People Hidden In History

Flora MacDonald (1722-1790) played a role in two different revolutions, first in Scotland and later in North Carolina during the Revolutionary War. She was most famously known for hiding Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) to avoid being captured by government troops after the Battle of Culloden (1746), and of course putting her own life at risk. And later, she and her husband, through the offer of land in North Carolina, arrived just before the Revolutionary War commenced, and were on the British side. You will also learn of the change in the Scottish Clan system,  and how that impacted her life and prompted the family to leave Scotland. But through all of these adventures, she shines as an amazing woman and a fierce supporter of various causes.

About Jim Ambuske, Ph.D.:  Is a Historian and Senior Producer at R2 Studios, the podcast division of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. Ambuske received his doctorate from the University of Virginia in 2016, with his expertise in the American Revolution, Scotland, and the British Atlantic World,  Prior to joining R2 Studios, Ambuske worked at the Center for Digital History at the Washington Library at George Washington's Mount Vernon. He also was a Horatio and Florence Farmer Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities (Univ. of Virginia Law Library). He is currently working on a book about emigration from Scotland in the era of the American Revolution. Follow him on Twitter @jamespambuske and learn more at www.jamespambuske.com

People Hidden in History information:
Website: https://peoplehiddeninhistory.com
Direct link
Basic Website with all Episodes/All Platforms
Twitter/Instagram: @phihpod
Mastodon: @[email protected]

See photo of Flora MacDonald's tea set at this link.

NOTE: The character of Flora MacDonald appears in the Outlander Series, Season 6, Episode 5.

Photo credit: Artist: Allan Ramsay, Image from Wikimedia Commons, public domain. 

The history of slavery in New England is not well known, but did exist. And while the colonies were rebelling against England and wanting "their" freedom, many New England households had enslaved peoples. In one such household, in western part of the Massachusetts colony,  there lived Elizabeth Freeman as a slave.  She had already been enslaved in that household there for many years, and as with the unrest and coming rebellion against England, the men in her town - drafted their own "freedom declaration'', which Elizabeth overheard the content.  She rightly decides - I also have a right to my freedom. You will hear her amazing story, from Lori Davis, who had done much research on Freeman. Lori describes her quest for freedom, through legal means, and the amazing result of getting her freedom.

About Lori Davis: She is a legal editor by day and a history enthusiast by night. Her podcast Her Half of History covers women’s history in short episodes organized around a theme for each series, like Women Who Seized Power, Women Who Escaped Slavery, Women in Espionage, Women and Their Money, and the subject that consumed most women’s lives: the History of Housework.
Link to Lori's website (which includes podcast links).

As mentioned earlier - there is a statue of Elizabeth Freeman in Sheffield, Massachusetts, sponsored by the Sheffield Historical society. And please refer to their website for further information on Freeman at this link.

People Hidden in History information:
Website: https://peoplehiddeninhistory.com
Direct link
Twitter/Instagram: @phihpod
Mastodon: @[email protected]

For fun, since this IS Episode 13, including Wikipedia History of the number 13

Photo credit of Elizabeth Freeman: Massachusetts Historical Society, painted by Susan Sedgewick (public domain). 

This is the story of Viktor Ullman, a composer and music critic, and others who were prisoners in the Terezin concentration camp (1941-1945). You will learn about Ullman and some of the other accomplished artists - who lived under the constant threat of deportation to Auschwitz but continued to create music and artwork. Their story will be told  by Mark Ludwig (Executive Director of the Terezin Music Foundation), who is an accomplished musician himself and recently published a beautifully documented book, Our Will To Live. Mark will also detail his discovery of this fascinating history and the goals of the Terezin Music Foundation. Included are excerpts of music composed at Terezin.

Links:
Terezin Music Foundation
People Hidden in History Podcast Website

Note: Terezin was called Theresienstadt by the Germans.

Highlighted episode sections (with minute markers):

• 1st Music Excerpt (13:14 )
• Background - Terezin Music Foundation (37:45)
• Schoenberg Musical Style (51:32)
• 2nd Music Excerpt (53:10)

People Hidden in History social media:
Instagram - @phihpod
Twitter - @phihpod
Website (peoplehiddeninhistory.com)
Mastodon: @[email protected]

I will be covering history that is past, current and future.  The historical topic being the mostly unknown 1600’s witch trials that occurred in Connecticut - since they are far less well known - than Salem Mass and surrounding towns  - Witch Trails of 1692. You will hear interviews with descendants from both Connecticut and Massachusetts.  And I'll report on these descendants' current efforts to exonerate - and effectively clear the names of their Connecticut ancestors for the unjust accusations and the tragedy of their deaths. And this exoneration will hopefully come to fruition in the future. 

People Hidden in History:
Basic Website with all Episodes/All Platforms
Twitter/Instagram: @phihpod
Full Website: peoplehiddeninhistory.com
Direct link
Mastodon: @[email protected]

Links to CT Witch Trial History, the Exoneration Effort, and a Petition

1. Facebook: CT WITCH Memorial 
2. Twitter: CT Witch Trial Exoneration Project 
3. Petition: Exonerate Wrongfully Accused CT Witches
4. WordPress blog: Connecticut Witch Trial Exoneration Project
5. WordPress blog: List of Accused CT Witches

Beth Caruso's books (CT Witch Trials and related history)
One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America's First Witch Hanging (2015)
Amazon Link
The Salty Rose: Alchemists, Witches & A Tapper in New Amsterdam (2019)
Amazon Link
BOTH books are published through Lady Slipper Press.

Correction: Capt. John Peabody was a "juror" not a "judge" in the 1692 Salem Witch Trials.
Image:
"A Salem Witch Trial" by Frank O. Small, in Stepping-stones of American History. W. A. Wilde Company, publishers (1904)

This is a wonderful story - detailing many aspects of a Navy WAVES* (of course from WW2) as told by her granddaughter (Larisa) and also some details from her own diary during that era. You’ll hear about her life before enlisting,  much about her life as a WAVES and nurse serving the Navy, and then  finally some about her adjustments to life after the war. This woman is affectionately known by her family as "GG" - for great-grandmother.  Larisa took GG's diary (in Spring of 2022) and recorded audio excerpts, originally posted to her Twitter site (@history_dame). The complete set is now at this link and I encourage my listeners to tune into this, after hearing this episode.

*Or sometimes seen as "WAV"  for an abbreviation for WAVES, stood for: Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service .

Here is the link to History Camp, in which Larisa participates as an enthusiastic volunteer.

At this time, my basic podcast website is at this link - with the full list of all my podcasts. These are available on all podcast platforms (Apple, Spotify, Google, and more... ). My Instagram site is at this link, where I'll post related images for this episode. (account is: phihpod). If you see the image of "GG" and the two other WAVES's, GG is the lovely, smiling young lady on the right. 

Website: peoplehiddeninhistory.com
Direct link
Basic Website with all Episodes/All Platforms
Twitter/Instagram: @phihpod

More history on WAVES and WACS:
WAVES
WACS

Otto Antoine – was a German Impressionist painter and a distant relative of mine.  Antoine’s life intersected with many key parts of artistic and political history – having connections with Kaiser Wilhelm II – prior to WWI, as a court painter. And later having some interactions with 3rd Reich in the 1930’s , with their cultural dictates that had to be adhered to by German artists.  And we'll discuss his rebellious activities that almost cost him his life.  Also during the 1930’s – we'll talk about his travels to visit my family and his distant relatives in Indiana.  And there’s still a bit if mystery around those trips which we’ll detail. 

 His art included all aspects of Germany - including romantic landscapes and especially paintings of Berlin, and the many beautiful architectural aspects of that city - lost during WW2. 

We'll also add some brief discussion around the very coordinated efforts of the Nazi's, to confiscate some of the most precious artworks in Europe, throughout the 1930's up until the end of WW2.  And this did include some of Antoine's works.

See below - various links and resources mentioned in this episode:

Two books:
Art, Ideology, & Economics in Nazi Germany:
The Reich Chamber of Music, Theater, and the Visual Arts
Author: Alan E. Stevens
Publisher: Chapel Hill

The Faustian Bargain:
The Art World in Nazi Germany
Author: Jonathan Petropoulos
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Website and information for Todd Barrowcliff (documentation + images on Otto Antoine):
Link Here

Monuments Men and Women Foundation
Link Here

Website: peoplehiddeninhistory.com
Direct link
Basic Website with all Episodes/All Platforms
Twitter/Instagram: @phihpod

The inspiration for this episode was from researching my husband’s relatives from Massachusetts (especially his distant cousin - Annie Thurston) which then leads to many interesting historical connections in the mid-19th century. Early in this episode to illustrate some of this history – we’ll have an interview with Dr. Robert Forrant from the University of Massachusetts, with his extensive background on the Abolitionist Movement in Lowell (the 20 years prior to the Civil War). Other historical events related to Lowell will include: The 1842 visit of Charles Dickens and later some early Civil War connections.

And for those who enjoy genealogical research, I’ll detail, towards the end - my quest to solve some long-held family mysteries. So please sit and back and enjoy this potpourri of history in 19th Century New England.

Links to additional materials:
Link to YouTube Video - Contradictory Place: Cotton Mills Alongside Anti-Slavery Efforts in Lowell, MA (Dr. Robert Forrant and Maritza Grooms)
Link to Report Written on the Baltimore Riot of 1861 (Civil War)

Website: peoplehiddeninhistory.com
Direct link
Basic Website with all Episodes/All Platforms
Twitter/Instagram: @phihpod

This is the 2nd episode on Amalia Kussner, the famed miniature portrait artist of the Gilded Age. We will discuss her professional and personal life after 1900. Very little is published about this time, however we’ll detail that she was still quite active and continued to be “the” sought after artist of era. We’ll also discuss the family she married into - The Couderts (most famously known for the international Coudert Law Firm). With her marriage to Charles Dupont Coudert, she inherits 6 sister-in-laws, some of which did not approve of Amalia. We’ll review their marriages - which followed the edict for the Gilded Age - to “marry well”.  Ultimately, we'll convey her incredible talents and help us understand this amazing and complex person. And how those talents allowed her to thrive with the elite of American society and European royalty. A recap of the first podcast episode, will be provided at the beginning. However - here's a  Link to first podcast on Apple (but on all other podcast venues). This 1st episode will especially detail her famous trips to see the Czar/Czarina of Russia and to paint Cecil Rhodes in South Africa.

Link to all podcasts and access to a variety of venues: Apple, Spotify, Google, etc.

Website: peoplehiddeninhistory.com
Direct link
Twitter/Instagram: @phihpod 

This podcast will be the incredible story of Eva Mozes Kor, who was a Holocaust survivor. She and her twin sister, Miriam, were also part of a medical experimentation program at Auschwitz, run by Dr. Josef Mengele. As an adult, and to deal with her trauma and grief, Eva started a Holocaust museum in Indiana (CANDLES*). Through an in-depth and fascinating interview with Leah Simpson, the Education Director of that museum, you will hear highlights of her life story. You will also learn that Eva in her later years, through a series of events, decided to embark on a path of forgiveness. Update: Troy Fears is currently the Executive Director at CANDLES. 

For more information on the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center and their programs – please follow this link. 

*Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors.

Website: peoplehiddeninhistory.com
Direct link
Twitter/Instagram: @phihpod

Photo credit: CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Learning Center. 

Gen. Laurence Kuter, was instrumental in the founding of the Air Force. Though not your typical "ace flyer", his organizational abilities and expert handling of crises - placed him at critical junctures in our 20th century military history. You'll hear how he was a key participant in many historical events, spanning pre-WW2 through the Cold War, and finishing his career as the 2nd commander of NORAD.  His fascinating life will be presented by Dr. Brian Laslie, currently the Command Historian at the United State Air Force Academy. You will also hear about Kuter's wife, Ethel Lyddon Kuter, who was both a true partner and accomplished in her own right. Laslie's biography on Kuter, "Architect of Air Power",  can be found on Amazon at this link. He also is a content contributor to the podcast series - From Balloons to Drones, which explores the development of airpower. Images related to this podcast can be found at the Instagram account - phihpod.
For other books by Dr. Laslie:
Air Powers' Lost Cause: The Air Wars of Vietnam
The Air Force Way of War: US Tactics and Training after Vietnam

Website: peoplehiddeninhistory.com
Direct link
Twitter/Instagram: @phihpod