HUB History - Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

This week's episode takes on the early history of Boston’s Chinatown, two murders that took place there at the turn of the twentieth century, and a terrifying crackdown on Chinese Americans in Boston that sparked an international incident and has parallels in today’s headlines.   Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/049

This episode examines the life of Walter Dodd, who started his career as a janitor at Harvard Medical School before becoming a pharmacist, physician, and the Father of American Radiology. Though as you will hear, his journey was not without great personal sacrifice.   Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/048

Your humble hosts are out of town and off the air this week. Never fear, Jake is here, and he has this week’s historical anniversaries for your enjoyment. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/047

Early Boston aeronauts used balloons to perform scientific experiments, cross the English channel, take the first aerial photographs, and provide public entertainment.  Whether by hot air or hydrogen, these pioneers made their way into the air, and into the history books. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/046

The Skin Book was written by highwayman George Walton and dedicated to the only man to best him in combat.  While he was a prisoner at Charlestown Penitentiary, Walton wrote a memoir.  According to his wishes, after his death, the book was bound in Walton's own skin and given to the man who defeated him.  Today, this example of anthropodermic bibliopegy is a prized possession of the Boston Athenaeum. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/044

Since 1651, Boston has had a legal responsibility to mark and measure its boundaries every few years.  Despite advances in technology, the practice of "perambulating the bounds" means that someone has to go out and walk the town lines.  This law is one of the oldest still on the books, but when was the last time Boston perambulated its bounds?  Listen now! Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/044

When young Albert Tirrell killed his lover Maria Bickford on Beacon Hill, it sparked a scandal that rocked Victorian Boston in the 1840s.  It was a tale of seduction, murder, and the unlikeliest of defenses.  In the end, he would be found not guilty, in the first successful use of sleepwalking as a defense against murder. We apologize for Nikki's head cold, some rough cuts that resulted from editing out her sniffles, and the couple of sniffles that made it into the final cut. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/043

While your humble hosts are away chasing the total solar eclipse, enjoy this show about the history of eclipses in Boston. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/042 (We're aware of some glitches in this recording and trying to fix it with our podcast hosting provider.)

During a late nineteenth century canoe craze, recreational canoeing became Boston's hottest leisure time activity.  Young lovers took advantage of the privacy and intimacy of a canoe to engage in a little bit of illicit romance, leading a humorless state police agency to ban kissing in canoes on the Charles River. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/041

Despite our liberal reputation today, for years Boston was a bastion of official censorship. Authors and playwrights whose works were considered obscene had to create a watered-down "Boston version." The Watch and Ward Society decided what art, theater, and literature was permissible, and what would be Banned in Boston! Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/040

492 people were killed in a 1942 fire at Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub that lasted barely a half hour. It was the deadliest disaster in Boston history. Only the smallpox epidemics of the early 1700s and the 1918 Spanish flu rival it for loss of life. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/039

This week's show is about Charles “King” Solomon, also known as Boston Charlie, whose criminal enterprise placed him at the head of organized crime in Boston throughout the prohibition era.  He reached influence at the national level, set policies in play that led to tragedy at the Cocoanut Grove, and in death, left a wake that may have led to the rise of Whitey Bulger. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/038

Your humble hosts are out having summertime fun this week.  Don't worry, though... Jake is flying solo this week, and bringing you this week's historical anniversaries. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/037

In this episode, we continue our tale of Boston in the Golden Age of Piracy, picking up at the end of the War of The Spanish Succession.  We’ll learn about some of the most fearsome and notorious pirates in history, as well as one of the most ineffective.  We’ll see how one of these pirates gave a founding father his start in public life, which US president’s great grandfather bought a former pirate as a slave, and what other president’s great grandfather decapitated a pirate with an axe.   Show note: http://HUBhistory.com/036

With a partial "Muslim Ban" in place, it's important to remember that vilifying "enemy aliens" is one of the darkest chapters of our nation's history.  A hundred years ago, Americans were all too willing to imprison or even deport their neighbors of German descent.  Here in Boston, the preeminent director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra was affected, along with almost a third of the orchestra’s musicians. Show notes: http://HUBhistory.com/035