Podcast
Unsung History
Hosted by Kelly Therese Pollock · EN
A podcast about people and events in American history you may not know much about. Yet.
17episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
An American History of Purses
2d ago00:40:10Summary readyToday the US handbag market is estimated to be nearly $12 billion, with most of the purchasing done by women, but into the early 20th Century purses hadn’t yet become the nearly-exclusive domain of women. The integration of pockets into men’s clothing, and the marketing push of toiletry items to women in the 1920s and 1930s drove this differentiated market development. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Kathleen B. Casey, Professor of History and Director of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Furman University and author of The Things She Carried: A Cultural History of the Purse in America.Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag,” composed by Felix Powell with lyrics by George Asaf” and recorded in Camden, New Jersey, on December 22, 1916; the performance is in the public domain and is available via the LIbrary of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is “Shoppers. Amsterdam, New York,” photographed by John Collier, Jr.; the photograph was taken in October 1941, and is available in the public domain via the Library of Congress.Related Episodes:Fashion, Feminism, and the New Woman of the late 19th CenturyFrench Fashion in Gilded Age AmericaAmelia BloomerThe Women who Entered the Federal Workforce during the Civil War EraThe History of Blue JeansEricka Huggins & the Black Panther PartyThe 1966 Compton's Cafeteria RiotAlice Roosevelt LongworthAdditional Sources:“Ötzi the Iceman: Examining New Evidence from the Famous Copper Age Mummy,” by: M. Vidale, L. Bondioli, D.W. Frayer, M. Gallinaro and A. Vanzetti, Penn Museum Expedition Magazine, Volume 58 / Number 2, 2016.“MALE ATTIRE.; Charlotte P. Gilman Inveighs Against It but Finds Redeeming Features.” From The Independent, New York Times, March 5, 1905.“What you may not know about the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire,” by Peter Liebhold, National Museum of American History, September 5, 2018.“The Surprising Origins of Kotex Pads,” by Kat Eschner, Smithsonian Magazine, Originally published August 11, 2017, and updated November 9, 2018.“Handbag Market (2026 - 2033),” Grand View Research, GVR Clothing, Footwear & Accessories Research Team, April 2026 Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
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The Lady Bird Special
2w ago00:41:16Summary readyOn the morning of Tuesday, October 6, 1964, the Lady Bird Special, a 19-car train carrying First Lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, her supporters, members of the press, and a security detail, departed Union Station in Washington, DC, for an ambitious 1,682-mile whistle-stop campaign tour of Southern States. In four days, Lady Bird gave 47 speeches to over 200,000 people, demonstrating that despite the growing resentment of white Southern Democrats to President Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, neither LBJ nor Lady Bird were giving up on the South. Joining me in this episode is returning guest Shannon McKenna Schmidt, author of You Can't Catch Us: Lady Bird Johnson's Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train and the Women Who Rode with Her.Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode audio is “Lady Bird's Whistle Stop: Ahoskie, NC: 10/6/64, 4:22 PM,” from the LBJ Library; the audio is in the public domain. The episode image is Lady Bird Johnson posing with group of women aboard the Lady Bird Special, LBJ Library photo by Unknown #33317.Related Episodes:The Southern StrategyThe 1968 White House Fashion ShowThe 1968 Democratic National Convention in ChicagoThe Student Right in the late 1960sAdditional Sources:“Claudia 'Lady Bird' Johnson, 1912-2007,” Edited by Arlisha R. Norwood, National Women’s History Museum.“Obituary: Lady Bird Johnson, 94, former U.S. first lady,” by Enid Nemy, The New York Times, July 12, 2007.“The filibuster that almost killed the Civil Rights Act,” by NCC Staff, National Constitution Center, April 11, 2016.“‘We may have lost the south’: what LBJ really said about Democrats in 1964,” by Charles Kaiser, The Guardian, January 23, 2023.“Lady Bird Special: The first First Lady to hit the campaign trail without her husband,” by Meredith Hindley, HUMANITIES: The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities, May/June 2013, Volume 34, Number 3.“Mapping Lady Bird Johnson's Whistle-Stop Tour,” by Katie Peter, The White House Historical Association, August 18, 2023. “Lady Bird Johnson, At the Epicenter, 1963, 1965, The Whistle-Stop Tour (section III),” PBS.“50th Anniversary of Lady Bird Johnson’s 1964 Whistle Stop Tour of the South,” LBJ Library, October 1, 2014.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
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Policing Slavery & Black Rebellion in the American South
May 400:50:30Summary readyEnslaved Africans were forcibly shipped to Virginia starting in 1619 in response to a severe labor shortage. From the beginning, enslaved laborers resisted by fleeing and through violence, and white enslavers reacted by creating a racialized system of brutal policing, granting themselves authority based on skin color and a sense of superiority. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Gautham Rao, Associate Professor of History at American University in Washington, D.C., and author of White Power: Policing American Slavery.Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Good News,” performed by Tuskegee Institute Singers on August 31, 1914; the audio is in the public domain and is available through the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is “The Effects of the Proclamation,” Harper's Weekly. Vol. 7, no. 321. February 21, 1863. p. 116; the image is in the public domain and is available via Wikimedia Commons. Additional Sources:Proceedings and Acts of the [Maryland] General Assembly January 1637/8-September 1664, Volume 1, Page 107.Proceedings and Acts of the [Maryland] General Assembly, April 1666-June 1676, Volume 2, Page 224. “An act for preventing Negroes Insurrections” (1680),” Virginia General Assembly, " Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, December 7, 2020.“The Stono Rebellion of 1739: Where Did It Begin?” by Nic Butler, Charleston County Public Library, September 9, 2022.“South Carolina Slave Code (1740),” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. “The Emancipation Proclamation,” The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. “Thirteenth Amendment,” Constitution of the United States, Constitution Annotated, United States Congress.“On this day - Feb 24, 1865: Kentucky Refuses to Ratify Abolition of Slavery,” A History of Racial Injustice, Equal Justice Initiative.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
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The Frontier Myth and the People of the Western United States
Apr 2000:53:11Summary readyIn 1893, historian Frederick Jackson Turner advanced his now-famous Frontier Theory, arguing that the American identity was forged through the process of exploring and adapting to new environments in the frontier west. Key to both Turner’s theory and the myth of the frontier that pre-dated it was the idea that brave white American men conquered a previously empty land through their grit in a relentless march west, but the land was populated long before white Americans arrived, and the people who lived, explored, and settled there were a far more diverse population than the myth acknowledges. Joining me in this episode is returning guest Dr. Megan Kate Nelson, author of The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier.Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “The west, a nest and you,” composed by Billy Hill with lyrics by Larry Yoell and sung by Lewis James on November 16, 1923, in Camden, New Jersey; the performance is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is the American Progress, painted by John Gast in 1872; the image is in the public domain and is available via Wikimedia Commons.Additional Sources:“Brief History of the AHA,” American Historical Association.“Significance of the Frontier in American History (1893),” by Frederick Jackson Turner, The American Yawp Reader.“How the Myth of the American Frontier Got Its Start,” by Colin Woodard, Smithsonian Magazine, January/February 2023.“Sacagawea, c. 1788 - c. 1812/1884?” by Teresa Potter and Mariana Brandman, National Women’s History Museum.“Sacagawea: Intrepid Indigenous Explorer [video],” The New York Historical.“Lewis & Clark Expedition,” National Archives.“Indian Treaties and the Removal Act of 1830,” Office of the Historian, United States Department of State.“Indian Territory,” Library of Congress.“Indian Territory,” by Dianna Everett, The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, January 15, 2010.“Cheyenne Sanctuary: The Northern Cheyennes’ Exodus, Mari Sandoz, and Lost Chokecherry Lake,” by Emily Levine, The Nebraska Sandhills, October 23, 2024.Northern Cheyenne Tribe.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
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Magnus Hirschfeld, Dora Richter, and the Institute for Sexual Science in Weimar Germany
Apr 600:44:47Summary readyIn the Weimar Republic, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld opened the Institute for Sexual Science and advocated for the repeal of legislation that criminalized sexual relations between men. At the Institute, pioneering gender-affirming surgeries were performed, and it was there that Dora Richter became the first known trans woman to undergo comprehensive male-to-female gender-affirming surgeries. But when the Nazis came to power, they labeled Hirschfeld an enemy of the state and destroyed the Institute’s immense library. Joining me in this episode is historian and novelist Dr. Brandy Schillace, author of The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story.Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is Kleine Kammermusik, composed by Paul Hindemith and performed in February 1992 by the Soni Ventorum Woodwind Quintet; the recording is available by Creative Commons license and is available via Wikimedia Commons.The episode image is a portrait of Magnus Hirschfeld from 1928; the picture is in the public domain and is available via Wikimedia Commons.Additional Sources:“The Forgotten History of the World's First Trans Clinic,” by Brandy Schillace, Scientific American, Mary 10, 2021.“The first Institute for Sexual Science (1919-1933),” The Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft e.V.“Magnus Hirschfeld and the Institute for Sexual Science,” by Gabrielle Bryan-Quamina, Science Museum, London, February 29, 2024.“Dora Richter (1892–1966),” Lili Elbe Library.“The Weimar Republic,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.“Hitler: Essential Background Information,” University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences.“How Did Adolf Hitler Happen?” National World War II Museum.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
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The Feliciana Parishes of Louisiana
Mar 2300:44:38Summary readyFor 74 days in 1810 the current-day parishes of East and West Feliciana in New Orleans were part of the independent Republic of West Florida, which flew a lone star flag. By that point the residents of the Felicianas, including a large enslaved population, living on land that had been stolen from indigenous people, had been part of three different empires. The republic ended with the parishes annexed into yet another country, the United States, though fifty years later they would be part of still another attempted breakaway republic, the Confederate States of America. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Rashauna Johnson, Associate Professor of History at the University of Chicago and author of Sweet Home Feliciana: Family, Slavery, and the Hauntings of History.Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Louisiana,” composed by Oliver Wallace with Lyrics by Arthur Freed and performed by the Sterling Trio on December 27, 1920, in Camden, New Jersey; the recording is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is a lithograph believed to be of drawings that artist Lewis Henry made on the Mississippi River around 1846-1848 with Bayou Sara in the foreground and St. Francisville on the bluff in the background; the lithograph was published in 1857 and is in the public domain in the United States and available via Wikimedia Commons.Additional Sources:“Native Americans: the First Families of Louisiana on the Eve of French Settlement (Online Exhibition),” Louisiana State Museums.“Louisiana Purchase Treaty (1803),” The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.“West Florida Revolt,” by Samuel C. Hyde, 64 Parishes.“The History of the Short-Lived Independent Republic of Florida,” by William C. Davis, Smithsonian Magazine, May 2013.“The West Florida Republic,” by Anne Butler West Feliciana Historical Society and Museum.“The Siege of Port Hudson: ‘Forty Days and Nights in the Wilderness of Death’ (Teaching with Historic Places),” National Park Service.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
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The Academy Awards
Mar 900:47:36Summary readyWhen the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was formed in 1927 one of the goals of the founders was to recognize achievements in the industry. That recognition quickly took the form of annual awards banquets, with the first one hosted in 1929. Over time the format shifted from banquet to the Oscars telecast we all know today, as the categories and even membership of the Academy adapted to the shifts in filmmaking. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Monica Sandler, a film and media historian at Ball State University, whose forthcoming book is The Oscar Industry: Creative Labor, Cultural Production, and the Awards System in Media Industry.Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “He’s working in the movies now,” composed by Henry Lodge, with lyrics by Harry Williams and Vincent Bryan; the song was performed by Billy Murray on February 27, 1914, in Camden, New Jersey; it’s in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is of Grace Kelly and Marlon Brando at the Academy Awards on March 30, 1955, published in the Los Angeles Times on March 31, 1955; the copyright is held by the UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections, and this work is licensed under a "Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 International" .Sources:“Experience over nine decades of the Oscars from 1927 to 2026,” Oscars.org.“Why Are the Academy Awards Called ‘Oscars’?” by Elizabeth Nix, History.com, January 22, 2026.“The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences [Pamphlet],” June 20, 1927, Available via the Margaret Herrick Library Digital Collections.“The Academy Awards Scandal That First Got PwC Its Job Counting Oscars Votes,” by Olivia B. Waxman, Time Magazine, March 2, 2018.“How Television Changed the Oscars,” by Lily Rothman, Time Magazine, February 22, 2015.““TV – That’s Where Movies Go When They Die”: Rewatching the First Televised Oscars,” by Thomas Doherty, The Hollywood Reporter, March 26, 2022.“What Determines Whether a Performance Is Lead or Supporting? Oscar Rules Explained,” by Eliza Thompson, US Weekly, March 7, 2024.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
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Slavery and the Complicated Legacy of George Washington
Feb 2200:46:17Summary readyGeorge Washington privately condemned slavery while actively holding hundreds of people in enslavement. He championed gradual emancipation plans while scheming to keep the people he enslaved from accessing them. He ruthlessly pursued a woman who escaped his enslavement and then emancipated the slaves he owned outright in his will. Washington’s complicated and contradictory legacy around slavery has been debated by Americans since his death. Joining us to discuss is Dr. John Garrison Marks, the Vice President of Research and Engagement at the American Association for State and Local History and author of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory.Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The episode music is “I think we’ve got another Washington,” composed by George Fairman and performed by the Peerless Quartet on October 32, 2015, in New York City; the recording is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox.The episode image is “Washington at Mount Vernon plantation, 1797,” lithographed and published by Nathaniel Currier in 1852; the image is in the public domain and is available via Wikimedia Commons.Additional Sources:Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge, by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, 37 Ink, 2015.“The Enslaved Household of President George Washington,” by Lindsay M. Chervinsky, White House Historical Association, September 6, 2019.“George Washington on the abolition of slavery, 1786,A Spotlight on a Primary Source by George Washington,”Gilder Lehrman Institute.“George Washington’s Last Will and Testament, 9 July 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives. “Forgotten No Longer: Archaeology of the Slave Memorial & African American Burial Ground at George Washington's Mount Vernon,” by Joe A. Downer, Archaeological Field Research Manager, George Washington's Mount Vernon.“People Enslaved at Monticello Who Gained Their Freedom,“ Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.“Trump administration ordered to restore George Washington slavery exhibit it removed in Philadelphia,” by Hannah Schoenbaum, AP News, February 16, 2026.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
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Black History Month
Feb 900:46:51Summary readyOne hundred years ago, Dr. Carter G. Woodson created and launched the inaugural Negro History Week after his professors told him that Black people didn’t have a history worth studying. Negro History Week built on the success of Douglass Day and quickly spread through Black communities in the United States. Fifty years later, at the urging of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, President Gerald Ford called for Americans to celebrate Black History Month, which was finally ordered by Presidential Proclamation in 1986. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Jarvis Givens, Professor of Education and African and African American Studies at Harvard University and author of I'll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month.Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode audio is “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” with lyrics by James Weldon Johnson and music by Jon Rosamond Johnson; this public domain performance is by the United States Army Field Band and the 82nd Airborne Chorus and features Staff Sgt. Kyra Dorn. The episode image is a portrait of Carter G. Woodson taken on 19 December 1915 by Addison Norton Scurlock; the image is in the public domain and is available via Wikimedia Commons.Additional Sources:“The Origins of Douglass Day,” by Jennifer Morris, Smithsonian Digital Volunteers, February 14, 2023.“The story behind the Frederick Douglass birthday celebration,” by Scott Bomboy, National Constitution Center, February 14, 2024.“Black History Month: A Commemorative Observances Legal Research Guide,” Library of Congress.“The Origins of Black History Month,” by Daryl Michael Scott, The Association for the Study of African American Life and History. “Here's the story behind Black History Month — and why it's celebrated in February,” by Jonathan Franklin, NPR, February 2, 2022.“W. E. B. Du Bois and Black History Month,” by Phillip Luke Sinitiere, Black Perspectives, February 18, 2016.“Message on the Observance of Black History Month, February 1976,” by Gerald Ford, February 10, 1976.“Proclamation 5443—National Black (Afro-American) History Month, 1986,” by Ronald Reagan, February 24, 1986.“Proclamation: National Black History Month, 2026,” by Donald Trump, February 3, 2026.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
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Reed Peggram
Jan 2600:40:40Summary readyReed Peggram, born in Boston in 1914, a gay Black man in a world that put up barriers to his success, excelled at Harvard before heading to a Europe on the brink of war. In Europe he fell in love with a Danist artist, and despite pleas from everyone in his life and from the US government to leave the war-torn continent, Reed refused to depart without Arne, leading to his imprisonment in an Italian concentration camp. Even then, Reed overcame the barriers in his way, escaping with Arne and surviving until they were rescued by the US Army. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Ethelene Whitmire, Professor of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and author of The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram: The Man Who Stared Down World War II in the Name of Love.Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode audio is “Do it Again!” composed by George Gershwin and performed by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra; the piece, which is in the public domain, was recorded on March 28, 1922 in New York, and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is a 1935 photograph of Reed Peggram retrieved from Reed Peggram's Harvard student records in the Harvard University archives; it is in the public domain and available via Wikimedia Commons.Additional source:“Unpacking Reed Peggram’s Library,” by Ethelene Whitmire, Journal of Cultural Analytics, vol. 9, no. 2, May 2024.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
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