Behind the Scenes Minis: Balloons and Ca...

<p>This 2019 episode covers Thomas Cook, a pioneer of the idea of a travel agency to manage tourist holidays. But Cook was initially motivated by his support of the temperance movement and his deeply held religious beliefs.&nbsp;</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener ... Show More

<p>Cat litter, it could be argued, kicked off the pet products industry. After its invention in the 1940s, other inventors started to come up with products that today are standard in the homes of people with pets.</p> <p><strong>Research:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Caminiti, Kasey. &l ... Show More

<p>Ballooning became a huge fad starting in the late 18th century, and there was a surprising amount of rioting associated with it. Fervor, excitement, and intoxication in some instances, meant that balloon events were prone to get out of control.</p> <p><strong>Research:</strong ... Show More

Nina Mae McKinney (1912-1967) was a Black American actress who performed in Hollywood and internationally in the 1930s. She was dubbed “The Black Garbo” and was the first African-American performer to receive a five-year contract with MGM. Yet because of racism and miscegenation ... Show More

Sarah Rector (1902-1967) was known as the richest Black girl in America. She was given allotted land by the United States government in Oklahoma, which happened to be rich in oil deposits. She became an oil magnate by age eleven and lived a life of (mostly) glamor.  For Further R ... Show More

Sue Cowan Williams (1910-1994) was a teacher in Little Rock, Arkansas, who filed and won a lawsuit to end pay discrimination against Black teachers in the segregated South. Hher case helped shape the organization’s legal strategy for civil rights in schools across the country. Sp ... Show More

Mabel Fairbanks (1915-2001) was an American figure skater and coach. A Black and Seminole woman, she was often relegated to the shadows and dedicated the latter half of her career to breaking down barriers for other skaters of color.  This episode of Womanica is brought to you by ... Show More

When the young Diné boy Hopi-Hopi ran away from the Santa Fe Indian Boarding School in the early years of the twentieth century, he carried with him no paper map to guide his way home. Rather, he used knowledge of the region, of the stars, and of the Southwest’s ecology instilled ... Show More

Michel-Rolph Trouillot wrote that “the silencing of the Haitian Revolution is only a chapter within a narrative of global domination. It is part of the history of the West and it is likely to persist, even in attenuated form, as long as the history of the West is not retold in wa ... Show More

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We find out how Sylvan Goldman’s invention of the shopping trolley in 1930s America turned him into a multi-millionaire.Our expert is Rachel Bowlby, Professor of Comparative Lite ... Show More

New York City might have been the epicenter of the twentieth century American art scene, but Los Angeles was no slouch either, writes Kellie Jones in South of Pico: African American Artists in the 1960s and 1970s(Duke University Press, 2017). Dr. Jones, Professor of Art History a ... Show More

As a child, Alan Michelson often rode the T past sculptor Cyrus Edward Dallin’s “Appeal to the Great Spirit” (1908) outside the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). He was riveted by the statue’s grand horse and the powerful yet melancholy figure wearing a striking Plains Indian wa ... Show More

Jean Ritchie (1922-2015) was the mother of folk music. She was an instrumental voice in the American folk music revival of the 1940s and 60s, and introduced a traditional dulcimer sound to a wider audience.  For Further Reading: Jean Ritchie, Lyrical Voice of Appalachia, Dies at ... Show More