This week we're exploring what is, quite possibly, the weirdest and most mysterious of all the holidays: April Fools' Day. The real trick? No one even knows where this holiday came from or why we celebrate it. We'll dive in to some of the origin theories, from ancient Rome to medieval fables to Renaissance poetry. We'll also take a look how the holiday has evolved throughout time, including some of the greatest pranks ever pulled on April Fools' Day. 

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Sources: 

• Library of Congress Blogs "April Fools: The Roots of an International Holiday"
• History.com "April Fools' Day"
• NPR "April Fools' Day might be the world's longest running joke. No one knows how it began"
• A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities 
• BU Today "How a BU Prof April-Fooled the Country"
• Encyclopedia Britannica "Julian Calendar"
• History.com "9 Outrageous Pranks in History"

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I have danced around the story of Mary Tudor, oldest daughter of Henry VIII, for far too long. It's finally time to recognize Mary with her own episode, the perfect story to wrap up Women's History Month. This is a tragic story. The lot cast upon Mary was often cruel and unjust, her life marred by trauma and heartache. But it's also a story of triumph, an underdog rising up, overcoming insurmountable challenges to claim her rightful place as England's first ever queen regnant. Despite being villainized by history ever since, cast as "Bloody Mary," the stuff of childhood urban legends and sleepover games, Mary was no more evil than her father and brother who came before her or her sister, Elizabeth I, who came after her. So what happened? Why has the myth of "Bloody Mary" persisted for so long and who was Mary Tudor, Queen Mary I, really? Let's fix that. 

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• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• Royal Museums Greenwich "Why is Mary I Known As 'Bloody Mary?'"
• History Extra "The lost heirs of Henry VIII"
• Smithsonian Magazine "The Myth of Bloody Mary"
• History.com "What Inspired Queen 'Bloody' Mary's Gruesome Nickname?"
• The Fitzwilliam Museum "Mary Tudor"
• Tudor Extra "The Illness, Death, and Burial of Mary I"
• Wikipedia "Mary I of England"
• Wikipedia "The Education of a Christian Woman"

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Amidst the chaos of 19th century New York City, one poor immigrant woman named Ann Lohman managed to climb her way out of the slums and into a brownstone mansion on 5th avenue. But her means of doing this rubbed some people the wrong way. Ann, alias Madame Restell, was a notorious abortionist operating in the city with satellite offices in Philadelphia and Boston. She built an empire selling married women birth control and performing procedures to help them end unwanted pregnancies. Soon after she began this profitable practice, there were many who hoped to take her down, put a stop to it. But not for the reasons you might expect. Not for the reasons people oppose abortion today. Turns out, abortion, though mostly unseen and unspoken of, has been mostly an accepted necessity throughout history. It wasn’t until the mid 1800s when women like Madame Restell rose up, challenging the status quo that abortion became controversial. Let’s fix that. 

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• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
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• Buy Me a Coffee
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Sources: 

• Smithsonian Magazine "Madame Restell: The Abortionist of 5th Avenue"
• Science History Institute "How Notorious Abortionist Madame Restell Built a Drug Empire"
• The New York Historical Society "Life Story: Ann Trow Lohman, a.k.a Madame Restell"
• The New York Historical Society "Urbanization"
• Johns Hopkins University "A Brief History of Abortion in the US"
• CNN "Abortion is ancient history: Long before Roe, women terminated pregnancies"

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We're going medieval this week to rectify some misconceptions about castles. Despite what many believe and what's put out there in fairy tales, castles are a very specific thing built in a specific time and place for a specific purpose. We'll examine the medieval period (AKA the middle ages or the dark ages) in Europe to better understand why and how castles were built and what they were used for. We'll also unpack the story of lesser known heroine, Nicola de la Haye, who defied gender norms to defend England's Lincoln Castle against invaders on more than one occasion, successfully withstanding siege after siege. 

Support the show! 

• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• How Stuff Works "How Castles Work"
• History.com "Middle Ages"
• Wikipedia "Castles"
• Road Trips Around the World "Why Are There So Many Castles in Europe?"
• History in the Margins "From the Archives: a Woman's Home Is Her Castle"
• Catherine Hanley "Nicola de la Haye"
• Summoning Magna Carta "Who Was King John?"
• Royal UK "Royal Residences: Windsor Castle"
• Historic Royal Palaces "The Story of the Tower of London"

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This week, we're going all the way back to ancient Greece. We'll examine the story of Aspasia of Miletus, a woman who came to Athens around 450 BC and quickly became the talk of the town. Her name appears over and over again in writing from the time, Socrates wrote about her, Plato, Plutarch, Cicero the orator, Xenophon the historian, Athenaeus the writer, Aristophanes the comic playwright, Pericles the leader of the city-state of Athens. One woman’s name was on all of their minds: Aspasia of Miletus. They loved her. They hated her. They called her a great mind, a teacher, a master of rhetoric. They called a prostitute, a cheap whore, a brothel madam. They gave her credit for writing great speeches passed on to men. They gave her credit for starting great wars, the ruin of Athens. But who was Aspasia really and why was everyone talking about her? Join me to find out! 

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• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• Prisoner of History: Aspasia of Miletus and Her Biographical Tradition by Madeleine M. Henry (affiliate link) 
• National Geographic "Greek City States"
• Lake Forest College "Everybody’s a Little Bit Sexist: A Re-evaluation of Aristotle’s and Plato’s Philosophies on Women" by Kayla Huber
• Encyclopedia Britannica "Pericles: Athenian Statesman"
• World History Encyclopedia "Aspasia of Miletus"
• World History Encyclopedia "Women in Ancient Greece"
• PBS "Aspasia"
• Brooklyn Museum "Aspasia Place Setting"
• Wikipedia "Aspasia"
• History of Women Philosophers and Scientists "Aspasia of Miletus"
• University of Chicago "Aspasia of Miletus"

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This week, we'll delve into a cautionary tale: the "Radium Girls." These women were employed to paint glow in the dark numbers on watch faces and dials in the 1920s and 30s using radium paint. Assured that the paint was safe, the girls were instructed to shape their paintbrushes into sharp points with their own lips. But, turns out, ingesting radioactive radium paint isn’t safe at all, and as the women became sick and sicker and died, the companies they worked for chose to gaslight them, refusing to take responsibility all while lining their pockets with profits. But these women fought back, standing up while laying down and their fight set an important precedent we can’t afford to forget. Let’s fix that. 

Support the show! 

• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• International Atomic Energy Agency "What is Radiation"
• US Department of Energy "Nuclear Fuel Facts: Uranium"
• Library of Congress Blogs "Radium Girls: Living Dead Women"
• Wikipedia "Radium Girls"
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center "Hot Times in 'Radium Hospital'"
• Mariecurie.org "Marie Curie the scientist"
• American Physical Society "Henri Becquerel Discovers Radioactivity"
• Northern Public Radio "Ottawa's 'Radium Girls' At Forefront of Worker Protections"
• Encyclopedia Britannica "Radium Girls: The Women Who Fought For Their Lives in a Killer Workplace"

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This week, Joan Collins from the Pea Island Preservation Society joins me again to discuss Richard Etheridge, the first Black man to serve as keeper in the US Life Saving Service. Born into slavery, Etheridge fought for the Union army during the Civil War. Afterwards, he returned home to the Outer Banks of North Carolina where he re-entered service as a life saver, more specifically, surfman number 6, the lowest ranking position. Join me this week to learn how Etheridge distinguished himself time and again, climbing through the ranks despite all obstacles, despite the color of his skin, to lead, to serve, to fight, on behalf of humanity.  

Check out the Pea Island Preservation Society

Support the show! 

• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• "Fire on the Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers" by David Wright and David Zoby (affiliate link)
• "Etheridge Homeplace: a History" by Penne Smith
• United States Coast Guard "Captain Richard Etheridge, Keeper, USLSS"
• National Park Service "Richard Etheridge"
• Wikipedia "Pea Island Life Saving Station"
• American Battlefield Trust "Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Life Saving Station"
• The Outer Banks Voice "Darrell Collins Passed to the Great Beyond"
• United States Coast Guard "The Long Blue Line 'To Never Halt or Falter'"
• Coastwatch "Pea Island Surfmen Prove Themselves on a Heroic Night"
• US Life Saving Service Heritage Association "History of the USLSS"
• Wikitree "John Burgess Etheridge"

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Between mainland North Carolina and the narrow stretch of barrier islands we call the Outer Banks, sits a tiny island, just 12 miles long and around 3 miles wide. Dotted with rich maritime forest and bordered by brackish salt marsh on all sides, it’s home to two sleepy towns aptly named Manteo and Wanchese. This is Roanoke Island of course, of Lost Colony fame. But some 300 years later, in the mid 1800s, it was home to another colony entirely, one you’ve probably never even heard of, a colony whose population soared to just under 4,000 people in a matter of a few years. That’s more than the combined populations of Manteo and Wanchese today. This was the Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony and its history, its story, some might argue, has become even more lost than the Lost Colony itself. Let’s fix that. 

Check out the Pea Island Preservation Society

Support the show! 

• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources:

• "Ironclads and Columbiads: The Civil War in North Carolina" by William R. Trotter (affiliate link)
• "Time Full of Trial: The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony" by Patricia C. Click (affiliate link)
• National Park Service "The Battle of Roanoke Island"
• National Park Service "Richard Etheridge"
• Wikipedia "Battle of Roanoke Island"
• National Park Service "The Freedmen's Colony on Roanoke Island"
• Wikipedia "Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island"
• roanokefreedmenscolony.com
• Letter from Richard Etheridge and William Benson
• Roanoke Island Festival Park "The Freedmen's Colony"
• National Park Service "Freedom Comes to Roanoke Island"

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In this episode, we'll uncover the truly impressive accomplishments of Benjamin Banneker, a free Black man living in rural Maryland in the 1700s. Banneker was a self taught astronomer who helped to lay out the boundary for the construction of Washington DC. He also built his own working clock and wrote and published almanacs for the years 1792 to 1797. He also called Thomas Jefferson out for being a hypocrite, my personal favorite accomplishment. But, despite all of the truly impressive things he really did, he's mostly remembered for things he did not do: planning the city of Washington DC, constructing the first clock in America, writing the first almanac in America, etc. Join me to examine how and why his already impressive enough real life accomplishments have been embellished by historical telephone. Let's fix that. 

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Support the show! 

• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• "The Life of Benjamin Banneker" by Silvio Bedini
• The White House Historical Association "Benjamin Banneker the Black Tobacco Farmer Who the Presidents Couldn't Ignore"
• Wikipedia "Benjamin Banneker"
• Wikipedia "Mythology of Benjamin Banneker"
• Encyclopedia Britannica "Pierre Charles L'Enfant"

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This week, we'll delve into the mind blowing life of Josephine Baker, a Black performing artist who took Paris by storm starting in the 1920s. She sang, she danced, she barely wore any clothing, and she had a pet cheetah named Chiquita that regularly terrorized the orchestra pit. But Josephine Baker was so much more than that. from St. Louis street rat to world famous performer, first Black female movie star to French spy during World War II, entrepreneur to US civil rights activist, mother of twelve… I think you will find that Josephine Baker is nothing if not completely unexpected. Let’s fix that. 

Check out RingTree here and use promo code historyfix to get 25% off your first month!

Support the show! 

• Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
• Buy some merch
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: 

• The New Yorker "Josephine Baker Was the Star France Wanted - and the Spy It Needed"
• CBS News "The legacy of Josephine Baker"
• The Guardian "From the archive, 26 August 1974: An interview with Josephine Baker"
• Wikipedia "Josephine Baker"
• Slate "Josephine Baker's Rainbow Tribe"
• Spiegel International "Josephine Baker's Rainbow Tribe"
• The Conversation "Josephine Baker's 'Rainbow Tribe' and the pursuit of universal brotherhood"

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