All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

From the Silver Streak to Baby Nukes

BBB:LHWS 060    Edward G. Budd and Rupen Eksergian... ...were design and structural engineers who forced the Age of Steam into the Modern Era with their iconic Silver Ze

Thomas E. Murphy: A Piece of the 1930s Phillies

ABC:LHS 090-5     Thomas E. Murphy ... ... knew virtually nothing about baseball, but found himself owning hundreds of shares of the Phillies during their horrible years

OPTIONAL: What's in a (Nick)Name: Casual Othering in Baseball Nicknames

ABC:LHS #090-6    Many early baseball players ... ... were given nicknames that would never be tolerated today. We can never know how these players felt about being sadd

Joseph Howard Berry, Jr.: Penn's Greatest Athlete with a Problematic Nickname

ABC:LHS #90-4    Joseph Howard Berry, Jr. .... ...excelled at baseball, football, track and field, and life. He is in two Halls of Fame. He is little remembered today, p

Frank Bettger: A Successful Failure

ABC:LHS 090-3    Frank Bettger... (by guest host Rich Wilhelm) ...was a mediocre infielder for the Cardinals who blew out his shoulder and took to selling insurance, at

Frank Fleer Goes Pink

ABC:LHS #090-2    Frank Fleer... ...did not invent the gum that today carries his name, but his name has become synonymous with the pink chewy glob coveted by children o

Francis Richter: Voice for Baseball

ABC:LHS #090-1     Francis Richter ... ...was a sportswriter who championed the new game through his newspaper work and the ubiquitous weekly Sporting Life, which was an

Play Ball!, Part 4: The Deep Bench – Oddballs, Owners, and Also-Rans

ABC:LHS #090    We start with three ballpark Franks... ...Francis Richter, whose writing helped to make the game respectable; he is in the Baseball Hall of Hame. ...Fra

Jáni Szántó: Violins, Exile, and Hope

BBB 059, part 3    Jáni Szántó... ...was a masterful violinist and instructor who escaped the Nazis with the help of Pope Pius XII and settled in Philadelphia as instruc

Wilhelm von Wymetal: Opera for Everyone

BBB:LHWS 059-2    Wilhelm von Wymetal ... ... was an Austrian emigree with a dueling scar who took his expertise with opera to Hollywood, where he directed stars like Ne

Oscar “Papa” Schwar: Kettledrum Virtuoso

BBB:LHWS 059-1    Oscar "Papa" Schwar ... ... was a German timpanist whom Leopold Stokowski praised as the best in the business. His rumblings and poundings on kettle dr

Saving Music from the Nazis

BBB:LHWS 059    An estimated 1500 musicians ... ...fled central Europe's political turmoil in the 1930s and 1940s.  Tympani player Oscar “Papa” Schwar came from Germany

OPTIONAL COUNTERFACTUAL: USA without Slavery & Immigration

ABC:LHS #089-6 OPTIONAL COUNTERFACTUAL... ...history of the United States when I asked CoPilot to create a country that abolished slavery at its beginning and then limit

The 1851 Christiana Riots and Laurel Hill

ABC:LHS 089-5   In 1851, Lancaster County ... ... had become home to many self-emancipated formerly enslaved people. When slave hunters showed up to reclaim their "prope

Robert Ralston Stewart and His Broken Urn

ABC:LHS 089-4 Robert Stewart Ralston... ...was attacked and severely wounded by his servant who had been his enslaved valet. The result was destruction of Black neighbor

Stephen Duncan: Owning 2200 Human Beings

ABC:LHS 089-3 Stephen Duncan... ...was a Pennsylvanian who became a Natchez planter. Over a 50-year career, he accumulated tens of thousands of acres of land and more th

Germany, Slavery, and John Bohlen

ABC:LHS 089-2   John Bohlen... ...and his brother Bohl made a world for themselves in the colonies as merchants whose offerings including liquor and people. German-speak

Slavery in Colonial Philadelphia

ABC:LHS 089-1   More than 1500 enslaved people... ...lived in Philadelphia at the time the colonies declared their independence from England. Enslaved people shared the

Slavery and Laurel Hill

ABC:LHS #089    ...slavery was an essential part of the colonial economy. The enslaved people of President George Washington have been in the news recently. John and Bo

Seo Jae-Pil, aka Philip Jaisohn, MD: The Room Where It Happened

BBB:LHWS #058 Seo Jae-pil, aka Philip Jaisohn... ...was the first Korean to become a US citizen, but he never gave up on his lifelong dream to return Korea to its own in