What'sHerName

Frances Glessner Lee was 52 years old when she discovered the mission that would become her legacy – to “convict the guilty, clear the innocent, and find the truth.” After five decades as a prominent social hostess (and innovative part-time artist) this indomitable woman took on centuries of entrenched medical and legal tradition to become the Mother of Forensic Science. And she did it – at least partially – with dollhouses?! Olivia speaks to guest Bruce Goldfarb, author of 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Invented Modern Forensics.

Experience a 360 degree virtual tour of the Nutshell Studies courtesy of the Smithsonian’s 2017 exhibition, or plan a visit to the Glessner House Museum in Chicago or The Rocks in New Hampshire.

Guest Bruce Goldfarb is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, USA Today, Baltimore magazine, American Archaeology, American Health and many other publications. Since 2012 Bruce has served as executive assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland. He is public information officer for the OCME and curator of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. His first book of popular nonfiction is 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics.

Music for this episode was provided by Esther Abrami, Kevin MacLeod, Brian Bolger, Amanda Setlik Wilson, and the MIT Symphony Orchestra.

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An Egyptian child bride awakens to the reality of life in a harem, and dreams of revolution. And that’s just the beginning! Huda Shaarawi led thousands of women in a movement to liberate themselves from the harem, the veil, and all inequality. But in 1920s Egypt, how far could they get?

Our guest Professor Ayfer Karakaya-Stump was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. An Associate Professor of History at the College Of William and Mary, she received her Ph.D. in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University. Her scholarly interests include medieval and early modern Middle East, social and cultural history of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman-Safavid borderlands, Sufism, nonconformist religious movements, Alevi/Bektashi communities, and women and gender in Islamic(ate) societies.

Music for this episode was provided by kind permission of Frank Turner, The William & Mary Middle Eastern Music Ensemble, Brian Bolger, Aaron Kenny, and Kevin MacLeod.

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Chand Bibi served as regent of two different Sultanates in the 16th century Deccan peninsula, and ruled over some of the most important – and tumultuous – years in the region’s history. Versions of her story have been told and retold in India for generations – but what really happened to this enigmatic queen? Our guest Dr. Sarah Waheed helps us unravel this fascinating mystery.

Learn more about the important ways that ‘rediscovering’ Chand Bibi’s story could impact modern-day India in this wonderful short article by Dr. Waheed.

Guest Sarah Waheed is Research Affiliate of Davidson College, North Carolina, where she has previously taught numerous courses in History and Gender Studies and served as Director of the Semester in India Program. She holds a PhD in South Asian History from Tufts University, and an MA from University of Chicago. Her first book, Hidden Histories of Pakistan: Censorship, Literature, and Secular Nationalism in Late Colonial India is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press this January 2022. She is currently a Fulbright Scholar carrying out research towards her second book, The Warrior Queen Who Died Thrice: Gender, Sovereignty and Islam in Premodern India.

Music featured in this episode was provided by the Navatman Music Collective, Doug Maxwell, Chris Haugen, Siddhartha Corsus, and field recordings by Sarah Waheed and Bruce Miller.

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Mary Stuart Boyd spent Christmas 1900 in Versailles, not on a festive tour of the grand palace, but to stay with her 13-year-old son, quarantined there with scarlet fever. Her Versailles experience seems worlds away from today’s tourist mobs. The author of eight novels and three travel narratives, her delightful insights leave us amazed that no one’s ever heard of her. This year’s Christmas Special is read by Sophie Greenhalgh-Cook from Not For the Dinner Table.

Music featured in this episode provided by Aaron Kenny, Esther Abrami, and Marc Nelson.

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Frances Marion was one of the most important, influential, and well-paid screenwriters in Hollywood. Her films moved audiences to tears and brought out the best in every actor for whom she ever wrote. And when the switch to ‘talking pictures’ left most other silent film writers in the dust, Frances continued to astonish, creating dozens of the most famous and beloved films of the first half of the 20th century. So how come nobody remembers her name? Author Pam Munter takes Olivia on a whirlwind tour of the dramatic, cinema-worthy life of this remarkable woman.

Guest Pam Munter is the author of Fading Fame: Women of a Certain Age in Hollywood and many other books. She is a former clinical psychologist, a performer and a writer.

Music featured in this episode was provided by Daniel Henderson, the Mini Vandals, Aaron Kenny, Kevin Macleod, and Amanda Setlik Wilson.

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Celia Sánchez Manduley was probably the most important woman in the Cuban Revolution – yet outside of Cuba, almost nobody knows her name. The first woman to fire a shot in the revolution, and the brains behind the revolution’s complex logistics, she is known in Cuba as the powerful heart of a movement to “make people’s lives better.”

Discover this astonishing story with our guest, Tiffany Sippial. Director of the Honors College and Professor of History at Auburn University, Tiffany Sippial published an award-winning book on Cuba in 2013 with the University of North Carolina Press and published a second book on Cuban revolutionary leader Celia Sanchez Manduley with that press in January 2020. Sippial also served as president of the Latin American and Caribbean Section of the Southern Historical Association in 2018-2019.

Music featured in this episode provided by Marc Nelson, Jimmy Fontanez, Doug Maxwell, Rene Touzet, Quincas Moreira and Daniel Henderson and his Big Band.

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Some say Tituba was the easy target in 1692, as an enslaved woman of color. But surprise! She confessed to witchcraft, offering elaborate descriptions of a widespread Satanic conspiracy. Her tales launched Salem, Massachusetts into an unparalleled witch mania. No one was safe…except Tituba herself. How did she start it all, and how did she escape? Join Katie on location in Salem, Massachusetts for this year’s Halloween special.

Our guest, army vet, playwright, and military historian David Tullis guides off-the-beaten-track tours of Salem and works as a historical pewtersmith.

Music featured in this episode by Aaron Kenny, Esther Abrami, Kevin MacLeod, and Elena Naumova, used by permission.

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She was the most powerful pirate in the history of the world – and you’ve probably never heard her name. How did this brilliant, ruthless, utterly unstoppable woman manage to dodge the Chinese, British and Portuguese navies for a decade, and still end up left out of the history books?

Guest Dr. Jamie Goodall, author of Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay, introduces us to this enigmatic and fascinating figure. Dr. Jamie Goodall is a staff historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C. She is the author of Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay: From the Colonial Era to the Oyster Wars and National Geographic’s Pirates: Shipwrecks, Conquests, and their Lasting Legacy. She received her B.A. in Archaeology and my M.A. in Public History-Museum Studies from Appalachian State University (Boone, North Carolina) and her PhD from Ohio State. You’ll often find her presenting her work at regional, national, and international conferences, and at the Maryland and Virginia Renaissance Festival dressed as her alter ego: Torienne, Ship’s Scholar of the crew Mare Nostrum!

Music featured in this episode provided by Doug Maxwell, Aaron Kenny, Kevin MacLeod, and I Think I Can Help You.

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Come along with us on a virtual version of our September 2021 “Lost Women of England” Tour! Hear highlights from the trip, with context, commentary and other fun bonus content from Katie and Olivia, and “armchair travel” your way around the history of England with us in this special bonus episode.

(Watch a video version of this episode with photos and visuals of the locations we’re discussing on our YouTube channel.) To join our next Women’s History Tour, watch this space for announcements on our upcoming Tours!

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Rani (Queen) Lakshmibai of Jhansi never wanted to be a rebel. She did everything she could to stay on the right side of the law. But when the British East India Company finally pushed her too far, she took up the sword – literally – to fight for her kingdom, her son, and her life!

Return guest Pamela Toler is back to tell us about this incredible, unexpected “heroine of Indian Independence.” Armed with a PhD in history, a well-thumbed deck of library cards, and a large bump of curiosity, author, speaker, and historian, Pamela D. Toler translates history for a popular audience. She goes beyond the familiar boundaries of American history to tell stories from other parts of the world as well as history from the other side of the battlefield, the gender line, or the color bar. Toler is the author of eight books of popular history for children and adults. Her most recent books are  Women Warriors: An Unexpected History and Across the Minefields.

Music featured in this episode provided by Soumitra Lahiri, Shailendra Mishra, Doug Maxwell, and Kevin MacLeod.

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