Unsung History

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The History of DARE Apr 08, 2024

Show notes

In the fall of 1983, the LAPD, under Chief of Police Darryl Gates and in collaboration with the LA Unified School District, launched Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), sending 10 police officers into 50 elementary schools to teach kids how to say no to drugs. By the time DARE celebrated its 10-year anniversary, there were DARE officers in all 50 states, teaching 4.5 million students. The program was praised by presidents and supported by major corporate sponsors, but in the 1990s social scientists started to question its effectiveness, eventually leading to a precipitous decline in the numbers of school districts participating in the program.

Joining me in this episode is Dr. Max Felker-Kantor, Associate Professor of History at Ball State University and author of Dare to Say No: Policing and the War on Drugs in Schools.

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 “Back to the 80s”

by Roman Oriekhov from Pixabay; it is available via the Pixabay Content License. The episode image is “Children from Sterling Heights Elementary school recite the pledge of allegiance at the Drugs Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) graduation on Kadena Air Base (AB), Okinawa, Japan,” taken on February 28, 2003; the image is released to the public and is available via the National Archives (NAID: 6642856).

Additional Sources:

“D.A.R.E.’s Story as a Leader in Drug Prevention Education,” D.A.R.E. America.
“DARE Marks a Decade of Growth and Controversy : Youth: Despite critics, anti-drug program expands nationally. But some see declining support in LAPD,” by Jim Newton, Los Angeles Times, September 9, 1993.
“How effective is drug abuse resistance education? A meta-analysis of Project DARE outcome evaluations,” by ST Ennett, NS Tobler, CL Ringwalt, and RL Flewelling, American Journal of Public Health 1994;84(9):1394-1401.
“Just Say No to D.A.R.E.,” by Dennis P. Rosenbaum, Criminology and Public Policy, 6(4), 815-824.
“DARE: The Anti-Drug Program That Never Actually Worked,” by Rosie Cima, Priceonomics.
“Just Say No?” by Scott Lilienfeld and Hal Arkowitz, Scientific American Mind, 15552284, Jan/Feb2014, Vol. 25, Issue 1.
“A brief history of DARE, the anti-drug program Jeff Sessions wants to revive,” by Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post, July 12, 2017.
“Proclamation 5854 -- National D.A.R.E. Day, 1988,” by Ronald Reagan, September 8, 1988, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
“Proclamation 8648—National D.A.R.E. Day, 2011,” by Barack Obama, April 11, 2011, The American Presidency Project.

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Alice Roosevelt Longworth Apr 01, 2024

Show notes

When Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901, his eldest child, 17-year-old Alice, rose quickly to celebrity status. The public loved hearing about the exploits of the poker-playing, gum-chewing “Princess Alice,” who kept a small green snake in her purse. By the time she died at age 96, Alice, whose Dupont Circle home included an embroidered pillow with the phrase “If you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me,” was such an institution in DC politics that she was known as The Other Washington Monument.

Joining me in this episode is Dr. Michael Patrick Cullinane, Professor of U.S. History and the Lowman Walton Chair of Theodore Roosevelt Studies at Dickinson State University in North Dakota, author of several books on Theodore Roosevelt, and host of the The Gilded Age and Progressive Era Podcast.

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 “Alice Blue Gown,” from the musical comedy “Irene,” composed by Harry Tierney with lyrics by Joseph McCarthy; the soloist is Edith Day, and the recording from February 2, 1920, is in the public domain and available via the LIbrary of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is a photograph of Alice Roosevelt with a family parrot, taken around 1904; the photograph is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress.

Additional Sources:

Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker, by Stacy A. Cordery, Penguin Books, 2008.
“'Princess' Alice Roosevelt Longworth,” by Myra MacPherson, The Washington Post, February 21, 1980.
“From a White House Wedding to a Pet Snake, Alice Roosevelt’s Escapades Captivated America,” by Francine Uenuma, Smithsonian Magazine, November 18, 2022.
“Alice Roosevelt Longworth at 90,” by Sally Quinn, The Washington Post, February 12, 1974.
“Alice Roosevelt Longworth: Presidential Daughter and American Celebrity,” by Lina Mann, The White House Historical Association, October 10, 2017.
“A Presidential Daughter You Could Pick On: Alice Roosevelt Longworth was the sassiest offspring ever to occupy the White House,” by Carol Felsenthal, Politico, December 3, 2014.
“The Last Time America Turned Away From the World,” by By John Milton Cooper, The New York Times, November 21, 2019.
“The ‘First Daughter’ in Asia: Alice Roosevelt’s 1905 Trip,” The Association for Asian Studies.

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Eleanor Roosevelt's Visit to the Pacific Theatre during World War II Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

In August 1943, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt set off in secrecy from San Francisco on a military transport plane, flying across the Pacific Ocean. It wasn’t until she showed up in New Zealand 10 days later that the public learned about her trip, a mission to the frontlines of the Pacific Theater in World War II to serve as "the President's eyes, ears and legs." Eleanor returned to New York five weeks and nearly 26,000 miles later, having seen an estimated 400,000 troops on her trip and producing a detailed report on American Red Cross activities in the Southwest Pacific for Norman Davis, Chairman of the American Red Cross.

Joining me in this episode is journalist Shannon McKenna Schmidt, author of The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode audio is from the December 7, 1941, episode of Over Our Coffee Cups, a weekly 15-minute radio show hosted by Eleanor Roosevelt on the NBC Blue network; in 1942, these recordings were donated to the Library of Congress as a gift from the sponsor, the Pan-American Coffee Bureau; the audio clip can be accessed on the C-SPAN website. The episode image is “Eleanor Roosevelt, General Harmon, and Admiral Halsey in New Caledonia,” taken on September 16, 1943; the image is in the public domain and is available via the National Archives, NAID: 195974.

Additional Sources:

“This Is What Eleanor Roosevelt Said to America’s Women on the Day of Pearl Harbor,” by Lily Rothman, Time Magazine, Originally published December 7, 2016, and updated on December 6, 2018.
“ER and the Office of Civilian Defense,” Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project.
“In the South Pacific War Zone (1943),” Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project.
“Eleanor Roosevelt: American Ambassador to the South Pacific,” by Glenn Barnett, Warfare History Network, July 2006.
“A First Lady on the Front Lines,” by Paul M Sparrow, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, August 26, 2016.
“Eleanor Roosevelt and World War II,” National Park Service.
“Eleanor Roosevelt: South Pacific Visit [video],” clip from The Roosevelts by Ken Burns, September 13, 2014.

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Eliza Scidmore Mar 18, 2024

Show notes

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

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Foreign Missionaries & American Diplomacy in the 19th Century Mar 11, 2024

Show notes

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.

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Tammany Hall, FDR & the Murder of Vivian Gordon Mar 04, 2024

Show notes

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.

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The Combahee River Raid of 1863 Feb 26, 2024

Show notes

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.

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The History of Ice in the United States Feb 19, 2024

Show notes

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.

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The History of Blue Jeans Feb 12, 2024

Show notes

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.

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The History of Pinball Feb 05, 2024

Show notes

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

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