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Join Holly and Tracy as they bring you the greatest and strangest Stuff You Missed In History Class in this podcast by iHeartRadio.

Stuff You Missed in History Class

This 2020 episode covers the Public Universal Friend, who described themself as a genderless spirit sent by God to inhabit the resurrected body of a woman named Jemima Wilkinson. 

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SYMHC Classics: Public Universal Friend

Tracy and Holly talk about their recent podcast trip to Morocco with listeners, arranged by Defined Destinations.
 
 

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Behind the Scenes Minis: Morocco!

The second installment of our episode on Charles Sumner picks up in the wake of his controversial antiwar speech. He next argued a school integration case before the Massachusetts supreme judicial court.
 
Research:
 
 • "Sumner, Charles (1811-1874)." Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale, 1998. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A148425674/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=95485851. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
 • “Roberts v. City of Boston, 5 Cush. 198, 59 Mass. 198 (1849).” Caselaw Access Project. Harvard Law School. https://case.law/caselaw/?reporter=mass&volume=59&case=0198-01
 • “The Prayer of One Hundred Thousands.” https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/PrayerofOneHundredThousand.pdf
 • Alexander, Edward. “The Caning of Charles Sumner.” Battlefields.org. 3/6/2024. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/caning-charles-sumner
 • Beecher, Henry Ward. “Charles Sumner.” Advocate of Peace (1847-1884) , MAY, 1874. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27905613
 • Berry, Stephen and James Hill Welborn III. “The Cane of His Existence Depression, Damage, and the Brooks–Sumner Affair.” Southern Cultures , Vol. 20, No. 4 (WINTER 2014). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26217562
 • Boston African American National Historic Site. “Abiel Smith School.” https://www.nps.gov/boaf/learn/historyculture/abiel-smith-school.htm
 • Boston African American National Historic Site. “The Sarah Roberts Case.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-sarah-roberts-case.htm
 • Child, Lydia Maria. “Letters of Lydia Maria Child.” Houghton, Mifflin and Company. 1883. https://archive.org/details/lettersoflydiam00chil
 • Commonwealth Museum. “Roberts v. The City of Boston, 1849.” https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/commonwealth-museum/exhibits/online/freedoms-agenda/freedoms-agenda-8.htm
 • Frasure, Carl M. “Charles Sumner and the Rights of the Negro.” The Journal of Negro History , Apr., 1928, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Apr., 1928). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2713959
 • Gershon, Livia. “Political Divisions Led to Violence in the US Senate in 1856.” JSTOR Daily. 1/7/2021. https://daily.jstor.org/violence-in-the-senate-in-1856/
 • History, Art and Archives. “South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks’s Attack on Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts.” U.S. House of Representatives. https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/South-Carolina-Representative-Preston-Brooks-s-attack-on-Senator-Charles-Sumner-of-Massachusetts/
 • Longfellow House Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site. “An Era of Romantic Friendships: Sumner, Longfellow, and Howe.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/an-era-of-romantic-friendships-sumner-longfellow-and-howe.htm
 • Lyndsay Campbell; The “Abolition Riot” Redux: Voices, Processes. The New England Quarterly 2021; 94 (1): 7–46. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/tneq_a_00877
 • Mahr, Michael. “Sumner vs. Cane.” National Museum of Civil War Medicine. 5/24/2023. https://www.civilwarmed.org/sumner-vs-cane/
 • Meriwether, Robert L. “Preston S. Brooks on the Caning of Charles Sumner.” The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine , Jan., 1951, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Jan., 1951). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27571254
 • Mount Auburn Cemetery. “Charles Sumner (1811-1874): U.S. Senator, Abolitionist, & Orator.” https://mountauburn.org/notable-residents/charles-sumner-1811-1874/
 • National Park Service. “Charles Sumner and Romantic Friendships.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/charles-sumner-and-romantic-friendships.htm
 • Potenza, Bob. “Charles Sumner.” West End Museum. https://thewestendmuseum.org/history/era/west-boston/charles-sumner/
 • Ruchames, Louis. “Charles Sumner and American Historiography.” The Journal of Negro History , Apr., 1953, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Apr., 1953). https://www.jstor.org/stable/2715536
 • Senate Historical Office. “Senate Stories | Charles Sumner: After the Caning.” United States Senate. 5/4/2020. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/senate-stories/charles-sumner-after-the-caning.htm
 • Sinha, Manisha. “The Caning of Charles Sumner: Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War.” Journal of the Early Republic , Summer, 2003, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Summer, 2003). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3125037
 • Sumner, Charles. “Barbarism of Slavery.” 6/4/1860. https://dotcw.com/documents/barbarism_of_slavery.htm
 • Sumner, Charles. “Freedom National; Slavery Sectional.” 8/26/1852. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Freedom_National;_Slavery_Sectional
 • Sumner, Charles. “The equal rights of all.” Washington, Printed at the Congressional globe office. 1866. https://archive.org/details/equalrightsofall00sumn
 • Tameez, Zaakir. “Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation.” Henry Holt and Co. 2025.
 • United States Senate. "The Crime Against Kansas.” https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Crime_Against_Kansas.htm
 • United States Senate. “REPORT.” 5/28/1856. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/SumnerInvestigation1856.pdf
 • United States Senate. “The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner.” https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm
 • Various, “Southern Newspapers Praise the Attack on Charles Sumner,” SHEC: Resources for Teachers, accessed October 31, 2025, https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1548.
 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Charles Sumner, Revisited (part 2)

The first installment of the deeper examination of Charles Sumner's life begins with his early years, including his close relationships with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Samuel Gridley Howe.
 
Research:
 
 • "Sumner, Charles (1811-1874)." Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale, 1998. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A148425674/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=95485851. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
 • “Roberts v. City of Boston, 5 Cush. 198, 59 Mass. 198 (1849).” Caselaw Access Project. Harvard Law School. https://case.law/caselaw/?reporter=mass&volume=59&case=0198-01
 • “The Prayer of One Hundred Thousands.” https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/PrayerofOneHundredThousand.pdf
 • Alexander, Edward. “The Caning of Charles Sumner.” Battlefields.org. 3/6/2024. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/caning-charles-sumner
 • Beecher, Henry Ward. “Charles Sumner.” Advocate of Peace (1847-1884) , MAY, 1874. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27905613
 • Berry, Stephen and James Hill Welborn III. “The Cane of His Existence Depression, Damage, and the Brooks–Sumner Affair.” Southern Cultures , Vol. 20, No. 4 (WINTER 2014). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26217562
 • Boston African American National Historic Site. “Abiel Smith School.” https://www.nps.gov/boaf/learn/historyculture/abiel-smith-school.htm
 • Boston African American National Historic Site. “The Sarah Roberts Case.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-sarah-roberts-case.htm
 • Child, Lydia Maria. “Letters of Lydia Maria Child.” Houghton, Mifflin and Company. 1883. https://archive.org/details/lettersoflydiam00chil
 • Commonwealth Museum. “Roberts v. The City of Boston, 1849.” https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/commonwealth-museum/exhibits/online/freedoms-agenda/freedoms-agenda-8.htm
 • Frasure, Carl M. “Charles Sumner and the Rights of the Negro.” The Journal of Negro History , Apr., 1928, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Apr., 1928). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2713959
 • Gershon, Livia. “Political Divisions Led to Violence in the US Senate in 1856.” JSTOR Daily. 1/7/2021. https://daily.jstor.org/violence-in-the-senate-in-1856/
 • History, Art and Archives. “South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks’s Attack on Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts.” U.S. House of Representatives. https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/South-Carolina-Representative-Preston-Brooks-s-attack-on-Senator-Charles-Sumner-of-Massachusetts/
 • Longfellow House Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site. “An Era of Romantic Friendships: Sumner, Longfellow, and Howe.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/an-era-of-romantic-friendships-sumner-longfellow-and-howe.htm
 • Lyndsay Campbell; The “Abolition Riot” Redux: Voices, Processes. The New England Quarterly 2021; 94 (1): 7–46. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/tneq_a_00877
 • Mahr, Michael. “Sumner vs. Cane.” National Museum of Civil War Medicine. 5/24/2023. https://www.civilwarmed.org/sumner-vs-cane/
 • Meriwether, Robert L. “Preston S. Brooks on the Caning of Charles Sumner.” The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine , Jan., 1951, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Jan., 1951). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27571254
 • Mount Auburn Cemetery. “Charles Sumner (1811-1874): U.S. Senator, Abolitionist, & Orator.” https://mountauburn.org/notable-residents/charles-sumner-1811-1874/
 • National Park Service. “Charles Sumner and Romantic Friendships.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/charles-sumner-and-romantic-friendships.htm
 • Potenza, Bob. “Charles Sumner.” West End Museum. https://thewestendmuseum.org/history/era/west-boston/charles-sumner/
 • Ruchames, Louis. “Charles Sumner and American Historiography.” The Journal of Negro History , Apr., 1953, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Apr., 1953). https://www.jstor.org/stable/2715536
 • Senate Historical Office. “Senate Stories | Charles Sumner: After the Caning.” United States Senate. 5/4/2020. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/senate-stories/charles-sumner-after-the-caning.htm
 • Sinha, Manisha. “The Caning of Charles Sumner: Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War.” Journal of the Early Republic , Summer, 2003, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Summer, 2003). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3125037
 • Sumner, Charles. “Barbarism of Slavery.” 6/4/1860. https://dotcw.com/documents/barbarism_of_slavery.htm
 • Sumner, Charles. “Freedom National; Slavery Sectional.” 8/26/1852. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Freedom_National;_Slavery_Sectional
 • Sumner, Charles. “The equal rights of all.” Washington, Printed at the Congressional globe office. 1866. https://archive.org/details/equalrightsofall00sumn
 • Tameez, Zaakir. “Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation.” Henry Holt and Co. 2025.
 • United States Senate. "The Crime Against Kansas.” https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Crime_Against_Kansas.htm
 • United States Senate. “REPORT.” 5/28/1856. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/SumnerInvestigation1856.pdf
 • United States Senate. “The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner.” https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm
 • Various, “Southern Newspapers Praise the Attack on Charles Sumner,” SHEC: Resources for Teachers, accessed October 31, 2025, https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1548.
 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Charles Sumner, Revisited (part 1)

This 2019 episode covers Thomas Cook, a pioneer of the idea of a travel agency to manage tourist holidays. But Cook was initially motivated by his support of the temperance movement and his deeply held religious beliefs. 

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SYMHC Classics: Thomas Cook

Tracy and Holly talk about the proclivity for destruction that was part of the balloon craze. They also discuss cat trees and how hard it is to find one that's cute. 

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Behind the Scenes Minis: Balloons and Cat Trees

Cat litter, it could be argued, kicked off the pet products industry. After its invention in the 1940s, other inventors started to come up with products that today are standard in the homes of people with pets.
 
Research:
 
 • Caminiti, Kasey. “Inside the Secret Lives of Pets With Allen Simon.” DuJour. https://dujour.com/life/allen-simon-founder-wee-wee-pad-pet-products/
 • “Clays.” U.S. Geological Survey. https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2025/mcs2025-clays.pdf
 • Crow, Frank. L. “Cat Tree.” Nov. 25, 1969. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/65/fa/30/1290601d5476ab/US3479990.pdf
 • Edward Lowe Foundation. https://edwardlowe.org/
 • Gross, Daniel A. “How Kitty Litter went from happy accident to $2 billion industry.” Washington Post. Feb. 2, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/you-wont-believe-how-old-that-kitty-litter-is/2015/02/02/9ecac9ea-a1b4-11e4-903f-9f2faf7cd9fe_story.html
 • Holding, Ray. “Cassopolis Man Valet for 10,000 Cats.” The Kalamazoo Gazette. Sept. 4, 1955. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1145480706/?match=1&terms=Ed%20Lowe%20Kitty%20Litter
 • “Kitty Litter.” (ad) The Ann Arbor News. Feb. 16, 1955. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1178883937/?match=1&terms=Ed%20Lowe%20Kitty%20Litter
 • “Kitty Litter Maker Selling Operations.” The New York Times. Sept. 13, 1990. https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/13/business/company-news-kitty-litter-maker-selling-operations.html
 • “New Boon for Cat Owners.” Delaware County Daily Times. Nov. 16, 1949. https://www.newspapers.com/image/53207968/?match=1&terms=Ed%20Lowe%20Kitty%20Litter
 • “PetProducts.com | CEO Allen Simon & Kevin Yamano, VP Business Development | Innovators.” LilaMax Media. April 23, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsHhyEcz-pQ
 • Simon, Allen. “Allen Simon.” LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allen-simon-592115111/
 • Simon, Allen. “Dog Toy.” U.S. Patent Office. Dec. 16, 2008. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/40/31/65/61af50ca84b654/USD583113.pdf
 • Simon, Allen. “Scoop for Cat Littler.” U.S. Patent Office. Jan. 19, 1993. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/c2/f4/01/b378f00dd92e8c/USD332675.pdf
 • Simon, Allen. “Bristled Grooming Glove.” U.S. Patent Office. Jan. 28, 2014. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/b6/83/22/143c9b9392d608/USD698159.pdf
 • Thomas, Robert Mcg., Jr. “Edward Lowe Dies at 75; a Hunch Led Him to Create Kitty Litter.” New York Times. Oct. 6, 1995. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/06/us/edward-lowe-dies-at-75-a-hunch-led-him-to-create-kitty-litter.html
 • United Press International. “Ed Lowe Owes His Fortune to Kitty Litter.” L.A. Times Archive. June 16, 1985. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-06-16-sp-2907-story.html
 • “U.S. pet ownership statistics.” American Veterinary Medical Association. 2024. https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/reports-statistics/us-pet-ownership-statistics
 
 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Inventions for Pets

Ballooning became a huge fad starting in the late 18th century, and there was a surprising amount of rioting associated with it. Fervor, excitement, and intoxication in some instances, meant that balloon events were prone to get out of control.
 
Research:
 
 • Bond, Elizabeth Andrews. “Popular Science and Public Participation.” From The Writing Public: Participatory Knowledge Production in Enlightenment and Revolutionary France. Cornell University Press. 2021. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv310vktg.8
 • Branson, Susan. “Scientific Americans.” Cornell University Press, 2022. Cornell University Press, 2022.
 • Coxwell, Henry Tracey. “My Life and Balloon Experiences.” W.H. Allen. 1889. https://archive.org/details/mylifeandballoo02coxwgoog/
 • Daily National Intelligencer. “The Balloon, and Conflagration of Vauxhall.” 9/14/1819. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83026172/1819-09-14/ed-1/?sp=2&q=vauxhall&r=0.48,-0.027,0.621,0.225,0
 • Franklin, Benjamin. “Benjamin Franklin to Ingenhousz, 16 January 1784.” https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-41-02-0310#BNFN-01-41-02-0310-fn-0005
 • “Hot-Air Balloon: Jean-François Janinet (1752–1814).” https://www.getty.edu/publications/artists-things/things/hot-air-balloon/#fnref8
 • Gillespie, Richard. “Ballooning in France and Britain, 1783-1786: Aerostation and Adventurism.” Isis, Vol. 75, No. 2 (June, 1984). https://www.jstor.org/stable/231824
 • Glaisher, James. “Travels in the Air.” R. Bentley. 1871. https://archive.org/details/ldpd_7245144_000
 • Holman, Brett. “The Melbourne balloon riot of 1858.” Airminded. 3/23/2017. https://airminded.org/2017/03/23/the-melbourne-balloon-riot-of-1858/
 • Jackson, Joseph. “Vauxhall Garden.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. LVII. No. 4. 1933.
 • Keen, Paul. “The ‘Balloonomania’: Science and Spectacle in 1780s England.” Eighteenth-Century Studies , Summer, 2006, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Summer, 2006). https://www.jstor.org/stable/30053707
 • Magazine Monitor. “Victorian Strangeness: The great balloon riot of 1864.” BBC. 8/9/2014. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-28674654
 • Robbins, John. “Up in the Air: Balloonomania and Scientific Performance.” Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 48, No. 4, Special Issue: Performance. Summer 2015. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24690309
 • Robson, David. “The Victorians who flew as high as jumbo jets.” BBC. 4/20/2016. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160419-the-victorians-who-flew-as-high-as-jets
 • Smith, Zoe. “Disaster at 37,000 feet.” University of Cambridge. https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/balloon-disaster
 • Soth, Amelia. “Hot Air Balloon Launch Riot!” JSTOR Daily. 2/3/2022. https://daily.jstor.org/hot-air-balloon-launch-riot/
 • Sparrow, Jeff. “Wrath and awe: a short history of balloons and their power to fire up mob fury.” The Guardian. 2/14/2023. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/15/wrath-and-awe-a-short-history-of-balloons-and-their-power-to-fire-up-mob-fury
 • Sydney Morning Herald. “The Balloon Riot in the Domain: Death of Thomas Downs.” 12/19/1856. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/12990254
 • Sydney Morning Herald. “The Sydney Balloon.” Trove. 12/16/1856. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/12990120
 • The Rhode-Island American. “Riotous Proceedigns.” 9/14/1819. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83025442/1819-09-14/ed-1/?sp=3&q=vauxhall&r=-0.14,1.265,0.686,0.248,0
 • Tucker, Jennifer. “Voyages of Discovery on Oceans of Air: Scientific Observation and the Image of Science in an Age of ‘Balloonacy.’” Osiris, 1996, Vol. 11, Science in the Field (1996). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/301930
 • Wroth, Warwick. “Cremorne and the Later London Gardens.” London. Elliot Stock. 1907.
 
 

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Balloon Riots

This 2018 episode covers the period in the late 1820s when north Georgia became the site of a gold rush that predated the California gold rush by two decades. It's also tied to some of the darkest parts of U.S. history regarding the treatment of Native Americans. 

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SYMHC Classics: Georgia Gold Rush

Tracy shares the surprising benefit of not having access to a lot of specifics regarding the work of Mary Golda Ross. Holly talks about Marjorie Merriwether Post being a serial monogamist.

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SYMHC Classics: Thomas Cook

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