The History Cache Podcast

The Lady Franklin Bay Expedition Part 2: Their Legacy Remains

We continue the story of the tragic Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, also known as the Greely Expedition, in the Canadian Arctic. We pick back up and Camp Clay on Cape Sabine after the crew had fled their previous station when their relief ship had failed to arrive a second year in a row.

At their new outpost, the crew finally realized they were on their own for another Arctic winter, one they were not prepared for. Their rations were dwindling and death from starvation came quickly. Most of the crew struggling to survive at Camp Clay would never see home again.

When the few survivors returned after their long-awaited rescue, they were met with scandal. Accusations of cannibalism followed them for the remainder of their lives and the data they died for was virtually dismissed. It sat collecting dust for a century until now, when its importance has finally been recognized.

The data taken by the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition has been used to help us understand how global warming has impacted our planet, and 140 years later, we’ve finally come to understand its importance.

Join me for the finale on the true story of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, as we uncover a 140-year-old legacy that still remains.

The Great 1908 New York to Paris Auto Race: The Finale

The finale is here! After nearly 22,000 miles, or over 35,000 kilometers, we finish the Great 1908 New York to Paris Auto Race. This episode covers the entire trek through Siberia and Europe.

After nearly six months of a grueling auto race before gas stations, highways, asphalt, road maps, or power steering, our remaining competitors in the American Thomas Flyer, the Italian Zust, and the German Protos brave the huge expanse of Russia, something no one else had ever done in an automobile. They face floods, bandits, malaria, hail, freezing rain, bogs, and, as always, a string of mechanical mishaps all coming together to bring you the most exciting episode in this series.

Six cars began this journey, only three remain. Come discover the historic ending of what just may be the greatest race of all time.

Adventure awaits. Let’s go for a drive.

Historic Pranks

Laughter is a universal language and today we celebrate humor through the ages by exploring three historic pranks. The first involves Anthemius of Tralles, one of the main architects involved in building the Hagia Sophia and a genius who really knew how to hold a grudge. Then we skip ahead several handfuls of centuries to uncover the Great Moon Hoax of 1835 when a newspaper editor for The Sun ignited a hoax that had everyone looking to the moon for bipedal beavers, bat-like humanoids, and even a unicorn. After that we head to the 1950s near Atlanta, Georgia where three guys, a $10 bet, a fake UFO sighting, and one unfortunate "Monkey from Mars" show us just how quickly a prank can go too far.

On Cheating Death and Inventing the Saxophone

In 1846 Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax received his patent for the saxophone, but not before he cheated death at least seven times. He was so accident prone that his own mother didn’t believe he would survive childhood. His close calls with death earned him the nickname “Little Sax the Ghost.”

Sax’s life was a roller coaster of ups and downs. Mired the backstabbing world of invention, he fought years of legal battles, narrowly escaped death multiple times, battled cancer in the 1850s, and still helped shape music history. 

Both hated and loved in his own time, Sax would revolutionize the French military band, register over 40 different patents, and invent 14 different types of saxophones as well as an entire family of saxhorns.

Come explore the surprisingly tumultuous history of the saxophone. 

A Heist at Lincoln’s Tomb and the Snarky Farewell of Mr. Accordion

In 1876 a bumbling group of Chicago counterfeiters broke into Abraham Lincoln’s tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Illinois, after formulating a plot to steal the president’s body and use it as leverage to get counterfeiter Benjamin Boyd released from prison. Boyd worked for small-time crime boss Big Jim Kinealy, and Big Jim’s attempted heist would, with the help of a secret service informant, go down in history as an utterly bad idea.

Then we jump ahead a century to explore the snarkiest tomb in history. Roy Bertelli, known as Mr. Accordion, regularly stood atop his own grave, which is a stone’s throw from Lincoln’s, to loudly play his accordion for the sole purpose of being as annoying as possible. After a row with the cemetery management over their attempt to seize his grave plot, Roy spent the rest of his life letting them know they wouldn’t be getting it back, even over his dead body. Come hear why his delightfully cantankerous story earns Mr. Accordion the gold in posthumous snark. 

John Robert Fox, Buffalo Soldier

This week in continuation of our Compassion Series we highlight the incredible story of Lieutenant John Robert Fox, one of seven African American soldiers to receive the Medal of Honor for acts of valor in WW2. We also examine the history of America’s Buffalo Soldiers, and discuss how black soldiers have served courageously in America’s armed forces since the inception of the United States military. Fox’s heroic tale is one that has gone down in history, and the legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers remain an integral and interwoven part of the US’s military history. In this episode, we travel across America’s Great Plains during the 19^th century before heading all the way to Sommocolonia, a small village in the Italian countryside during the second world war, where we find one soldier who truly gave everything for survival of others.

The Elephant Angel of Belfast

This episode is the first in a series highlighting extraordinary people doing extraordinary things in times of crises. This week we travel to Belfast during the Blitz of 1941 and meet Denise Weston Austin. She worked as one of the Belfast Zoo’s first female zookeepers, and the friendship she developed with Sheila, the zoo’s baby elephant, would become an inspirational part of Irish history. For decades, Denise’s identity remained a mystery until an old black and white photo of a woman and a baby elephant in a backyard surfaced from the zoo’s archives. Come hear the story of the woman who risked everything to save a small, plucky elephant, and why Denise has become known around the world as the Elephant Angel. 

History Byte: A Swearing Parrot Ruined Andrew Jackson's Funeral

Come and meet Poll, a presidential parrot so extra that his epic level of snark still lives on today.