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The Boston Cowboy Strike (episode 313)

In this episode, we explore the 1936 Boston cowboy strike, a one-day wildcat strike that became the founding moment for a labor union that still exists today. Staged by an organization that became known as the Cowboy Turtle Association at the old Boston Garden, this was the first rodeo strike in the world. While I call it a cowboy strike, cowgirls were an important feature of this particular rodeo, and the union’s longterm success is due in no small part to the wife of a champion cowboy. Why was a cowboy union formed in Boston, of all places? And how did it get the name Cowboy Turtle Association? Listen now!

Hat tip to listener Sam S for suggesting this week’s topic!

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Boston’s Spooky Sea Serpent (episode 312)

In this episode, we dive into the lasting folklore of Boston’s sea serpent, a supposedly true tale rooted in the early colonial history of New England. The story begins with a dubious 1639 account, continues through repeated sightings in the early 1800s, and extends into the 20th century. From the beginning, skeptics poked holes in accounts of the serpent, even when the scientific Linnaean Society fell for the story hook, line, and sinker. However, the idea of a sea monster on Massachusetts shores helped transform Nahant into a summer tourist destination, drawing curious visitors eager to spot the serpent and keeping the legend alive for a century.

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Damming the Charles River (episode 311)

The construction of Boston’s Charles River Dam was a monumental project that transformed the tidal estuary of the Back Bay into a fresh-water basin, providing a 20th century solution to problems that the city inherited from the 19th, including issues with industrial waste, sanitation, and general public distaste for the acres of mudflats that were exposed at low tide. Temporary floodgates closed on October 20, 1908, which marked the first separation of the waters of Boston Harbor from the Back Bay’s brackish salt marsh. In the lead-up to this moment, earthen dams were constructed on both sides of the river, with a lock allowing boats to pass through the dam on the Boston side and a sluiceway to regulate water levels in the upstream basin on the Cambridge side. A temporary wooden dam was built to close the center of the river, allowing for the construction of a permanent dam made of dirt and rock. Despite facing opposition and challenges, the dam was successfully completed in 1910, resulting in the creation of the Charles River Basin, the Esplanade, and some of Boston’s most iconic sites for outdoor recreation.

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The Great September Gale (episode 310)

September 22nd marks the anniversary of a storm. 209 years ago today, the wind was building over the sea off Boston while the skies grew dark with clouds. The next day, the strongest hurricane in generations slammed into the New England coast, causing devastation on Boston Harbor, in city streets, and in fields and forests all around the region. The storm is remembered as the Great September Gale, and it had wide-ranging effects, causing everything from a collapse in the local glass industry to a construction boom to an acceleration in westward migration from Boston and New England.

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Thirty Days Hath September… Except When It Doesn’t (episode 309)

We all know the old mnemonic device, right? Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November, but what if September suddenly had only nineteen days? That’s exactly what Boston experienced in 1752, when the town went to bed on September 2nd and woke up on the 14th. It sounds like something that would have a supernatural explanation, like a mass alien abduction, or maybe something contaminated the water supply to make the entire town go into a brief coma, but the explanation is more pedestrian. Almost two centuries after most of Europe had switched to a new calendar system, the British Empire was following suit, including its overseas colonies like Massachusetts. How did Bostonians adapt to the change? Were they as confused as I would be if my calendar suddenly changed? Did Bostonians riot, demanding their 11 days back? How did the generation that lived through the change remember key dates like their birthdays after the switch? Listen now!

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The Importance of Being Furnished, with Tripp Evans and Erica Lome (episode 308)

This week, Erica Lome and Tripp Evans join the show to discuss a new exhibit at the Eustis Estate called “The Importance of Being Furnished.” In the wake of Oscar Wilde’s 1882 lecture tour focusing on The House Beautiful, outlandishly decorated bachelor households became an aspirational style that helped define American homes from the Gilded Age to the Jazz Era. The new Aesthetic Movement brought beauty and artistic sensibility to American homes, replacing conservative styles that reinforced traditional morality. “The Importance of Being Furnished” introduces four decorators who helped revolutionize interior design during this period: Charles Gibson, Ogden Codman, Charles Pendleton, and Henry Sleeper, as well as their homes in Boston’s Back Bay, Gloucester, Lincoln, and Providence. In their own time, all four men were known as bachelor aesthetes, born into privileged families but hiding their queerness to greater or lesser degrees in an era when homosexuality was punishable by jail time in Boston. In this interview, exhibit curators Tripp Evans and Erica Lome will tell us how these men took inspiration from their personal lives in decorating their own homes, and how they leveraged those lavish homes into careers in decorating for everyone from robber barons to Hollywood stars.

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A Light Under the Dome, with Patrick Gabridge (episode 307)

This week, Patrick Gabridge joins us to talk about his new play “A Light Under the Dome,” which opens at the Massachusetts State House on August 12. The first in a series of works exploring the intersection between abolition and suffrage in the 19th and early 20th centuries, A Light Under the Dome recreates a specific moment in history that took place under the dome of the Massachusetts State House 186 years ago. Angelina Grimke grew up in Charleston, South Carolina in a family of enslavers, witnessing the cruelty of America’s peculiar institution under her own roof. Leaving her comfortable life behind, she risked threats and acts of violence to become a radical abolitionist. Listen to this conversation with Patrick to learn how she got invited to speak to the Massachusetts legislature, why her address was groundbreaking, and how she tied the cause of abolition to the novel idea of rights for women.

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The Enduring Grip of Stillson’s Pipe Wrench (episode 306)

Long before becoming a haven for software and biotech giants, Kendall Square was a center for manufacturing during the era of steam. Here, in the 1860s, two crucial advancements emerged: the standardization of threaded iron pipes and fittings for use in household plumbing, gas fixtures, and steam power and the invention of the modern pipe wrench that allows us to work on them. This episode explores the story behind the Stillson pipe wrench, a tool so revolutionary that its inventor’s name became synonymous with pipe wrenches and so innovative that its design remains nearly unchanged over 150 years later. We’ll meet Daniel Chapman Stillson, the Civil War veteran and ingenious machinist who, frustrated by the limitations of existing tools, designed an adjustable pipe wrench that revolutionized plumbing, pipefitting, and his employer, the Walworth company.

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Hail Britannia! (episode 305)

This episode explores the impact of the Cunard Line of steamers and its flagship Britannia on Boston in the mid-19th century. Before the Britannia, transatlantic travel relied on fickle winds, making each crossing perilous and unpredictable. The introduction of steamships revolutionized transatlantic travel by offering faster and more reliable journeys. Boston became a central hub for this new era of maritime transportation, benefiting from its proximity to Europe and the construction of railroads and modern wharf facilities. However, the challenges of winter ice necessitated innovative solutions, such as cutting a seven-mile canal for the Britannia to depart. Cunard’s regular service between Liverpool and Boston not only boosted the local mercantile economy but also transformed Boston into a center for European news dissemination. However, as the 19th century progressed, technological advancements and shifting economic factors led to a decline in Boston’s dominance in transatlantic shipping, with New York eventually overtaking it as the primary port for Cunard and other steamship lines.

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What’s In a (Nick)Name (episode 304)

For this week’s show, I spent some time asking visitors and locals what nicknames they know for Boston. From the Hub to Titletown to Beantown and beyond, people know a lot of nicknames for Boston, but it turns out that most of us don’t know the meanings behind the monikers. In this episode, I dig into the stories behind five nicknames you might have wondered about.

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