Stuff You Missed in History Class

Mary Hunter Austin was a U.S. writer known for walking throughout the American Southwest. But her life of activism was far more complicated than brief bios usually  mention.  Research: "Mary Hunter Austin." Encyclopedia of the American West, edited by Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod, Macmillan Reference USA, 1996. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/BT2330100082/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=6a4f821e. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025. "Mary Hunter Austin." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 23, Gale, 2003. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631008133/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=ceca42e0. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025. #0840: Willa Cather to Mary Hunter Austin, June 26 [1926]. https://cather.unl.edu/writings/letters/let0840 Austin, Mary Hunter. “Earth Horizon.” Houghton Mifflin. 1932. Austin, Mary Hunter. “Experiences Facing Death.” Bobbs-Merrill Company. 1931. Blend, Benay. “Mary Austin and the Western Conservation Movement: 1900-1927.” Journal of the Southwest , Spring, 1988, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 1988). https://www.jstor.org/stable/40169782 Davis, Lisa Selin. “The Loneliest Land.” National Parks Conservation Association. Spring 2015. https://www.npca.org/articles/942-the-loneliest-land Egenhoff, Elizabeth L. “Mary Austin.” Mineral Information Service. November 1965. https://npshistory.com/publications/deva/mis-v18n11-1965.pdf Fink, Augusta. “I-Mary: A Biography of Mary Austin.” University of Arizona Press. 1983. Hoffman, Abraham. “Mary Austin, Stafford Austin, and the Owens Valley.” Journal of the Southwest , Autumn-Winter 2011, Vol. 53, No. ¾. Via JSTOR. http://www.jstor.com/stable/41710078 Lanzendorfer, Joy. “Searching for Mary Austin.” Alta. https://www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a8713/searching-for-mary-austin-joy-lanzendorfer/ Online Archive of California. “Austin (Mary Hunter) Papers.” https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c85t3ppq/ Richards, Penny L. “Bad Blood and Lost Borders: Eugenic Ambivalence in Mary Austin’s Short Fiction.” Richards, Penny L. “Disability History Image #3.” 8/30/2005. https://disstud.blogspot.com/2005/08/ Romancito, Rick. “The Image Maker and the Writer.” Taos News. 10/2/2024. https://www.taosnews.com/opinion/columns/the-image-maker-and-the-writer/article_7805f16a-8ab9-5645-9e84-4a189e18ac23.html Siber, Kate. “The 19th-Century Writer Who Braved the Desert Alone.” Outside. 1/22/2019. https://www.outsideonline.com/culture/books-media/mary-austin-mojave-nature-writer/ Stout, Janis P. “Mary Austin’s Feminism: A Reassessment.” Studies in the Novel , spring 1998, Vol. 30, No. 1. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/29533250 The Ansel Adams Gallery. “Visions of Taos: The Making of “Taos Pueblo” by Ansel Adams and Mary Austin.” https://www.anseladams.com/visions-of-taos-the-making-of-taos-pueblo/ Viehmann, Martha L. “A Rain Song for America: Mary Austin, American Indians, and American Literature and Culture.” Western American Literature , Spring 2004, Vol. 39, No. 1. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43022288 Wynn, Dudley. “Mary Austin, Woman Alone.” The Virginia Quarterly Review , SPRING 1937, Vol. 13, No. 2. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26433922 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1916, a unique initiative sought to create a morality code for children, spurred by evolving views on ethics. The podcast dives into the contrasting American educational landscape and innovative methods used elsewhere, dissecting the complexities of moral education. It addresses the historical impacts of eugenics and ableist perspectives on character education. The decline of character education in schools is explored, alongside personal stories from listeners that highlight contemporary struggles with moral reasoning. A fascinating look at the past shapes today’s views on childhood ethics!

This 2019 episode looks at Couney's incubator sideshows of premature babies. This is complicated; Couney made money from this, and his medical experience was questionable. But premature babies weren’t getting a lot of care otherwise.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tracy notes the wild array of incorrect information that circulates about Lillian Exum Clement. Then she and Holly talk about childhood reading habits. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gertrude Chandler Warner's most well known writing is "The Boxcar Children." But that series is far from the only professional writing Chandler did – she made a career as a writer while also teaching elementary school for decades.  Research: Abate, M.A. Not Hoovervilles, But Hooch: Gertrude Chandler Warner’s The Boxcar Childrenand The Roaring Twenties. Child Lit Educ 47, 257–266 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-016-9275-5 Braccidiferro, Gail. “The Boxcar Children: A Museum Caper.” New York Times. June 20, 2004. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/20/nyregion/the-boxcar-children-a-museum-caper.html Crowe, Chris. “Young Adult Literature: Rescuing Reluctant Readers.” The English Journal, vol. 88, no. 5, 1999, pp. 113–16. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/821799 Ellsworth, Mary Ellen. “Gertrude Chandler Warner and the Boxcar Children.” Albert Whitman & Company. Morton Grove, Illinois. 1997. Lindberg, Mary Anne. “Survival Literature in Children’s Fiction.” Elementary English, vol. 51, no. 3, 1974, pp. 329–35. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41387166 Meese, Ruth Lyn. “MODERN FAMILY: Adoption and Foster Care in Children’s Literature.” The Reading Teacher, vol. 66, no. 2, 2012, pp. 129–37. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23322722 Tolentino, Jia. “’The Boxcar Children and the Spirit of Capitalism.” The New Yorker. June 2, 2016. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-boxcar-children-and-the-spirit-of-capitalism#:~:text=The%20second%20time%20that%20Gertrude,and%20family%20and%20life's%20rewards. Warner, Gertrude Chandler. “The Box-Car Children.” Rand McNally. Chicago/New York. 1924. Accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42796/42796-h/42796-h.htm Warner, Gertrude Chandler. “Good Americans: First Lessons for the Littlest Ones.” Educational Publishing Company. Boston. New York. London. 1926. Accessed online: https://books.google.com/books?id=gONow7KFCB0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false Warner, Gertrude Chandler. “The House of Delight.” Pilgrim Press. 1916. Accessed online: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/62714/pg62714-images.html Warner, Gertrude Chandler. “Star Stories for Little Folks.” Pilgrim Press. Boston, Chicago. 1918. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/starstoriesforli00warn/page/8/mode/2up Warner, Frances and Gertrude. “Life’s Minor Collisions.” Houghton Mifflin. Boston and New York. 1921. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/lifesminorcollis00warnrich/page/n9/mode/2up See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lillian Exum Clement Stafford was one of the first women in North Carolina to practice law, and the first woman in the South to be elected to a state legislature. Research: “Letter from Elias Eller Stafford to Lillian Exum Clement, 1920.” North Carolina Archives. https://fromthepage.com/ncdcr-ncarchives/women-s-history-v5/pc-2804-lillian-exum-papers-b2f25-corr-eller-1920 “Lillian Exum Clement." NCpedia. Accessed on February 19th, 2025. https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/lillian-exum-clement. “Public laws and resolutions passed by the General Assembly at its session of 1925.” https://archive.org/details/publiclawsresolu1925nort/ “Wouldn’t Vote?” Asheville Citizen-Times. 11/3/1920. https://www.newspapers.com/image/196317737/ Asheville Citizen. “Society and Personals.” 4/5/1917. https://www.newspapers.com/image/200917154/ Asheville Citizen. “Speakers Heard at Suffrage Meeting.” 3/17/1916. https://www.newspapers.com/image/78407560/ Asheville Citizen. “The Legislative Race.” 10/30/1920. https://www.newspapers.com/image/196310876/ Buncombe County Government. “Lillian Exum Clement Stafford.” Buncombe County Special Collectoins Flickr photoset. https://www.flickr.com/photos/buncombecounty/albums/72157641973318403/ Calder, Thomas. “Asheville Archives: Lillian Exum Clement takes her seat in the House, 1921.” MountainXPress. 3/7/2019. https://mountainx.com/news/asheville-archives-lillian-exum-clement-takes-her-seat-in-the-house-1921/ Chesky, Anne. “WNC History: Lillian Exum Clement's road to Raleigh.” Asheville Citizen Times. 8/3/2024. https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2024/08/03/wnc-history-lillian-exum-clements-road-to-raleigh/74615111007/ Cline, Ned. “First Step.” Our State. Apr 28, 2011. https://www.ourstate.com/lillian-exum-clement/ Cotten, Alice R. "Stafford, Lillian Exum Clement." NCpedia. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press. Accessed on February 19th, 2025. https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/stafford-lillian. Ellison, Jon. “Remembering Buncombe’s groundbreaking female legislator.” Carolina Public Press. 2/4/2014. https://carolinapublicpress.org/17570/remembering-buncombes-groundbreaking-female-legislator/ Journal of the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina. Session 1921. https://archive.org/details/journalofhouseof1921nort Kinston Free Press. “Buncombe County Woman Withdraws from Campaign.” 5/28/1920. https://www.newspapers.com/image/75778748/ Letter from Elias Eller Stafford to Lillian Exum Clement, January 12, 1921. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/letter-from-elias-eller-stafford-to-lillian-exum-clement-january-12-1921/779584?item=779589 Letter from Lillian Exum Clement to Elias Eller Stafford, January 17, 1921. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/letter-from-lillian-exum-clement-to-elias-eller-stafford-january-17-1921/772715 Matthews, Mrs. A. “Mrs. Exum Clement Stafford.” The Sunday Citizen. 6/14/2025. https://www.newspapers.com/image/200026423/ My Home N.C. “Lillian Exum Clement, NC's first woman legislator | My Home, NC.” N.C. PBS. Via YouTube. 4/18/2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgbroQAtM0Q Neufield, Rob. “Visiting Our Past: Personal look at Lillian Exum Clement, Asheville's pioneering lawmaker.” Asheville Citizen Times. 2/21/2021. https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2021/02/21/visiting-our-past-look-pioneering-lawmaker-lillian-exum-clement/4515306001/ North Carolina Digital Collections. “Clippings related to Lillian Exum Clement Stafford.” 1916. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/clippings-related-to-lillian-exum-clement-stafford/766860 North Carolina Digital Collections. “Clippings related to Lillian Exum Clement Stafford.” June 1920. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/clippings-related-to-lillian-exum-clement-stafford/762410 North Carolina Digital Collections. “Clippings related to Lillian Exum Clement Stafford.” 1921. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/clippings-related-to-lillian-exum-clement-stafford/764401 North Carolina Digital Collections. “Letter from B. G. Crisp to Lillian Exum Clement, March 22, 1921” https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/letter-from-b.-g.-crisp-to-lillian-exum-clement-march-22-1921/761040 North Carolina Digital Collectoins. Clippings related to Lillian Exum Clement Stafford's death. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/clippings-related-to-lillian-exum-clement-staffords-death/766201?item=766218 Nothstine, Kellie Slappey. “Lillian Exum Clement Stafford.” North Carolina History Project. https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/lillian-exum-clement-1894-1925/ Smith, Anne Chesky. “You Have to Start a Thing: The South’s First Female Legislator, Lillian Exum Clement.” Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center. https://www.history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/you-have-to-start-a-thing-the-souths-first-female-legislator-lillian-exum-clement/ Swannanoa Valley Museum and History Center. “Lillian Exum Clement.” https://www.history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/lillian-exum-clement/ The Asheville Times. “Chief Justice Clark Congratulates Woman.” 6/7/1920. https://www.newspapers.com/image/942373558 The Asheville Times. “Miss Clement Takes Oath Tomorrow.” 2/16/1920. https://www.newspapers.com/image/61366064/ The Sunday Citizen. “Brief Sketches of Four Leagues of N.C. Equal Suffrage Association.” 4/21/1918. https://www.newspapers.com/image/200910113/ Vander-Weide, Jacob. “Tombstone Tales: 1st female legislator in the South buried in Asheville.” 828 News Now. 7/27/2024. https://828newsnow.com/news/228822-tombstone-tales-1st-female-legislator-in-the-south-buried-in-asheville/ Waggoner, Martha. “Inscription in Bible links Vanderbilts to Lillian's List.” Times-News. 12/25/2014. https://www.blueridgenow.com/story/news/2014/12/25/inscription-in-bible-links-vanderbilts-to-lillians-list/28325769007/ Whittle, Ashley McGhee. “Asheville Women in History: Catalysts For Change.” Special Collections at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. https://libjournals.unca.edu/specialcollections/asheville/asheville-women-in-history-catalysts-for-change/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This 2020 episode covers the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. The Lost Cause was a distortion of the history of the U.S. Civil War that’s still affecting the world today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tracy shares issues she has with overly reductive internet videos that misrepresent the story of nixtamalization. She and Holly also discuss the various ways they like to eat corn.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode on the pellagra epidemic focuses on its prevalence in the U.S. in the early 20th century. Some of the scientific work done to understand it involves self-experimentation, and some of it is ethically problematic by today’s standards. Research: Akst, Daniel. “Pellagra: The Forgotten Plague.” American Heritage. December 2000. https://www.americanheritage.com/pellagra-forgotten-plague Baird Rattini, Kristin. “A Deadly Diet.” Discover. Mar2018, Vol. 39 Issue 2, p70-72. Bridges, Kenneth. “Pellagra.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/pellagra-2230/ Clay, Karen et al. “The Rise and Fall of Pellagra in the American South.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 23730. 2018. http://www.nber.org/papers/w23730 Cleveland Clinic. “Pellagra.” 07/18/2022. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23905-pellagra Crabb, Mary Katherine. “An Epidemic of Pride: Pellagra and the Culture of the American South.” Anthropologica , 1992, Vol. 34, No. 1 (1992), pp. 89-103. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25605634 Flannery, Michael A. “’Frauds,’ ‘Filth Parties,’ ‘Yeast Fads,’ and ‘Black Boxes’: Pellagra and Southern Pride, 1906-2003.” The Southern Quarterly. Vol. 53, no.3/4 (Spring/Summer 2016). Gentilcore, David and Egidio Priani. “Pellagra and Pellagrous Insanity During the Long Nineteenth Century.” Mental Health in Historical Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan. 2023. Ginnaio, Monica. “Pellagra in Late Nineteenth Century Italy: Effects of a Deficiency Disease.” Population-E, 66 (3-4), 2011, 583-610. Hung, Putzer J. “Pellagra: A medical whodunit.” Hektoen International: A Journal of Medical Humanities. https://hekint.org/2018/09/18/pellagra-a-medical-whodunit/ Jaworek, Andrzej K. et al. “The history of pellagra.” Dermatol Rev/Przegl Dermatol 2021, 108, 554–566 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/dr.2021.114610 Kean, Sam. “Joseph Goldberger’s Filth Parties.” Science History Institute Museum and Library. https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/joseph-goldbergers-filth-parties/ Kiple, Kenneth F. and Virginia H. “Black Tongue and Black Men: Pellagra and Slavery in the Antebellum South.” The Journal of Southern History , Aug., 1977, Vol. 43, No. 3. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2207649 Kraut, Alan. “Dr. Joseph Goldberger & the War on Pellagra.” National Institutes of Health Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum. https://history.nih.gov/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=8883184 Marks, Harry M. “Epidemiologists Explain Pellagra: Gender, Race and Political Economy in the Work of Edgar Sydenstricker.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences , JANUARY 2003. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24623836 Morabia, Alfredo. “Joseph Goldberger’s research on the prevention of pellagra.” J R Soc Med 2008: 101: 566–568. DOI 10.1258/jrsm.2008.08k010. Park, Youngmee K. et al. “Effectiveness of Food Fortification in the United States: The Case of Pellagra.” American Journal of Public Health. May 2U(H). Vol. 90. No. 5. Peres, Tanya M. “Malnourished.” Gravy. Southern Foodways Alliance. Fall 2016. https://www.southernfoodways.org/malnourished-cultural-ignorance-paved-the-way-for-pellagra/ Pinheiro, Hugo et al. “Hidden Hunger: A Pellagra Case Report.” Cureus vol. 13,4 e14682. 25 Apr. 2021, doi:10.7759/cureus.14682 A. C. Wollenberg. “Pellagra in Italy.” Public Health Reports (1896-1970), vol. 24, no. 30, 1909, pp. 1051–54. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4563397. Accessed 13 Feb. 2025. Rajakumar, Kumaravel. “Pellagra in the United States: A Historical Perspective.” SOUTHERN MEDICAL JOURNAL • Vol. 93, No. 3. March 2020. Savvidou, Savvoula. “Pellagra: a non-eradicated old disease.” Clinics and practice vol. 4,1 637. 28 Apr. 2014, doi:10.4081/cp.2014.637 SEARCY GH. AN EPIDEMIC OF ACUTE PELLAGRA. JAMA. 1907;XLIX(1):37–38. doi:10.1001/jama.1907.25320010037002j Skelton, John. “Poverty or Privies? The Pellagra Controversy in America.” Fairmount Folio: Journal of History. Vol. 15 (2014). https://journals.wichita.edu/index.php/ff/article/view/151 Tharian, Bindu. "Pellagra." New Georgia Encyclopedia, 20 September 2004, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/science-medicine/pellagra/. University Libraries, University of South Carolina. “A Gospel of Health: Hilla Sheriff's Crusade Against Malnutrition in South Carolina.” https://digital.library.sc.edu/exhibits/hillasheriff/history-of-pellagra/ University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Pellagra in Alabama.” https://library.uab.edu/locations/reynolds/collections/regional-history/pellagra Wheeler, G.A. “A Note on the History of Pellagra in the United States.” Public Health Reports (1896-1970) , Sep. 18, 1931, Vol. 46, No. 38. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4580180 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The devastating pellagra epidemic in the early 1900s highlights the dangers of nutritional deficiencies linked to corn consumption in impoverished communities. The podcast dives into the historical ties between Italian immigration and dietary shifts in the U.S. It unpacks the 'Three Ds' of pellagra—dermatitis, diarrhea, and dementia—and emphasizes the importance of niacin. Listeners will learn about traditional nixtamalization and the socio-economic factors fueling this often-overlooked disease, while enjoying light-hearted anecdotes about pets intertwined with serious discussions.