190 years ago, Bostonians awoke to an unexpected light in the sky before dawn on November 13, 1833. Some began their morning routines, thinking the sun had risen, a few dashed outside to douse the fire they expected to see consuming a neighbor’s house, and some simply looked out the window in curiosity. When they looked up to the heavens, they saw an unparalleled celestial spectacle. A meteor shower of unprecedented intensity erupted in the night sky, filling it with tens of thousands of shooting stars per hour, which observers said fell as thickly as snowflakes in a winter storm. Star Wars fans might picture the Eye of Aldhani from episode 6 of Andor, a spectacular feat of special effects that allowed the protagonists to make their escape from the empire during a meteor shower that lit up the sky. The real 1833 meteor shower was no less spectacular. The event, which came to be known as the Leonid meteor storm, was one of the most remarkable astronomical events in recorded history, both because of its breathtaking beauty and its importance to the development of science.
Tag: 19th Century
Disrupting Time: Industrial Combat, Espionage, and the Downfall of a Great American Company, with Aaron Stark (episode 284)
This week, Aaron Stark joins the show to discuss his new book Disrupting Time: Industrial Combat, Espionage, and the Downfall of a Great American Company, which chronicles an attempt by a foreign power to infiltrate, emulate, and eventually annihilate a great American company.Ā In the late 19th century, watches were at the forefront of technological innovation, and the Waltham Watch Company made some of the finest watches in the world.Ā Unlike their Swiss competitors, whose products were fancy, handcrafted works of art, the Watham company specialized in mass produced, affordable, and reliable watches for the masses.Ā At an 1876 Worldās Fair, they announced their arrival on the worldās stage, and the world took notice.Ā The Swiss, in particular, took notice, and they took it by sending spies to steal the secrets of Walthamās success.
The Lioness of Boston, with Emily Franklin (episode 283)
Isabella Stewart Gardner was a consummate collector, generous philanthropist, and rabid Red Sox fan.Ā Today, sheās best known as the namesake of an art museum in Bostonās Fenway neighborhood (and if weāre being honest, the museum is probably best known for a famous 1990 heist).Ā This week, Jake interviews author Emily Franklin, whose new novel The Lioness of Boston explores the person behind the Gardner fortune.Ā They discuss the great romance, tragedy, and scandal of Isabellaās life, the different personas she tried on throughout different eras of her life, and her obsession with the idea of a legacy.Ā Emily will tell us why Boston at first turned up its nose at wealthy young Isabella, but later came to embrace the flamboyant and eccentric Mrs Jack as one of our most colorful and generous characters. Emily will also describe what makes historical fiction different from biography, and the freedom and limitations that the genre brings.Ā Ā
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Bostonians on the Pacific (episode 280)
This week, enjoy three classic stories about Bostonians and their adventures on the Pacific Ocean.Ā First, weāll hear about the voyages of the Columbia to the Pacific Northwest starting in 1787, then weāll move on to the Congregational missionaries who descended on Hawaii in 1823, and finally, weāll talk about the Boston whaler who brought the industrial revolution to Spanish California.Ā While you’re listening to these three classic stories, see if you can figure out what Iām working on that would involve a Brookline native on a small boat in the Solomon Islands in August 1943!
The Lost Viking City on the Charles (episode 275)
If you walk down Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, you might notice a small stone marker that states, āon this spot in the year 1000, Leif Erikson built his house in Vineland.āĀ You might be surprised to learn that Leif Erikson had a house in Cambridge, and if so, youāll be even more surprised to learn that the lower Charles River was the seat of a thriving Norse city around the turn of the first millennium.Ā Learn about Harvard professor Eben Norton Horsford’s theory that the legendary Viking city of Norumbega was situated along the Charles River in this week’s podcast!
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When Boston Brought Baseball to Britain (episode 273)
Spring in Boston means baseball, and this week we’re talking about the time in 1874 when the Boston Red Stockings tried to bring Americaās national pastime to Britain.Ā 120 years before the World Baseball Classic, Bostonās biggest baseball promoter did his level best to get the cricket fans in ājolly oldā hooked on his gameā¦ and the fact that he could sell them all the mitts, bats, and gloves they would need was just a happy accident, Iām sure.Ā Red Stockings pitcher and future sporting goods magnate Al Spalding led the team on the World Baseball Tour, but would they be able to convert English strikers to batters and bowlers to pitchers?Ā And for the team, would their nearly two month long diversion mean the end of their pennant race for 1874?Ā Ā
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The Court Street Mutiny (episode 271)
On April 9, 1863, a shooting was carried out in a basement just off of Court Street, behind Bostonās Old City Hall.Ā The gunman was a Union cavalry officer, who belonged to one of Brahmin Bostonās most wealthy families.Ā The victim was a new Irish American recruit in his brigade.Ā The shooting would result in accusations of cowardice and an execution, but was either justified?
The Gettysburg Cyclorama: Mystery of the South End (episode 270)
Starting in 1884, audiences of veterans, schoolchildren, and everyday Bostonians streamed into a cavernous, castle-like building on Tremont Street in the South End to witness the closest thing to virtual reality that existed at the time.Ā The building still exists, though a series of renovations have rendered it much more ordinary and less palatial than it was back then.Ā The painting still exists too, and it still offers an immersive experience for visitors that blends reality and art, but not in Boston anymore.Ā The building was known as the Cyclorama, and it was purpose built to hold the painting, which was also known as the cyclorama, one of the most audacious artistic endeavors of the 19th century.Ā Together, they commemorated the turning point of the bloody Civil War that had ended two decades earlier.Ā Ā
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Annie’s Restaurant (episode 269)
Annie L. Burton was an entrepreneur and restaurateur, who moved to Boston as a young woman after spending her childhood enslaved on an Alabama plantation.Ā Annie spent decades as a domestic servant, first in the south, and then in the north, in Newton, the South End, Wellesley, Jamaica Plain, and other neighborhoods in and around Boston.Ā For most Black women in the years and decades after emancipation, cooking, cleaning, raising children, and washing and ironing for white families were among the only opportunities available for paid work, making Annieās experience utterly typical.Ā Two things make her life unique: her decision to bet on herself and open a series of restaurants, first in Florida, then in Park Square in Boston, and then in a number of New England resort towns; and her decision, just after the turn of the 20th century, to put pen to page and write her story down and publish it, preserving the details of her life in a way that wasnāt available to most of her peers.
Joseph Lee and his Bread Machines (episode 268)
Joseph Lee was a hotelier, caterer, and one of the richest men in his adopted hometown of Newton.Ā By the time of his death in 1908, Lee had worked as a servant, a baker, and for the National Coast Survey; he had worked on ships, in hotels, and at amusement parks.Ā He had earned a vast fortune in hotels, lost most of it, and earned another one through his patented inventions that helped change the way Americans eat.Ā He had entertained English nobles and American presidents.Ā And he had raised three daughters and one son, who was a star Ivy League tackle before graduating from Harvard.Ā If you make bread at home, or meatballs, or fried chicken, or casserole, you are the beneficiary of the technology Joseph Lee developed.Ā That would be a remarkable life for anyone, but Joseph Lee was enslaved in South Carolina until he was about 15 years old, making his accomplishments even more remarkable.
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