All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

Joe Lex

Boost

Boost

Tales for taphophiles of permanent residents of Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia and West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cywnyd, Pennsylvania. Often educational, always entertaining.

Isaac Hull and Old Ironsides

From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #073, part 2 Isaac Hull was a lifelong sailor from a family of sailors. He is best remembered today for being commander of the USS Constitution when it captured HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812. Fellow tour guise Russell Dodge wrote this script and the life of this great seaman.

Apr 3, • 29:30

Introduction to the 19th Century US Navy

From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #073, part 1   The United States tried very hard to not have a Navy. It wasn't until the early 19th century that congress realized the need for a fighting force on the water. Capture of American merchant ships by the Barbary pirates and corsairs with letters of marque forced congress to release funds to fortify the Navy. Eventually the United States Navy was second only to the Royal Navy of England.  Commodore Isaac Hull was captain of the USS Const

Apr 2, • 16:30

Four Naval Heroes: Isaac Hull, David Conner, Sylvanus Godon, and George W. Melville

Isaac Hull led USS Constitution to victory against HMS Guerriere in the early days of the War of 1812. Fellow tour guide Russ Dodge wrote this script but declined the opportunity to narrate it. David Conner worked with Winfield Scott to arrange the largest amphibious assault of the 19th century at Vera Cruz during the Mexican American War. While serving in the African Squadron, Sylvanus Godon captured the slave ship Erie, which led to the return of nearly 900 Africans to their home continent, an

Apr 1, • 2:43:53

Dorothy Burr Thompson & Pamela Burr: Prides of Bryn Mawr College

Biographical Bytes from Bala #042, section 5 Dorothy Burr Thompson ("DBT") was acknowledged as one of the best archeologists of her day. Her work of Hellenistic terra cottas has never been surpassed. Her younger sister Pamela Burr wrote a play while at Bryn Mawr that featured her classmate, Katharine Hepburn.

Mar 20, • 10:28

Anna Robeson Brown Burr: Prodigious Author

Biographical Bytes from Bala #042, section 4 Anna Robeson Burr Brown was an American writer of novels, poetry, stories, essays, and biographies. Her The Autobiography: A Critical and Comparative Study (1909), was the first book on the subject.

Mar 19, • 10:08

Henry Armitt Brown: The Finest Orator of His Generation

Biographical Bytes from Bala #042, section 3 Henry Armitt Brown became the finest orator of his generation, frequently compared to Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. His life was cut short only weeks after his greatest triumph.

Mar 18, • 11:26

Frederick Brown: Druggist and Cemetery Co-Founder

Biographical Bytes from Bala #042, section 2 Frederick Brown was a very successful druggist and a founder of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. When his friend John Jay Smith invited him to be a founder at Laurel Hill Cemetery, he accepted the offer.

Mar 17, • 16:02

Charles Brockden Brown: America's First Major Novelist

Biographical Bytes from Bala #042, section 1 Charles Brockden Brown is regarded by scholars as the most important American novelist before James Fenimore Cooper.  His best-known works include Wieland and Edgar Huntly, both of which display his characteristic interest in Gothic themes. His works heavily influenced both Mary Bysshe Shelley and Edgar Allen Poe.

Mar 16, • 4:19

Five Generations at Laurel Hill

Charles Brockden Brown was American’s first successful novelist. his influence on Edgar Allen Poe was immeasurable. He has a cenotaph in the South section of Laurel Hill East. Charles' nephew Frederick Brown was a successful druggist because of his ginger root-based nostrums. He was also one of four co-founders of Laurel Hill Cemetery. Frederick's son Henry Armitt Brown was considered the best orator of his generation and often compared to Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.  Henry's daughter Anna Ro

Mar 15, • 1:09:09

Katherine Rotan Drinker and The Radium Girls (encore)

From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #072, segment 5   A slight reworking of an earlier podcast about Cecil Kent Drinker, MD, (All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #041) now features his wife Katherine Rotan Drinker, MD, as they take on the investigation of "jaw rot" among young women who had worked as painters of luminescent watch dials.

Mar 6, • 17:26

Sarah Logan Wister Starr: The Iron Fist Who Saved the School

From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #072, segment 4   By 1921, Women's Medical College was on the verge of failure. The new president Sarah Logan Wister Starr was a master fundraiser who treated Women's Medical School and its hospital as her private philanthropic project. She did save the school, but she infuriated both faculty and student body when she fired the popular professor of obstetrics and gynecology Alice Weld Tallant.

Mar 5, • 21:26

Charlotte Yhlen & Marie K. Formad: Strangers in a Strange Land

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #072 - Segment 3 In the mid-19th century, women from around the world flocked to Philadelphia in order to become physicians.  Everyone has seen the Frederick Gutekunst photo of three medical students from India, Japan, and Syria. Charlotte Yhlen came from Sweden and became the first Scandinavian-born woman physician but couldn't get work in her home country so returned to the United States. Marie K. Formad was from Russia. She became one of the premiere

Mar 4, • 21:20

William J. Mullen: The Prisoner's Friend and Female Medical College

From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #072, segment 2 William J. Mullen was the first President of Female Medical College of Pennsylvania. He is remembered for his tireless philanthropic work among inmates at Moyamensing Prison and for his over-the-top grave marker in the south section of Laurel Hill East.

Mar 3, • 23:00

Founding the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania

From All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #072, segment 1   With the help of several Quaker philanthropists, a medical school for women was chartered in 1850. Through the courage and strength of the founders and early graduates, it slowly grew into a respected medical school whose memory lives today through the Drexel University School of Medicine.

Mar 2, • 13:50

ABC072 Women's Medical College: Some Selected Stories

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #072 gives you a condensed history of Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. The entire podcast is available on March 1st. Each segment will be released as an individual recording in the days that follow.   First, I will tell you about the founding of the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1850. Second, I will talk about William J. Mullen, the school’s first President and a major contributor. He is remembered today for his over-the-top grave mar

Mar 1, • 1:57:42

John W. Forney: Gadfly, Chameleon, Provocateur

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #041 John W. Forney was a publisher, a politician, a railroad agent, and the only person to serve as both Clerk of the US House and Secretary of the US Senate. Abraham Lincoln befriended the man, but political enemies called Forney "Lincoln's dog." Andrew Johnson drank to excess at Forney’s Stag party the night before he was sworn in as Vice President and the two men later became bitter enemies. John W. Forney, political gadfly, chameleon, a

Feb 15, • 28:54

Jack Jones: Pioneering TV Anchor

ABC#071, segment 4 John Claver "Jack" Jones was a Philadelphian through-and-through - West Catholic High School, La Salle University. He was befriended by TV announcer John Facenda who got him hired at a local TV station. Jack rose to be evening anchor but died far too young.

Feb 5, • 19:23

Judge Doris May Harris: Pioneer in Children's Court

All Bones Considered #071, segment 3 Doris May Harris was a summa cum laude graduate of Howard University who was the third Black woman to earn a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She went on to a long and distinguished career on the bench and introduced novel approaches to the punishment and rehabilitation of teen offenders.

Feb 4, • 18:24

Florence DaVida Johnson-Reid: Reaching a Pinnacle in Black Education

ABC#071, segment 2 Florence daVida "Videe" Howard Johnson-Reid steadily worked her way up the ladder of education until she was Dean of Graduate Studies at Cheyney University, whose history dates back to 1837 and the Institute for Colored Youth. Learn about the evolution of education for Philadelphia's African American citizens and more.

Feb 3, • 18:44

Lynwood Blount: Bootstraps Judge, Hospital Director

ABC#071, part 1 Lynwood Blount was a municipal judge who worked his way to the top, including night law school at Temple. He was elected judge after a successful 20-year law career. He was also President of Mercy-Douglass Hospital during its waning years. He did not suffer fools lightly. Along the way he picked up the nickname "Count Blount." He also served as President of Mercy-Douglass Hospital in its final days, so you can learn about medical education for African American Philadelphia reside

Feb 2, • 18:03

ABC#071 Black History Month for 2025: Four More Stories

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #071 for February 2025 - complete   Judge Lynwood Blount became a lawyer by going to night school and rose to be a judge in the Philadelphia criminal justice system. His manner and authoritative presence earned him the nickname “Count Blount.”   Florence DeVida Johnson-Reid came through the ranks to become Dean of Graduate Education and Continuing Education at Cheyney University, but her life was tragically cut short by cancer.   Judge Doris May Harris w

Feb 1, • 1:32:46

Herb Lusk: The Praying Tailback

BBB040, part 3 Herb Lusk was a running back who developed the habit of dropping to a knee and uttering a brief prayer after he scored a touchdown.  He brought this habit with him to the pros and then quit after three seasons to become a very successful Baptist preacher. He was awarded a Super Bowl ring 39 years after he retired.

Jan 18, • 20:43

Nate Ramsey: #24 for the Eagles

BBB070, part 2 Nate Ramsey played nine years with some pretty mediocre Eagle teams but was voted by fans as the best Eagle to ever wear uniform #24.  The problem was his legal difficulties, which plagued him before, after, and during his career.

Jan 17, • 18:39

M. Roy "Slab" Jackson: Football, Dogs, Horses, and a Rockefeller

BBB070-part 1 Mac Roy "Slab" Jackson played college ball on one of the best Penn teams ever, then joined a professional league in Western Pennsylvania where he led a local team to a national championship. He is best remembered today for his skills in dog breeding and horsemanship.

Jan 16, • 27:21

Hut!Hut! Hut!: Three Professional Football Players

Biographical Bytes from Bala #040 Mac Roy Jackson played college ball on one of the best Penn teams ever, then joined a professional league in Western Pennsylvania where he led a local team to a national championship. He may be better remembered as a master of the hounds and a judge of horse flesh.     Nate Ramsey played nine years with some pretty mediocre Eagle teams but was voted by fans as their favorite Eagle to ever wear uniform #24.  The problem was his legal difficulties, which plagued h

Jan 15, • 1:15:57

COL Richard Henry Rush: From West Point to Lancers

ABC 2025 bonus episode Happy 200th birthday Richard H. Rush, born February 12, 1825.  Richard’s grandfathers Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton both signed the Declaration of Independence. Richard’s father served as a cabinet member under three presidents and unsuccessfully ran for Vice President in 1828. Richard attended the US Military Academy at West Point. When the Civil War started, Richard mustered and led from his Germantown neighbors the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, better known as “Rush’s

Jan 14, • 30:39

Henry Charles Lea: He Expected the Spanish Inquisition

ABC#070, part  Henry Charles Lea was a publisher, researcher, and author, who wrote the definitive history of the Spanish Inquisition.  His grave marker was sculpted by Alexander Stirling Calder and is one of the most photographed monuments on the property. This is a partial rerun of #ABC018 - The Calder Connection

Jan 6, • 15:28

John Roh: Death by Inferno

ABC070, part 5 John Roh was an inpatient at the Blockley Almshouse in 1885 when a fire raced through his wing and killed more than a score of male psychiatric patients who were locked in their cells.  John Roh was one of the victims of that tragedy, and we’re pretty sure he is interred in the family plot at Laurel Hill East.

Jan 5, • 22:07

Laura Matilda Towne: Teaching the Least Fortunate

ABC070, part 3 Laura Matilda Towne was an abolitionist who studied homeopathic medicine and became an instructor for recently freed enslaved Africans on the islands off South Carolina.  It turned into her life’s work for the next 30+ years.

Jan 4, • 24:42

Edwin Fitler: The Emperor of Rope

ABC070, part 2 Edwin Henry Fitler made his fortune in rope at a time when Philadelphia had one of the busiest shipyards in the country.  He was the first Philadelphia mayor to establish his office at City Hall in the years it was being completed.  Fitler is namesake for Fitler Square and his obelisk is the tallest at Laurel Hill East.

Jan 3, • 20:44

Thomas Craycroft: For Love of His Fellow Man

ABC070, part 1 Thomas Craycroft was a medical student who volunteered to help in the 1855 Yellow Fever epidemic in Norfolk, Virginia.  He was one of 15 Philadelphians who died during that mission of mercy but whose remains are now interred under the Yellow Fever monument at Laurel Hill East.

Jan 2, • 27:04

Happy 200th Birthdays!

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #070 - Happy 200th Birthdays!   Thomas Craycroft was a medical student who volunteered to help in the1855 Yellow Fever epidemic in Norfolk, Virginia.  He was one of 15 Philadelphians who died during that mission of mercy but whose remains are now interred under the Yellow Fever monument at Laurel Hill East.   Edwin Henry Fitler made his fortune in rope at a time when Philadelphia had one of the busiest shipyards in the country.  He was the first Philadel

Jan 1, • 2:14:29

Rev. Henry Winter Syle: Deaf Scholar, Preacher, Episcopal Saint

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #039 for mid-December 2024   Henry Winter Syle went deaf as a child and soon abandoned speech.  He used American Sign Language and the written word to share his ideas with the deaf world, many of whom had been excluded from religious ceremonies for centuries because it was thought they could not enter heaven.  Although Syle's career was cut short by an early death, he is recognized as a saint of the Episcopal Church, with a feast day on Augu

Dec 15, 2024 • 1:05:44

Charlotte Drake Cardeza: The Best Suite on the Ship (by Lora Lewis)

ABC #069, segment 5 (by Lora Lewis) Charlotte Cardeza may be the model for every privileged, self-indulgent rich woman on the Titanic, what with her steamer trunks full of designer gowns, exotic furs, and precious jewelry.  She hired the biggest suite on the ship and made certain that her son and maid were in the lifeboat with her.  Her inventory of lost items ran to 20 pages.  Her mausoleum at Laurel Hill West is unforgettable.

Dec 6, 2024 • 15:34

Gretchen Longley: The Prettiest Girl on the Ship

ABC #069, segment 4 Gretchen Longley was orphaned while young and raised by two aunts, who accompanied her to Europe in the Spring of 1912 to help her choose her bridal trousseau.  Their return trip on the RMS Titanic gave Gretchen stories she would tell for the rest of her life.

Dec 5, 2024 • 15:15

Lily & Olive Potter: Mother-Daughter Survivors (by Savanna Fisher)

ABC #069, segment 3 (by Savanna Fisher)   Lily Potter was trying to forget her grief since the death of her husband.  Her daughter Olive was in a troubled marriage and soon to be divorced. They decided to relax and forget their cares while taking an ocean voyage on the RMS Titanic.  Their plans did not turn out as they anticipated.

Dec 4, 2024 • 12:20

Eleanor Widener Rice: She Lost Her Husband and Son (by Lora Lewis)

ABC #069, segment 2 Eleanor Elkins Widener was one of the wealthiest people on the Titanic.  She watched helplessly from a lifeboat as the mighty ocean liner went down, taking her husband George and son Harry with it.  Her second marriage was to an Amazonian explorer whom she met at the dedication of a Harvard library named for her son.

Dec 3, 2024 • 24:21

Introduction to The Deep Blue

ABC #069, segment 1 The great tragedies of the sea are innumerable - literally millions of wrecks litter the floors of oceans, lakes, seas, and rivers, and innumerable victims have ended up in Davey Jones' Locker.   Laurel Hill East has a cenotaph for three victims - a mother and two daughters - from the Austria disaster in 1858, which saw a loss of 448 passengers and crew. Laurel Hill West has a cenotaph for a brother and sister lost on the SS La Bourgogne in 1898, amid-Atlantic collision that

Dec 2, 2024 • 28:31

Six Women of the R.M.S. Titanic

When the R.M.S. Titanic struck an iceberg in April of 1912, about 250 of the 1300 passengers were from the United States.  While people with well-known names like Strauss, Guggenheim, Astor, and Widener were aboard the ship, it was primarily the women and children who were saved.   Six men and six women of Laurel Hill were among the passengers.  All of the women survived.  It is their stories we tell of in this episode of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories. I will tell of other oceanic di

Dec 1, 2024 • 1:51:16

Waldo E. "Bill" Nelson & The Green Bible of Pediatrics

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #038   Waldo E. Nelson preferred to be called Bill.  After he studied under pediatrics pioneer Graeme Mitchell at Cincinnati, he was recruited to Temple University School of Medicine in 1940 to begin a pediatrics department.  The next year, he took over editorship of Mitchell’s textbook, which became the ubiquitous Nelson’s Pediatrics, now in its 21st edition.  You will learn more about Dr. Nelson and the development and growth of Pediatric

Nov 15, 2024 • 55:44

Thomas Leiper: Entrepreneur, Soldier, Inventor, Statesman

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #068, Part 2, Section 3   Thomas Leiper was a Scottish immigrant who built the first permanent railroad in the United States and made his fortune in snuff.  As a founding member of First City Troop, he served as personal bodyguard for General George Washington, and led his troops to rescue Congressman James Wilson during the so-called "Crisis at Fort Wilson".  Thomas Jefferson rented a room from Leiper while he was serving as Secretary of State, and the

Nov 4, 2024 • 22:06

Thomas McKean: Last to Sign the Declaration

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #068 - Friends of Thomas Jefferson, Part 2, Section 1 - Thomas McKean Thomas McKean served multiple roles in colonial days – president of Delaware, Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, President of the United States Congress, and Governor of Pennsylvania, among others.  Although his efforts in 1776 were what made the Declaration unanimous, he was the last man to sign that historic document.

Nov 3, 2024 • 26:28

Charles Thomson: Wegh-wu-law-mo-end - The Man Who Tells the Truth

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #068 - Friends of Thomas Jefferson, Part 2, Section 1 - Charles Thomson   Charles Thomson was the man who knew where all the bodies were buried.  During his 15 years as Secretary of the Continental Congress, he quietly ran the colonies and the country efficiently and effectively, and kept meticulous notes, which he later destroyed.  He designed the Great Seal of the United States and personally notified George Washington that he had been elected Presiden

Nov 2, 2024 • 34:58

Friends of Thomas Jefferson, Part 2: Charles Thomson, Thomas McKean, Thomas Leiper

Charles Thomson was the Founding Father who served as secretary of the Continental Congress during its 15 years.  Along with John Hancock, his signature graced the first draft of the Declaration of Independence.  Thomson also designed the Great Seal of the United States.  After his initial burial at the family homestead Harriton in Bryn Mawr, his remains were transferred to Laurel Hill.    Thomas McKean served multiple roles in colonial days – president of Delaware, Chief Justice of the Pennsylv

Nov 1, 2024 • 1:42:45

John T. Greble: First of Thousands to Die

Biographical Bytes from Bala #037 John Trout Greble was a Philadelphian descended from colonial pioneers on both sides of his family.  He graduated with honors from Central High School and to the shock of many, this delicate young man chose a career in the military.  After he graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1854, he spent time in Florida during the Seminole displacement of Trail of Tears, before he taught ethics at West Point and married the chaplain’s daughter.  His first t

Oct 15, 2024 • 53:07

H.H. Furness, the Seybert Commission, and Grilling Mediums

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #067, Part 2 Spiritualism was a belief system that involved communication with the dead.  Philadelphia gentleman Adam Seybert was a true believer and wanted others to believe.  He left money in his will to establish a department at Penn to prove his point.  The committee was headed by Shakespearean scholar Horace Howard Furness and featured many Philadelphia notables.  The real fun started when they interviewed Maggie Fox, one of the founders of spiritua

Oct 3, 2024 • 22:46

Walter Hubbell & The Great Amherst Mystery

ABC#067, part 1   Walter Hubbell was a Philadelphia-born actor who would probably be forgotten today were it not for the Great Amherst Mystery, a book he wrote about Esther Cox, a young woman seemingly possessed by evil spirits which started after she suffered a failed sexual assault at gunpoint by a young man she trusted.   Esther's nightmarish experiences affected not only her, but the people with whom she lived: she was even temporarily jailed as an arsonist when a neighbor's barn burned to t

Oct 1, 2024 • 45:43

William, Edward, & George Vare: The Dukes of South Philadelphia

Biographical Bytes from Bala #036: William, Edward & George Vare: The Dukes of South Philadelphia The Vare brothers grew up unschooled, slopping hogs and hawking vegetables in "The Neck", the poorest section of Philadelphia.  They got into trash collection and within a few years were scooping up city contracts by the armful.  They grew rich and powerful along the way and eventually even collected a kickback from the mayor.  All three Vare brothers are interred at Laurel Hill West. Historian,

Sep 15, 2024 • 43:27

Emory R. Johnson and the Panama Canal

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #066 - Laurel Hill and the Panama Canal, Part 4 Emory Richard Johnson was the only Professor of Transportation and Commerce in the United States when he was asked to come up with a payment schedule for people using the Panama Canal.  His methods were used for more than half a century.

Sep 7, 2024 • 17:37

Charles Day and the Panama Canal

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #066 - Laurel Hill and the Panama Canal, Part 3 Charles Day was a master builder.  His Philadelphia firm Day & Zimmerman was first to pour concrete at the massive Culebra locks, which worked perfectly from day one.

Sep 6, 2024 • 15:09

Lewis M Haupt and the Panama Canal

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #066 - Laurel Hill and the Panama Canal, Part 2 Lewis Haupt was son of famed railroad Engineer Herman Haupt (see Biographical Bytes from Bala #10: Lincoln's Railroad Man).  Lewis became a civil engineer who was skeptical about a canal across Panama but joined the working committee when he was invited.

Sep 5, 2024 • 11:30

John Cresson Trautwine and the Panama Canal

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #066 - Laurel Hill and the Panama Canal, Part 1 John Cresson Trautwine was a civil engineer who wrote what became the definitive Engineer's Handbook which was standard text for decades; he also predicted that it would be impossible to build a canal through Panama.

Sep 4, 2024 • 23:07

Rudolph Hering & Reversing the Chicago River

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #066, Pushing Water, Section 2 Rudolph Hering was son of the famed homeopath Constantine Hering.  He became such as expert on hydraulic engineering that he was invited to Chicago to assist with their drinking water problem, and he helped them reverse the river.

Sep 3, 2024 • 30:52

Frederick Graff and Watering Philadelphia

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #066, Pushing Water, Section 1 Frederick Graff was a civil engineer / architect who quickly learned the principles of hydraulics when he was tagged to set up the water supply for Philadelphia.  He became a master of his craft.

Sep 2, 2024 • 31:58

ABC066 Frederick Graff, Rudolph Hering, John C. Trautwine, Lewis Haupt, Charles Day, Emory R. Johnson: Pushing Water, Part 1

All Bones Considered #066: Pushing Water Frederick Graff took over from Benjamin Latrobe to develop the Philadelphia Water Works Rudolph Hering was summoned to Chicago to help them with their drinking water problem and helped them reverse the flow of the Chicago River John C. Trautwine is remembered for his book, called "The Engineer's Bible," and for predicting a canal could never be built across Panama Lewis Haupt was another doubter, although he served on the Panama Committee Charles Day Phil

Sep 1, 2024 • 2:28:43

WALKING TOUR OF LAUREL HILL WEST from Barmouth to Pencoyd

If you have walked or ridden your bike through West Laurel Hill Cemetery from the entrance just off the Cynwyd Trail all the way to the Pencoyd exit on Righter’s Ferry Road, you have probably passed dozens of mausoleums and gravesites that you had questions about.  Now there’s an audio narration to help you quench your curiosity.  It is done by Joe Lex, the same person who researches and narrates Laurel Hill’s twice-monthly podcasts “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories” and “Biographical B

Aug 25, 2024 • 41:19

WALKING TOUR OF LAUREL HILL WEST from Pencoyd to Barmouth

Your walk or ride from the Righters Ferry entrance to the Barmouth entrance at the Cynwyd Heritage Trail is less than a mile, but you pass scores of grave markers and dozens of mausoleums, most with stained glass.  This 47-minute narration gives you mini-biographies of more than 50 people who have resting places you pass along the route.  They are captains of industry, philanthropists, teachers, physicians, artists, and others who helped shaped the history of Philadelphia.  This narrative is a c

Aug 25, 2024 • 47:06

William M. Meredith: U.S. Poet Laureate

Biographical Bytes from Bala #035 William Morris Meredith, Jr., described himself as a "B+ poet who has written a few A+ poems".  Despite his modesty, his poetry was recognized as some of the best in post-WWII America.  He served for two years as US Poet Laureate and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.  He is interred at Laurel Hill West.

Aug 15, 2024 • 33:58

Richard Burr: Poster Child for Wartime Embalmers

All Bones Considered #065 - Part 4  Richard Burr was a Civil War surgeon who found there was more money in "treating" the dead and became an embalmer. Photographer Matthew Brady immortalized him with a battlefield photo.   This is section 4 of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #065 - Fathers and Mothers of American Medicine, Part 4.  You can find plenty of other stories about American medical pioneers in earlier episodes.

Aug 5, 2024 • 24:36

Anna Lukens and the She Doctor Panic of 1869

All Bones Considered #065 - Part 3  In 1869, Anna Lukens was one of the 30+ medical students from Women's Medical College who inadvertently caused an uproar when they showed up at the weekly clinics.  Despite having permission to be there and purchasing tickets, their mere presence caused a riot among the "gentlemen".     I am experimenting with short form.  I will continue to post the monthly long-form podcast on the 1st and 15th, but I will also start making available the individual people as

Aug 4, 2024 • 29:49

Thomas Story Kirkbride: An Architect for Madness

All Bones Considered #065 - Part 2 Thomas Kirkbride trained as a surgeon but developed an interest in madness during his training.  His blueprint for asylums became the standard for nearly a century.   This is one of four people I talk about in All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #65 - Fathers and Mothers of American Medicine, Part 4.  You will find many other stories about Philadelphia medical pioneers in Parts 1, 2, and 3.

Aug 3, 2024 • 38:37

John Rhea Barton and Surgical Innovation

All Bones Considered #065 - Part 1 John Rhea Barton was a student of Philip Syng Physick who carried on his reputation as an innovative and bold surgeon in the early 19th century.   An excerpt from the podcast "Fathers (and Mothers) of American Medicine, Part 4.

Aug 2, 2024 • 19:03

ABC065 John Rhea Barton, Thomas Storey Kirkbride, Anna Lukens, Richard Burr: Fathers and Mothers of American Medicine, Part 4

John Rhea Barton was a master surgeon who has both a fracture and a professorship named for him. Thomas Story Kirkbride wanted to take Barton’s role, but instead got interested in caring for the mentally ill at a time when a new philosophy was being introduced. Kirkbride asylums became the standard of care for many decades. Anna Lukens was among the students from Women’s Medical College who were verbally and physically assaulted after an attempt at coeducational clinical teaching at Pennsylvania

Aug 1, 2024 • 2:16:14

Katherine "Kitty" Hershey: Temporary Residency

Biographical Bytes from Bala #034, Part 3 Milton Hershey's beloved wife Kitty died in a Philadelphia hotel room and spent nearly three years in a receiving vault at Laurel Hill West until a new cemetery was built in Hershey as her final resting place.

Jul 18, 2024 • 22:36

Franklin Baker: Sublime with the Coconut

Biographical Bytes from Bala, #034, part 2 Grain merchant Franklin Baker once received a load of coconut as payment for a boatload of grain.  Baker turned this serendipitous occurrence into a lifetime of working with coconut, such that the name “Baker’s” is almost synonymous with coconuts.

Jul 17, 2024 • 26:51

Henry Oscar Wilbur: Buds vs. Kisses

Biographical Bytes from Bala #034, Part 1 Henry Oscar Wilbur was a Philadelphia chocolatier who was probably most famous for his small chocolate pieces with his name on the bottom.  He called them Wilbur Buds and offered a spirited competition to Milton Hershey’s Kisses.

Jul 16, 2024 • 23:46

Henry Oscar Wilbur, Franklin Baker, Katherine "Kitty" Hershey: Sweet Tooth, part 1

Biographical Bytes from Bala #034 - COMPLETE Almost everybody loves chocolate.  Henry Oscar Wilbur was a Philadelphia chocolatier who was probably most famous for his small chocolate pieces with his name on the bottom.  He called them Wilbur Buds and offered a spirited competition to Milton Hershey’s Kisses. Although Hershey is not buried locally, his beloved wife Kitty spent nearly three years in a receiving vault until a new cemetery was built in Hershey as her final resting place. Grain merch

Jul 15, 2024 • 1:18:46

Donald Fithian Lippincott: Surprising Medalist at Stockholm

All Bones Considered #064, Part 4 The Olympics are here.  If you missed it the first time, here’s an opportunity to learn about some Olympiads interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.  Donald Fithian Lippincott surprised everyone, including himself, when he took both a bronze and a silver in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. And don’t forget All Bones Considered #029: The Zany Games about Laurel Hill residents at 1900’s Olympiad II in Paris.  https://jrlexjr.podbean.com/e/olympiad-ii-paris-1900/ or whereve

Jul 5, 2024 • 13:49

Ted Meredith: The Fastest Schoolboy in the Country

All Bones Considered #064, Part 3  The Olympics are here.  If you missed it the first time, here’s an opportunity to learn about some Olympiads interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.  James Edwin “Ted” Meredith was the fastest schoolboy in the country and broke every distance running record from 100 meters to 1 mile; his Gold in the 1912 Olympics was for the 4 x 400-meter relay. And don’t forget All Bones Considered #029: The Zany Games about Laurel Hill residents in 1900’s Olympiad II in Paris.

Jul 4, 2024 • 37:22

Jervis Watson Burdick and the Stockholm Games

All Bones Considered #064, Part 2  The Olympics are here.  If you missed it the first time, here’s an opportunity to learn about some Olympiads interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.  Jervis Watson Burdick was a UPenn student member of the Sphinx Club and the Canteen Club who competed in the1912 Olympics but did not medal. You will learn about four athletes along with the jumbled letters of the AC4A, the AAU, the NCAA, and the IAAF on this month’s edition of “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stor

Jul 3, 2024 • 23:16

Lawson "Robbie" Robertson: Coach Extraordinaire

All Bones Considered #064, Part 1  The Olympics are here.  If you missed it the first time, here’s an opportunity to learn about some Olympiads interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.  Lawson “Robbie” Robertson won medals in the Intercalated Games of 1906 in Athens and went on to become head coach of the University of Pennsylvania track and field team.  He took them back to the Olympics several more times. You will learn about four athletes along with the jumbled letters of the AC4A, the AAU, the N

Jul 2, 2024 • 32:58

ABC#064 Four More Olympians from 1904 to 1912

An earlier episode of All Bones Considered covered the 1900 Paris Olympiad and some Laurel Hill residents who participated.  This month features four more Olympians from the early 20th century. Lawson “Robbie” Robertson won medals in the Intercalated Games of 1906 in Athens and went on to become head coach of the University of Pennsylvania track and field team.  He took them back to the Olympics several more times. Jervis Watson Burdick was a UPenn student member of the Sphinx Club and the Cante

Jul 1, 2024 • 2:00:56

Abram Winegardner Harris: A Forgotten Educator

Biographical Bytes from Bala #033  Abram Winegardner Harris was one of the top educators in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  After he was schooled in Philadelphia and spent time with the Department of Agriculture, he served as president of the land grant school in Orono when it became the University of Maine. While there he helped establish the first general studies academic fraternity Phi Kappa Phi.  Then he spent a few years at a private secondary boarding school i

Jun 15, 2024 • 33:55

George Henry Boker: The Playwright Who Fixed Everything

ABC #063 - Part 4 George Henry Boker was one of Philadelphia’s most accomplished men – poet, playwright, politician, and co-founder of the Union League.  He also solidified copyright laws in the United States so creators could be fairly paid.  Oh – he was also minister to Turkey and Russia.

Jun 5, 2024 • 30:57

Robert Taylor Conrad: Mayor and Playwright

ABC #063 - Part 3 Robert Taylor Conrad was a polymath whose writing was praised by Edgar Allen Poe and whose play Aylmere, or Jack Cade became another favorite of Edwin Forrest’s.  He also served as Mayor of Philadelphia at the time of consolidation.

Jun 4, 2024 • 24:17

Robert Montgomery Bird: Edwin Forrest & The Gladiator

ABC #063 - Part 2 Robert Montgomery Bird was a physician who wrote a play for Edwin Forrest that became the basis for plays and movies into the 21st century.  Forrest became rich, while Bird became an embittered man.

Jun 3, 2024 • 30:40

Richard Penn Smith: Inventing Davy Crockett

ABC #063 - Part 1 Richard Penn Smith wrote more than 20 plays but is best remembered today for inventing much of what we know as the legend of Davy Crockett.

Jun 2, 2024 • 23:37

ABC#063 Richard Penn Smith, Robert Montgomery Bird, Robert Taylor Conrad, George Henry Boker: Curtain Up! Four Early Philadelphia Playwrights

Americans struggled to establish their own identity as they separated from the British in the early 19th century.  It was a time of blossoming for American theater and its playwrights, despite their receiving little honor and even less compensation. Richard Penn Smith wrote more than 20 plays but is best remembered today for inventing much of what we know as the legend of Davy Crockett. Robert Montgomery Bird, MD, was a physician who wrote a play for Edwin Forrest that became the basis for plays

Jun 1, 2024 • 2:11:14

Philadelphia's Jazz Lodestar: Dennis Sandole

Biographical Bytes from Bala #032 Dennis Sandole was one of the best kept secrets in jazz.  Born Dionigi Sandoli in South-Philadelphia-born, his teaching techniques were sought by Art Farmer, James Moody, Benny Golson, Jim Hall, and especially John Coltrane, who became his most famous student.  Coltrane spent hours practicing daily to master the material that The Maestro gave him and turn it into his own sound, which eventually became “Sheets of Sound” and then “Coltrane Changes”.  Sandole rarel

May 15, 2024 • 1:14:46

J.B. Lippincott: Lippincott's Magazine

ABC #062 - Part 3  Joshua Ballinger Lippincott was a late comer with his Lippincott’s magazine, but it lasted longer than the others and served as the bedrock for the famed Lippincott Publishing Company which went through several generations of family leadership.

May 4, 2024 • 16:34

Charles Jacob Peterson and Peterson's Magazine

ABC #062 - Part 2 Charles Peterson was a lifelong friend of Graham who started his own magazine and was ready to hand it off to his son, Howard, who mysteriously disappeared during a weekend trip down the shore.  What his wife did at the time of her death 31 years later will touch your heart.

May 3, 2024 • 25:08

George Rex Graham and Graham's Magazine

ABC #062 - Part 1 Of the 19th century magazines out of Philadelphia, Graham’s was the best, even though it only lasted a few years.  George Rex Graham would wheedle articles out of Longfellow and Thoreau and published many stories by his co-editor Edgar Allan Poe.

May 2, 2024 • 28:50

ABC#062 Three More Philadelphia Magazines: Graham's, Peterson's, and Lippincott's

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #062 (complete) Philadelphia has always been the magazine-publishing capital of the United States.  It reached its pinnacle in the 1840s, 50s, and 60s when three popular magazines – Graham’s, Peterson's, and Lippincott's - all came into existence.  Graham’s was the best, even though it only lasted a few years.  George Rex Graham would wheedle articles out of Longfellow and Thoreau and published many stories by his co-editor Edgar Allan Poe. Peterson’s ma

May 1, 2024 • 1:23:36

Gladys Hall & Russell Ball: Glamourizing Early Hollywood

Biographical Bytes from Bala #031 It wasn’t long after movies became ubiquitous in America that movie fan magazine appeared.  Eventually there would be more than 20 of them.  Gladys Hall had a stellar reputation as a “safe” interviewer who could be depended on to tell a good story without any scandal.  Her interview with Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi is one of the strangest things you could imagine. She was married to glamour photographer Russell Ball, remembered today for his classic portraits of

Apr 15, 2024 • 53:10

Pete Childs: No, Not That One

ABC #061 - Part 4 Pete Childs (not "Cupid" and definitely not "Pierce") was a fine 2nd baseman who served in that role for the 1902 Phillies.  It was while serving as player-manager for an Ohio League team that he pulled the unfathomable feat of throwing one pitch as a reliever and getting three out.

Apr 5, 2024 • 18:03

Jack McFetridge: Super Amateur, So-So Pro

ABC #061 - Part 3 Jack McFetridge was the best amateur pitcher in Philadelphia for years before he went pro.  He wasn’t that good.

Apr 4, 2024 • 16:32

Cub Stricker: A Hot-Tempered Infielder

ABC #061 - Part 2 Cub Stricker was a good fielding 2nd baseman with a hot temper who was arrested on the field to avoid fan rioting when he struck a heckler with a thrown ball.

Apr 3, 2024 • 17:01

Walter "Slick" Schlichter: Pioneer in Black Baseball

ABC #061 - Part 1 Henry Walter “Slick” Schlichter started as a bantamweight and a boxing promoter who became a sportswriter and then partnered with Black baseball pioneer Sol White to organize the best Negro league team in the country at the turn of the 20th century.

Apr 2, 2024 • 25:20

ABC#061 Play Ball! Part 3: Four More Baseball Pioneers at Laurel Hill

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #061 - Play Ball! Part 3: Four More Baseball Pioneers at Laurel Hill Henry Walter “Slick” Schlichter started as a bantamweight and a boxing promoter who became a sportswriter and then partnered with Black baseball pioneer Sol White to organize the best Negro league team in the country at the turn of the 20th century. Cub Stricker was a "good field - no hit" 2nd baseman with a hot temper who was arrested on the field to avoid fan rioting when he struck a

Apr 1, 2024 • 1:29:44

Grayce Nottage Nicholas: Black Is Beautiful

Biographical Bytes from Bala #030 Grayce Nottage-Nicholas was an older sister of Civil Rights activist C. Delores Tucker, but she made a name for herself as a teacher, parole officer, police detective, and beauty queen at a time when women of color were not welcomed to traditional beauty pageants.  In this episode I tell you about the evolution of beauty pageants, how pigmentocracy and straight hair defined beauty from a white perspective, how African American women created their own standards o

Mar 15, 2024 • 42:51

Anna J Magee: Enabling the Disabled

ABC #060 - Part 3 Anna Justina Magee was the last of seven siblings who lived together their entire lives.  Her legacy for the family was a hospital designed for people who were convalescing from injury – The Magee Rehabilitation Hospital.

Mar 4, 2024 • 27:39

Elizabeth Duane Gillespie: The Woman Who Saved the Centennial

ABC #060 - Part 2 Elizabeth Duane Gillespie came from a politically active family; she was the chief fundraiser and organizer for the Sanitary Fair of 1864, which put her in the position to lead the way for the Centennial Exposition of 1876.  She ended up rescuing it from disaster.

Mar 3, 2024 • 34:33

Esther DeBerdt Reed: From Tory to American Patriot

ABC #060 - Part 1 London-born Esther DeBerdt Reed married a man who became George Washington’s right-hand man and switched her Tory allegiance to become a radial patriot; the organization she founded to provide some relief to the soldiers fighting for her freedom didn’t quite go the way that she had planned.

Mar 2, 2024 • 49:44

ABC#060: Three More Women Who Changed Philadelphia

Woman have played a major but underrecognized role in our Nation’s history since its inception.    *London-born Esther DeBerdt Reed married a man who became George Washington’s right-hand man and switched her Tory allegiance to become a radial patriot; the organization she founded to provide some relief to the soldiers fighting for her freedom didn’t quite go the way that she had planned.    *Elizabeth Duane Gillespie came from a politically active family; she was the chief fundraiser and organi

Mar 1, 2024 • 2:06:12

MOVE and Laurel Hill

Biographical Bytes from Bala #029 In 1985, the City of Philadelphia did something unheard of in the United States – it dropped a bomb on one of its neighborhoods.  The resulting fire killed 6 adult and 5 child members of a radical primitivist environmental anarchic group called MOVE.  The fire spread along Osage Avenue, destroyed more than 60 homes, and left 250 men, women, and children homeless.  Former MOVE members are interred in Nature’s Sanctuary, the green natural burial section at Laurel

Feb 16, 2024 • 1:20:15

Winifred "Winnie" Harris: A Perfect Next-Door Neighbor

ABC #059 - Part 2 Winifred Harris was the woman you wanted as your next-door neighbor.  She rescued abandoned properties in West Philadelphia and converted them into vegetable gardens for the neighborhood, while planting more than 1000 trees for the city.  Her shocking death at the hands of a home intruder was mourned by all who knew her.

Feb 4, 2024 • 15:05

Samuel L Evans: The Godfather of Black Philadelphia Politics

ABC #059 - Part 3 Samuel L. Evans saw five lynchings before he was 10 years old.  Through machinations that people are still pondering, he managed to make himself the “Godfather of Black Philadelphia” despite never being elected to public office.  His wake was in City Hall.

Feb 3, 2024 • 36:08

Sarah A. Anderson: Quietly Making Changes

ABC #059 - Part 1 Sarah A. Anderson served 17 years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and quietly changed life for the better for thousands of Pennsylvanians, Black and white.

Feb 2, 2024 • 20:42

ABC#059 Three More Black Pioneers

The Black population of Philadelphia dates to Colonial times but expanded tremendously during the so-called Great Migration that started around 1910.  Sarah A. Anderson came from an educated family – her father was the first Black dentist in Florida and her husband was a politically active podiatrist.  Sarah served 17 years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and quietly changed life for the better for thousands of Pennsylvanians, Black and white. Samuel L. Evans was also from Florida a

Feb 1, 2024 • 1:25:54

The Philadelphia Orchestra & Laurel Hill West

Biographical Bytes from Bala #028 The Philadelphia Orchestra has been one of America’s “Big Five” philharmonics for more than a century.  As it was being assembled in the late 1890s, it looked like the job of “first conductor” would go to local concertmaster and second generation Irish American Harry Gordon Thunder, but instead the position went to Johann Friedrich Ludwig “Fritz” Scheel, a German immigrant with seemingly unlimited energies and innovations, but the job probably shortened his life

Jan 15, 2024 • 1:09:00

Robert McNeil: Making Tylenol a Household Name

ABC #058 - Part 5 McNeil Laboratories introduced Tylenol Elixir for Children in 1955, then watched it become one of the best-selling over-the-counter meds of all time.

Jan 5, 2024 • 23:30

William Warner: Partnering with Lambert

ABC #058 - Part 4 William Warner learned how to sugarcoat pills, making theem far more palatable.  Warner’s pharmacopeia was distributed internationally and served as the standard reference for doctors and pharmacists for years.

Jan 4, 2024 • 10:49

John & Frank Wyeth: Compressing Pills

ABC #058 - Part 3 The Wyeth Brothers invented a machine that standardized the size of pills and tablets.  It changed the pharmaceutical industry.

Jan 3, 2024 • 15:15

Powers & Weightman: Making Millions in Quinine

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #058: Laurel Hill & Big Pharma, Part 2 William Weightman, with his partner Thomas Powers made millions by selling quinine to the US government. He spent it wisely.

Jan 3, 2024 • 11:52

Philadelphia College of Pharmacy: In the Beginning

ABC #058 - Part 1 Philadelphia became the pharmaceutical capital of the country primarily because of the College of Pharmacy, which has trained thousands of pharmacists over the past two centuries.

Jan 2, 2024 • 13:34

ABC#058 Big Pharma & Laurel Hill: The Beginnings

Several multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies got their starts in Philadelphia as neighborhood drug stores.  Weightman, Powers, and Rosengarten made their money by selling quinine to the US government.  James Smith and Clayton French did not know each and both started as neighborhood druggists; but family and business partners kept their businesses going and their names prominent long after their deaths.  The Wyeth Brothers invented a machine that standardized the size of pills and table

Jan 1, 2024 • 1:37:31

BONUS: Anna Weightman Penfield and the Fioretta Follies

Anna Weightman Penfield, the only daughter of quinine king William Weightman, became the richest woman in the world when her father died.  In 1929 when she was in her 80s, she decided that she wanted to produce a Broadway musical featuring songs by two young friends.  She even managed to convince impresario Earl Carroll, the so-called “troubadour of the nude”, to write the book and produce it.  He called it “Fioretta”.  Carroll used it as a vehicle for his current girlfriend Dorothy Knapp, a cho

Dec 25, 2023 • 29:51

Jack Rose: An Old Soul Guitarist

Biographical Bytes from Bala #027 Jack Rose was an old soul guitarist who took John Fahey and other fingerpickers as role models.  Born in Virginia in 1971, Rose moved to Philadelphia in 1998, where he became part of the alternative music scene.  As he taught himself the primitive styles of Blind Blake, Charlie Patton, and others, he took on the name “Dr. Ragtime”.  His album “Raag Manifesto” was named one of the top 50 records of the year by British music magazine “The Wire”.  Davendra Banhart

Dec 15, 2023 • 41:02

C Morgan Knight: Death of a Good Samaritan

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #057 - Murder Most Foul, Part 5 C Morgan Knight was a very successful Chestnut Hill businessman who stopped at Wanamaker's for a quick shopping trip before he headed home after work.  He tried to stop a robbery and was shot; his murderer got the chair.

Dec 5, 2023 • 13:36

Archibald McCurdy: Death of a Night Watchman

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #057 - Murder Most Foul, Part 4 Archibald McCurdy was the least gregarious of the McCurdy brothers, he found his niche in the family's store as night watchman.  A botched robbery attempt took his life.

Dec 4, 2023 • 19:35

George Haas: Shot by a Disgruntled Employee

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #057 - Murder Most Foul, Part 3 Almost everyone thought that George Haas was an excellent boss, but one employee felt otherwise and shot him as he left work.

Dec 3, 2023 • 17:01

Mahlon Hutchinson Heberton, Singleton Mercer, and The Monks of Monk's Hall (by Thomas Keels)

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #057 - Murder Most Foul, Part 2 Historian and fellow volunteer tour guide Thomas Keels reads from his book Wicked Philadelphia about an honor killing of Mahlon Hutchinson Heberton by Singleton Mercer that author George Lippard turned into a best-selling novel.

Dec 2, 2023 • 29:55

George K Smith & The Molly Maguires

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #057 - Murder Most Foul, Part 1 George K. Smith was a mine supervisor at a time when secret societies were rampant.  His death at the hand of home invaders was blamed on the Molly Maguires, but the details aren't as specific.

Dec 2, 2023 • 13:50

ABC#057: Murder Most Foul, Part 1

There are hundreds of people buried at Laurel Hill East and Laurel Hill West who were the victims of personal violence – accidental, intentional, and self-inflicted.  This month’s episode tells you of nine people who were killed by others.  Author / historian Thomas Keels will read you a chapter from his book Wicked Philadelphia that tells the amazing story of Singleton Mercer and Mahlon Hutchinson Heberton. I will tell you of Mine supervisor George K. Smith who was purportedly killed by the I

Dec 1, 2023 • 1:59:55

BG Isidor S. Ravdin, MD: The Surgeon Is a General -

Biographical Bytes from Bala #026 Isidor Schwaner Ravdin was a second-generation American and a fourth-generation physician who combined research with surgery and completely changed the fields of both.  During his 40+ years at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Ravdin rose to become Chief of Surgery and Director of Research.  During World War II, he ran what Vinegar Joe Stillwell called “the best g**d*** hospital in the Army” during the China Burma India (CBI) campaign.  When Presid

Nov 15, 2023 • 50:50

The Pew Family & Sun Oil

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #056, Philadelphia and Oil, Part 2 Joseph Newton Pew grew up in a large, impoverished family in upstate Pennsylvania, but he was able to start a petroleum firm.  His sons J. Howard Pew and Joseph N. Pew Jr. eventually took over and grew Sun Oil into the international juggernaut it is today.  But the Pew family has always been involved in giving back and supporting the community.

Nov 3, 2023 • 46:50

Pennsylvania and Oil

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #056, Philadelphia and Oil, Part 1 While we tend to think of "oil" and "Texas" as synonymous, it was Pennsylvania where the first big oil strikes were made, and major refineries greeted visitors as they came from the airport.  Only recently has the Point Breeze section of the city been reclaimed and is undergoing a total makeover.

Nov 2, 2023 • 31:33

ABC#056: J. Newton Pew and Sun Oil - Philadelphia and Oil

We don’t normally think of Philadelphia as being an oil town, but the Point Breeze refinery in South Philadelphia, easily visible from the Pratt Bridge on your ride to the airport, dominated the skyline for many decades with its storage tanks and distilling towers.  Born in the middle of Pennsylvania’s Titusville oil boom in the northwest corner of the state, J. Newton Pew established Sun Oil in 1890. After its move to Philadelphia, Newton’s sons Howard and Joe Jr. ran the company for decades an

Nov 1, 2023 • 1:37:12

William Wagner: Free Science for All

Biographical Bytes from Bala #025 William Wagner was a self-taught naturalist and a very rich man who believed in giving free education to anyone who wanted it.  He opened his Wagner Free Institute of Science in 1855 and used his own collection as teaching aids – flora and fauna from around the world, fossils, rocks, bones – tens of thousands of items.  When Wagner died in 1885, his museum was improved by Joseph Leidy, “the last man who knew everything,” and further expanded.  Now a visit to the

Oct 15, 2023 • 50:40

William Schaffer: A Five O'Clock Club Stalwart

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #055, The Supremes, Part 4 William Schaffer wrote the majority opinion in the 1927 case which decided that Sunday baseball was in violation of the state's 1794 "blue laws."  He spent 20 years on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Oct 5, 2023 • 16:41

James Tyndale Mitchell: An Ideal Judge

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #055, The Supremes, Part 3 James T. Mitchell served as Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from 1903 to 1910 and was considered an ideal judge.  He also amassed a world-class collection of historical engraved portraits.

Oct 4, 2023 • 14:57

George Sharswood: Blocking Women's Suffrage

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #055, The Supremes, Part 2 George Sharswood served as Dean of the Law School at Penn from 1852 to 1868.  He served on the State Supreme Court for many years and as Chief Justice; in 1871 he and a majority ruled against suffragette Carrie Burnham, which denied the vote to women for an additional 48 years.

Oct 3, 2023 • 24:36

Robert C. Grier & Dred Scott: "I concur"

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #055, The Supremes, Part 1 Robert C. Grier spent 24 years on the US Supreme Court at a critical time (1846-1870) in the country's history.  Today we cringe at some of his decisions.

Oct 2, 2023 • 32:02

ABC#055: Robert Cooper Grier, George Sharswood, James Tyndale Mitchell, & William Irwin Schaffer - The Supremes - Justices at Laurel Hill

Robert Cooper Grier was selected for the United States Supreme Court in 1846 to replace another justice who had died 841 days before – the longest gap in the history of the court.  He served for nearly a quarter century and voted in many key decisions, including Dred Scott v. Sandford. George Sharswood was the first dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.  While serving as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, he made a decision which probably delayed women’s rights t

Oct 1, 2023 • 1:46:50

Glenna Collett Vare: The Female Bobby Jones

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #024 Glenna Collett-Vare was one of the giants of women’s golf and the top American player in the 1920s and 30s.  She won 49 amateur tournaments between 1921 and 1935.  She could hit a ball straight down the fairway nearly 300 yards.  She was the first woman to break 80 in the U.S. Women’s Amateur, which she won six times.  She is in the golf hall of fame, and the Vare Trophy is awarded annually to the woman professional with the best scorin

Sep 15, 2023 • 41:12

Richie Barrett...and "Some Other Guy"

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #054: "Hey, I Know That Song", Part 5 Singer / songwriter / A&R man Richard "Richie" Barrett was cremated at Laurel Hill West, but even the Beatles were early admirers of his work.

Sep 6, 2023 • 18:39

Phebe Blessington: Covering Some of Your Favorites

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #054: "Hey, I Know That Song", Part 4 Leonard "Hub" Hubbard was founding member of The Roots whom I will cover in full in a later podcast.   Phebe Blessington was an extremely popular local singer who was tragically killed while heading to a gig shortly after her 30th birthday.

Sep 5, 2023 • 13:58

Brenda Payton & The Tabulations

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #054: "Hey, I Know That Song", Part 3 After Brenda Payton was discovered while singing on a street corner, she was soon high on the R&B charts with songs like "Dry Your Eyes" and "Right on the Tip of My Tongue"

Sep 3, 2023 • 21:01

William Kirkpatrick & Away in a Manger

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #054: "Hey, I Know That Song", Part 2 William Kirkpatrick was an Irish-born hymn writer whose Christmas carol you have been singing all your life.  It is highly likely you have sung other hymns written by him without knowing the composer.

Sep 3, 2023 • 21:17

Septimus Winner: Of Mockingbirds, Indians, and Little Dogs

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #054: "Hey, I Know That Song", Part 1 Septimus Winner composed several ear worms you sang as a child or with your children, including "Listen to the Mockingbird" and "Ten Little Indians".

Sep 2, 2023 • 33:42

ABC#054 Hey! I Know That Song! - Composers and Interpreters

Septimus Winner was the composer of several catchy songs you sang as a child or have sung with your children William Kirkpatrick was a hymn writer whose Christmas carol you have been singing all your life Brenda Payton was lead singer for the R&B group Brenda and the Tabulations Phebe Blessington was an up-and-coming singer-songwriter who was killed in an auto accident shortly after her 30th birthday Singer / songwriter / A&R man Richie Barrett’s final services and cremation were at Laur

Sep 1, 2023 • 2:00:53

Henry Plumer McIlhenny: Philadelphia’s First Gentleman

Biographical Bytes from Bala #023 Andy Warhol considered him "the only person in town with glamour."  The Philadelphia Art Alliance deemed him "the first gentleman of Philadelphia."  Connoisseur Magazine named him one of the top ten art collectors of all time.   When Henry Plumer McIlhenny died in 1986, he left everything - an estimated $100M worth - to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where he had served for 50 years as curator, trustee and chairman of the board.  His collections were housed in

Aug 15, 2023 • 43:45

Charles Baily's Last Round

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #053 - Suited to a Tee, part 4 Charles Baily met his final fate on the 4th green of Merion East Cricket Club in 1933

Aug 5, 2023 • 9:23

George Thomas & Whitemarsh Country Club

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #053 - Suited to a Tee, part 3 George Clifford Thomas Jr. designed the original course at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, outside Philadelphia, and more than twenty courses in California, including Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades and Red Hill Country Club in Rancho Cucamonga.

Aug 4, 2023 • 20:57

Hugh Wilson & Merion Golf Club

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #053 - Suited to a Tee, part 2 Hugh Wilson was one of six golf architects called "The Philadelphia School".  He designed the classic Merion East Course, as well as the final four holes at Pine Valley.

Aug 3, 2023 • 20:32

Ida Dixon: The First Woman Golf Architect

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #053 - Suited to a Tee, part 1 Ida Dixon was the first woman golf course architect in the country.  Among her work is the Springhaven Club which is still in use.

Aug 2, 2023 • 16:51

ABC#053: Ida Dixon, Hugh Wilson, Charles Thomas, & Charles Baily - Suited to a Tee - Golf Course Pioneers

Philadelphia has been an epicenter for golf since the 1890s.  There are dozens of golf courses within an easy drive of the city, and a few in the city itself.  Ida Dixon is today recognized as the first woman golf course architect in the United States. Hugh Wilson and Charles Thomas were two of the six architects who made up what is called The Philadelphia School.  The two of them helped build 4 of the top ranked courses in the country. Charles Baily met his final destiny on the 4th green of Mer

Aug 1, 2023 • 1:57:27

Shop Until Thou Droppest - Strawbridge & Clothier: The Early Years

Biographical Bytes from Bala #022 As transportation in and around Philadelphia improved in the mid 19th century and the population exploded, merchants found more people clamoring for their wares.  Two Quakers – Justus Clayton Strawbridge and Isaac Hallowell Clothier – joined forces and opened a small fabric store on the corner of 8th and Market in 1868.  By the end of the century, there were thousands of employees and they had expanded severalfold and became the biggest dry goods store in the co

Jul 15, 2023 • 45:41

Sarah Lee Lippincott & 20th Century Star-Gazing

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #052 - Reach for the Stars, part 4 Sarah Lee Lippincott, whose first husband was television pioneer Dave Garroway (See All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #013, On the Tube), became a beloved professor of astronomy and astrometry at Swarthmore University.

Jul 5, 2023 • 19:15

William Rau & Capturing the Transit of Venus

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #052 - Reach for the Stars, part 3 Photography pioneer William Rau was tapped to be a photographer for the 1874 worldwide evaluation of the Transit of Venus, but most people involved in that venture would admit that photography was useless in capturing new information.

Jul 4, 2023 • 18:45

Hannah Bouvier Peterson & Teaching the Stars

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #052 - Reach for the Stars, part 2 Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson was a popular author whose work “Familiar Astronomy” was the best-selling astronomy textbook in the 19th century.

Jul 3, 2023 • 16:35

David Rittenhouse

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #052 - Reach for the Stars, part 1   One of America’s Founding Fathers David Rittenhouse was recognized in the colonies as being not only the finest astronomer in the land, but the finest builder of delicate, accurate astronomical equipment.

Jul 2, 2023 • 42:17

ABC#052: Reach for the Sky - Astronomers of Laurel Hill

Man has been fascinated by the sky for as long as he has walked on earth.  Star gazing has been the hobby – and the profession – of millions of people from around the world.  One of America’s Founding Fathers David Rittenhouse was recognized in the colonies as being not only the finest astronomer in the land, but the finest builder of delicate, accurate astronomical equipment. Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson was a popular author whose work “Familiar Astronomy” was the best-selling astronomy textboo

Jul 1, 2023 • 1:58:22

Duffy’s Cut: Blood on the Tracks at Mile 59

Biographical Bytes from Bala #021 The first American railroads were built with the blood, tears and sweat of Irish immigrants.  An estimated 50,000 died in the process.  In the 3-mph world of 1832, 57 fresh-off-the-boat Irishmen were hired by their countryman Philip Duffy.  They were taken to live in a shantytown and work at mile 59 of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, which is now part of SEPTA’s R5 Main Line.  Cholera arrived a short time later and within a few weeks all of Duffy’s worke

Jun 15, 2023 • 51:17

LT James Hansell French and Victorio's Apache

ABC #051 - Part 4 LT James Hansell French was killed in the San Mateo Mountains of New Mexico territory in 1880 as the Buffalo Soldier troops under his command pursued the great Apache chief Victorio and his warriors.

Jun 4, 2023 • 25:13

LT Jonathan Biddle Battles Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce

ABC #051 - Part 5 Jonathan Williams Biddle, whose father Henry Biddle had been killed in the Civil War, lost his life in the Battle of Bear Paw, also in Montana, in 1877 against Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce.

Jun 4, 2023 • 19:49

Lt Benjamin Hodgson at Little Big Horn (by Thomas Keels)

ABC #051 - Part 3 Benjamin Hubert Hodgson was killed during the 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana against Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors – historian and fellow Laurel Hill tour guide Thomas Keels tells his story.

Jun 3, 2023 • 26:21

LT George M Harris and Battling the Modocs in the Lava Beds

ABC #051 - Part 2 George Montgomery Harris died of wounds that he received in the Lava Beds of northern California while battling Captain Jack and the Modoc tribe in 1873.

Jun 2, 2023 • 36:07

Philadelphia Meets the Indigenous Owners of the City

ABC #051 - Part 1 Indigenous peoples had been part of the Philadelphia landscape since the pre-Colonial days.  Their dealings with William Penn and his family left them wondering.

Jun 1, 2023 • 21:22

ABC#051: ”Killed by Indians” - Four Philadelphians Who Died in Battles with Indigenous People

Interred at Laurel Hill East are four young Philadelphians who died before they reached the age of 30 while battling indigenous people on the frontier. George Montgomery Harris died of wounds received in the Lava Beds of northern California while battling Captain Jack and the Modoc tribe in 1873.  Benjamin Hubert Hodgson was killed during the 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana against Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors – fellow Laurel Hill tour guide Tom Keels tells his story.  Jonathan Willia

Jun 1, 2023 • 2:22:30

Charles Benjamin Dudley: Helping Standardize the World

Biographical Bytes from Bala #020 Charles Benjamin Dudley changed the world we live in when he helped establish the American Society for Testing and Materials.  Prior to his work as a chemist with the Pennsylvania Railroad, there was no standardization for the composition of railroad tracks, which led to derailments, deaths, and loss of cargo.  Dudley convinced the world that science combined with ingenuity is what all industries needed.  Since its founding, ASTM has established more than 13,000

May 15, 2023 • 38:18

William Welsh Harrison and the Haunting of Grey Towers Castle

ABC 050 - Part 2 William Welsh Harrison was a moneyed man due to America’s sweet tooth – he made a fortune as a sugar manufacturer.  Part of his wealth went to build the family home, Grey Towers Castle in Glenside.  His former home now serves as administrative offices for Arcadia University, but his presence is still felt on the property.  Apparently, the castle and other campus buildings are haunted.

May 3, 2023 • 34:00

George Meade Easby and the Haunting of Baleroy

ABC #050 - Part 1 George Gordon Meade Easby, a wealthy and eccentric character named after his great grandfather, lived in a Chestnut Hill mansion called Baleroy for most of his 87 years.  He didn’t mind sharing the space with phantom apparitions, which included his younger brother, his mother, Thomas Jefferson, and a malevolent spirit named “Amanda”, along with several others.

May 2, 2023 • 36:34

ABC #050: A Couple of Haunted Houses - Baleroy & Grey Towers Castle

George Gordon Meade Easby, a wealthy and eccentric character named after his great grandfather, lived in a Chestnut Hill mansion called "Baleroy" for most of his 87 years.  He didn’t mind sharing the space with phantom apparitions, including his younger brother, his mother, Thomas Jefferson, and a malevolent spirit named “Amanda” along with several others.      William Welsh Harrison was a moneyed man due to America’s sweet tooth – he made a fortune as a sugar manufacturer.  Part of his wealth w

May 1, 2023 • 1:23:53

John Carbutt: A Forgotten Photography Pioneer

Biographical Bytes from Bala #019 John Carbutt is the forgotten pioneer of Philadelphia photography.  Born in England, he spent the first years of his career as a railroad photographer in Canada and the American West.  After settling in Mount Airy and opening a factory in Wayne Junction, Carbutt was the first person in the country to commercially produce dry photographic plates, the first to produce sheets of celluloid coated with photographic emulsion for making celluloid film, and the first to

Apr 15, 2023 • 46:17

Joseph Miller Huston: The State Capitol Fiasco

ABC #049 - Part 3 Joseph Miller Huston was an up-and-coming architect who got the plum job of designing Pennsylvania’s State Capitol; instead of leading him to even bigger jobs, it became his professional downfall.

Apr 4, 2023 • 36:05

Samuel "Stars and Stripes" Ashbridge: Philadelphia's Most Corrupt Mayor (by Thomas Keels)

ABC #049 - Part 2 Samuel "Stars and Stripes" Ashbridge would give a patriotic speech at the drop of a hat and was elected Philadelphia’s mayor in 1899; he left office four years later a rich man. Fellow tour guide and Philadelphia author and historian Thomas Keels tells you his story.

Apr 3, 2023 • 31:09

Edward "Gas" Addicks - Buying a Seat in the Senate

ABC #049 - Part 1 J. Edward "Gas" Addicks made his fortune in the gas industry, but decided he wanted to be a United States Senator; he spent much of his wealth in a fruitless attempt at achieving his goal.

Apr 2, 2023 • 30:39

ABC #049: White Collar Crime - J. Edward Addicks, Samuel Ashbridge, and Joseph Miller Huston

J. Edward "Gas" Addicks made his fortune in the gas industry, but decided he wanted to be a United States Senator; he spent much of his wealth in a fruitless attempt at achieving his goal.   Samuel "Stars and Stripes" Ashbridge would give a patriotic speech at the drop of a hat and was elected Philadelphia’s mayor in 1899; he left office four years later a rich man. Fellow tour guide and Philadelphia author and historian Tom Keels tells you his story.    Joseph Miller Huston was an up-and-coming

Apr 1, 2023 • 1:50:35

The Shipley Sisters and Educating Girls: Courage for the Deed, Grace for the Doing

Biographical Bytes from Bala #018 Three Quaker sisters – Hannah, Elizabeth, and Katharine Shipley – decided to start a school.  Not another finishing school where girls learned to cook and crochet and behave in society, but a rigorous academic school specifically to train girls in languages and the sciences so they could get into Bryn Mawr and other colleges that were springing up for women in the late 19th century.  In this podcast, you will learn about the evolution of girls’ education from be

Mar 15, 2023 • 56:03

Elizabeth Head Fetter: AKA Hannah Lees

ABC #048 - Part 3 Elizabeth Head Fetter, older sister to maverick inventor Howard Head, was writing under the pen name of Hannah Lees about topics like masturbation and women’s extra-marital affairs in the prudish 1940s, several years before the Kinsey Report was released.

Mar 4, 2023 • 24:31

Dr. Sara Yorke Stevenson: Building the Penn Museum (by Pat Rose)

ABC #048 - Part 2 Sara Yorke Stevenson was a self-trained Egyptologist, a founder of the Penn Museum, a leader in women’s rights, and a popular newspaper columnist who gained respect from colleagues around the world – her story is told by fellow Laurel Hill Cemetery docent Pat Rose.

Mar 3, 2023 • 24:24

Dr. Nellie Neilson: Medievalist Extraordinaire

ABC #048 - Part 1 Dr. Nellie Neilson was one of the best – and best known – Medieval history scholars in the world, but she struggled to climb every rung to the top during her long career.

Mar 2, 2023 • 25:18

ABC #048: Nellie Neilson; Sara Yorke Stevenson; Elizabeth Head Fetter, aka Hannah Lees - Shattering Some Glass Ceilings

March is Women’s History Month.  Dr. Nellie Neilson was one of the best – and best known – Medieval history scholars in the world, but she struggled to climb every rung to the top during her long career. Sara Yorke Stevenson was a self-trained Egyptologist, a founder of the Penn Museum, a leader in women’s rights, and a popular newspaper columnist who gained respect from colleagues around the world – her story is told by fellow Laurel Hill Cemetery docent Pat Rose. Elizabeth Head Fetter, older s

Mar 1, 2023 • 1:32:24

Raphael & Julia Coel: Swimming While Black

Biographical Bytes from Bala #017 Raphael Coel was a World War II veteran and insurance executive. His wife Julia was a lifelong swimmer who served as the first Black female lifeguard for the City of Philadelphia. They serve as an anchor for this month's "Biographical Bytes from Bala."  If you are White, learn what it was like to attempt to “Swim While Black” in the United States.  If you are Black, you already know.

Feb 15, 2023 • 51:51

ABC #047: Three More Black Trailblazers

February is Black History Month.  All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories gives you Three More Black Trailblazers. Dr. James Alexander Batts was an early champion of improving prenatal care for Philadelphia’s African American population. Barbara Blackshear rose from working as a “computer” and helping produce the legendary Xerox 8010 “Star” to become vice-president of strategic planning for the company. Douglas “Jocko” Henderson was one of the top deejays on the East Coast, introduced Little S

Feb 1, 2023 • 1:19:27

Douglas "Jocko" Henderson: Rap and Hip-Hop Pioneer

ABC #047 - Part 3 Douglas “Jocko” Henderson was one of the top deejays on the East Coast, introduced Little Stevie Wonder to the Apollo Theater audience, and is considered by many to be the first “Rap MC” from Philadelphia.

Jan 31, 2023 • 25:13

Barbara Blackshear: Pioneering Computer Genius

ABC #047 - Part 2 Barbara Blackshear rose from working as a “computer” who helped produce the legendary Xerox 8010 “Star” to become vice-president of strategic planning for the company.

Jan 31, 2023 • 18:29

Dr. James Batts: Hero to Black Mothers and Babies

ABC #047 - Part 1 Dr. James Alexander Batts was an early champion of improving prenatal care for Philadelphia’s African American population.

Jan 31, 2023 • 21:30

BBB #016: Anna Meister, AKA J. Elimar Mira Mitta - A Cult of One’s Own

Anna Meister was a Swiss immigrant in the 1850s who declared she was actually the third person of the Christian trinity and changed her name to Jehovah Elimar Mira Mitta.  She had a following for many decades, even years after she died.  Today you will hear the story of this bizarre religious cult from South Philadelphia on Biographical Bytes from Bala: J. Elimar Mira Mitta: A Cult of One’s Own.

Jan 14, 2023 • 36:50

ABC #046: Fathers of American Medicine, Part 3: Some Ethical Dilemmas

Dr. George McClellan, father of the famed Civil War Union general, was founder of Thomas Jefferson medical school, but annoyed his colleagues so much he was expelled from the board of the school he had created.   Dr. William Henry Pancoast was a famed surgeon who performed the post-mortem examination on the 19th century conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, the original “Siamese” twins.  The same year he artificially impregnated a woman who had a sterile husband, but without her knowledge or pe

Dec 31, 2022 • 1:16:58

Dr. George McClellan: An Expelled Founder

ABC #046 - Part 1 Dr. George McClellan, father of the famed Civil War Union general, was founder of Thomas Jefferson medical school, but annoyed his colleagues so much he was expelled from the board of the school he had created.

Dec 31, 2022 • 21:50

Dr. Sam Hamill: Experimenting on Orphans

ABC #046 - Part 3 Dr. Samuel McClintock Hamill was one of the most prominent pediatricians in the country, but early in his career he had conducted controversial experiments on orphans and abandoned children, some of whom were left with permanently damaged eyesight.

Dec 31, 2022 • 18:28

Dr. William Henry Pancoast: Impregnation without Permission

ABC #046 - Part 2 Dr. William Henry Pancoast was a famed surgeon who performed the post-mortem examination on the 19th century conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, the original “Siamese” twins.  The same year he artificially impregnated a woman who had a sterile husband, but without her knowledge or permission.

Dec 31, 2022 • 20:37

Larry Ferrari: Everyone's Sunday Morning Friend

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #015 - Pulling Out All the Stops - The Organ Episode Part 3: Larry Ferrari Lazarus "Larry" Ferrari was a fixture on Philadelphia's Sunday morning television screens for decades.  Anyone who encountered him had essentially the same thought: "What a nice man!".

Dec 18, 2022 • 20:37

The Curtis Organ in the Irvine Auditorium

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #015 - Pulling Out All the Stops - The Organ Episode Part 2: The Curtis Organ The story of the Irvine Auditorium is very straightforward, but campus legends have given a certain mystical pique to this Gothic structure, and the organ donated by Cyrus H.K. Curtis has only added to its mystique.

Dec 17, 2022 • 13:10

The Magnificent Wanamaker Organ

Biographical Bytes from Bala: Laurel Hill West Stories #015 - Pulling Out All the Stops - The Organ Episode Part 1: The Wanamaker Organ The world's largest playable organ is in the Wanamaker Building next to City Hall.  It contains a staggering 28,750 pipes in 464 ranks controlled by 6 manuals.  Free concerts are offered twice daily to any who wish to listen.

Dec 16, 2022 • 11:44

BBB #015: Pulling Out All the Stops: The Laurel Hill Organ Episode

The largest playable musical instrument in the world sits in Center City Philadelphia, and there are several Laurel Hill connections.   William B. Irvine left his estate to the University of Pennsylvania but did not know they would use it to build an auditorium named for him, designed by architect Horace Trumbauer.  The magazine publisher Cyrus Curtis donated an organ.  All three of these men are at Laurel Hill West.   For more than 40 years, organist Larry Ferrari kept Philadelphians company

Dec 14, 2022 • 1:09:08

Henrietta Garrett: A Clueless Snuff Multi-Millionaire

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #045: Stogies, Coffin Nails & Spittoons, part 4 Henrietta Garrett married into millions.  Snuff manufacturer Walter Garrett fell in love with Henrietta on first meeting, even though they were from opposite side of the tracks.  The marriage was strong and Walter's death left her a very rich widow.  Years later when Henrietta died, nobody could find her will.  "Long lost relatives" appeared out of nowhere.  It took years to settle the estate.

Dec 5, 2022 • 39:54

Caleb Milne: "There Is No Fire!" Chaos on the Work Floor

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #045: Stogies, Coffin Nails & Spittoons, part 3 Caleb Milne was a Scottish immigrant who made his fortune in textiles.  He rented a floor to a cigar maker, who had a habit of hiring immigrant girls who spoke no English.  A fire "false alarm" panicked the girls, who stampeded the stairwells.  Many died.

Dec 4, 2022 • 16:36

Otto Eisenlohr & The Five Cent Cigar

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #045: Stogies, Coffin Nails & Spittoons, part 2 Otto Eisenlohr and his brother were German immigrants who learned the tobacco business.  Their 5-cent cigar 'Cinco' was sold at every cigar stand in the country, and they got quite rich.

Dec 3, 2022 • 11:48

Juan Portuondo and a Good Cuban Smoke

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #045: Stogies, Coffin Nails & Spittoons, part 1 Juan Portuondo was a Cuban immigrant who learned the craft of cigar making from his father.  His cigars were always of the highest quality and he was constantly swatting away competition that tried to take advantage of his name.

Dec 2, 2022 • 8:59

ABC #045 Stogies, Coffin Nails, and Spittoons: Laurel Hill Tobacconists

At one time, there were more than 900 cigar makers in Philadelphia who made a sizable portion of the 7 billion cigars sold every year in the United States.  Cuban native Joan Portuondo featured a top-quality cigar that was copied by many.  German American Otto Eisenlohr and his brothers made one of the bestselling fiver-centers in the country, the ubiquitous 'Cinco'.  Caleb J. Milne rented three floors of his Washington Avenue factory to a cigar company that illegally hired immigrant girls; a fi

Nov 23, 2022 • 1:42:27

BBB #014: Bushrod Washington James: Physician, Author, Philanthropist

What do baseball Hall-of-Famers Frank Robinson and Willie Stargell, a library in Northeast Philadelphia, the towns of Radnor and Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a bed and breakfast in Tennessee, and the Wills Eye Hospital have in common?  The thread that connects these disparate entities is Bushrod Washington James, a Philadelphia physician and philanthropist who is interred at Laurel Hill West.  Find out why his name is quietly known across the country in this month's edition of Biographical Bytes fro

Nov 11, 2022 • 34:43

The Garfield Memorial on East River (Kelly) Drive

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #044 - Sam Randall, Dr. D. Hayes Agnew, Dr. C.K. Mills, and the Garfield Memorial: Laurel Hill & Some James Garfield Connections, part 4 Many familiar names from Laurel Hill were involved in the design, construction, and dedication of the memorial to the assassinated President that was dedicated in 1896 - 15 years after the assassination.

Nov 5, 2022 • 11:12

Dr. Charles Karsner Mills: The Assassin's Autopsist

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #044 - Sam Randall, Dr. D. Hayes Agnew, Dr. CK Mills, and the Garfield Memorial: Laurel Hill & Some James Garfield Connections, part 3 Local anatomist Dr. Charles K. Mills, MD, performed autopsy on the assassin Charles Guiteau.  Parts of his brain ended up in the Mütter Museum.

Nov 4, 2022 • 18:41

Dr. David Hayes Agnew, MD - Summoned to the Wounded President's Bedside

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #044 - Sam Randall, Dr. D. Hayes Agnew, Dr. CK Mills, and the Garfield Memorial: Laurel Hill & Some James Garfield Connections, part 2 Dr. D. Hayes Agnew, MD, learned his craft well while caring for wounded soldiers during the Civil War.  He was one of the first to be summoned to the President's after when he was shot

Nov 3, 2022 • 16:53

Samuel Jackson Randall: Three-Time Speaker of the House

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #044 - Sam Randall, Dr. D. Hayes Agnew, Dr. CK Mills, and the Garfield Memorial: Laurel Hill & Some James Garfield Connections, part 1 Samuel Jackson Randall defeated Garfield three times for the position of Speaker of the House until Garfield leapfrogged him to become the 1880 candidate.

Nov 2, 2022 • 25:12

ABC #044: Laurel Hill’s James Garfield Connections

James Abram Garfield was the 20th President of the United States, a “dark horse” candidate in the 1880 election and the only sitting member of the house to ever be elected to the highest office in the land.  His time as president was short, and four months into his term he was shot by a crazed office seeker in Washington.  After lingering for 10 weeks, he died in New Jersey.  What are his Laurel Hill connections?  * Philadelphia’s Samuel Jackson Randall defeated Garfield for Speaker of the House

Oct 24, 2022 • 1:34:19

BBB #013: Every Brilliant Thing: Ice Cream and Laurel Hill

This 13th episode of Biographical Bytes from Bala is for mid-October 2022 - and a little early on purpose.  Who doesn’t love ice cream?  Philadelphia has made huge contributions to the history of this delectable warm weather treat.  If you’re from the area, you grew up with Bassetts and Breyers; maybe you got some nonpareils or sprinkles on your soft serve; or you looked forward to going into a center city drug store so you could sit at the counter and have an ice cream float.  All of these have

Oct 6, 2022 • 47:42

Henry Seybert: Let Freedom Ring - The Clock in the Tower

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #043: Henry & Thomas Voigt, Isaiah Lukens & Henry Seybert – Tick Tock, Clocks and Watches, part 1, section 4 Henry Seybert took the money left him by his father Adam and had a clock and a bell built for Independence Hall for the 1876 Centennial Celebration.  Almost 150 years later, they still stand.

Oct 5, 2022 • 24:03

Isaiah Lukens: His Work Is at The Athenaeum

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #043: Henry & Thomas Voigt, Isaiah Lukens & Henry Seybert – Tick Tock, Clocks and Watches, part 1, section 3 Isaiah Lukens not only built clocks that can still be seen at The Athenaeum and the Germantown City Hall, but he also built an air gun that may have been used by Lewis & Clark during their expedition.

Oct 4, 2022 • 13:03

Henry & Thomas Voigt: Thomas Jefferson's Favorite Horologists

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #043: Henry & Thomas Voigt, Isaiah Lukens & Henry Seybert – Tick Tock, Clocks and Watches, part 1, section 2 Henry Voigt built a special clock for Thomas Jefferson that he used for his astronomical experiments until the day he died.  You can see clocks made by Voigt both at Monticello and in the US Senate.

Oct 3, 2022 • 20:22

Introduction to Horology: How Did We Tell Time?

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #043: Henry & Thomas Voigt, Isaiah Lukens & Henry Seybert – Tick Tock, Clocks and Watches, part 1, section 1 I talk about timekeeping in Philadelphia, from sundials and hourglasses to the clock on Independence Hall.  Philadelphia has had skilled clock and watchmakers since colonial times.

Oct 2, 2022 • 19:51

ABC #043: Tick Tock: Clocks, Watches, and Laurel Hill, Part 1

Philadelphia has had skilled clock and watchmakers since colonial times.  Henry Voigt helped David Rittenhouse build his legendary orrery and supplied surveying instruments to the Lewis & Clark Expedition. His son Thomas built a special clock for Thomas Jefferson that he used for his astronomical experiments.  You can see his clocks both at Monticello and in the US Senate.  Isaiah Lukens not only built clocks that can still be seen at The Athenaeum and the Germantown City Hall, but he also built

Sep 22, 2022 • 1:34:59

BBB #012: Turbaned Warrior for Justice - C. DeLores Tucker

Cynthia DeLores Tucker was a Philadelphia born and raised champion of Civil Rights in the 1960s and 1970s and worked closely with such icons as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Shirley Chisholm, and Cecil B. Moore.  She chose to spend the last years of her life fighting what she saw as the pornography of gangsta rap.  She was vilified by the music community, which spared no words in trying to show how sad and out-of-date her thinking was.  She now lies in an unmarked grave at Laurel Hill West

Sep 8, 2022 • 51:26

Augustus Goodyear Heaton: Numismatist, Painter, Poet, Polymath

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #042: Robert Patterson, James Snowden & Augustus Goodyear Heaton – Mint Condition: Laurel Hill’s Coinage Connections, part 4 Augustus Goodyear Heaton was a coin collector who wrote doggerel poetry about his collection.  He was also an accomplished painter, as one of his works hangs in the U.S. Senate

Sep 5, 2022 • 20:14

James Ross Snowden: An Entrepreneurial Director

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #042: Robert Patterson, James Snowden & Augustus Goodyear Heaton – Mint Condition: Laurel Hill’s Coinage Connections, part 3 James Ross Snowden oversaw the minting of commemorative coins which were sold to help support the expenses of running the mint.  His nephew Archibald took over where he left off.

Sep 4, 2022 • 30:31

Robert Patterson: An Early Innovative Director

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #042: Robert Patterson, James Snowden & Augustus Goodyear Heaton – Mint Condition: Laurel Hill’s Coinage Connections, part 2 Robert Patterson and his son Robert Maskell Patterson were two of the innovative early mint directors that kept it from failing.

Sep 3, 2022 • 25:15

Developing the U.S. Mint

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #042: Robert Patterson, James Snowden & Augustus Goodyear Heaton – Mint Condition: Laurel Hill’s Coinage Connections, part 1 If you live in Philadelphia, you know about the Philadelphia mint at 5th and Arch.  This is our 4th mint in Philadelphia.  The first opened in 1792 just a few hundred feet away from the current one.  Literally billions of coins have been pressed in its highly efficient, highly secure building.  Thousands of Philadelphians have work

Sep 2, 2022 • 16:41

ABC #042: Mint Condition: Some Laurel Hill Coinage Connections

The United States Mint has been in Philadelphia since 1792.  It has produced billions of coins, from half-pennies to 20-dollar gold double eagles.  Many of the early officers were Philadelphians.  In this podcast, you will hear about doubloons and trimes, Peter the eagle, the California gold rush and Colorado's Comstock lode, greenbacks, Gresham's law, and more.  And you will hear some bad poetry.   Think of this podcast as a four-parter.   1) Development of the Mint 2) Mint Directors Robert Pat

Aug 26, 2022 • 1:44:19

BBB #011: Henrietta Cozens and the Red Rose Girls

PLEASE NOTE: I accidentally uploaded the wrong files earlier.  This is the correct file.  Please delete the earlier one if you downloaded it.  It is not mine to distribute.   This is a story about mutual love and respect among four women at the turn of the 20th century.  All students of art know of the Red Rose Girls - illustrators Jessie Willcox Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green and muralist Violet Oakley.  They became masters of their craft because of a fourth woman, Henrietta Cozens, who serv

Aug 11, 2022 • 44:23

ABC #041: Harry, Cecil, and Kitty: Three More Drinker Siblings to Know

Henry Sandwith "Harry" Drinker was a brilliant Philadelphia lawyer and a famed musicologist who befriended the von Trapp family when they arrived at Ellis Island.  His wife Sophie Hutchinson Drinker was one of the founders of women's musicological and gender studies. Cecil Drinker, MD, was a gifted physiologist who published more than 250 papers and did the original studies on The Radium Girls.  His wife Katherine Rotan Drinker, MD, was his lifelong partner in research and publications. Catherin

Jul 24, 2022 • 1:41:47

BBB #010: Herman Haupt: Lincoln’s Railroad Man

In the mid-19th century, Philadelphia-born Herman Haupt was probably the top railroad engineer in the country - and he knew it.  During the Civil War, his mastery of the rails provided the Union Army with thousands of tons of supplies, saved hundreds of lives, and may have preserved the Union’s victory at Gettysburg.  Except to railroad buffs, he is little remembered today.

Jul 8, 2022 • 36:57

ABC #040: Friends of Thomas Jefferson, Part 1 - I’m Just a Bill

William Short was the first appointment to public office conferred under the Constitution of the United States.  Thomas Jefferson thought so much of him that he happily called him "my adoptive son."   William Duane was the radical publisher of the "Philadelphia Aurora" who helped get Jefferson elected President against Federalist John Adams in 1800.   And Colonel William Drayton was a veteran of the War of 1812 and a Unionist from South Carolina whose father had exchanged dozens of letters with

Jun 24, 2022 • 1:40:25

BBB #009: Helen Bradford Thompson - A Forgotten Pioneer in Gender Studies

Helen Bradford Thompson turned the understanding of gender roles on its head.  Her groundbreaking work at the turn of the 20th century, summarized in her PhD thesis "The Mental Traits of Sex," exploded on the psychology scene like nothing that had come before it.  And yet the name Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley was little remembered for decades, only recently being rediscovered because of the blossoming of feminist studies.  She is interred at Laurel Hill West.    Join our email list to get the

Jun 9, 2022 • 44:42

ABC #039: In Heaven There Is No Beer

Beer has a long history in our country, and Philadelphia has played a surprisingly strong role in its development.  There's even a neighborhood called Brewerytown, and hundreds of Philadelphians live in apartments that used to be breweries.   This episode talks about beer from different perspectives. How did breweries start in our green country town? Where were they located? Who drank it? How did one brewery stay in one family for ten generations? What happened at the Centennial Exposition to s

May 26, 2022 • 1:27:00

BBB #008: Every Writer’s Writer, Every Human’s Human - Loren Eiseley

Loren Eiseley grew up in a troubled family on the plains of Nebraska and drifted across the American West on trains during the Great Depression.  Yet during his life he earned 36 honorary degrees and was one of the most respected researchers, educators, and writers in the country.  He was Benjamin Franklin Professor of Anthropology and History of Science, and the curator of the Early Man section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum.  Like Henry David Thoreau, his writings on man and nature a

May 12, 2022 • 58:56

Charles Soulas: "Have Some Mock Turtle Soup"

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #038:  Through the Looking Glass – Some Lewis Carrol Connections, part 4 Charles Soulas has one of the more striking grave memorials - a woman who looks like she's ready to take your meal order.  Soulas ran a restaurant near city hall where local movers and shakers met over mock turtle soup.

May 5, 2022 • 11:58

A. B. Frost: Illustrating from Across the Ocean

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #038:  Through the Looking Glass – Some Lewis Carrol Connections, part 3 Arthur Burdett Frost was a highly respected Philadelphia illustrator and lithographer whom Lewis Carroll selected to provide illustrations for his poetry book Rhyme & Reason.  They had a falling out when Carroll requested some unusual photographs from Frost.

May 4, 2022 • 29:21

Morris Longstreth Parrish: Better Than Mint Condition

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #038:  Through the Looking Glass – Some Lewis Carrol Connections, part 2 Morris Longstreth Parrish was a picky book collector.  Everything had to be perfect, enough so that some book dealers created a new category just for him - "Parrish condition".

May 3, 2022 • 13:42

Eldridge Reeves Johnson & The Original 'Alice' Manuscript

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #038:  Through the Looking Glass – Some Lewis Carrol Connections, part 1 Eldridge Reeves Johnson made millions of dollars with his Victor  Talking Machine Company. Some of it he used to purchase the original Lewis Carroll manuscript of Alice from bookseller extraordinaire A.S.W. Rosenbach.  He kept the manuscript on his yacht.

May 2, 2022 • 30:03

ABC #038: Through the Looking Glass: Lewis Carroll Connections

Industrialist Eldridge Reeves Johnson used money from the millions he earned in developing the Victor Talking Machine Company and purchased the original copy of “Alice’s Adventures Underground,” lettered and drawn by the author himself.   Bibliophile Morris Longstreth Parrish purchased as many of Carroll’s works as he could, all in the best possible condition, so that Parrish's name became synonymous with “mint condition.”   Lithographer and artist Arthur Burdett Frost impressed Carroll enough

Apr 21, 2022 • 1:39:38

BBB #007: Francis, Clara, and Susanna Dercum: Changing History

Francis Xavier Dercum grew up in Philadelphia and trained as a neurologist.  When President Woodrow Wilson had his massive stroke in 1919, Dercum was called in as consultant.  Years later when Wilson's widow Edith wrote her memoirs, she insisted that it was Dr. Dercum who had encouraged her to run things while he recovered. Francis's sister Clara also became a physician and spent much of her career giving charity care to the poor in Philadelphia, while working tirelessly for women's rights.  The

Apr 8, 2022 • 56:03

ABC #037: Boies Will Be Boys: Senator Penrose and His Brothers

Tucked away in Laurel Hill South near the border with Fairmount Park is a family plot that – foot for foot – may have more interesting people than anyplace else in the cemetery.   Boies Penrose was the second smartest man in his class at Harvard, became a representative from Philadelphia to Harrisburg and speaker of the house before moving to Washington D.C. as State Senator where he spent the rest of his life.  His brother Charles Penrose was the only person with better grades in their Harvard

Mar 24, 2022 • 1:47:40

BBB #006: Hannah Clothier Hull: A Life for Peace

Our sixth episode of Biographical Bytes from Bala is for mid-March 2022 and tells you a of a suffragette and a leader in the Women’s Peace Movement for more than 50 years Hannah Clothier Hull, daughter of a founder of Strawbridge & Clothier, sister of an International Tennis Hall of Fame member, and wife of one of the great Quaker historians and peace activists William Isaac Hull.  Both Hulls lived a Life for Peace.    Join our email list to get the latest on episode releases, special events, an

Mar 11, 2022 • 38:33

ABC #036: The Three Remarkable Wister Sisters

Three Victorian Philadelphia sisters helped make Philadelphia what it is today.  The oldest Mary Channing Wister petitioned for music in the public schools, more public parks for all, and placement of the Broad Street line underground.  Frances Anne Wister was a founder of the Philadelphia Orchestra and became the city’s patron saint of preservation; without her there would likely be no Old City or Society Hill. The youngest sister Ella Wister Haines got a late start on her career but became the

Feb 24, 2022 • 1:21:31

BBB #005: Raymond Pace & Sadie T.M. Alexander: Philadelphia’s First Black ”Power Couple”

Raymond Pace Alexander was born in Philadelphia to former enslaved people, but graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and became the go-to civil rights lawyer in Philadelphia.  In 1959, he became the first black judge to sit on the Court of Common Pleas.  His wife Sadie Tanner Mossell was the first Black women to earn an economics degree in the US, but then also became a lawyer.  Together they spent their lives battling racism in Philadelphia.  Their stories are truly inspiring.

Feb 11, 2022 • 38:47

ABC #035: Four Black Trailblazers

Ira de Augustine Reid was one of the top sociologists in the country in the late 1940s, but because of his scholarship, he got swept up in the “Red Scare” of the mid-20th century.  Dennie Hoggard, Jr., of West Philadelphia was a tight end at Penn State who helped to integrate the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on New Year’s Day of 1948.  Marion Stokes had an obsession – to videotape every cable news program on television, and she did so for almost 35 years, amassing a treasure-trove of history.  And Jose

Jan 28, 2022 • 1:26:02

BBB #004: Theodore Presser: The Music Man

Theodore Presser got a late start in his career, but he ended up making millions of dollars from publishing a magazine for music teachers around the world, and then by selling them sheet music.  And then he gave away much of his money in his lifetime and the endowments he left continue to aid music students across the country.  His story is inspiring and his legacy is huge.

Jan 14, 2022 • 30:59

ABC #034: Tennis, Anyone? - Clarence Clark, Frederick Winslow Taylor, William Clothier Sr. and Jr., Howard Head

Tennis came to the United States in the 1870s and was quickly taken up by the East Coast upper crust, the nouveau riche of the Gilded Age.  Germantown’s Clarence Clark became one of its primary organizers, and his good friend and neighbor Frederick Winslow Taylor joined him as a doubles partner.  William Clothier was the son of department store magnate Isaac Clothier and played his way into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.  Howard Head found that he was not a very good tennis player, so he

Dec 24, 2021 • 1:36:04

BBB #003: Aimee Ernesta Drinker Bullitt Beaux Barlow: Becoming ”Commando Mary”

This is the story of a woman who was so beautiful that she turned down more than 50 marriage proposals before she wed a newspaperman who became the United States’ first ambassador to the Soviet Union, and who then had an affair with one of the most famous illustrators of the 20th century, and who married a second time to a famed opera composer, and who then spent World War II as a radio propagandist pushing for the rights of women, and then spent years in New York City running one of the most ex

Dec 10, 2021 • 29:57

ABC #033: Smile for the Birdie! Philadelphia‘s Photography Pioneers

Photography in its infancy made its way to Philadelphia in 1839, literally weeks after Louis Daguerre invented the technique that carries his name.  Lampmaker Robert Cornelius was interested and took what is now recognized as the first “selfie.”  Frederick Gutekunst opened a studio where people flocked to have their picture taken.  Mathew Carey Lea helped photography make giant strides forward through his knowledge of photochemistry and then invented an entirely new branch of chemistry almost th

Nov 25, 2021 • 1:24:33

BBB #002: Harold H. Knerr and ”The Katzenjammer Kids”

Harold Hering Knerr came from a family of physicians, but rather than joining them he became an illustrator and cartoonist.   For 35 years he drew one of the most popular comic strips in the United States, The Katzenjammer Kids.   He is the topic of this second episode of "Biographical Bytes from Bala."

Nov 12, 2021 • 20:40

ABC #032: Teen Angels

Annie Inglis spent her brief life in a wheelchair, but her dying wish was to make her prized possession, a one-dollar gold piece, into something which would help others.  Joseph Jurciukonis Jr. was a gifted young cellist whose life was cut short by a bullet.  May Bibighaus was described as a good, church-going girl who developed a narcotic habit as a teenager; it would be her undoing.  And several members of a Philadelphia social club chose the wrong time for a casual summer cruise and paid with

Oct 24, 2021 • 1:02:03

BBB #001: Alan Calvert and the Science of Weightlifting

Alan Calvert was a Philadelphia bodybuilder who found that available equipment did not meet his needs, so he invented what we now recognize as the modern barbell and the science of progressive resistance.  His innovations have now become a standard around the world.

Oct 13, 2021 • 22:24

ABC #031: Play Ball!, Part 2

Wes “The Icicle” Fisler scored the first run in major league history but lay in an unmarked grave at Laurel Hill for more than 90 years.  Lon Knight threw the first pitch in major league history, yet still has an unmarked grave.  Harry Luff was an awful human being who nonetheless played eight positions for six different teams in four major leagues before finally doing jail time.  And Orator Shafer was confined to right field because of his constant chatter but he still holds the Major League Re

Sep 23, 2021 • 1:09:42

ABC #030: The Saturday Courier: Joseph Clay Neal, Louis Antoine Godey, and Morton McMichael

Joseph Clay Neal, whom many called “the American Dickens,” started his writing career with an evening newspaper “The Daily Courier,” and ended up fostering the career of a teenage girl who became one of the primary woman authors of the 19th century.  Louis Antoine Godey, whose “Lady’s Book” was struggling until he had the good sense to hire an Episcopalian woman from Boston as his editor, and turned his magazine into one of the most widely circulated in the country.  And Morton McMichael, who wa

Aug 25, 2021 • 59:57

ABC #029: Olympiad II - Paris 1900

Future Laurel Hill and West Laurel Hill residents went to Paris in 1900 to compete in Olympiad II.   Meredith Colket was a Penn scholar who placed 2nd in the pole vault.  Bascom Johnson was a Yale pole vaulter who failed to compete, but went on to an amazing career in public health.  Edward Bushnell was a middle-distance runner whose name eventually became synonymous with sports at the University of Pennsylvania.  John F. Cregan was another middle-distance man but from Princeton.  And rower Jame

Jul 23, 2021 • 1:02:51

ABC #028: Bad Science: Dr. Samuel G. Morton, George R. Gliddon, and John Worrell Keely

Dr. Samuel George Morton was a pioneer of American anthropology and the father of American invertebrate paleontology, but he was also a compulsive skull collector whose measurements and conclusions were used to justify enslavement and eventually racial cleansing.  George Robbins Gliddon taught Americans more about ancient Egypt than anyone up to his time, but he got caught up in Morton’s scientific racism, as well as the thrill of robbing graves for their heads and mummified remains.  James Erns

Jun 23, 2021 • 1:39:39

ABC #027: The Fathers (and Mothers) of American Medicine, Part 2

Charles Euchariste de Medici Sajous was a prolific author and editor who specialized in "glandular secretions;" he is remembered today as the Father of American Endocrinology ... and the last of the de Medicis.  Chevalier Quixote Jackson mastered the skill of retrieving foreign bodies from the lungs and esophagus; he is the Father of American Endoscopy.  Hilary Koprowski was a Polish-born virologist who beat Salk and Sabin to the development of an effective polio vaccine, but who is little remem

May 25, 2021 • 1:12:20

ABC #026: Encore! - William Wood, Mary Ann Lee, Frank Mayo and Wedgwood Nowell

William Wood started as an actor but soon moved to managing Philadelphia theaters.  Many people consider Mary Ann Lee to be America’s first professional ballerina.  Frank Mayo was an actor who became beloved through more than 3000 performances as Davy Crockett.  And Wedgwood Nowell produced or acted in more than 300 plays before moving to Hollywood and acting in more than 300 movies over his long career.  William Wood and Mary Ann Lee are interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery, while Frank Mayo and We

Apr 22, 2021 • 58:11

ABC #025: Five Wister Men You May Not Know

It is very easy to get lost in the Wister family.  Anyone familiar with Philadelphia History probably knows about Caspar Wistar, who founded the Wistar Institute, and author Owen Wister, who wrote the first Western novel “The Virginian” and is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery.  But this was a large family.  There are 40 Wisters and 30 Wistars buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery, along with 3 Wisters at West Laurel Hill.  Today I am going to talk about four Wister brothers and one of their sons buried a

Mar 24, 2021 • 1:08:16

ABC #024: Four Remarkable Women You Should Know

Christine Wetherill Stevenson came from a prominent family and made her mark in Philadelphia, where she founded the Philadelphia Art Alliance, as well as California, where she founded the Hollywood Bowl.  Katharine Elizabeth McBride was a brilliant researcher in neuropsychology, but is mostly remembered today for being president of Bryn Mawr College for 28 years and bringing it into recognition as one of the top institutions in the nation.  Bernice McIlhenny Wintersteen came from a family of col

Feb 22, 2021 • 57:16

ABC #023: The Philadelphia Sound: Hy Lit, Billy Paul, Grover Washington Jr., Teddy Pendergrass

One of the highwater marks of Philadelphia music was in the 1970s when Gamble and Huff started Philadelphia International Music and stole thunder from both Motown and Memphis.  Two of their biggest stars were Billy Paul and Teddy Pendergrass.  Another Philadelphian, Grover Washington Jr., became one of the top-selling jazz artists in history and is credited with laying the groundwork for what became known as “smooth jazz.”  And where did you hear the latest sounds?  On the radio, of course, wher

Jan 25, 2021 • 1:11:59

ABC #022: The Birds and the Bees: Ornithologists and Entomologists

East coast birdwatchers probably can tell you famed Philadelphians involved in birding.  John Cassin, who described 194 new species of birds in his lifetime and has five species of North American birds named in his honor; Titian Ramsay Peale, son of Charles Willson Peale and meticulous illustrator of wildlife whose artworks are as highly sought as those of John James Audubon. Titian’s older and less-well-known half-sister Sophonisba Angusciola (Peale) Sellers, America’s first female ornithologis

Dec 25, 2020 • 1:14:33

ABC #021: Me and My Machine - Three Textile Barons of Laurel Hill Cemetery

While the textile business in the United States started in New England, it did not take Philadelphia long to catch up and pass our northern neighbors.  Three people who immigrated to Manayunk helped build what had been a small village into one of the major manufacturing centers of the country.  Joseph Ripka was a draft dodger from Silesia who at his peak employed 2000 men, women, and children in his mills, but went out of business at the start of the Civil War.  Sevill Schofield came from Englan

Nov 25, 2020 • 1:29:49

ABC #020: Send the Marines!

The United States Marine Corps was born in Philadelphia on November 10, 1775 and the city is the burial site for many famed members of the Corps.  Major Levi Twiggs was born in Georgia in a military family; he joined the Marines when he was 19 and made the Marine Barracks at Philadelphia Naval Yards his home for many years before heading off to fight in the Mexican-American War.  Brigadier General Jacob Zeilin was born in Philadelphia and spent 45 years as a Marine Corps officer, culminating in

Oct 23, 2020 • 58:57

ABC #019: The Other Side of Paradise: Sigourney Fay, Hobey Baker, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Connection

You might think that F. Scott Fitzgerald, a Midwesterner who made his name in New York City, would have no Philadelphia connections.  You would be wrong.  Sigourney Webster Fay was born in Philadelphia to an old-line Episcopalian family, but left that religion to become a Catholic priest; he became the most important influence in the life of the schoolboy F. Scott Fitzgerald and the inspiration for one of his most widely-loved characters in This Side of Paradise.  While Fitzgerald matriculated a

Sep 24, 2020 • 1:08:26

ABC #018: The Calder Connection: Alexander Milne & Alexander Stirling, The Warner Plot, and Henry Charles Lea

Alexander Milne Calder was a Scottish-born sculptor who came to Philadelphia and was given the commission for statuary for the City Hall.  He managed to squeeze in a monument for the Warner Family at Laurel Hill Cemetery that is probably the most photographed grave site on the property.  His son Alexander Stirling Calder is best remembered for Swann Fountain on Logan Circle, but he was also commissioned to do the statue for the grave of famed historian Henry Charles Lea, also at Laurel Hill.  Th

Aug 22, 2020 • 1:05:28

ABC #017: Fathers of American Medicine, Part 1

Robley Dunglison was born and educated in England but recruited to be the first Professor of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia, where he also became Jefferson’s private physician.  Later he moved to Philadelphia and was recognized as the Father of American Physiology.  Constantine Hering was born and educated in Germany and learned the homeopathic methods of fellow countryman Samuel Hahnemann; he brought these beliefs with him to Philadelphia and is considered the Father of H

Jul 23, 2020 • 55:25

ABC #016: Curtis Publishing Company and The Saturday Evening Post

Before the internet, before television, before radio, there were magazines.  Philadelphia was the place you wanted to be if you were in the magazine business.  It had the best presses, the best printers, and the railroads to get them where they needed to go.  Cyrus H.K. Curtis was the king of magazine publishing, but could only do it with the help of two amazing editors – his wife, Louisa Knapp Curtis, and his hire from Boston, George Horace Lorimer.  Lorimer needed the help of another Philadelp

Jun 21, 2020 • 48:59

ABC #014: On with the Show! - Edward Fry, Adam Forepaugh, and J. Fred Zimmerman

Edward Fry was impresario for the Astor Place Opera in 1849 at the time of the famed Shakespeare riots, when dozens of New Yorkers were killed.  Adam Forepaugh was a wealthy horse trader who more-or-less accidentally took over a circus, but gave P.T. Barnum a run for his money in post-Civil War America.  J. Fred Zimmerman was one of a small group of men, fittingly called the Theatre Syndicate, who controlled a majority of theatres on the east coast, essentially determining what plays would be st

May 19, 2020 • 54:06

ABC #015: Quarantine Special: She’s Not There - Florence Leontine Lowe (“Pancho” Barnes), Ethel Huhn “Bobo” Bailey, and Princess Olga Demidoff Troubetzskoy Stoever

Ethel Huhn Bailey was the spoiled daughter of the spoiled second wife of Philadelphia multimillionaire George Arthur Huhn, who is buried on Millionaire’s Row.  Florence Leontine Lowe was the granddaughter of Philadelphia builder and architect Richard Dobbins; under her nickname and married name of Pancho Barnes, she became a stunt pilot and opened a popular drinking spot for test pilots near Muroc Air Field.  Princess Olga Demidoff Troubetzskoy Stoever was briefly the wife of Germantown-born and

Apr 23, 2020 • 50:34

ABC #013: On the Tube - Dave Garroway, Anne Francine, Edie Huggins, and Sheela Allen-Stephens

Dave Garroway was one of the most successful announcers in the early days of television, but things fell apart when he walked away from "The Today Show."  Main Line socialite Anne Francine might be better remembered for her time on stage or in cabaret performances, but she spent a memorable season in a TV show starring Barbara Eden.  And anyone who lived in Philadelphia over the past 40 years knew about Edie Huggins and Sheela Allen-Stephens.

Apr 18, 2020 • 49:30

ABC #012: A Night at the Opera: Giuseppe del Puente, Eleanor Mayo, Camille d’Elmar, David Bispham, and Robert Carson

Giuseppe del Puente was considered the premier baritone of the late 19th century. Eleanor Mayo had a budding career derailed by a bad review and a marriage.  Camille d’Elmar was never a star but she made a living from opera.  David Bispham was  "The Quaker Singer" who was a favorite of Teddy Roosevelt.  Robert Carson's Night at the Opera turned out to be lethal.

Mar 27, 2020 • 51:12

ABC #011: She Invented What?! - Martha Coston, Rachel Holloway Lloyd, and Mary Engle Pennington

Martha Coston invented the signal flare that bears her name and in so doing saved thousands of lives in wartime and in peace. Rachel Lloyd had to go to Europe to get her PhD in chemistry, but she then jump-started the sugar beet industry in the United States.  Mary Engle Pennington, the “Ice Lady” completely changed the way your food is prepared, shipped, and stored.

Mar 27, 2020 • 56:22

ABC #010: FOAL - Friends of Abraham Lincoln: John and Ulric Dahlgren, Rev Matthew Simpson

Admiral John Dahlgren was the father of Naval Ordnance, and the father of Colonel Ulric Dahlgren of the infamous Dahlgren affair during the Civil War that may have directly led to the assassination of their friend Abraham Lincoln.  Bishop Matthew Simpson - you've seen his statue on Belmont - was a confidante who delivered Lincoln’s funeral oration in Springfield, Illinois.

Mar 27, 2020 • 48:43

ABC #009: The Attorneys General: Richard Rush, Henry Gilpin, and Seven State AGs

Richard Rush served in the cabinets of three presidents and ran for Vice President in 1832, but is frequently an afterthought to his Founding Father parent Benjamin Rush. Henry Gilpin was appointed US Attorney General just in time to argue the United States case in the Amistad affair.  And there are seven Pennsylvania AGs, each with a fascinating story.

Mar 27, 2020 • 36:45

ABC #008: The Lady Artists: Alice Barber Stephens, Cecilia Beaux, and Harriet Frishmuth

Alice Barber Stephens was one of the premiere magazine illustrators of the late 19th century. Cecilia Beaux was a painter acknowledged in her day as one of the best portrait painters in the country. Harriet Frishmuth was a sculptor whose art deco works continue to astound viewers.

Mar 27, 2020 • 42:16

ABC #007: Play Ball!! Harry Wright, Benjamin Shibe and Al Reach, Harry Kalas

If professional baseball had a Founding Father, it would be Harry Wright.  Philadelphia was one of the early cities to adopt the game, and sporting goods manufacturers Ben Shibe and Al Reach took advantage of it.  And if you listened to the Phillies on the radio, you knew broadcast announcer Harry Kalas.

Mar 27, 2020 • 31:06

ABC #006: Fathers and Sons: Thomas and Albert Sully; Robert and Francis Patterson; Peter, George, and Harry Widener

There are many father-and-son combinations buried at Laurel Hill:  today we cover portrait artist Thomas Sully and his military son General Albert Sully, Generals Robert and Francis Patterson, both with somewhat tarnished records, and Gilded Age capitalist extraordinaire Peter Widener, and his son George and grandson Harry who went down on the USS Titanic.

Mar 27, 2020 • 36:21

ABC #005: Building Philadelphia: John Notman, Napoleon LeBrun, Frank Furness, and Horace Trumbauer

Many architects made Philadelphia the showcase city that it is today.  I have chosen 4 to talk about here: John Notman (The Athenaeum, Laurel Hill Cemetery), Napoleon LeBrun (Academy of Music, the Cathedral), Frank Furness (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, gatehouse at Philadelphia zoo), and Horace Trumbauer (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Free Library of Philadelphia).

Mar 27, 2020 • 26:22

ABC #004: Holidays among the Stones: Sarah Josepha Hale, Martha Tillman, Anna Jarvis, and Stephen F. Whitman

Before the Civil War there were two national holidays - Independence Day and Washington's Birthday.  But in the Laurel Hills are 4 people who made American holidays what they are today: Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who invented Thanksgiving; Martha Tillman, the woman who MAY have invented Memorial Day; and Anna Jarvis, the mother of Mother’s Day; and Stephen F. Whitman, the man who invented Whitman chocolates.    Join our email list to get the latest on episode releases, special events, and mor

Mar 27, 2020 • 41:27

ABC #003: Easterners of the Old West: Henry Deringer, Owen Wister, and John B. Stetson

Three creators of the mythology of the Wild West are buried at the Laurel Hills: Henry Deringer, inventor of the pocket pistol and father of concealed carry; Owen Wister, who wrote the first definitive Western novel "The Virginian"; and John Batterson Stetson, the man who invented the hat that defines the Old West.  This podcast include interviews with two of Laurel Hill Cemtery's volunteer guides.

Mar 27, 2020 • 41:27

ABC #002: Famed Arctic Explorer + Spiritualist / Con-artist: A Match Made in Heaven

Explorer Elisha Kent Kane was one of the most famous Americans of the mid-19th century.  He knew that he would die young, and he pushed the limits.  Maggie Fox was a spiritualist and medium from New York.  Somehow they got together and became a couple.  Their story is pretty sensational.    Join our email list to get the latest on episode releases, special events, and more: http://eepurl.com/idNN1X

Mar 27, 2020 • 24:30

ABC #001: The Origins of Laurel Hill: How and Why Did It Get Here?

Most people who walk into Laurel Hill Cemetery for the first time are struck by the greenness of the place.  The 78-acre property stretches between Ridge Avenue and Kelly Drive, and between East Falls and Strawberry Mansion - a large, open, green space with more than 75,000 inhabitants, hundreds of statues, miles of paved roads, wildlife, and 850 trees in the middle of a very modern city.     Join our email list to get the latest on episode releases, special events, and more: http://eepurl.com/i

Mar 27, 2020 • 20:25