Stuff You Missed in History Class

Latest Episodes:

SYMHC Classics: Vanport Flood May 30, 2026

Show notes

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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Behind the Scenes Minis: Disease Pact May 29, 2026

Show notes

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 and the Hartlib Circle May 27, 2026

Show notes

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.

Research:

Britannica Editors. "Samuel Hartlib". Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 Mar. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-Hartlib
Britannica Editors. "Thirty Years’ War". Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Mar. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/event/Thirty-Years-War
Britannica Editors. "John Dury". Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Jan. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dury
Hartlib, Samuel, OR John Dury. “A Further Discoverie Of The Office Of Public Address For Accommodations.” 1648. The Hartlib Papers. University of Sheffield. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=main&docname=14A_02_03
Hartlib, Samuel. “Ephemerides 1635.” The Hartlib Papers. University of Sheffield. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=main&docname=29_03_01&term0=transtext_ephemerides#highlight
Hartlib, Samuel. “Ephemerides 1650.” The Hartlib Papers. University of Sheffield. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=main&docname=28_01_49&term0=transtext_ephemerides#highlight
Hartlib, Samuel. “Ephemerides 1651.” The Hartlib Papers. University of Sheffield. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=main&docname=28_02_01&term0=transtext_ephemerides#highlight
Hartlib, Samuel. “Ephemerides 1659.” The Hartlib Papers. University of Sheffield. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=main&docname=29_08_01&term0=transtext_ephemerides#highlight
McDowell, Nicholas. “The Oxford Handbook of Milton (Oxford Handbooks).” OUP Oxford. 2009. Kindle Edition.
Masson, Victoria. “The Origins & Causes of the English Civil War.” Historic U.K. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Origins-of-the-English-Civil-War/
Milton, John. “Tractate on Education. A FACSIMILE REPRINT FROM THE EDITION OF 1673. EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY OSCAR BROWNING, M.Α.” Cambridge University Press. 1890. https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=KzsVAAAAYAAJ&rdid=book-KzsVAAAAYAAJ&rdot=1
“Pact Signed By Dury, Comenius And Hartlib, And Later By William Hamilton.” The Hartlib Papers. March 3, 1642. The University of Sheffield. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=additional&docname=7E_109T&term0=transtext_pact#highlight
Trevor-Roper, Hugh. “The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century.” Liberty Fund Indianapolis. 1967. https://web.archive.org/web/20061213185209/http://olldownload.libertyfund.org/Texts/LFBooks/TrevorRoper0256/Crisis17thC/0098_Bk.pdf
Turnbull, G. H. “Samuel Hartlib’s Influence on the Early History of the Royal Society.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, vol. 10, no. 2, 1953, pp. 101–30. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/530806
Turnbull, G.H. “SAMUEL HAKTLIB A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND HIS RELATIONS TO J. A. COMENIUS.” Oxford University Press. 1920. https://ia801209.us.archive.org/21/items/cu31924027998859/cu31924027998859.pdf
Webster, Charles. “A Portrait of Samuel Hartlib: In Search of Universal Betterment.” Open Book Publishers. 2025. Accessible online: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0486

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Carlos Juan Finlay and Yellow Fever May 25, 2026

Show notes

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.

Research:

American Experience. “Carlos Finlay (1833-1915).” From The Great Fever. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/fever-carlos-finlay/
Berenbrok, Dorothy E., "Latin Heritage Month. Carlos Juan Finlay: Outrageous, Courageous and Correct" (2015). Posters: Jefferson History. 3. https://jdc.jefferson.edu/jeffhistoryposters/3
"Carlos Juan Finlay." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, Gale, 1998. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631002194/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=bfeecc25. Accessed 29 Apr. 2026.
Chaves-Carballo, Enrique. “Carlos J. Finlay: The mosquito man.” Hektoen International. 11/2/2020. https://hekint.org/2020/11/02/carlos-j-finlay-the-mosquito-man/
Corbitt, Duvon C. “Carlos J. Finlay, Cuban Physician.” The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Aug., 1965). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2511751
Del Regato, Juan A. “Carlos Juan Finlay (1833-1915).” Journal of Public Health Policy , 2001, Vol. 22, No. 1 (2001). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3343556
Faerstein, Eduardoa; Winkelstein, Warren Jrb. Carlos Juan Finlay: Rejected, Respected, and Right. Epidemiology 21(1):p 158, January 2010. | DOI: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e3181c308e0
Ferreira Moreno, Víctor Guillermo. “Evocation to the Dr. Carlos J. Finlay Barres on the centennial of his death.” Colombia medica (Cali, Colombia) vol. 47,1 63-6. 30 Mar. 2016
Finlay, Carlos J. “The Mosquito Hypothetically Considered as the Agent of Transmission of Yellow Fever.” Read before the Royal Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences Session of August 14th, 1881. https://archive.org/details/b33448541/page/590/mode/1up
Finlay, Carlos Juan. “Trabajos selectos del Dr. Carlos J. Finlay. Selected papers of Dr. Carlos J. Finlay.” Habana. 1912. https://archive.org/details/trabajosselectos00finl
Finlay, Charles. “Inoculations for Yellow Fever by Means of Contaminated Mosquitoes.” Published in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, n.s. 102: 264-268, 1891. https://archive.org/details/b33445242/page/n4/mode/1up
Finlay, Charles. “Yellow Fever: Its ‘Transmission by Means of the Culex Mosquito.” Published in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, n.s. 92: 395-409, 1886. https://archive.org/details/b33435698/page/613/mode/1up
Palmer, Steven. “A Cuban Scientist Between Empires: Peripheral Vision on Race and Tropical Medicine.” Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne desétudes latino-américaines et caraïbes, Vol. 35, No. 69, Special Issue: Landscapes of LatinAmerican Health, 1870-1970. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41800498
Spears, Ellen Griffith and Rosa López-Oceguera. “Carlos Juan Finlay, William Gorgas, and Walter Reed and the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Controversy: Competing Historical Memories.” Alabama Review The University of Alabama Press. Volume 74, Number 1, January 2021. https://doi.org/10.1353/ala.2021.0011
Stepan, Nancy. “The Interplay between Socio-Economic Factors and Medical Science: Yellow Fever Research, Cuba and the United States.” Social Studies of Science , Nov., 1978, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Nov., 1978). Via JSTOR. http://www.jstor.com/stable/284817
Thomas Jefferson University. “10 Notable Jefferson Alumni of the Past.” https://library.jefferson.edu/archives/exhibits/notable_alumni/juan_carlos_finlay.cfm
Tone, John Lawrence. (2002) “How the mosquito (man) liberated Cuba.” History and Technology, 18:4, 277-308, DOI: 10.1080/07341512.2002.11417735
“Carlos J. Finlay.” 5/16/2023. https://www.unesco.org/en/prizes/carlos-j-finlay/about
Woodall, Jack. "Yellow Fever." Infectious Diseases: In Context, edited by Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner, vol. 2, Gale, 2008, pp. 925-931. In Context Series. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3045200265/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=bf646a26. Accessed 29 Apr. 2026.

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SYMHC Classics: Deborah Sampson May 23, 2026

Show notes

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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Behind the Scenes Minis: Art and Theme Parks May 22, 2026

Show notes

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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Interview: Leslie Iwerks May 20, 2026

Show notes

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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Uffizi: A Painting, A Bombing, A Restoration May 18, 2026

Show notes

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.

Research:

“600 fragments and one photograph. The restoration of Bartolomeo Manfredi’s “Card Players.” Scala Archives. May 23, 2023. https://scalarchives.com/600-fragments-and-one-photograph-the-restoration-of-bartolomeo-manfredis-card-players/#:~:text=The%20Georgofili%20bombing%20also%20left,to%20have%20been%20destroyed%20forever.
Clough, Patricia. “Blast Tears Apart 400 Years of Italy’s Heritage.” The Independent. May 28, 1993. https://www.newspapers.com/image/718976357/?match=1&terms=uffizi
Cowell, Alan. “Italians Try to Place Blame For Bomb Damage at Uffizi.” New York Times. May 29, 1993. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/29/world/italians-try-to-place-blame-for-bomb-damage-at-uffizi.html
“Cupid Chastised.” Art Institute of Chicago. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/59847/cupid-chastised
“Documentation of the damage from the 1993 bombing in Via dei Georgofili.” Uffizi Galleries. https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/documentation-damage-1993-bombing-georgofili
Folkestad, William B. and Mark Miller. “Bomb Damages the Uffizi Gallery.” EBSCO. 2023. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/law/bomb-damages-uffizi-gallery
Follain, John. “Push Comes to Shove at Italy’s Uffizi.” Miami Herald. March 21, 1993. https://www.newspapers.com/image/637973344/?match=1&terms=uffizi
Gage, Frances. “Caravaggio’s Rumore: Fact, Fiction and Authority in Giovanni Baglione’s Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects.” Past & Present. Volume 257, Issue Supplement_16, November 2022, Pages 111–140. https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtac031
“History of the Uffizi Gallery.” https://www.visituffizi.org/museum/history/
Kimmelman, Michael. “Bombed Uffizi Begins Recovery.” Berkshire Eagle. June 20, 1993. https://www.newspapers.com/image/533051992/?match=1&terms=uffizi
Moir, Alfred. “An Examination of Bartolomeo Manfredi's ‘Cupid Chastised.’” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies , Spring, 1985, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Spring, 1985), pp. 156-167. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4108732
Morselli, Raffaella. “Bartolomeo Manfredi and Pomarancio: Some New Documents.” The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 129, No. 1015 (Oct., 1987), pp. 666-668. https://www.jstor.org/stable/883135
Nicolson, Benedict. “Caravaggesques in Florence.” The Burlington Magazine. Sep., 1970, Vol. 112, No. 810 (Sep., 1970), pp. 636+639- 641. https://www.jstor.org/stable/876434
Pianigiani, Gaia. “Florence’s Answer to Mafia Violence: A Painting’s Loving Restoration.” New York Times. May 25, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/world/europe/uffizi-florence-mafia-card-player.html
Robb, Peter. “M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio.” Henry Holt and Co. 2015.
“Uffizi: on display two masterpieces damaged by the 1993 Georgofili mafia attack.” Uffizi Galleries. https://www.uffizi.it/en/events/georgofili-commemoration-2024
Wakin, Daniel J. “Prosecutor Joins Italy Bomb Probe.” Florence Morning News. May 16, 1993. https://www.newspapers.com/image/985131856/?match=1&terms=%22Maurizio%20Costanzo%22
“World: Europe Mafia bosses jailed for life.” BBC. June 6, 1998. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/108127.stm

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SYMHC Classics: Regulator War May 16, 2026

Show notes

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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Behind the Scenes Minis: Bad Laws, Bad Cats May 15, 2026

Show notes

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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