Who was the first woman to receive a U.S. patent? It turns out the answer is not as straightforward as you might think. Hop over to Episode 4 of the Frog of History podcast to learn more.
Ben Franklin possessed one of the greatest private libraries of the late 18th Century. And soon after he died, most of its books were sold off, scattered like autumn leaves on the cobblestone streets of Philadelphia. The contents of the library remained relatively unknown for more than 100 years. With renewed interest by historians in the twentieth century, the library’s contents have been painstakingly pieced back together–at least on paper. But how did it disappear? And how did historians discover the clues that lets us know what was probably in it? And how many more volumes are still out there, waiting to be discovered? That’s what we’ll cover in this Episode of the Frog of History.
On Christmas day, 1863, a Union ship was attacked by Confederate artillery near Charleston, South Carolina. An hour-long artillery battle ensued. Within the first 15 minutes, three Union sailors were dead. But the crew soon turned the battle in their favor, as individual feats of heroism by sailors turned the tide. One of those sailors was an escaped slave who enlisted immediately after escaping. His name was Robert Blake. Robert was the powderman for one of the cannons. He valiantly moved between the ship’s powder magazine and the gun crews, bringing exactly what powder they needed for their particular gun, and in so doing, enabled the ship to keep up its artillery barrage. He did this while he and the ship were under heavy fire. For his actions that day he received the Medal of Honor–the first African-American recipient of the nation’s highest military award. His grave deserves to be honored, but no one knows what happened to him.
A true American hero, lost in the fog of history.
The Declaration of Independence is missing! Hop over to the Frog of History podcast to learn who lost it and what might have happened to it.
Join us as we explore the pond of human experience up close, from a frog’s eye view. Who knows, you may catch the history bug, even if you don’t have a sticky tongue. So hop into the past with the Frog of History.
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