All Episodes

ABC:LHS #048-1   Dr. Nellie Neilson...
...was one of the best – and best known – Medieval history scholars in the world, but she struggled to climb every rung to the top during her long career. 

ABC:LHS #048 Women’s History Month for 2023 features...
Dr. Nellie Neilson, who was one of the best Medieval history scholars in the world, but she struggled to climb every rung to the top during her long career.
Sara Yorke Stevenson, a self-trained Egyptologist, co-founder of the Penn Museum, leader in women’s rights, and a popular newspaper columnist who gained respect from colleagues around the world. Her story is told by fellow Laurel Hill Cemetery docent Pat Rose.
Elizabeth Head Fetter, older sister to maverick inventor Howard Head, who wrote under the pen name of Hannah Lees about topics like masturbation and women’s extra-marital affairs in the prudish 1940s, several years before the Kinsey Report was released.

BBB:LHWS #017   Raphael & Julia Coel...
... brought together a World War II veteran and insurance executive with a lifelong swimmer who served as the first Black woman lifeguard for the City of Philadelphia.
If you are White, you'll learn what it was like to “Swim While Black” in the United States.  If you are Black, you already know these stories.  

ABC:LHWS #047-3   Douglas “Jocko” Henderson...
...was one of the top deejays on the East Coast, introduced Little Stevie Wonder to the Apollo Theater audience, and is considered by many to be the first “Rap MC” from Philadelphia.

ABC:LHS #047-2   Barbara Blackshear...
...rose from working as a “computer” who helped produce the legendary Xerox 8010 “Star” to become vice-president of strategic planning for the company.

ABC:LHS #047-1   Dr. James Alexander Batts...
...was an early champion of improving prenatal care for Philadelphia’s African American population.  

ABC:LHS #047   Black History Month for 2023 features...
Dr. James Alexander Batts was an early champion of improving prenatal care for Philadelphia’s African American population.
Barbara Blackshear rose from working as a “computer” and helping produce the legendary Xerox 8010 “Star” to become vice-president of strategic planning for the company.
Douglas “Jocko” Henderson was one of the top deejays on the East Coast, introduced Little Stevie Wonder to the Apollo Theater audience, and is considered by many to be the first “Rap MC” from Philadelphia.
All three of these Black pioneers are interred at Laurel Hill West. 

BBB:LHWS #016   Anna Meister...
...was a Swiss immigrant in the 1850s who declared she was actually the third person of the Christian trinity and changed her name to Jehovah Elimar Mira Mitta.  She had a following for many decades, even years after she died. Once her followers tried to dig her up. 

ABC:LHS #046-3   Dr. Samuel McClintock Hamill...
...was one of the preeminent pediatricians in the country, but early in his career he had conducted controversial experiments on orphans and abandoned children, some of whom were left with permanently damaged eyesight. 

ABC:LHS #046-2   Dr. William Henry Pancoast...
...was a famed anatomist and surgeon who performed the post-mortem examination on the 19th century conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, the original “Siamese” twins.  The same year he artificially impregnated a woman who had a sterile husband, but without her knowledge or permission.

ABC:LHS #046-1   Dr. George McClellan...
...was father of the famed Civil War Union general. In 1824 he founded Thomas Jefferson medical school, but then annoyed his colleagues so much he was expelled from the board of the school he had created.

ABC:LHS #046   Some ethical dilemmas in medicine
Dr. George McClellan, father of the famed Civil War Union general, was founder of Thomas Jefferson medical school, but annoyed his colleagues so much he was expelled from the board of the school he had created.
Dr. William Henry Pancoast was a famed surgeon who performed the post-mortem examination on the 19th century conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, the original “Siamese” twins.  The same year he artificially impregnated a woman who had a sterile husband, but without her knowledge or permission.
Dr. Samuel McClintock Hamill was one of the most prominent pediatricians in the country, but early in his career he had conducted controversial experiments on orphans and abandoned children, some of whom were left with permanently damaged eyesight. 
These three physicians are the topics of today’s edition of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – Father of American Medicine, Part III – Some Ethical Dilemmas. 

BBB:LHWS #015-3   Larry Ferrari...
...was a fixture on Philadelphia's Sunday morning television screens for decades.  Anyone who encountered him had essentially the same thought: "What a nice man!"
 
 

BBB:LHWS #015-2   The Curtis Organ...
...resides in the Irvine Auditorium, a location that bears a certain campus mythology about a failed architecture student. The organ donated by Cyrus H.K. Curtis has only added to its mystique.  

BBB:LHWS #015-1   The Wanamaker Organ...
...is the world's largest playable organ, just feet from City Hall. It contains a staggering 28,750 pipes in 464 ranks controlled by 6 manuals. Its fate is currently unknown.