All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

Introduction to Horology: How Did We Tell Time?

ABC:LHS #043-1   How did we keep time in Philadelphia...
...from sundials and hourglasses to the clock on Independence Hall,  Philadelphia has had skilled clock and watchmakers since colonial times. 

Tick Tock: Clocks, Watches, and Laurel Hill

ABC:LHS #043   
Philadelphia has had skilled clock and watchmakers since colonial times.
Henry Voigt helped David Rittenhouse build his legendary orrery and supplied surveying instruments to the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
His son Thomas Voigt built a special clock for Thomas Jefferson that he used for his astronomical experiments.  You can see his clocks both at Monticello and in the US Senate.
Isaiah Lukens not only built clocks that can still be seen at The Athenaeum and the Germantown City Hall, but he also built an air gun that may have been used by Lewis & Clark during their expedition.
Henry Seybert used the money left him by his father Adam to have a clock and a bell built for Independence Hall for the 1876 Centennial Celebration.  Almost 150 years later, they still stand.  And then there's the spiritualism...

C. DeLores Tucker: Turbaned Justice Warrior

BBB:LHWS #012   Cynthia DeLores Tucker...
...was a Philadelphia born and raised Civil Rights champion through the 1960s and 1970s as she worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Shirley Chisholm, and Cecil B. Moore. She spent her later years fighting what she saw as the pornography and misogyny of gangsta rap.  She was vilified by the music community, which spared no words in trying to show how sad and out-of-date her thinking was.

Augustus Goodyear Heaton: Numismatist, Painter, Poet, Polymath

ABC:LHS #042-4   Augustus Goodyear Heaton...
...was a coin collector who wrote doggerel poetry about his collection.  He was also an accomplished painter, as one of his works hangs in the U.S. Senate

James Ross Snowden: An Entrepreneurial Director

ABC:LHS #042-3   James Ross Snowden...
...oversaw the minting of commemorative coins which were sold to help support the expenses of running the mint.  His nephew Archibald took over where he left off.  

Robert Patterson: Early Innovative Mint Director

ABC:LHS #042-2   Robert Patterson...
...and his son Robert Maskell Patterson were two of the innovative early mint directors that kept it from failing. 

Developing the U.S. Mint

ABC:LHS #042-1
If you live in Philadelphia, you know about the Philadelphia mint at 5th and Arch.  This is our 4th mint in Philadelphia.  The first opened in 1792 just a few hundred feet away from the current one.  Billions of coins have been pressed in its highly efficient, highly secure building.  Thousands of Philadelphians have worked at the mint, and many of them served as either Director or Superintendent.

Mint Condition: Some Laurel Hill Coinage Connections

ABC:LHS #042   The United States Mint...
...has been in Philadelphia since 1792.  It has produced billions of coins, from half-pennies to 20-dollar gold double eagles.  Many of the early officers were Philadelphians.  In this podcast, you will hear about doubloons and trimes, Peter the eagle, the California gold rush and Colorado's Comstock lode, greenbacks, Gresham's law, and more.  And you will hear some bad poetry.

Henrietta Cozens and The Red Rose Girls

BBB:LHWS #011   The Red Rose Girls...
...were three fabulously successful artists who developed mutual love and respect at the turn of the 20th century.  All students of art know of the Red Rose Girls - illustrators Jessie Willcox Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green and muralist Violet Oakley.  They became masters of their craft because of a fourth woman, Henrietta Cozens, who served as their mother, wife, nurse, gardener, cook, and muse.  She is interred at Laurel Hill West.  Without her, it is unlikely the Red Rose Girls would have existed.

Catherine "Kitty" Drinker: Writing History & Playing the Fiddle

ABC:LHS #041-3   Catherine "Kitty" Drinker Bowen...
...was "unpaintable" according to her artist aunt Cecilia Beaux. Kitty made a career by writing award-winning history books and biographies, despite a lack of training in history or in literature.  She was also a superb violinist.

Cecil Kent Drinker, MD: The Radium Girls

ABC:LHS #041-2   Cecil Kent Drinker, MD...
...was founder of the Harvard School of Public Health and with his wife Dr. Katherine Rotan Drinker became primary investigator of the "Radium Girls."

Henry "Harry" Sandwith Drinker: The Philadelphia Lawyer's Lawyer

ABC:LHS #041-1   Henry Sandwith “Harry” Drinker...
...was a lawyer extraordinaire, amateur musician par excellence, and rescuer of the von Trapp family.  The music parties given by Harry and his wife Sophie were legendary, and his collection of choral music is available for whomever wants to borrow it from the Philadelphia Library. 

Three More Drinker Siblings to Know - Harry, Cecil, and Kitty

ABC:LHS #041   Three More Drinker Siblings
Henry Sandwith "Harry" Drinker was a brilliant Philadelphia lawyer and a famed musicologist who befriended the von Trapp family when they arrived at Ellis Island.  His wife Sophie Hutchinson Drinker was one of the founders of women's musicological and gender studies.
Cecil Drinker, MD, was a gifted physiologist who published more than 250 papers and did the original studies on The Radium Girls.  His wife Katherine Rotan Drinker, MD, was his lifelong partner in research and publications.
Catherine "Kitty" Drinker Bowen was an accomplished amateur violinist who wrote best-selling and prize-winning biographies and history tomes, although she never earned a college degree.
Three more members of the Drinker family for you know, all buried together on a hillside at Laurel Hill West.  Plus, you will learn about the iron lung, the Philadelphia origins of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and an amateur choir of 150 voices that gathered every Sunday evening for 30 years without ever performing in public.  It's another jam-packed episode of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories.

Herman Haupt: Lincoln’s Railroad Man

BBB:LHWS #010   Herman Haupt...
...was the top railroad engineer in the country, and he knew it. During the Civil War, his mastery of the rails provided the Union Army with thousands of tons of supplies, saved hundreds of lives, and may have preserved the Union’s victory at Gettysburg.  Except to railroad buffs, he is little remembered today.  

William Drayton: Jefferson the Farmer

ABC:LHS #040-3   COL William Drayton...
...was a Unionist from South Carolina and a veteran of the War of 1812.  His father, a Carolina plantation owner, exchanged dozens of letters with Jefferson on many topics, especially agriculture. 

William Duane & The Aurora

ABC:LHS #040-2   William Duane...
...was a radical patriot and publisher of the Philadelphia Aurora which helped get Jefferson elected President against Federalist John Adams in 1800. 

William Short: Jefferson's Adopted Son

ABC:LHS #040-1   William Short...
...received the first appointment to public office that was conferred under the Constitution of the United States.  Jefferson thought so much of Short that he happily called him “my adoptive son.”  

Friends of Thomas Jefferson (part 1): I’m Just a Bill

ABC:LHS #040   Thomas Jefferson...
...made many friends during his time in Philadelphia. Several of them ended up at Laurel Hill Cemetery
William Short was the first appointment to public office conferred under the Constitution of the United States.  Thomas Jefferson thought so much of him that he happily called him "my adoptive son." 
William Duane was the radical publisher of the "Philadelphia Aurora" who helped get Jefferson elected President against Federalist John Adams in 1800. 
Colonel William Drayton was a veteran of the War of 1812 and a Unionist from South Carolina whose father had exchanged dozens of letters with Jefferson on many topics, especially agriculture. 

Helen Bradford Thompson: Forgotten Gender Studies Pioneer

BBB:LHWS #009   Helen Bradford Thompson...
...turned the understanding of gender roles on its head.  Her groundbreaking work at the turn of the 20th century, summarized in her PhD thesis "The Mental Traits of Sex," exploded on the psychology scene like nothing that had come before it.  And yet the name Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley was little remembered for decades, only recently being rediscovered because of the blossoming of feminist studies. 
 

Daniel Archer: His Last Bar Fight

ABC:LHS #039-4   Daniel Archer...
...was a local haberdasher who liked to hang around a local bar and flirt with actresses who were performing in a nearby theater. A beer pitcher was his downfall. 

Louis Bergdoll & His Problematic Family

ABC"LHS #039-3   Louis Bergdoll was one of the most respected brewers in the country, but his surname became reviled because of a grandson who was the most hated draft dodger during the Great War. 

Beer and the Centennial Celebration

ABC:LHS #039-2   Brewerytown...
...has always had a Brewerytown section. Now it's a place where people live in what used to be breweries.  The 1876 Centennial brought millions of people to the city who learned about the delights of Philadelphia Beer.

Introduction to Brewing, Perot & Morris

ABC:LHS #039-1
How did breweries start in our green country town?  Where were they located?  Who drank the product?  And how did one brewery stay in one family for ten generations?  Here are your answers.

In Heaven There Is No Beer: Some Brewers of Laurel Hill

ABC:LHS #039   In Heaven There Is No Beer
Beer has a long history in our country, and Philadelphia has played a surprisingly strong role in its development.  There's even a neighborhood called Brewerytown, and hundreds of Philadelphians live in apartments that used to be breweries.
 
This episode talks about beer from different perspectives. How did breweries start in our green country town? Where were they located? Who drank it? How did one brewery stay in one family for ten generations? What happened at the Centennial Exposition to spread the word about Philadelphia beer? Even though Louis Bergdoll was one of the most respected brewers in the country, why did his surname become reviled because of one of his grandsons? And we'll finish with the story of a legendary Philadelphia bar fight and its aftermath. All this – and more – in the June edition of All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – In Heaven There Is No Beer.

Loren Eiseley: Every Writer’s Writer, Every Human’s Human

BBB:LHWS #008   Loren Eiseley...
...grew up in a troubled family on the plains of Nebraska and drifted across the American West on trains during the Great Depression.  Yet during his life he earned 36 honorary degrees and was one of the most respected researchers, educators, and writers in the country.  He was Benjamin Franklin Professor of Anthropology and History of Science, and the curator of the Early Man section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum.  Like Henry David Thoreau, his writings on man and nature are treasured to this day.  When Eiseley died in 1977, many people felt as though they had lost a close personal friend, even if they never met him.  Science-fiction author Ray Bradbury remarked that he "is every writer's writer, and every human's human ... One of us, yet most uncommon ..."  

Charles Soulas: Mock Turtle Soup

ABC:LHS #038-4   Charles Soulas...
...has one of Laurel Hill's more striking grave memorials - a woman who looks like she's ready to take your meal order.  Soulas ran a restaurant near city hall where local movers and shakers met over mock turtle soup.

A. B. Frost: Illustrating from Across the Ocean

ABC:LHS #038-3   Arthur Burdett Frost...
...was a highly respected Philadelphia illustrator and lithographer whom Lewis Carroll selected to provide illustrations for his poetry book Rhyme & Reason.  They had a falling out when Carroll requested some unusual photographs from Frost.  

Morris Longstreth Parrish: Better Than Mint Condition

ABC:LHS #038-2   Morris Longstreth Parrish...
...was a picky book collector.  Everything had to be perfect, enough so that some book dealers created a new category just for him - "Parrish condition." He also coveted "Alice."   

Eldridge Reeves Johnson: He Owned the Original 'Alice'

ABC:LHS #038-1   Eldridge Reeves Johnson...
...made millions of dollars with his Victor Talking Machine Company. Some of it he used to purchase the original Lewis Carroll manuscript of Alice in the Underground from bookseller extraordinaire A.S.W. Rosenbach.  He kept the manuscript on his yacht.

Some Lewis Carroll Connections

ABC:LHS #038 Alice Connections - Through the Looking Glass
Industrialist Eldridge Reeves Johnson used money from the millions he earned in developing the Victor Talking Machine Company and purchased the original copy of “Alice’s Adventures Underground,” lettered and drawn by the author himself.
Bibliophile Morris Longstreth Parrish purchased as many of Carroll’s works as he could, all in the best possible condition, so that Parrish's name became synonymous with “mint condition.”
Lithographer and artist Arthur Burdett Frost impressed Carroll enough that he supplied illustrations for one of his books of poetry.
And in a tenuous but fun connection, I will tell you of a center city restauranteur Charles Soulas whose specialty was mock turtle soup.
Parrish and Frost are interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery. Johnson and Soulas at West Laurel Hill. It's going to get crowded in the rabbit hole as we all enter together.

Francis Dercum, Clara Dercum, & Susanna Dercum: Changing History

BBB:LHWS #007   Francis Xavier Dercum, MD...
...grew up in Philadelphia and trained as a neurologist.  When President Woodrow Wilson had his massive stroke in 1919, Dercum was called in as consultant.  Years later when Wilson's widow Edith wrote her memoirs, she insisted that it was Dr. Dercum who had encouraged her to run things while he recovered.
Francis's sister Clara Dercum also became a physician and spent much of her career giving charity care to the poor in Philadelphia, while working tirelessly for women's rights.  
Their half-sister Susanna Dercum went in a different direction and became Leopold Stokowski's choice for the voice of Maria Aegyptica when he conducted the American premier of Mahler's 8th Symphony in 1916. 

Francis Penrose: The Forgotten Brother

ABC:LHS #037-4   Francis Penrose...
...was the baby of the group. He had a mental breakdown in his teens and became a lifelong resident of an upper-class psychiatric hospital, but his legacy has been tarnished by wild tales of the RMS Titanic spread over the web by someone who claims to be his niece.

R.A.F. Penrose: Geologist Extraordinaire

ABC:LHS #037-3   Richard Alexander Fullerton (R.A.F.) Penrose Jr. ... 
...was named after his father, became a geologist and surveyed some of the great precious metal reserves in the American west.  His will left millions of dollars to organizations which owe their existence today to him.

Charles Penrose, MD: The Name on the Drain

ABC:LHS #037-2   Charles Penrose was the only person with better grades than brother Boies in their Harvard class.  He became a respected surgeon and gynecologist and brought the practice of surgery forward with his methods, along with leaving his name on a commonly used device, the Penrose drain.  But his one-on-one battle with an enraged bear is legendary.  

Boies Penrose & A Statue Outside the Capitol

ABC:LHS #037-1   Boies Penrose...
...was the second smartest man in his class at Harvard and became a representative from Philadelphia to Harrisburg and Speaker of the House before he moved to Washington as US Senator.  That's where he spent the rest of his life.  His graft was jaw-dropping, his appetites were enormous, and he was always the smartest - and the biggest - man in the room. 

Senator Penrose and His Brothers

ABC:LHS #037   Senator Penrose and His Brothers
Tucked away in Laurel Hill South near the border with Fairmount Park is a family plot that – foot for foot – may have more interesting people than anyplace else in the cemetery.  
Boies Penrose was the second smartest man in his class at Harvard, became a representative from Philadelphia to Harrisburg and speaker of the house before moving to Washington D.C. as State Senator where he spent the rest of his life.
His brother Charles Penrose was the only person with better grades in their Harvard class.  Charles became a respected surgeon and gynecologist and brought the practice of surgery forward with his methods, along with leaving his name on a commonly used device.
Richard "RAF" Penrose, named after his father, became a geologist and surveyed some of the great precious metal reserves in the American west.  His will left millions of dollars to organizations which are in existence today because of him.
The baby of the group Francis Penrose had a mental breakdown in his teens and became a lifelong resident of an upper-class psychiatric hospital, but his legacy has been embellished all over the web by someone claiming to be his niece.
Plus, stories about political corruption in Philadelphia, gluttony, the Johnson County Range Wars, and a bizarre theory about the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic.  
 

Hannah Clothier Hull: A Life for Peace

BBB:LHWS #006   Hannah Clothier Hull...
...was daughter of a department store magnate who was a suffragette and a leader in the Women’s Peace Movement for more than 50 years.  She was the wife of one of the great Quaker historians and peace activists William Isaac Hull.  They both lived a Life for Peace. 

Ella Wister Haines: A Life in Public Relations

ABC:LHS #036-3   Ella Eustis Wister Haines...
...was the baby of the group and didn’t hit her stride until she was almost 50 years old. Then she turned into a master of public relations and the voice of the Philadelphia Electric Company for 20 years.  

Frances Anne Wister: The Woman Who Saved Old Philadelphia

ABC:LHS #036-2   Frances Anne Wister...
...was a gifted musician who served as the driving force behind the founding of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1900.  She also got involved in historical landmark preservation and is the reason we have Old City, Society Hill, Elfreth’s Alley, and so much of our history to share with others.

Mary Channing Wister Wister: Saving Music in the Schools

ABC:LHS #036-1   Mary Channing Wister...
...was a busy woman; despite five children, she served on the Philadelphia Board of Education and dedicated her time to numerous civic causes.  Some people claim she is the reason we have music in the public schools and a Broad Street line that runs underground.  She died far too young in childbirth.  

Three Remarkable Wister Sisters

ABC:LHS #036   The Remarkable Wister Sisters...
...helped make Philadelphia what it is today. 
The oldest Mary Channing Wister petitioned for music in the public schools, more public parks for all, and placement of the Broad Street line underground.
Frances Anne Wister was a founder of the Philadelphia Orchestra and became the city’s patron saint of preservation; without her there would likely be no Old City or Society Hill.
The youngest sister Ella Wister Haines got a late start on her career but became the public face and voice of Philadelphia Electric Company for 20 years, especially during the Great Depression. 
All three of these women are buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery.  I tell their stories today. 

Raymond Pace & Sadie T.M. Alexander: Philadelphia’s First Black "Power Couple"

BBB:LHWS #005   Raymond Pace Alexander...
...was born in Philadelphia to former enslaved people but graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and became the go-to civil rights lawyer in Philadelphia.  In 1959, he became the first black judge to sit on the Court of Common Pleas. 
His wife Sadie Tanner Mossell came from a pioneering middle-class family and was the first Black women to earn an economics degree in the US, but then also became a lawyer. 
Together they spent their lives battling racism in Philadelphia.  

Joseph Beam: Icon for Gay Black Authors

ABC:LHS #035-4   Joe Beam worked in a bookstore and saw nothing by or about people like him - a young, Black, gay male.  He solicited and edited his own book, which he easily filled with stories and poems written by other men just like him.  

Marion Stokes: The Woman Who Videotaped Everything

ABC:LHS #035-3   Marion Stokes...
...developed an obsession with recording television news stories, because she didn't trust the way the news seemed to shift from day to day.  She left tens of thousands of videotapes when she died.

Dennie Hoggard, Jr.: Integrating the Cotton Bowl

ABC:LHS #035-2   Dennie Hoggard, Jr. went to Penn State where he played football.  The team was good enough that they qualified for Cotton Bowl in the very segregated city of Dallas, Texas.  Dennie made the best of it ... and the Nittany Lions came thiiiis close to winning the game. 

Ira de Augustine Reid, PhD: A Sociologist Pursued by the "Red Scare"

ABC:LHS #035-1   Ira de Augustine Reid, PhD...
...spent the bulk of his career at Haverford College during the days of "separate but equal".  His studies of the Great Migration were admired by all who read them, but his progressive outlook attracted the attention of the House Unamerican Activities Committee.

Black History Month 2022

ABC:LHS #035   Black History Month 2022 features...
Ira de Augustine Reid, PhD was one of the top sociologists in the country in the late 1940s, but because of his scholarship, he got swept up in the “Red Scare” of the mid-20th century. 
Dennie Hoggard, Jr. of West Philadelphia was a tight end at Penn State who helped to integrate the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on New Year’s Day of 1948. 
Marion Stokes had an obsession – to videotape every cable news program on television, and she did so for almost 35 years, amassing a treasure-trove of history. 
Joseph Beam could not find any literature by Black gay men like himself, so he put together a best-selling anthology.  
These four found their final resting place at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd.  I will tell their stories in this month’s edition of “All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories – Four Black Trailblazers.”

Theodore Presser: The Music Man

BBB:LHWS #004   Theodore Presser...
...got a late start in his career, but he ended up making millions of dollars from publishing a magazine for music teachers around the world, and then by selling them sheet music.  And then he gave away much of his money in his lifetime and the endowments he left continue to aid music students across the country.  His story is inspiring and his legacy is huge.  

William Clothier II: The Netster Was a Spy

ABC:LHS #034-6   Bill Clothier II was the son of a Hall of Fame player and was personally steeped in tennis, but after the War he was recruited for the CIA.  He spent the rest of his career promoting the sport and spying.  

Howard Head: The Patron Saint of the Average Athlete

ABC:LHS #034-5   Howard Head...
...found out he was a lousy skier, so he invented Head Skis. He wasn't very good at tennis either, so he invented the Prince racket with the "banjo" head.  Anyone who used it got better - including Howard.

William Clothier Sr.: A Hall of Fame Player

ABC:LHS #034-4   William Clothier...
...was the son of department store founder Isaac Clothier and took up tennis at an early age.  He was good enough to be ranked in the top ten for more than a dozen years, and is in the Tennis Hall of Fam

Frederick Winslow Taylor: A Master of Time and Motion

ABC:LHS #034-3 Frederick Winslow Taylor is mostly remembered today for his theories of Scientific Management. But he was an excellent tennis player - see Clarence Clark - and his golf skills were enough to get him into the 1900 Olympics.

Clarence Clark: First US Doubles Champion

ABC:LHS #034-2   Clarence Clark...
...and his next-door neighbor Frederick Winslow Taylor played tennis very chance they had on their private court. It paid off when they won the first US Open Doubles match in Newport, where Clarence is also enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

Introduction to Tennis

ABC:LHS #034-1   Tennis...
...has been around for hundreds of years.  Here's how it got started and how it came to the Americas.

Tennis, Anyone?

ABC:LHS #034
Tennis came to the United States in the 1870s and was quickly taken up by the East Coast upper crust, the nouveau riche of the Gilded Age. 
Germantown’s Clarence Clark became one of its primary organizers, and his good friend and neighbor Frederick Winslow Taylor joined him as a doubles partner. 
William Clothier was the son of department store magnate Isaac Clothier and played his way into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. 
Howard Head found that he was not a very good tennis player, so he changed the equipment to improve his game, just as he had done for skiing. 
William Clothier Jr. hobnobbed with the likes of Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe while also serving as a spy for the CIA.  
All five of these men are interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd.  

Aimee Ernesta Drinker Bullitt Beaux Barlow: Becoming "Commando Mary"

BBB:LHWS #003
This is the story of a woman who was so beautiful that she turned down more than 50 marriage proposals before she wed a newspaperman who became the United States’ first ambassador to the Soviet Union, and who then had an affair with one of the most famous illustrators of the 20th century, and who married a second time to a famed opera composer, and who then spent World War II as a radio propagandist pushing for the rights of women, and then spent years in New York City running one of the most exclusive weekly salons in the city. Welcome to the wonderful story of Aimee Ernesta Drinker Bullitt Beaux Barlow, aka "Commando Mary."

Coleman Sellers II: Inventing the Moving Pictures

ABC:LHS #033-4   Coleman Sellers II...
...was a nationally renowned mechanical engineer for whom photography was a hobby, yet he managed to produce what is now acknowledged as the first motion picture.

Mathew Carey Lea: Inventing Mechanochemistry

ABC:LHS #033-3   Mathew Carey Lea...
...was a bit of a recluse after an early laboratory accident, but he helped photography make giant strides forward through his knowledge of photochemistry. He then invented an entirely new branch of chemistry almost through serendipity. 

Frederick Gutekunst: The Best Portraits in Town

ABC:LHS #033-2   Frederick Gutekunst opened a studio on Arch Stret and people flocked to have their picture taken; some of his shots are still considered the definitive representations of the subject.

Robert Cornelius and the First Selfie

ABC:LHS #033-1   Robert Cornelius...
...was immediately curious about the new-fangled device called a Daguerreotype; he took what is now recognized as the first “selfie” behind his father's lamp shop on Chestnut Street.

Smile for the Birdie! Philadelphia Photography Pioneers

ABC:LHS #033   Smile for the Birdie: Photography Pioneers
Photography in its infancy made its way to Philadelphia in 1839, literally weeks after Louis Daguerre invented the technique that carries his name. 
Lampmaker Robert Cornelius was interested and took what is now recognized as the first “selfie.” 
Frederick Gutekunst opened a studio where people flocked to have their picture taken. 
Mathew Carey Lea helped photography make giant strides forward through his knowledge of photochemistry and then invented an entirely new branch of chemistry almost through serendipity. 
Coleman Sellers II was a nationally renowned mechanical engineer for whom photography was a hobby, yet he managed to produce what is now acknowledged as the first motion picture. 
All four of these photography pioneers are buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery or West Laurel Hill Cemetery.

Harold H. Knerr and ”The Katzenjammer Kids”

BBB:LHWS #002   Harold Hering Knerr...
...came from a family of physicians and engineers, but rather than joining them he became an illustrator and cartoonist.  For 35 years he drew one of the most popular comic strips in the United States, The Katzenjammer Kids.   

Maude Rettew & The Merritt Sisters: The Horrific Sinking of the "Sarah Craig"

ABC:LHS #032-4   Maud Rettew... 
...went on a yacht trip to New York City for a few days on a supervised sail along with her fiancé and other members of their social club, including the Merritt sisters.  A sudden squall flipped the boat with the girls trapped below deck.  The results were horrifying.

May Bibighaus: An Unexpected 'Dope Fiend'

ABC:LHS #032-2   May Bibighaus...
...was a good girl who taught Bible studies to immigrants in Chinatown.  Somehow, she picked up a heroin habit.  Her conclusion was predictable. 

Joseph Jurciukonis, Jr.: Death of a Cellist

ABC:LHS #032-2   Joseph Jurciukonis, Jr....
...had just received the good news that he was accepted to the Curtis Institute on a full scholarship.  To celebrate, one of his friends showed Joseph his new gun.  It did not turn out well. 

Annie Inglis: "Build a Home for People Like Me"

ABC:LHS #032-1   Annie Inglis...
...was confined to a wheelchair and knew she would die young.  She gave her mother her prized possession, a gold dollar coin, and said "Build a house for people like me".  That was the beginning of Inglis House

Teen Angels

ABC:LHS #032   Death could take you at any time ... even if you were a teenager
Annie Inglis spent her brief life in a wheelchair, but her dying wish was to make her prized possession, a one-dollar gold piece, into something which would help others. 
Joseph Jurciukonis Jr. was a gifted young cellist whose life was cut short by a bullet. 
May Bibighaus was described as a good, church-going girl who developed a narcotic habit as a teenager; it would be her undoing. 
Several members of a Philadelphia social club chose the wrong time for a casual summer cruise and paid with their lives.

Alan Calvert and the Science of Weightlifting

BBB:LHWS #001    Alan Calvert...
...was a Philadelphia bodybuilder who found that available equipment did not meet his needs, so he invented what we now recognize as the modern barbell and the science of progressive resistance.  His innovations have now become a standard around the world.  

George "Orator" Shafer: An 1879 Record That Still Stands

ABC:LHS #031-4   George "Orator" Shafer...
...was a man confined to right field because of his constant chatter; he still holds the Major League Record for most outfield assists more than 140 years after he set it. 

Harry Luff: A Decent Player, but a Horrid Human

ABC:LHS #031-3   Harry Luff...
...was an awful human being who nonetheless played eight positions for six different teams in four major leagues before he finally did some jail time.

Alonzo "Lon" Knight: He Threw the First Pitch

ABC:LHS #031-2   Alonzo "Lon" Knight...
...was a Girard College graduate who on April 22, 1876, threw the first pitch in major league history. Today, he lies in an unmarked grave.

Wesley "The Icicle" Fisler: He Scored the First Run

ABC:LHS #031-1   Wes “The Icicle” Fisler...
...got his nickname because he "never sweat. On April 22, 1876, he scored the first run in Major League Baseball history but then lay in an unmarked grave at Laurel Hill for more than 90 years.

Play Ball!! (Part 2)

ABC:LHS #031   Play Ball! (part 2)
Wes “The Icicle” Fisler scored the first run in major league history but lay in an unmarked grave at Laurel Hill for more than 90 years.
Alonzo "Lon" Knight threw the first pitch in major league history, yet still has an unmarked grave.
Harry Luff was an awful human being who nonetheless played eight positions for six different teams in four major leagues before finally doing jail time.
George "Orator" Shafer was confined to right field because of his constant chatter but he still holds the Major League Record for most outfield assists more than 140 years after setting it. 
All are interred at Laurel Hill East or Laurel Hill West.  Even if you're not a baseball fan, I think you will like these stories.  

Morton McMichael: Mayor, Sheriff, Magazine Editor

ABC:LHS #030-3   Morton McMichael...
...was not just a writer, editor, and publisher, but also served as Philadelphia County Sheriff and City Mayor.  Today his seated form greets you as a statue on Lemon Hill across from Boathouse Row.   

Louis Antoine Godey: The Lady's Book Man

ABC:LHS #030-2   Louis Antoine Godey...
...had a magazine called the Lady’s Book which struggled until he had the good sense to hire an Episcopalian woman from Boston as his editor. Together they turned his magazine into one of the most widely circulated in the country. 

Joseph Clay Neil: The American Dickens

ABC:LHS #030-1   Joseph Clay Neal... 
...whom many called “the American Dickens,” started his writing career with an evening newspaper The Daily Courier and ended up fostering the career of a teenage girl who became one of the primary woman authors of the 19th century. HIs work is practically forgotten. 

The Saturday Courier

ABC:LHS #030   The Saturday Courier...
...was one of 19th century Philadelphia's most literate magazines.
Joseph Clay Neal, whom many called “the American Dickens,” started his writing career with an evening newspaper “The Daily Courier,” and ended up fostering the career of a teenage girl who became one of the primary woman authors of the 19th century. 
Louis Antoine Godey, whose “Lady’s Book” was struggling until he had the good sense to hire an Episcopalian woman from Boston as his editor and turned his magazine into one of the most widely circulated in the country. 
Morton McMichael, who was not only a writer, editor, and publisher, but Philadelphia County Sheriff and City Mayor, yet is little remembered today. 
The three of them came together for several years in the 1830s and 1840s to produce two moderately successful publications, and inspire another young author named Edgar Allan Poe.

James Juvenal: Rowing for a Medal, Bicycling for a Wife

ABC:LHS #029-6 James Juvenal...
...was a member of Vesper Boat Club of the Schuylkill Navy when they took the Gold.  Four years later at Olympiad III in St. Louis, he took Silver in the single scull.  And on a bet he and his girlfriend rode their bicycle from Philadelphia to New York City Hall on a bet they could be married by sundown.  

John Francis Cregan: A Silver in the 800

ABC:LHS #029-5   John Francis Cregan...
...was a Princeton Tiger who specialized in the 800-meter run and took a Silver in Paris. 

Edward Bushnell: Long Distance Specialist

ABC:LHS #029-4   Edward Bushnell...
...competed in the 800-meter race but did not place high enough to reach the medal round. He later built a successful business career.

Bascom Johnson: A Life in Public Health

ABC:LHS #029-3    Bascom Johnson...
...was favored to win the pole vault but, as a Sabbatarian, refused to compete on Sunday.  He went on to a life in Public Health who specialized in limiting venereal disease and eliminating sex trafficking.  

Meredith Colket: A Medal in Pole Vaulting

ABC:LHS #029-2   Meredith Colket...
...was a gentleman athlete from one of Philadelphia's oldest families who finished second in the pole vault

Introduction to "The Zany Games: Paris 1900 Olympiad II

ABC:LHS #029-1   Olympiad II...
...was in Paris in 1900.  It lasted several months and many participants did not even know they were in the Olympics until years later.  There was no official "Team USA" but a lot of Philly folks showed up.

Olympiad II, Paris 1900: The Zany Games

ABC:LHS #029 Future Laurel Hill and West Laurel Hill residents went to Paris in 1900 to compete in Olympiad II.   
Meredith Colket was a Penn scholar who placed 2nd in the pole vault. 
Bascom Johnson was a Yale pole vaulter who failed to compete, but went on to an amazing career in public health. 
Edward Bushnell was a middle-distance runner whose name eventually became synonymous with sports at the University of Pennsylvania. 
John F. Cregan was another middle-distance man but from Princeton. 
Rower James Benner Juvenal won gold with the Vesper Boat Club three years after he eloped to New York City on a tandem bicycle. 
In perhaps the most disorganized Olympics ever, several of our residents excelled.  And find out why they were "The Zany Games," all in this episode of "All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories."

John Worrell Keely & His Perpetual Motion Machine

ABC:LHS #028-3   James Ernst Worrell Keely...
...was either a scientific genius far ahead of his time or, more likely, one of the nineteenth century’s great frauds. I'd put my money on the latter. 

George Gliddon: Robbing Graves & Unwrapping Mummies

ABC:LHS #028-2   George Robbins Gliddon...
...did more than almost anyone of his era to teach Americans about ancient Egypt, but he later became entangled in Morton’s scientific racism and in grave robbing for skulls and mummified remains. Edgar Allan Poe even wrote a story about him.

Samuel George Morton: Racial Hierarchy

ABC:LHS #028-1   Dr. Samuel George Morton...
...was a leading figure in American anthropology and is often called the father of American invertebrate paleontology, but he also collected skulls in ways now seen as pathological, and his measurements and conclusions were later used to justify enslavement and, ultimately, racial cleansing.

Bad Science

ABC:LHS #028: Bad Science 
Dr. Samuel George Morton was a pioneer of American anthropology and the father of American invertebrate paleontology, but he was also a compulsive skull collector whose measurements and conclusions were used to justify enslavement and eventually racial cleansing. 
George Robbins Gliddon taught Americans more about ancient Egypt than anyone up to his time, but he got caught up in Morton’s scientific racism, as well as the thrill of robbing graves for their heads and mummified remains. 
James Ernst Worrell Keely was either a supergenius whom science has not caught up with more than 120 years after his death, or one of the great hucksters of the nineteenth century. 
Morton and Gliddon are interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery, while Keely is a permanent resident at West Laurel Hill.  All three have astonishing stories. 

Dr. Hilary Koproski & The Polio Vaccine / Dr. Irena Koprowska & The Pap Smear

ABC:LHS #027-3   Dr. Hilary Koprowski...
...was a virologist who discovered an oral polio vaccine before Salk & Sabin, but whose work fell by the wayside.  Later, through his work with monoclonal antibodies, he developed a more convenient vaccine for rabies post-exposure prophylaxis.  
Dr. Irena Koprowska was essentially a self-taught cytopathologist who worked with Dr. Papanicolau on the screening test for cervical cancer that bears his name. 

Dr. Chevalier Jackson: Inventing Endoscopy

ABC:LHS #027-2   Chevalier Quixote Jackson...
...saved hundreds of lives when he invented and perfected the endoscope. At the Mütter Museum at the College of Physicians, you have probably marveled at the drawerfuls of small objects under the steps - foreign bodies retrieved from the windpipes and gullets of hundreds of his patients.

Dr. Charles Euchariste de Medici Sajous, MD: Father of American Endocrinology

ABC:LHS #027-1   Dr. Charles Euchariste de Medici Sajous...
...was the last of the Belgian branch of the de Medici family.  He became an accomplished otolaryngologist, but switched gears in mid-career to master the up-and-coming science of "secretions", later called endocrinology.

Fathers (and Mothers) of American Medicine (part 2)

ABC:LHS #027   Fathers (and Mothers) of American Medicine
Charles Euchariste de Medici Sajous was a prolific author and editor who specialized in "glandular secretions;" he is remembered today as the Father of American Endocrinology ... and the last of the de Medicis.
Chevalier Quixote Jackson mastered the skill of retrieving foreign bodies from the lungs and esophagus; he is the Father of American Endoscopy.
Hilary Koprowski was a Polish-born virologist who beat Salk and Sabin to the development of an effective polio vaccine, but who is little remembered today.
His wife, cytopathologist Irena Koprowska, was a co-developer of the Pap smear.
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Wedgwood Nowell: Actor and Producer, Stage and Screen

ABC:LHS #026-4   Wedgwood Nowell...
...was a theatrical Jack-of-all-trades in the early days of motion pictures, as he produced and starred in dozens of silent films, while maintaining a career on the stage.  

Frank Mayo: A Life with Davy Crockett

ABC:LHS #026-3   Frank Mayo...
...made a living for many years by playing Davy Crockett on stage, until his friend Sam Clemens suggested he might try Puddinhead Wilson. He died on the road.

Mary Ann Lee: America's First Prima Ballerina

ABC:LHS #026-2   Mary Ann Lee...
... is considered by dance historians as America's first prima ballerina. She taught many others and served as inspiration for hundreds of dancers. She was known in Philadelphia simply as "Our Mary Ann."

William Wood: Actor, Manager, Entrepeneur

ABC:LHS #026-1   William Wood...
...was a jack-of-all-trades in early 19th century Philadelphia theater.  His Personal Recollections of the Stage is a classic of the genre.  

Encore! Some Laurel Hill Performers

ABC:LHS #026  Four Laurel Hill Performers
William Wood started as an actor but soon moved to managing Philadelphia theaters. 
Many people consider Mary Ann Lee to be America’s first professional ballerina. 
Frank Mayo was an actor who became beloved through more than 3000 performances as Davy Crockett. 
Wedgwood Nowell produced or acted in more than 300 plays before moving to Hollywood and acting in more than 300 movies over his long career.  

John Caspar Wister: Second Only to Luther Burbank

ABC:LHS #025-5   John Caspar Wister...
...was considered the Dean of horticulturists in the United States, second only to California's Luther Burbank. His work at Swarthmore's Scott Arboretum survives him.

Rodman Wister: The Little Drummer Boy PLUS Several Drum Tattoos

ABC:LHS #025-4   Rodman Wister ran away from home to become a drummer boy.  As a bonus, you can hear several drum tattoos at the end.

GEN Langhorne Wister: A Leader of the Bucktails

ABC:LHS #025-3   Langhorne Wister...
...was a colonel with the Bucktail Regiment during the Civil War when he was shot through the mouth at the Battle of Gettysburg.  He was later promoted to Brevet General.