A panel of historians discusses the significance of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in which more than 140 people died, many of them young immigrant women.
From the Bowery Boys website:
"You hear the name Mark Twain and think of his classic characters Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, his locales along the Mississippi River and his folksy wit. But he was equal parts New York as well, and the city helped shape his sharp, flamboyant character. Follow his course, from his first visit as an opinionated young man in 1853, to his later years in 1906 as a Fifth Avenue tenant, decked out with a cigar and signature white suit.
His tale offers a glimpse into the glamorous life of turn-of-the-century New York, from the smoke-filled billiard room at the Players Club to late nights at New York's dining palace Delmonico's. Tune in and find out which parts of Mark Twain's city are still around and which of his old homes you can still visit today.
With co-stars Ulysses S. Grant, Helen Keller, Artemus Ward, and the frog that helped make Samuel Clemens famous."
From the Bowery Boys website:
"Millions of years of space rocks, fossils, artifacts and specimens are housed in New York's world famous natural history complex on the Upper West Side. But few know the whole story about the museum itself.
Residents of New York tried a few times to establish a legitimate natural history venue in the city, including an aborted plan for a Central Park dinosaur pavilion. With the American Museum of Natural History, the city had a premier institution that sent expeditions to the four corners of the earth.
Tune in to hear the stories of some of the museum's most treasured artifacts and the origins of its collection. And find out the tragic tale of Minik the Eskimo, a boy subject by museum directors to bizarre and cruel lie."
From the Library of Congress website:
"Maurice Hamonneau, a French legionnaire and the last survivor of an artillery attack near Verdun in the First World War, lay wounded and unconscious for hours after the battle. When he regained his senses, he found that a copy of the 1913 French pocket edition of Kim by Rudyard Kipling had deflected a bullet and saved his life by a mere twenty pages."
This short video tells the story of Maurice and, more importantly, the novel that saved his life.
From the Kansas State Historical Society website:
"Imagine a world in which the living commune with the dead. Most people today find that a bizarre concept, but 100 years ago it was a fun pastime for the Wichita family who used this Ouija board.
Behind-the-scenes: Staff members describe creepy artifacts in our collection."
From the Kansas State Historical Society website:
"J.P. Morgan was a powerful man who held vast wealth and controlled finance and transportation around the United States. Should one man be so powerful? Political cartoonist Albert Reid didn't think so, and expressed his distaste in this antitrust cartoon."
In this podcast by the Kansas Museum of History, the curators examine a satchel that once belonged to Census Taker John Bissell. The podcast also discusses the procedure for census recording in the early 20th century and how it has evolved into our modern mail-in census form.
From the Kansas State Historical Society:
"There are many symbols for the United States. Perhaps the strongest national personification is the character known around the world as "Uncle Sam." This military recruiting poster has been widely reproduced and caricatured since World War I."
In this podcast by the Kansas Museum of History, museum curators use a rather vicious-looking hammer as a spring board to discuss the (literal) saloon-smashing crusade of Carry Nation.
From the Kansas State Historical Society website:
"In honor of Memorial Day, we consider a service flag that was proudly displayed by a Kansas family during World War I. Their son was serving his country 'over there'."