn't be enough research material for an episode to developing this week's topic into two. Both Tracy and Holly discuss their family connections to the war. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vandalism at draft board offices as U.S. involvement in Vietnam was escalating was deeply divisive. Opponents of the war were stereotyped as dirty hippies and sanctimonious white college kids, but the anti-Vietnam-war movement in the U.S. was really broad. Research: "Statement: the Boston Eight" Newsletter. ULS Digital Collections. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735058194170 “Draftees ‘Lost’ in Raids Immune for January.” Boston Globe. 12/10/1969. “Draftees ‘Lost’ in Raids Immune for January.” The Boston Globe. 12/10/1969. “Hardy Rites Tomorrow.” Camden Courier-Post. 10/4/1971. Arnold, Hillel. “Draft Board Raids.” https://hillelarnold.com/draft-board-raids/ Associated Press. “Testify FBI Had Role in N.J. Break-in.” De Moines Register. 5/21/1973. Astor, Maggie. “Their Protest Helped End the Draft. 50 Years Later, It’s Still Controversial.” New York Times. 5/19/2018. https://www.nyti

The draft board raids were part of an antiwar movement, largely grounded in Catholic religious convictions, that spanned almost four years. Part one covers the basic context of the Vietnam War and why the U.S. was involved in the first place, and the earliest raids on draft boards. Research: "Statement: the Boston Eight" Newsletter. ULS Digital Collections. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735058194170 “Draftees ‘Lost’ in Raids Immune for January.” Boston Globe. 12/10/1969. “Draftees ‘Lost’ in Raids Immune for January.” The Boston Globe. 12/10/1969. “Hardy Rites Tomorrow.” Camden Courier-Post. 10/4/1971. Arnold, Hillel. “Draft Board Raids.” https://hillelarnold.com/draft-board-raids/ Associated Press. “Testify FBI Had Role in N.J. Break-in.” De Moines Register. 5/21/1973. Astor, Maggie. “Their Protest Helped End the Draft. 50 Years Later, It’s Still Controversial.” New York Times. 5

This 2017 episode covers Lucille Ball, the grande dame of American comedy. The famed star worked in modeling, radio and film, but she really made her mark in television, and her work set the standard for the TV sitcom.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tracy and Holly talk about Dorothy Arzner's reluctance to talk about her past projects. Holly questions some of the statistics about strawberry consumption. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The story of how strawberries went from small forage item to one of the world’s most popular fruits – though they're technically not a true fruit – involves lots of crossbreeding experimentation, as you might expect, but also a bit of spy craft. Research: “A Transatlantic Tango: The Story of the Strawberry. Royal Horticultural Society. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-own/features/history-of-the-strawberry#:~:text=It%20is%20hard%20to%20believe,back%20on%20fortifications%20near%20Concepci%C3%B3n.  Allen, Mike. “The 18th-Century Spy Who Gave Us Big Strawberries.” Atlas Obscura. Nov. 16, 2017. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/big-strawberries-spy-chile-france  Barnes, Monica. “Frezier, Amédée François (1682-1773).” American Museum of Natural History. January 2008. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280567727_Frezier_Amedee_Francois_1682-1773 Darrow, George M. “The Strawberry: History, Breeding and Physiology.&

Dorothy Arzner wasn’t the first female film director in the U.S., but she was really the only one working in the studio system during most of the period that’s known as the Hollywood Golden Age. Her short career was still incredibly prolific. Research: "Dorothy Arzner." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, Gale, 2022. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631009688/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=19d5d3af. Accessed 11 Mar. 2025. Bryant, Sara. “Dorothy Arzner’s Talkies: Gender, Technologies of Voice, and the Modernist Sensorium.” Modern Fiction Studies , Summer 2013, Vol. 59, No. 2, Women's Fiction, New Modernist Studies, and Feminism (Summer 2013) Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26287651 Casella, Donna R. “What Women Want: The Complex World of Dorothy Arzner and Her Cinematic Women.” Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media , SPRING & FALL 2009, Vol. 50, No. 1/2 (SPRING & FALL 2009). https://www.jstor.org/stable

This 2017 episode covers the early days of Hollywood, and its reputation for debauchery. When a high-profile director was murdered, it added to that image, and revealed that Taylor, like so many in Hollywood, had lots of secrets.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tracy talks about the difficulty of finding English-language writing about another strike she'd like to cover. Holly talks about why Kurt Vonnegut appeals so deeply to teenagers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holly is joined by guest host Bryan Young for a live show at Indiana Comic Con, focused on the life and work of the author Kurt Vonnegut, known for his dark humor and dystopian visions of the future.  Research: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Kurt Vonnegut". Encyclopedia Britannica, 4 Feb. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kurt-Vonnegut “Kurt Vonnegut Lecture.” Case Western Reserve University. 2004. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_RUgnC1lm8&t=551s Manikowski, Amy. “The Legacy of Kurt Vonnegut.” Biblio. https://www.biblio.com/blog/2022/11/the-legacy-of-kurt-vonnegut “Meet Kurt Vonnegut.” Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. https://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/biography/ Shields, Charles J. “And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, a Life.” St. Martin’s Griffin. 2012. Strand, Ginger. “How Jane Vonnegut Made Kurt Vonnegut a Writer.” The New Yorker. Dec. 3, 2015. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-jane-vonnegut-made-

The 1946 Oakland General Strike was part of a massive wave of strikes that took place in the U.S. in 1945 and 1946. Over two days in Oakland, California, and the surrounding area, thousands of strikers shut the city down. Research: “Oakland General Strike (1946) (Part 2).” From Golden Lands, Working Hands. Part Seven: We Called It a Work Holiday. Written by Fred Glass. CFT. Via YouTube. 7/23/2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-yFDzKzLfE “Oakland General Strike (1946).” From Golden Lands, Working Hands. Part Seven: We Called It a Work Holiday. Written by Fred Glass. CFT. Via YouTube. 7/22/2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfUmIeCTJTA “World War II Homefront Era: 1940s: Post War Workers Protest Salary Cuts & Layoffs.” Picture This: California Perspectives on American History. Oakland Museum of California. https://picturethis.museumca.org/pictures/oakland-general-strike Barbash, Jack. “Chapter 6: Unions and Rights in the Space Age.” U.S. Department of

This late 2021 episode covers a strike in Flint, Michigan, which was at the heart of auto manufacturing for General Motors in 1936. And while the strike was largely centered around Flint, it also involved workers at GM factories all over the U.S.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holly and Tracy discuss the creepy nature of the Children's Morality Code project. Tracy covers the varied conflicts that Mary Hunter Austin had with numerous people. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mary Hunter Austin was a U.S. writer known for walking throughout the American Southwest. But her life of activism was far more complicated than brief bios usually  mention.  Research: "Mary Hunter Austin." Encyclopedia of the American West, edited by Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod, Macmillan Reference USA, 1996. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/BT2330100082/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=6a4f821e. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025. "Mary Hunter Austin." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 23, Gale, 2003. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631008133/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=ceca42e0. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025. #0840: Willa Cather to Mary Hunter Austin, June 26 [1926]. https://cather.unl.edu/writings/letters/let0840 Austin, Mary Hunter. “Earth Horizon.” Houghton Mifflin. 1932. Austin, Mary Hunter. “Experiences Facing Death.” Bobbs-Merrill Company. 1931. Blend, Benay. “Mary Austin and the Wes

In 1916, the National Institution for Moral Instruction had a contest to see who could come up with the best morality code. For kids. Evolving views on childhood, child labor laws, patriotism, and eugenics influenced this effort. Research: “$5000 Prize Winners Announced Oct. 1” Dean Bennion in Race.” Daily Utah Chronicle. April 23, 1917. https://www.newspapers.com/image/289878324/?match=1&terms=%22Morality%20Code%22%20winner “93 Virtues Make the Perfect Man.” Tulsa World. Dec. 22, 1919. https://www.newspapers.com/image/884436330/?match=1&terms=Iowa%20%22character%20education%22%20 Brimi, Hunter. “Academic Instructors or Moral Guides? Moral Education in America and the Teacher’s Dilemma.” The Clearing House, vol. 82, no. 3, 2009, pp. 125–30. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30181093 Character Education Inquiry. “Studies in the nature of Character.” New York. Macmillan. 1928. https://archive.org/details/studiesinnatureo0001ch

This 2019 episode looks at Couney's incubator sideshows of premature babies. This is complicated; Couney made money from this, and his medical experience was questionable. But premature babies weren’t getting a lot of care otherwise.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tracy notes the wild array of incorrect information that circulates about Lillian Exum Clement. Then she and Holly talk about childhood reading habits. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.