Stuff You Missed in History Class

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SYMHC Classics: Sarah Bradlee Fulton Jul 04, 2026

Show notes

This 2023 episode covers Sarah Bradlee Fulton, sometimes called the Mother of the Boston Tea Party. But available information about her is basically a series of anecdotes, and can’t really be corroborated.

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Behind the Scenes Minis: Stairs and Trains Jul 03, 2026

Show notes

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's Curious Herbal Jul 01, 2026

Show notes

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

Research:

“A Genuine Copy of a Letter &c.” Stockholm, August 20. H. Carpenter in Fleet Street, 1747. https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Genuine_Copy_of_a_Letter_from_a_Mercha.html?id=EPRbAAAAQAAJ
Alexander, Isabella and Cristina S. Martinez. “2. The First Copyright Case under the 1735 Engravings Act:  The Germination of Visual Copyright?” From Circulation and Control: Artistic Culture and Intellectual Property in the Nineteenth Century. Marie-Stéphanie Delamaire and Will Slauter, editors. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0247
Beharrel, Will. “Elizabeth Blackwell's Curious Herbal.” The Linnean Society. 7/28/2021. https://www.linnean.org/news/2021/07/28/elizabeth-blackwells-curious-herbal
Blackwell, Elizabeth (1737). A Curious Herbal. Containing Five Hundred Cuts of the most useful Plants, which are now used in the Practice of Physick. Engraved on folio Copper Plates, after Drawings, taken from the Life. By Elizabeth Blackwell. To which is added a short Description of ye Plants; and their common Uses in Physick. London: Printed for Samuel Harding in St Martin’s Lane, MDCCXXXVII (1737) Rubenstein QK99.A1 B53 1737 folio v.1 c.1. Scan of preface. https://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/files/2022/10/blackwell-preface-scaled.jpg
Bruce, James. “Lives of Eminent Men of Aberdeen.” Aberdeen. The University Press. 1841. https://archive.org/details/b33028722/
Chelsea Physic Garden. “Curious Herbal; Curious Tale.” Newsletter. Spring-Summer 2005.
Child, Lydia Maria. “Biographies of Good Wives.” Boston: Munroe & Francis. 1850. https://archive.org/details/biographiesofgoo00chil_0
Elliott, Brent. “The World of the Renaissance Herbal.” Renaissance Studies. Vol. 25, No. 1. February 2011. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24420235
Evenden, Doreen A. "Blackwell [née Simpson], Elizabeth (1699–1758), botanical author and artist." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. August 08, 2024. Oxford University Press. Date of access 18 Jun. 2026, https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-2540
Grosjean, A. N. L. "Blackwell, Alexander (bap. 1709, d. 1747), agricultural improver and government agent in Sweden." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. June 08, 2023. Oxford University Press. Date of access 18 Jun. 2026, https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-2539
Huler, Scott. “A Beautiful Find.” Duke Mag. 9/5/2023. https://dukemag.duke.edu/stories/beautiful-find
Madge, Bruce. “Elizabeth Blackwell—the forgotten herbalist?” Health Information & Libraries Journal, 18: 144-152. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1471-1842.2001.00330.x
Monroe, Nicky. “Elizabeth Blackwell’s Curious Herbal.” RHS Libraries and Collections. https://www.rhs.org.uk/education-learning/libraries-at-rhs/articles/elizabeth-blackwell
Newman, Joyce. “Will The Real Elizabeth Blackwell Please Stand Up?” New York Botanical Garden. 7/1/2013. https://www.nybg.org/blogs/plant-talk/2013/07/exhibit-news/will-the-real-elizabeth-blackwell-please-stand-up/
O’Keeffe, Lynda. “Guest post by Lynda O’Keeffe – A Curious Herbal Elizabeth Blackwell’s Pioneering Masterpiece of Botanical Art.” All Things Georgan. 3/8/2024. https://georgianera.wordpress.com/2024/03/08/guest-post-by-lynda-okeeffe-a-curious-herbal-elizabeth-blackwells-pioneering-masterpiece-of-botanical-art/
Pardoe, Heather and Maureen Lazarus. “Images of Botany: Celebrating the Contribution of Women to the History of Botanical Illustration.” Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals, Volume 14, Number 4, Fall 2018, pp. 545–566.
RHS Digital Collections. “Elizabeth Blackwell's Curious Herbal.” https://collections.rhs.org.uk/collection/111276
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. “Elizabeth Blackwell: Prison, Plotting and the Curious Herbal.” https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/heritage/heritage-blog/elizabeth-blackwell-prison-plotting-and-curious-herbal
Shirk, Henrietta Nickels. “Contributions to Botany, the Female Science, by Two Eighteenth-century Women Technical Communicators.” Technical Communication Quarterly. Vol. 6, No. 3. Summer 1997.
Tyson, Janet Stiles. “Introducing Elizabeth Blackwell to Hans Sloane.” British Library Untold Lives Blog. 5/18/2021. Via Archive.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20210619032948/https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2021/05/introducing-elizabeth-blackwell-to-hans-sloane.html
Tyson, Janet Stiles. “The Rubenstein Library’s disruptive copy of A Curious Herbal.” 11/14/2022. https://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2022/11/14/a-curious-herbal/
Tyson, Janet. “'A Curious Herbal' as Material Witness.” The Linnean Society. 1/10/2023. https://www.linnean.org/news/2023/01/10/a-curious-herbal-as-material-witness

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The Many Meanings of the Bunker Hill Monument Jun 29, 2026

Show notes

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.

Research:

"Battle of Bunker Hill." Britannica Library, Encyclopædia Britannica, 18 Nov. 2025. libraries.state.ma.us/login?eburl=https%3A%2F%2Flibrary.eb.com&ebtarget=%2Flevels%2Freferencecenter%2Farticle%2FBattle-of-Bunker-Hill%2F18086&ebboatid=9265928. Accessed 8 Jun. 2026.
Markoe, Lauren. “Gun Owners take Aim at New Law.” The Patriot Ledger. Oct. 10 and 11 1998.
National Park Service. “Peter Brown.” Last updated 2/26/2025. https://www.nps.gov/people/peter-brown.htm
National Park Service. “Remembering Revolution: Bunker Hill Monument.” Last updated 1/2/2025. https://www.nps.gov/bost/remembering-revolution.htm#27EBF851-37AB-4F4E-AA50-9BEDD914F0CC
Webster, Daniel. “Dedication Speech for the Unveiling of the Bunker Hill Monument.” 6/17/1843. Via American Battlefield Trust. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/dedication-speech-unveiling-bunker-hill-monument
National Park Service. “The Bunker Hill Monument Association: Expressing Gratitude and Patriotism.” Last updated 1/22/2024. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/bhma.htm
National Park Service. “Bunker Hill Lodge.” Last updated 1/12/2026. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/bh-lodge.htm
National Park Service. “King Solomon's Lodge.” Last updated 3/30/2023. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/bh-ksl.htm
Warren, George Washington. “The history of the Bunker Hill monument association during the first century of the United States of America.” Bunker Hill Monument Association. https://archive.org/details/historyofbunkerh00warr/
The Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Hampshire. “Caleb Stark.” https://www.socnh.org/caleb-stark/
Stebbins, G.B. “May Day – North and South.” The liberator. v.16:no.21(1846:May 22). Via Digital Commonwealth. https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:gb19h555q
Mansfield, Howard. “Silent Witness.” Yankee. Mar/Apr2025, Vol. 89 Issue 2, p80-106.
National Park Service. “Bunker Hill Monument Projection, 1998.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/bunker-hill-monument-projection-1998.htm
Hay, John. “Broken Hearths: Melville's ‘Israel Potter’ and the Bunker Hill Monument.” The New England Quarterly , June 2016, Vol. 89, No. 2 (June 2016). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24718238
Purcell, Sarah J. “Commemoration, Public Art, and the Changing Meaning of the Bunker Hill Monument.” The Public Historian , Vol. 25, No. 2 (Spring 2003). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/tph.2003.25.2.55
Everett, Edward. “An oration delivered at Charlestown, on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1850.” Boston. 1850. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822038214979
National Park Service. “Irish Claims to the Revolution.” 2/26/2025. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/irish-claims-to-the-revolution.htm
“Unworthy of Concord: A Know-nothing Appeal.” Pilot, Volume 38, Number 18, 1 May 1875. https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=pilot18750501-01.2.19&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------+%2C+4----------------
National Park Service. “Operation POW.” March 1, 2023. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/operation-pow.htm

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SYMHC Classics: Four Paperclippers Jun 27, 2026

Show notes

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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Behind the Scenes Minis: Pacts and Facts Jun 26, 2026

Show notes

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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Louis Le Prince, the Missing Inventor of Motion Pictures Jun 24, 2026

Show notes

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.

Research:

“Amongst the persons …” The Leeds Mercury. August 2, 1870. https://www.newspapers.com/image/390297596/?match=1&terms=%22Louis%20Le Prince%22
Atreyee Gupta. “The Disappearance of Louis Le Prince.” Materials Today. Volume 11, Issues 7–8. 2008. Page 56, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1369-7021(08)70160-3.
Aulas, Jean-Jacques and Jacques Pfend. “Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince, inventeur et artiste, précurseur du cinéma.” 1895. Vol. 32. 2000. https://doi.org/10.4000/1895.110
Britannica Editors. "Étienne-Jules Marey". Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 May. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Etienne-Jules-Marey
Casey, Keiron. “The mystery of Louis Le Prince, the father of cinematography.” Science + Media Museum. Aug. 29, 2013. https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/louis-le-prince-created-the-first-ever-moving-pictures/
“CINEMATOGRAPHY Pioneers of Early Cinema: Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince (1841-1890?).” National Media Museum. https://www.meiermovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/PioneersOfEarlyCinemaLouisLe Prince.pdf
“First Surviving Film.” Guinness World Records. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-surviving-film
Fischer, Paul. “The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures: A True Tale of Obsession, Murder, and the Movies.” Simon & Schuster. 2022.
“Hannibal Goodwin.” National Inventors Hall of Fame. https://www.invent.org/inductees/hannibal-goodwin
Kelley, Peter. “Louis A. A. Le Prince and the Whitley Family.” Oak Leaves. Oakwood and District Historical Society. Summer 2002. https://www.oakwoodchurch.info/Oak%20Leaves%20Part%203%20-%20Louis%20A%20A%20Le%20Prince%20and%20the%20Whitley%20Family%20by%20Peter%20Kelley.pdf
Le Prince, A. “METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING ANIMATED PICTURES OF NATURAL SCENERY AND LIFE.” U.S. Patent Office. Jan. 10, 1888. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/26/13/3c/c0bd20490abc9b/US376247.pdf
Lewis, Maria. “The tragedy of Louis Le Prince.” ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image). https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/tragedy-louis-le-prince/
“The Life, Mystery and Legacy of Louis Le Prince.” Leeds Museums & Galleries. https://museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk/blog-life-mystery-and-legacy-of-louis-le-prince-fylq
Marey, Etienne-Jules. “Chronophotographic gun.” Google Arts and Culture. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/chronophotographic-gun-%C3%89tienne-jules-marey-otto-lund/KAFgqcxSaDadqw?hl=en
“New research centre honours father of film.” The Reporter. University of Leeds. May 19, 2003. https://web.archive.org/web/20120205020340/http://reporter.leeds.ac.uk/490/s6.htm
“PUBLIC HEALTH STATEMENT NITROBENZENE.” Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/ToxProfiles/tp140-c1-b.pdf
Rawlence, Christopher. “The Missing Reel: the untold story of the lost inventor of moving pictures.” New York : Atheneum : Maxwell Macmillan International. 1990. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/missingreeluntol0000rawl/mode/1up
“Single-lens Cine Camera by Louis Le Prince.” Science Museum Group. https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co18634/le-prince-single-lens-cine-camera-cine-camera-cinematograph
Swift, John. "Siege of Paris". Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Jan. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Siege-of-Paris-1870-1871
Britannica Editors. "Franco-German War". Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 May. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/event/Franco-German-War
Youngs, Ian. “Louis Le Prince, who shot the world's first film in Leeds.” BBC. June 23, 2015. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-33198686

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Catacombs of Rome Jun 22, 2026

Show notes

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.

Research:

Bonello, Giovanni. “Charting the enigmatic life of Antonio Bosio.” Times of Malta. Dec. 6, 2014. https://timesofmalta.com/article/Charting-the-enigmatic-life-of-Antonio-Bosio.547468
Bonello, Giovanni. “How Antonio Bosio Became famous Worldwide.” Times of Malta. Dec. 13, 2014. https://timesofmalta.com/article/How-Antonio-Bosio-became-famous-worldwide.548393
Bosio, Antonio. “Roma sotteranea.” 1650. Accessed online: https://books.google.com/books?id=zCXXSKqq3nQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false
Britannica Editors. "Edict of Milan". Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 Aug. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Edict-of-Milan
Britannica Editors. "First Jewish Revolt". Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 Mar. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Jewish-Revolt
Britannica Editors. "Law of the Twelve Tables". Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Mar. 2018, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Law-of-the-Twelve-Tables
“The Catacombs of Rome.” The Atlantic Monthly. March 1858. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1858/03/the-catacombs-of-rome/627225/
Coleman-Norton, Paul R. “The Twelve Tables.” 2024 (eBook). https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/14783/pg14783-images.html
“Diocletianic Persecution.” Ebsco. 2023. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/religion-and-philosophy/diocletianic-persecution
“Jews in Roman Times.” The Roman Empire. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/jews.html
Lamberton, Clark D. “The Development of Christian Symbolism as Illustrated in Roman Catacomb Painting.” American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 15, no. 4, 1911, pp. 507–22. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/497187
Munro, Dana Carleton et al. “Translations and reprints from the original sources of European history : series for 1897.” University of Pennsylvania. 1898. https://archive.org/details/translationsrepr00munr/page/n3/mode/2up
Northcote, James Spencer. “The Roman Catacombs.” Sophia Institute Press. 2017. (Reprint)
Northcote, James Spencer. ““The Roman Catacombs; or Some Accounts of the Burial Places of the Early Christians in Rome.” Philadelphia. Peter F. Cunningham. 1857. (Reprint)
Osborne, J. “The Roman Catacombs in the Middle Ages.” Papers of the British School at Rome , 1985, Vol. 53 (1985), pp. 278-328. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40310821
Perrottet, Tony. “Explore Rome’s Hidden Underworld, Where a City Lurks Beneath a City.” Smithsonian. April/May 2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/explore-romes-hidden-underworld-city-beneath-city-180986228/
“PONTIFICAL COMMISSION FOR SACRED ARCHAEOLOGY – Historical Notes.” Vatican. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_commissions/archeo/inglese/documents/rc_com_archeo_doc_20011010_cenni_en.html
Richter, J. P. “Early Christian Art in the Roman Catacombs.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, vol. 6, no. 22, 1905, pp. 286–262. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/856226
“The Roman Catacombs.” Architecture. April 20, 1888. No. 414, p. 224. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433084078983&seq=414&q1=catacombs
“The Roman Catacombs.” Scientific American, vol. 58, no. 20, 1888, pp. 312–312. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26094597
Rossi, Giovannie Battista de, et all. “Roma sotterranea : or, Some account of the Roman catacombs, especially of the cemetery of San Callisto ; comp. from the works of Commendatore de Rossi with the consent of the author.” Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer. London. 1869. https://archive.org/details/a606740800rossuoft/a606740800rossuoft/page/6/mode/2up
RUTGERS, LEONARD VICTOR, and לאונרד רוטגרס. “הקטקומבות היהודיות ברומא: הערכה מחודשת / THE JEWISH CATACOMBS OF ROME RECONSIDERED.” Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies / דבריהקונגרסהעולמילמדעיהיהדות, י, 1989, pp. 29–36. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23535611
Terry, Andrea, and John Osborne. “Un Canadien Errant: Charles Smeaton and the Earliest Photographs of the Roman Catacombs.” RACAR: Revue d’art Canadienne / Canadian Art Review, vol. 32, no. 1/2, 2007, pp. 94–106. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42630755
Yeomans, Sarah. “City of the Dead.” Archaeology, vol. 61, no. 4, 2008, pp. 55–62. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41780388

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SYMHC Classics: Operation Paperclip Jun 20, 2026

Show notes

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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Behind the Scenes Minis: Unexpected Information Jun 19, 2026

Show notes

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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