Philly People, Now Deceased: A History Podcast

After 1.5 YEARS...(thank you pandemic) we have new content!  Join Michiko and guest Co-Host Philly Historian Michael Idriss as we dive into the life of the incredible, indomintabile, brilliant Hetty Reckless. 


NOTE: And also sign this petition sign this petition created by students at NEHS 
 to have Black Women's names added to the Pennsylvania Female Anti-Slavery Society plaque. 

https://www.change.org/p/tom-wolf-help-to-add-a-black-woman-s-name-to-the-philadelphia-female-antislavery-society-plaque?signed=true


Check out twitter https://twitter.com/deadphillypeeps for additional visuals and to comment.

This episode is in honor of all the medical workers and nurses taking care of us right now. We look at the beautiful life of compassion of Mother Mary Gonzaga Grace, our very own Florence Nightingale of Philly,  and the massive Mower and Satterlee Hospitals.  Check out our visuals here. 

Today we’re talking about a place that is gone gone gone, not a person.  Join history Professor Kristen O-Brassill-Kulfan, expert on poverty and prisons in the early American republic, and Candace McKinley, Lead Organizer for the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund, as we discuss the prison you didn’t know existed - Arch Street Prison, Vagrancy, and the Cholera Epidemic of 1832. 

Join us as we discuss Philadelphian Samuel Morton who set out to prove racial inferiority based on skull sizes.  Guest Co-Host Nathaniel Miller joins Michiko as we look at Morton's skull measuring methods, a little bit about the potential origins of black-face mummers, and a smattering of Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Dumas, and repatriation of the remains of enslaved people.

References:  

Take Action: Change.org petition https://www.change.org/p/president-of-university-of-penn-and-board-of-trustees-university-of-penn-to-return-enslaved-crania 

Samuel Morton  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_George_Morton

Crania Americana https://archive.org/details/Craniaamericana00Mort/page/261/mode/2up

Catalogue of human crania in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia

Penn Museum Morton Cranial Collection https://www.penn.museum/sites/morton/index.php

Racism in Jacksonian America + reference to the Fancy Balls Lapsansky, Emma Jones. “‘Since They Got Those Separate Churches’: Afro-Americans and Racism in Jacksonian Philadelphia.” American Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 1, 1980, pp. 54–78. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2712496. Accessed 2 Mar. 2020.

Edward Clay’s Racist Political Cartoons about Rich Black Philadelphians http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/gallclayf.html

DNA can’t tell your race https://www.popsci.com/story/science/dna-tests-myth-ancestry-race/

Dr. Sarah Tishkoff https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/10/05/sarah-tishkoff-penn-race-genetics/

Thomas Jefferson and his Slave Profit Calculations https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson-35976004/

The Mismeasure of Man https://www.amazon.com/Mismeasure-Man-Revised-Expanded/dp/0393314251/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+mismeasure+of+man&qid=1583186691&s=books&sr=1-1

 Superior: the Return of Race Science https://www.amazon.com/Superior-Return-Science-Angela-Saini/dp/0807076910

Thanks for joining episode 1, season 2 where we visit Tacony, and talk about the biggest Philly corporation you’ve never heard of, Solar Energy, and Philly’s first planned interracial community.  Welcome!



References: 

• Northeast Philadelphia; a Brief History, Dr. Harry Silcox and Frank Hollingsworth
• Workshopoftheworld. "Disston & Sons, Keystone Saw Works." Workshopoftheworld, n.d., https://www.workshopoftheworld.com/tacony/disston.html.
• Silcox, Harry C. “Henry Disston's Model Industrial Community: Nineteenth-Century Paternalism in Tacony, Philadelphia.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 114, no. 4, 1990, pp. 483–515. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20092536.
• Biography. "Roosevelt Barlow Biography - Black, Department, Fire, and Firefighters - JRank Articles." Biography, n.d., https://biography.jrank.org/pages/2442/Barlow-Roosevelt.html.
• Nytimes. "Morris Milgram, 81; Built Interracial Housing - The New York Times." Nytimes, n.d.,https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/26/us/morris-milgram-81-built-interracial-housing.html.
• Wikipedia page for Tacony
• https://www.inquirer.com/news/racial-covenants-deed-philadelphia-segregation-african-american-history-20191230.html

In Episode 7 we look at the life of  oilman William Gray Warden, the South Philly Atlantic Refinery he built that has been exploding since 1860, the gas layer under our streets and how one unsung hero prevented Philnobyl. 

Thanks for joining Episode 5. Today we discuss James Forten, one of the richest men in Philadelphia in the early 1800s.  Born a free African American in 1766, James Forten loved his country, and lived most of his teens on ships; ranging from the infamous prison ship the HMS Jersey, to the Commerce, to many many other ships that he outfitted with sails. He lived to become one of the most pre-eminent Philadelphians and Abolitionists of our time.

Today we are talking 10 things you didn't know about Cornelius McGillicuddy.  Like maybe that his name is, in fact, Cornelius McGillicuddy!  Connie Mack is our topic and the 1929 World Series game we all forgot about. 

Today on  Episode 3 we draw an arc of good works through some pretty hard times.  Join us as we discuss Sex Workers, Poverty, Riots,Design Schools, Sarah Peter and Anna Russell Jones.

Resources

• Anna Russell Jones
• Disorderly City, Disorderly Women
• History of Moore College of Art
• A Guide to the Stranger, or Pocket Companion for the Fancy
• Appeal to the Wealthy of the Land, Ladies as Well as Gentlemen, on the Character, Conduct, Situation, and Prospects of Those Whose Sole Dependence for Subsistence Is on the Labour of Their Hands 

Thanks for Joining Episode 2 of the Philly People Now Deceased Podcast.  In this episode we discuss the zombie apocalypse of 1793 aka Yellow Fever and the heroic efforts of Philly’s free black community, led by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones to nurse the sick.

Leonard and Michiko talk about the King of Bootleggers and the greatest gangster you've never heard of ; Max "Boo Boo" Hoff.  Why don't Philly gangsters get the respect they deserve? We also talk about the diversion of industrial alcohol, Philadelphia during prohibition, Hugh McCloon and the 1928 Grand Jury on Bootlegging. 

Just describing what we're doing... full episode coming soon!