Historical Snapshots

"He told the orphans they were going out into the country, so they ought to be cheerful. At last they would be able to exchange the horrible suffocating city walls for meadows of flowers, streams where they could bathe, woods full of berries and mushrooms. He told them to wear their best clothes, and so they came out into the yard, two by two, nicely dressed and in a happy mood." Then he walked wi...

On the surface, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was a simple proposal, democratic even. It would take the vast Nebraska Territory, carve it into two separate entities—Kansas and Nebraska—and let the settlers decide the fate of slavery in each through popular sovereignty.  Instead, the Act plunged the U.S. into turmoil that would lead the country to a Civil War within a few years. Slavery had been...

" Freedom has never been free...I love my children and I love my wife with all my heart. And I would die, die gladly, if that would make a better life for them." - Medgar Evers Medgar Evers was a leader who didn't care for fame or money—the "quiet integrationist" he was called. He wanted to make a difference and improve the lives of others. As his wife described him, he was sensitive "to other hum...

"Of the multitude who throughout history have spoken for human dignity in times of great suffering and loss, no voice is more compelling than that of Anne Frank." - President John F. Kennedy Anne Frank was born to a Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929. A few years later, her family moved to Amsterdam after the Nazis came to power in Germany. Then, in 1940, Germany invaded and took over th...

Episode transcript: "To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years ... is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be." - Rachel Carson Bo...

Story transcript & sources: https://historicalsnaps.com/2023/09/21/snapshot-marian-anderson-biography/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/historical-snapshots/support This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit historicalsnapshots.substack.com/subscribe

Transcript and original post: Langston Hughes: writer, “My People” & other works Episode photo source: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired through the generosity of Elizabeth Ann Hylton,  NPG.2011.101   --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/historical-snapshots/support This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscr...

Snapshot biography of Jesse Owens on Historical Snapshots --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/historical-snapshots/support This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit historicalsnapshots.substack.com/subscribe

Our snapshot biography of actress and inventor, Hedy Lamarr: Some said Hedy Lamarr was the most beautiful woman in the world. Some said she had the most beautiful face they had ever seen. Some just stopped talking mid-sentence, in awe, when she walked into a room. Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1914, Hedy was an only child of two loving and devoted parents. She spent time with her mother learning abo...

Story transcript: “There is nothing so beautiful as the free forest. To catch a fish when you are hungry, cut the boughs of a tree, make a fire to roast it, and eat it in the open air, is the greatest of all luxuries. I would not stay a week pent up in cities, if it were not for my passion for art.” – Edmonia Lewis — Most people didn’t know her age; she kept those details a mystery. But no one que...

The short story of Anne Sullivan, who after overcoming much hardship in her early years, became a teacher, governess and friend to Helen Keller. -- Sources are on original post at Historical Snapshots . Source for episode photo: Popular Science Monthly Volume 63 - Wikimedia Commons. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/historical-snapshots/support This is a public epis...