Stuff You Missed in History Class

This 2019 episode covers Sappho, often described as the greatest female poet of ancient Greece. Her reputation as a poet has persisted for more than 2500 years, but the overwhelming majority of her work has not.

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Holly talks about gaining compassion for Fitz Hugh Ludlow through reading his work. Tracy discusses her training in massage school. 

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16th-century Swiss physician Paracelsus was frustrated with established medical practice and academia and he was sometimes on the lam because of his beliefs. He wrote at length about the idea that items in the natural world carried “signatures” in their appearance that could tell you visually how they could be used medicinally.

Research:

• Bennett, B.C. Doctrine of Signatures: An explanation of medicinal plant discovery or Dissemination of knowledge?. Econ Bot 61, 246–255 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1663/0013-0001(2007)61[246:DOSAEO]2.0.CO;2
• Dafni, Amots, and E. Lev. “The Doctrine of Signatures in Present-Day Israel.” Economic Botany, vol. 56, no. 4, 2002, pp. 328–34. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4256605
• “The Doctrine Of Signatures.” The British Medical Journal, vol. 1, no. 627, 1873, pp. 19–19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25233757
• “The Doctrine of Signatures.” John Moore Museum. May 11, 2021. https://www.johnmooremuseum.org/the-doctrine-of-signatures/
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "laudanum". Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Jul. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/science/laudanum
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Peasants’ War". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Aug. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/event/Peasants-War
• Grzybowski, Andrzej and Katarzyna Pawlikowska-Łagód. “Some lesser-known facts on the early history of syphilis in Europe.” Clinics in Dermatology. Volume 42, Issue 2. 2024. Pages 128-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clindermatol.2023.12.003.
• Hargrave, John G. "Paracelsus". Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 Jul. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paracelsus
• “The history of syphilis part two: Treatments, cures and legislation.” Science Museum UK.  Nov. 8, 2023. https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/history-syphilis-part-two-treatments-cures-and-legislation
• Kikuchihara, Y., Hirai, H. (2015). Signatura Rerum Theory. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_405-1
• Lund, F B. “PARACELSUS.” Annals of surgery vol. 94,4 (1931): 548-61. doi:10.1097/00000658-193110000-00009
• Michaleas, Spyros N et al. “Theophrastus Bombastus Von Hohenheim (Paracelsus) (1493-1541): The eminent physician and pioneer of toxicology.” Toxicology reports vol. 8 411-414. 23 Feb. 2021, doi:10.1016/j.toxrep.2021.02.012
• Paracelsus. “Of the supreme mysteries of nature. : Of the spirits of the planets. of occult philosophy. The magical, sympathetical, and antipathetical cure of wounds and diseases. The mysteries of the twelve signs of the zodiack.” London. 1656. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/paracelsvsofsupr00para/page/n9/mode/2up
• Simon, Matt. “Fantastically Wrong: The Strange History of Using Organ-Shaped Plants to Treat Disease.” Wired. July 16, 2014. https://www.wired.com/2014/07/fantastically-wrong-doctrine-of-signatures/
• Tampa, M. et al. “Brief history of syphilis.” Journal of medicine and life vol. 7,1 (2014): 4-10.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3956094/#R6
• Waite, Arthur Edward. “Lives of alchemystical philosophers based on materials collected in 1815 : and supplemented by recent researches with a philosophical demonstration of the true principles of the magnum opus, or great work of alchemical re-construction, and some account of the spiritual chemistry.” London. G. Redway. 1888. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/livesofalchemyst1888wait

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Fitz Hugh Ludlow’s fame as a writer was directly tied to his drug use initially. In his final years, his advocacy for treatment of the illness of addiction was really ahead of its time.

Research:

• “Beyond the Hasheesh Eater: Fitz Hugh Ludlow, A Nineteenth Century Writer and Adventurer.” Schaffer Library. Union College. https://exhibits.schafferlibrarycollections.org/s/beyond-the-hasheesh-eater-fitz-hugh-ludlow-a-nineteenth-century-writer-and-adventurer/page/welcome
• Bredeson, Robert C. “Landscape Description in Nineteenth-Century American Travel Literature.” American Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 1, 1968, pp. 86–94. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2710992
• Day, Horace B. “The Opium Habit.” 1868. Accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7293/pg7293-images.html
• “Death of Fitz Hugh Ludlow, the Hasheesh Eater.” The Buffalo Daily Repiblic. Oct. 7, 1870. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1140456339/?match=1&terms=Fitz%20Hugh%20Ludlow
• “Fitz Hugh Ludlow.” New York Times. Oct. 9, 1870. https://www.newspapers.com/image/26001499/?match=1&terms=Fitz%20Hugh%20Ludlow
• “Fitz Hugh Ludlow.” New York Times. Sept. 12, 1903. https://www.newspapers.com/image/20430047/?match=1&terms=Fitz%20Hugh%20Ludlow
• Hendricks, Gordon. “Roaming the West with ALBERT BIERSTADT.” The American West. Vol. XII. No. 1. January 1975. https://npshistory.com/newsletters/the-american-west/v12n1.pdf
• “Ludlow, Fitz Hugh (1836-1870).” The Vault at Pfaff’s. Lehigh University. https://pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu/node/54134
• Ludlow, Fitz-Hugh. “Among the Mormons.” The Atlantic. April 1864. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1864/04/among-the-mormons/306013/
• Ludlow, Fitz Hugh. “The Apocalypse of Hasheesh.” Putnam’s Monthly. Vol. VIII. December 1856. Accessed online: https://web.archive.org/web/20140503090034/http://www.lycaeum.org/nepenthes/Ludlow/Texts/apocalyp.html
• Ludlow, Fitz Hugh. “The hasheesh eater : being passages from the life of a Pythagorean.” New York. Harper and Bros. 1857. https://archive.org/details/66640730R.nlm.nih.gov/mode/2up
• Ludlow, Fitz Hugh. “The heart of the continent : a record of travel across the plains and in Oregon, with an examination of the Mormon principle.” New York. Hurd and Houghton. 1870. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/heartofcontinent00ludl/page/n5/mode/2up
• Ludlow, Fitz-Hugh. “If Massa Put Guns Into Our Han's.” The Atlantic. April 1865. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1865/04/if-massa-put-guns-into-our-hans/629143/
• Ludlow, Fitz-Hugh. “Seven Weeks in the Great Yo-Semite.” The Atlantic. June 1864. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1864/06/seven-weeks-in-the-great-yo-semite/628596/
• Ludlow, Fitz-Hugh. “Through-Tickets to San Francisco: A Prophecy.” The Atlantic. November 1864. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1864/11/through-tickets-to-san-francisco-a-prophecy/628652/
• “Ludlow-Santo Domingo Library.” Harvard Library. https://library.harvard.edu/collections/ludlow-santo-domingo-library

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This 2020 episode covers James Baldwin, who was a brilliant essayist, one of the chroniclers of the Civil Rights Movement, and a powerful voice against racism.

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Holly talks about an opera based on the life of Eadweard Muybridge. Tracy and Holly talk about how they learned about periods as kids.

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Beatrice Kenner’s inventions were focused largely on making life easier and less annoying for herself and the people around her, including period products. Mildred Smith’s invention was about family, and it grew from her disability after she developed multiple sclerosis.

Research:

• “Deaths.” Evening Star. 11/27/1956. https://www.newspapers.com/image/869672410/
• “Mildred E. Smith.” Obituary. Washington Post. 8/19/1993. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1993/08/19/n-hugh-mcdiarmid-dies-at-86/beab0fdf-9aec-4ac1-bd0a-cfcef223f1fa/
• Byram, W.F. and R.P. Phronebarger. “Current Supply System for Electric Railways.” U.S. Patent 1,134,871. 4/6/1915.
• Coren, Ashleigh, et al. “The Many Inventions of Beatrice Kenner.” Side Door. Smithsonian Institution. 4/6/2022. https://www.si.edu/sidedoor/many-inventions-beatrice-kenner
• Davidson, S.N. “Pants Presser.” U.S. Patent 1,088,329.
• Hambrick, Arlene. “Biographies of Black Female Scientists and Inventors: An Interdisciplinary Middle School Curriculum Guide. ‘What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black?’” Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts. Doctor of Education Dissertation. 1993. DOI: 10.7275/14756666
• Hodal, Kate. “Cloth, cow dung, cups: how the world's women manage their periods.” The Guardian. 3/14/2019. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/apr/13/cloth-cow-dung-cups-how-the-worlds-women-manage-their-periods
• Jeffrey, Laura S. “Amazing American Inventors of the 20th Century.” Enslow Publishers, Inc.. 1996, 2013.
• Kenner, Mary Beatrice. “Busch Traffic.” Daily Press. 11/12/1984. https://www.newspapers.com/image/234268212/
• Kijowska, Wiktoria. “Sanitary suspenders to Mooncups: a brief history of menstrual products.” Victoria and Albert Museum. https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/a-brief-history-of-menstrual-products
• King, Helen. “From rags and pads to the sanitary apron: a brief history of period products.” The Conversation. 4/25/2023. https://theconversation.com/from-rags-and-pads-to-the-sanitary-apron-a-brief-history-of-period-products-203451
• O’Sullivan, Joan. “Disease Victim Creates Game.” The Orange Leader. 10/8/1982. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1008083420/
• Ravey, Julia and Dr. Ella Hubber. “Unstoppable: Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner.” Unstoppable. BBC. 6/17/2024. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct5rmq
• Sluby, Patricia Carter. “African American Brilliance.” Tar heel junior historian [2006 : fall, v.46 : no.1]. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/tar-heel-junior-historian-2006-fall-v.46-no.1/3700440?item=5369779
• Smith, Mildred E. “Family Relationships Card Game.” U.S. Patent 4,230,321. 10/28/1980. https://ppubs.uspto.gov/api/pdf/downloadPdf/4230321
• Tsjeng, Zing. “Forgotten Women: The Scientists.” Cassell Illustrated. 2018.
• Tsjeng, Zing. “The Forgotten Black Woman Inventor Who Revolutionized Menstrual Pads.” Vice. 3/8/2018. https://www.vice.com/en/article/mary-beatrice-davidson-kenner-sanitary-belt/
• Washington Afro American. “Jabbo Kenner Leads Boys to Clean Life.” 11/15/1947. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1042304374/
• Washington Daily News. “Mrs. Kenner Is In Clover.” 6/2/1958. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1042178951/

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The invention Eadweard Muybridge is known for is his zoopraxiscope, an early movie technology. But he also innovated in photography, had some other inventions, and was the defendant in a murder trial.

Research:

• Ball, Edward. “The Inventor and the Tycoon: A Gilded Age Murder and the Birth of Moving Pictures.” Doubleday. 2013.
• Cohen, Paula Marantz. “Flickering Like Photography.” Times Literary Supplement. https://www.the-tls.com/lives/biography/scoundrel-harry-larkyns-pitiless-killing-photographer-eadweard-muybridge-rebecca-gowers-review
• “A Fast Trotter Caught by a Skillful Artist on the Fly.” The Lamar Republican. May 29, 1873. https://www.newspapers.com/image/666936878/?match=1&terms=occident%20Muybridge%20
• “Madness and Murder.” Whidbey Island Center for the Arts. https://www.wicaonline.org/blog/2020/2/2/1rmzzg46joal5ajvy4tesnui7v314p
• “A Startling Tragedy.” Los Angeles Herald. October 22, 1874. https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH18741022.2.15&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Eadweard Muybridge". Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Jun. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eadweard-Muybridge
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Leland Stanford". Encyclopedia Britannica, 17 Jun. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leland-Stanford
• Higgins, Charlotte. “Eadweard Muybridge's motion towards Tate Britain.” The Guardian. April 27, 2010. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/apr/27/eadweard-muybridge-tate-britain-motion-studies
• “The Last Call.” San Francisco Examiner. Jul 19, 1875. https://www.newspapers.com/image/457599375/?match=1&terms=Harry%20Larkyns
• Shimamura, Arthur P. “Muybridge in Motion: Travels in Art, Psychology and Neurology.” History of Photography. 2002. https://doi.org/10.1080/03087298.2002.10443307
• Muybridge, Eadweard. “Animal Locomotion. An Electro-Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements. Commenced 1872 - Completed 1885. Volume XI, Wild Animals and Birds.” Met Museum. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/266431
• Manjila, S., Singh, G., Alkhachroum, A. M., & Ramos-Estebanez, C. (2015). Understanding Edward Muybridge: historical review of behavioral alterations after a 19th-century head injury and their multifactorial influence on human life and culture. Neurosurgical Focus FOC, 39(1), E4. https://doi.org/10.3171/2015.4.FOCUS15121
• Prodger, Phillip and Tom Gunning. “Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement.” Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, 2003
• Solnit, Rebecca. “River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West.” Viking, 2003.
• Wolf, Byron. “Eadweard Muybridge’s Secret Cloud Collection.” Places Journal. September 2017. https://placesjournal.org/article/eadweard-muybridges-secret-cloud-collection/?cn-reloaded=1

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This 2019 episode covers Mary Winston Jackson, best known as the first black woman to become an engineer at NASA. But she also worked to clear the way for other underrepresented people at NASA.

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Tracy talks about current events and how they relate to the show and education. She and Holly also talk about the people who work in national parks and historical sites. 

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