Frequently (Un)Asked Questions

Guess who’s back, back again? This week we’re talking about one very historically important lady: Mary Surrat. Guilty or innocent, she has made her mark on history textbooks. Born in southern Maryland in either 1820 or 1823, Mary Surrat really only became historically important in 1865 after being linked to the plot to assassinate then President Abraham Lincoln. Starting with her birth, the date of which isn’t 100% confirmed and a bit of a joking matter for Mikaela, we delve into the childhood of Mary Surrat before moving onto her marriage and family life. At first it almost sounds like Mary was just in the wrong place at the wrong time but as we always say, history is a whole lot weirder than we think.

In antebellum Maryland,  Mary was involved in a lot of pro-Confederate talk and following the election of Lincoln her eldest son joined the Confederate Army in Texas while her youngest son John Jr. became a Confederate spy and remained close by her side throughout the war. In 1864, Mary moved from southern Maryland to her boarding house in D.C., citing economic expenses as her reasoning.  After moving into the D.C. boarding house, John Jr. starts to host a lot of Confederate allies and befriends John Wilkes Booth who starts to frequent the house in addition to other known co-conspirators. From there things just start to go downhill for Mary’s claim to innocence and the girls discuss Booth’s failed attempt to kidnap Lincoln, the evidence that piled against her in month leading up to the assassination, and her subsuquent trial and death sentence. But perhaps the most important part of today’s episode are Becca’s hot takes that John Wilkes Booth and Mary Surrat were “for sure boning” and that you can’t execute pretty people.

Lots of articles were used to create today’s episode but perhaps the most helpful was the NY Times 1865 article about Mary Surrat which can be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/1865/07/08/archives/end-of-the-assassins-execution-of-mrs-surratt-payne-herrold-and.html

Imagine if your dad came home one day and said “Hey I’m divorcing your mom! Also forget the religious teachings we’ve instilled in you over the last 15 years because I’m creating my own religion!” That’s basically the childhood of Queen Mary I. In today’s episode we discuss the historic reign of Mary I of England, known also by her nickname “Bloody Mary.” Before diving into the history of England’s first queen, our historians do get into a side discussion about the myth and the multiple mirrors they have in front of them and a little bar which serves some interesting Bloody Mary drinks.

But refocusing on the history lesson, we start with a brief background into the only surviving child of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Discussing both Mary’s early days and the giving a bare bones rundown of the creation of the Church of England. Moving then to Mary’s adolescents we discuss her fall from grace and later return to the court before her eventual coup and successful, if short lived, rule.

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No, we didn't miss a comma in the title, history actually has a man named Doctor Doctor.  In today’s episode “Doctor Doctor Give Me The News” Becca guesses the topic is snake oil salesmen and is once again woefully misinformed about American history. Today’s topic instead focuses on the death of Mikaela’s first crush, former President James A Garfield.  Before focusing on the short lived tenure of America’s “most promising president of the era,” Mikaela gives a brief look into Garfield pre-presidency focusing on his abolitionist views and dedication to equal rights for all citizens. In 1880, Garfield attended the Republican convention with no intention to run but was given the ticket as a sort of middle ground for the party and won by a narrow victory to the Democratic nominee Hancock.

Once in the office, Garfield tried to put an end to political favors but his life was ended on July 2, 1881 when Charles Guiteau felt poltical slights so awful he took to murder.  Guiteau wrote a failed, never publicly circulated pamphlet called “Grant Versus Hancock” that Guiteau believed was the key to Garfield’s presidential success. Hoping for the consulship to Vienna, Guiteau loitered around the Republican Headquarters in New York before following Garfield to Washington, D.C. and bouncing between the State Department and White House in hopes of gaining some form of political compensation. After many failed attempts at gaining a foreign position, Guiteau believed it was his god given destiny to kill the President and spent the next month stalking President Garfield in an attempt to pull off the perfect assassination. Spending June following Garfield around Washington, learning to shoot a gun, and sending off letters asking for later political favors, Guiteau put his plan into action on July 2nd and put the then President into a state of mortal peril for the next 79 days awaiting death as he was attended by the (not so esteemed) Doctor Doctor Willard Bliss. 

While many articles were helpful with writing this episode, we found Evan Andrews’ “The Assassination of President James A. Garfield” and Kenneth D. Ackerman’s “The Garfield Assassination Altered American History, But Is Woefully Forgotten Today”

https://www.history.com/news/the-assassination-of-president-james-a-garfield

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/garfield-assassination-altered-american-history-woefully-forgotten-today-180968319/

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Pardon the occasional sniffles, spring has officially sprung in California and the trees and allergies are in full bloom. Mikaela and Becca are back together in person for another episode as they discuss Mikaela’s favorite moment in sports history: the 1904 Olympic Marathon. When Becca hears rat poison her mind immediately goes to blood thinners and shares her medical experience with prescribed rat poison. “Rat Poison Makes A Great Pre-Work” is not only the topic of today but also Mikaela’s workout playlist on Spotify and our hosts get a little distracted with weird playlist titles (ok, Mikaela gets distracted but based on the past 11 episodes is anyone surprised Mikaela likes weird cryptic titles?).

1904 marked the third modern Olympic Games in which 12 countries participated and America managed to take home most of the medals. While the 1904 Olympics are remarkable for a few different reasons, such as the fact that this was the first time in modern Olympics that gold, silver, and bronze were awarded and this was the second longest Olympic Games in modern history, perhaps the most interesting event was the disastrous marathon race.

At 3:03 PM on August 30, 1904 the gun went off and 32 men took off for a 24.5 mile run with one water station placed at the 6 and 12 mile marker. While the course started and ended in the stadium, the main portion of the course wound through dirt roads littered with debris and pedestrians and made for a course so hazardous that only 14 racers finished. Between dehydration, cheating scandals, and internal hemorrhaging, the race marked one of the deadliest events in Olympic history and almost caused the IOC to discontinue the sport.  The gold medal winner of marathon, Thomas Hicks, was fed a mixture of strychnine sulfate, a common rat poison at the time, mixed with egg whites and brandy. Though Hicks’ concoction sounds deadly he was unfortunately one of the racers who fared better.

While many articles were helpful in today’s episode Karen Abbot’s article “The 1904 Olympic Marathon May Have Been The Strangest Ever” was one of the most helpful. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-1904-olympic-marathon-may-have-been-the-strangest-ever-14910747/

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Today’s a little bit of a somber day as we remember the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that occurred 110 years ago on March 25, 1911. The fire remained one of New York’s deadliest workplace disasters for 90 years and makes note of garment industry conditions that really haven’t changed.

Focusing first on the background of the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, we’re able to get a better understanding of both safety conditions in the early 20th century and the tendencies of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory owners to ignore safety precautions for the sake of potential profit. From there the attention shifts to the events of March 25, 1911. At roughly 4:40 PM on a Saturday a fire broke out on the 8th floor of the Asch building that housed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Common practice at the time allowed for foremen to lock building doors until the end of the workday to limit breaks and check purses in attempts to prevent theft and unfortunately led to many of the 9th floor workers to be trapped inside the building with no way of escape. During the course of the 90 minute fire, 146 workers perished due to either the fire of jumping to their deaths. Firefighters arrived at the scene but were able to provide little help as their equipment was not long enough to reach the 8th floor. The brief glimmer of hope comes from the fact that Blanck and Harris did face consequences in civil court and New York cracked down on code violations and helped to create a safer working environment that millions of Americans still benefit from.

Here’s is the Cornell University website about the fire that gives the backstory as well as testimonies from survivors, a model of the 9th floor, and a complete list of the victims: https://trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu/index.html

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Today we answer the age old questions of who would win in a war: the WWI battle hardened Australian army or a bunch of flightless birds? The answer isn’t what you’d expect...unless you’ve met an emu and then you might expect it.

First discussing the influx of soldiers following World War I and the Soldier Settlement Scheme that caused emu’s to become such a problem. As emu’s began to destroy farmer’s fences and the Great Depression drove wheat prices to abysmal levels, these soldiers turned farmers sought help from the only place they could think of the Minister of Defense. Minister of Defense Sir Geroge Pearce turned this conflict into a full blown war by granting these solider the use of two lewis machine guns, 10,000 bullets, and the expertise of Major G.P.W. Meredith. Within months, emus made a mockery of the Australian army and gave us a history lesson that sounds more like an article from The Onion. Towards the end of the episode Mikaela dives into her fear of birds and admits that emu or cassowary it doesn't matter - any Australian bird could easily beat her in a war.

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Oh boy, get ready budding historians because we are in for a long one today! On February 24, 1868 Andrew Johnson became the first American president to be impeached and 153 years later we're here to give you a simplified version of his political life and the kind of bullshit excuse Congress used to attempt to oust our 16th President. Kicking it off with Becca’s fun but wildly incorrect guess of Andrew Jackson getting drunk and attempting to organize an actual game of musical chairs in the White House, Mikaela quickly dashed those dreams by essentially yelling “nope! Surprise it’s the first presidential impeachment!”

Starting in 1829 with Andrew Johnson’s election as the alderman of Greenville, Mikaela traces the political career that led Johnson to the White House, highlighting his Congressional career before zeroing in on his appointment as military governor of Tennessee during the Civil War that, in Mikaela’s totally unbiased opinion, led to his appointment as Vice President in 1864. Moving forward, the pair discuss Johnson’s assumption to presidency that left the radical republican congress hopeful and Mikaela gives a bare bones run down of Johnson’s failure during the Reconstruction (and I mean BARE BONES! We had a lot to discuss, ok? And Reconstruction is a topic in and of itself). Getting into the meat of the episode (30 minutes later), Mikaela introduces Becca to the Tenure of Office Act and we all get to suffer through reading a Congressional bill from 1868. Essentially this Act told Johnson he could not appoint any Cabinet positions without the approval of Congress. Of course our man Andy J promptly ignored this rule and replaced Edwin Stanton, leading to his eventual impeachment that he managed to overcome by a mere one vote!

While many articles were helpful with today’s research, the articles Mikaela found most helpful were the United States Senate article on the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, which include the articles of impeachment brought up against Johnson (https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Impeachment_Johnson.htm) and the PBS article “The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson,” a part of their collection on the Presidents (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/grant-impeachment/).

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Sorry if we sound a little stuffed up today, California got a little bit of a warm streak during winter and our allergies decided to make an appearance!

Have you ever wondered why Lewis Caroll’s Mad Hatter acted so strange in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? Well today Mikael dives into the weird history behind the term “Mad As a Hatter” and the history of felting and hat making in Europe before discussing Caroll’s literary interpretation of the disease. From there the focus shifts to Danbury, Connecticut where Hatter’s Disease was so common it was known as the Danbury Shakes. Finally we connected the phrase “Mad As A Hatter” to the Lincoln assassination when Boston Corbett, a former hat maker turned Union solider, killed John Wilkes Booth and a lot of his issues were blamed on his history with the hatmaking industry.

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Despite technical difficulties during recording and technical difficulties with power outages during editing, the girls are back! Mikaela once again picked a topic where she gets to struggle with the French language as the girls head to 17th century Paris to discuss the Court of Miracles, a series of slums that littered the City of Love and inspired Victor Hugo to write a novel. Starting with the reign of Louis XIV, Mikaela discusses the high levels of poverty that drove the French to homelessness before discussing the layout and hierarchy of the Court. Paying special attention to the Thieves Guild, Mikaela weaves the tale of Cartouche who Becca has decided looked like Corbin Bleu in orange and purple striped tights. But unfortunately all good things must come to an end. The decline of the Court of Miracles started with Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie before meeting its final end with social reforms during the Napoleonic era. Ending with the pop culture impact that the Court of Miracles left on the world, Mikaela discusses Victor Hugo, Disney, Assassin’s Creed, and the new novel “The Court of Miracles” by Kester Grant.

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This week Becca and Mikaela travel down south to tell the history of the female settlers of New Orleans. Join them as they learn about the filles de la cassette, or Casket Girls, that helped turned Louisiana into a proper colony while Mikaela tries her best but ultimately ends up horribly butchering the French language.

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