Stuff You Missed In History Class

The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, also called the Triple Nickles, were the first Black paratroopers in the U.S. military, and their story is connected to the desegregation of the military after World War II. Research: 555th Parachute Infantry. “Malvin L. Brown.” http://triplenickle.com/malvinbrown.htm Aney, Warren. “Triple Nickles -- 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion.” Oregon Encyclopedia. https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/555th_parachute_infantry_triple_nickle_batallion/ Associated Press. “Air Force Starts Probe Into Troop Bombing.” The Miami Herald. 9/18/1948. https://www.newspapers.com/image/617847549/ Associated Press. “Army Lists Dead in Bomb Blast.” The Tampa Times. 9/18/1948. https://www.newspapers.com/image/326171714/ Biggs, Bradley. “The Triple Nickles: America’s First All-Black Paratroop Unit.” Hamden, Conn. Archon Books. 1986. Bradsher, Greg and Sylvia Naylor. “Firefly Project and the 555th Parachute Infantry

Emperor Meiji of Japan’s reign began in 1867, and it marks a time of significant change in the country’s history. After the emperor and his consort died in the early 20th century, the Meiji Jingu shrine was built to memorialize them. Research: Atsushi, Kawai. “Prefectures, Power, and Centralization: Japan’s Abolition of the Feudal Domains.” Nippon.com. Aug. 27, 2021. https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g01159/ Bernard, Rosemary. “Shinto and Ecology: Practice and Orientations to Nature.” Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. https://fore.yale.edu/World-Religions/Shinto/Overview-Essay Cali, Joseph and John Dougill. “Shinto Shrines: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan's Ancient Religion: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan’s Ancient Religion.” University of Hawaii Press. 2015. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Charter Oath". Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Mar. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/event/Charter-Oath The Editors of Encyclopaedia

This 2020 episode covers the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was founded in 1943. Some of these women athletes believed they were starting on a career in professional baseball.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tracy and Holly share tetanus shot stories and discuss getting boosters. They then discuss the egos of European explorers in Africa. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sidi Mubarak Bombay was sort of a combined guide, translator and nurse, and often the supervisor of the African laborers on expeditions through eastern and equatorial Africa in the 19th century. Research: "Sidi Mubarak Bombay Unsung African adventurer." BBC History Magazine, Aug. 2023, p. 56. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A756775082/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=0b775bc3. Accessed 14 Apr. 2025. "Sidi Mubarak Bombay." Explorers & Discoverers of the World, Gale, 1993. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1614000037/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=ab21ce2c. Accessed 14 Apr. 2025. Burton, Richard F. “Zanzibar: City, Island and Coast in Two Volumes.” Vol. 2. London, Tinsley Brothers. 1872. Cameron, Verney Lovett. “Across Africa.” New York: Harper & Bros. 1877. Cavendish, Richard. “The Nile’s Source Discovered.” History Today. 8/8/2008. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/nile%E2%80%99s-

Tetanus has probably been around for most of human history, or even longer. But it’s preventable today thanks to vaccines. Research: "Emil von Behring." Notable Scientists from 1900 to the Present, edited by Brigham Narins, Gale, 2008. Gale In Context: Science, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1619001490/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=464250e5. Accessed 17 Apr. 2025. Breasted, J.H., translator. “OIP 3. The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, Volume 1: Hieroglyphic Transliteration, Translation, and Commentary.” Oxford University Press. 1930. Chalian, William. “An Essay on the History of Lockjaw.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, FEBRUARY, 1940, Vol. 8, No. 2. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44446242 Emil von Behring: The founder of serum therapy. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach 2025. Thu. 17 Apr 2025. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1901/behring/article/ Galassi, Francesco Maria et al. “Tetanus: historical and palaeopathological aspects consid

This 2020 episode covers Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, an accomplished astronomer. She grew up in a society that didn’t really prioritize education for girls, and she was determined and creative about getting around that.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holly talks about the dynamics of Altina Schinasi's family. Tracy shares a dispute over nursing uniform procedures on the Boston Floating Hospital that played out in a trade journal. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Boston Floating Hospital was a children’s hospital that operated on a boat in Boston Harbor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Research: Berkeley Temple. “Threescore years and ten, 1827-1897: Pine Street Church ; Berkeley Street Church ; Berkley Temple.” Boston : Press of Samuel Usher, 1897. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008416560 Boston Floating Hospital. “A brief history of the Boston Floating Hospital.” 1906. https://archive.org/details/101725502.nlm.nih.gov/ Boston Floating Hospital. “Historical sketch of the origin and development of the Boston Floating Hospital.” 1903. https://archive.org/details/101727275.nlm.nih.gov Egan, Sarah A. “A Reply from the Boston Floating Hospital.” The American Journal of Nursing, Vol. 11, No. 6 (Mar., 1911). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3405022 Friends of the Boston Harborwalk. “Precious Cargo On Board.” https://boshw.us/sign/precious-cargo-on-board/?lang=english Gilson,

Altina Schinasi is known as the inventor of cat-eye glasses, but she was also an artist, a documentarian, and an activist. And she was very frank about her own faults and bad decisions. Research: “Altina Schinasi 1924 (1907-1999).” Helen Temple Cook Library. Dana Hall School. https://library.danahall.org/archives/danapedia/alumnae/altina-schinasi-1924-1907-1999/ “Altina Schinasi's 116th Birthday.” Google Doodle. https://doodles.google/doodle/altina-schinasis-116th-birthday/ “Altina Schinasi, The Harlem Girl Who Knew Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Salvador Dali And Invented Cat-Eye Glasses.” Harlem World. June 21, 2023. https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com/altina-schinasi-the-harlem-girl-who-knew-martin-luther-king-rosa-parks-salvador-dali-and-invented-cat-eye-glasses/ “Artist Altina Schinasi Miranda Dies at 92.” Ventura County Star. Aug. 17, 1999. https://www.newspapers.com/image/935509837/?match=1&terms=Altina%20Schinasi Bachz, Betty. “From Audrey He

This 2019 episode covers Baron Franz Nopcsa, who lived an adventurous, scholarly life, funded entirely by his family money. He identified dinosaurs, inserted himself into Albanian politics, and wrote volumes and volumes of books and papers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holly waxes rhapsodic about fruit. Tracy talks about planning an episode about William Henry Dorsey but then finding she needed to include his father.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thomas J. Dorsey liberated himself from enslavement and became one of the most sought-after caterers in Philadelphia. His son William Henry Dorsey was born a free Black man before the Civil War, and became an artist, collector and scrapbooker. Research: "Thomas J. Dorsey." Contemporary Black Biography, vol. 90, Gale, 2011. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1606005269/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=0c6af117. Accessed 2 Apr. 2025. 1838 Black Metropolis. “What Resistance looked like in 1838.” https://www.1838blackmetropolis.com/post/what-resistance-looked-like-in-1838 Aston Gonzalez (2019) William Dorsey and the construction of an African American history archive, Social Dynamics, 45:1, 138-155, DOI: 10.1080/02533952.2019.1589323 Berlin, Ira. "UNIVERSITY PRESSES; Scrapbooks of a Black Heritage." The New York Times Book Review, 22 Sept. 1991. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A175323797/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=cdf57532. Access

This installment of eponymous food stories is entirely about fruits. We’ve got a berry, a pome, and a citrus, all with varying degrees of documentation. Research: “A Guide to the United States’ History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776: Algeria.” Office of the Historian. U.S. Department of State. https://history.state.gov/countries/algeria#:~:text=Algeria%20under%20French%20Control%2C%201830,Algeria%2C%20Oran%2C%20and%20Constantine. “Anaheim Pays Last Respects to Park Superintendent Rudy Boysen.” Anaheim Gazette. Nov. 28, 1950. https://www.newspapers.com/image/866864789/?match=1&terms=rudy%20boysen “ANAHEIM WILL PLANT 4400 TREES IN CITY.” Los Angeles Times. January 22, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/380543208/?match=1&terms=%22rudolph%20boysen%22 Bartlett, Thomas Edward. “The Bartletts. Ancestral, genealogical, biographical, historical. Comprising an account of the American progenitors of the Bartle

This 2019 episode covers Hatshepsut, who sent a huge expedition to Punt in the 15th century B.C.E. The expedition to Punt is also an important and illustrative part of Hatshepsut’s reign.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Holly shares a theory on why Wanda Gág didn’t drink. There is also discussion of Gág’s medical issues and how they were handled by doctors.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After struggling to raise her siblings and start an art career, Wanda Gág’s life changed almost instantly with the publication of her first children’s book. Part two of her story looks at how her books sustained her financially so she could also make the art she wanted. Research: Anderson, Phil. "Gág, Wanda (1893–1946)." MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society. http://www.mnopedia.org/person/g-g-wanda-1893-1946 Cox, Richard W. “Wanda Gág The Bite of the Picture Book.“ Minnesota History. Fall 1975. https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-org-support/mn_history_articles/44/v44i07p238-254.pdf?__hstc=98931905.4376bcd11fc21fde4cdd335d087cb15e.1742826273001.1742826273001.1742826273001.1&__hssc=98931905.1.1742826273001&__hsfp=979038277 Cox, Richard, and Julie L’Enfant. “Old World Symphony.” Minnesota History. Spring 1996. https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-org-support/mn_history_articles/55/v55i01p002-015.pdf?__hstc=98931905.4376bcd11fc21fde4c

As an artist and writer Wanda Gág is well known for her children’s books. But this first of two parts about her life covers her own unusual childhood, which went from quirky fun to intense hardship when her father died. Research: Anderson, Phil. "Gág, Wanda (1893–1946)." MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society. http://www.mnopedia.org/person/g-g-wanda-1893-1946 Cox, Richard W. “Wanda Gág The Bite of the Picture Book.“ Minnesota History. Fall 1975. https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-org-support/mn_history_articles/44/v44i07p238-254.pdf?__hstc=98931905.4376bcd11fc21fde4cdd335d087cb15e.1742826273001.1742826273001.1742826273001.1&__hssc=98931905.1.1742826273001&__hsfp=979038277 Cox, Richard, and Julie L’Enfant. “Old World Symphony.” Minnesota History. Spring 1996. https://storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-org-support/mn_history_articles/55/v55i01p002-015.pdf?__hstc=98931905.4376bcd11fc21fde4cdd335d087cb15e.1742826273001.1742826273001.1742826273001.

This 2022 episode covers Theda Bara, often referenced as the first sex symbol. Photos of her are synonymous with the word vamp, and 100 years later, still have a certain mysterious appeal. But what was she really like?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tracy talks about how current events are causing disruptions in work on the podcast. She also discusses the way headlines often misrepresent alleged discoveries.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.