1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,520 Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Mankey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I 2 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:14,240 Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full 3 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:17,960 Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, 4 00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:21,600 Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display, 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet 6 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:39,720 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Art is an ever evolving concept. From ancient 7 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:42,880 Speaker 1: cave paintings to Egyptian hier glyphs and all the way 8 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:46,920 Speaker 1: through Impressionism, Cubism and campbell soup cans. The art world 9 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:50,840 Speaker 1: never stands still, but beyond the images themselves, how they're 10 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:54,520 Speaker 1: made has also changed. Those cave paintings were done using 11 00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:58,480 Speaker 1: ground up minerals like ochre and charcoal. Artists like Rembrandt 12 00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:00,800 Speaker 1: and van Gogh worked in paints made of linseed oil 13 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:04,000 Speaker 1: and pigments to achieve their signature looks. But in the 14 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:07,880 Speaker 1: fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a different material was introduced to 15 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:11,480 Speaker 1: the process, and by today's standards, its origin was highly 16 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:16,320 Speaker 1: unusual and controversial. It all started with the ancient Greeks 17 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:18,800 Speaker 1: and their use of a thing called bitumin. It was 18 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:22,880 Speaker 1: a black, viscous substance that was utilized in various applications, 19 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:26,680 Speaker 1: from construction to curing the common toothache. We also used 20 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,600 Speaker 1: bitumen today, but mainly for paving roads and filling in potholes, 21 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:35,200 Speaker 1: as bitumin is commonly known as asphalt to the Greeks, though, 22 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:38,360 Speaker 1: it was a miracle substance typically found seeping from the 23 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:42,480 Speaker 1: ground throughout Persia. One twelfth century physician, though, wrote a 24 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:46,200 Speaker 1: lot about ancient Egypt and a substance that he mistakenly 25 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:49,200 Speaker 1: believed was also bitumen. You see, he had seen the 26 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:52,560 Speaker 1: blackened nature of the embalmed bodies there, and he thought 27 00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 1: that they had been coated in it. In the event 28 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:58,480 Speaker 1: the natural supply, ever grew scarce, he claimed the viable 29 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: substitute for bitumen could be harvested from these ancient Egyptian corpses. 30 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:06,360 Speaker 1: In reality, that black substance on them was just the 31 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:09,839 Speaker 1: embalming materials that had darkened over time, giving them their 32 00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:13,960 Speaker 1: unique coloring. Persians had their own word for bitumen, which 33 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:17,800 Speaker 1: they called mum or mamma. This word was also found 34 00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:20,640 Speaker 1: in Arabic, and if it sounds familiar, that's because the 35 00:02:20,639 --> 00:02:23,200 Speaker 1: words specifically applied to the kind of bitumen that came 36 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:27,359 Speaker 1: from Egyptian bodies. Eventually, mamma became the term we know 37 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:32,200 Speaker 1: today mummy due to the widely held belief that bitumen 38 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:36,360 Speaker 1: had medicinal properties. Though an extensive mummy trade was established 39 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:39,360 Speaker 1: between Egypt and Europe, it grew quite big during the 40 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:43,200 Speaker 1: sixteenth century, with imported mummies being ground up into powders 41 00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:46,800 Speaker 1: for various tinctures and the lixers. The use of mummies 42 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:50,320 Speaker 1: in medicine all but died out in the late seventeen hundreds, 43 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:53,639 Speaker 1: but many were still in circulation across Europe. Some were 44 00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:58,040 Speaker 1: collected by the wealthy, while others were desecrated for entertainment purposes. 45 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:02,840 Speaker 1: Unwrapping parties even became popular, where mummified remains had their 46 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:06,119 Speaker 1: shrouds and wrappings removed so that the bodies inside could 47 00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:09,160 Speaker 1: be examined by the gathered audience. But it was the 48 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:11,480 Speaker 1: art world that found a new way to use an 49 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:14,880 Speaker 1: old material, the ground up mummy. A powder that had 50 00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:18,079 Speaker 1: been used in various medical applications was now being mixed 51 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:20,560 Speaker 1: in with oils and water colors to create a new 52 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:24,680 Speaker 1: pigment known as mummy brown. And while mummy brown did 53 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: first appear during the sixteenth century, it really hit it big. 54 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:31,960 Speaker 1: A few hundred years later, artists like Edward Burne Jones 55 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:35,560 Speaker 1: and Martin Drolling used it in their paintings. Those who 56 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:38,560 Speaker 1: preferred it enjoyed how it behaved against the canvas, but 57 00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 1: as times changed, so did attitudes around the mummy trade. 58 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:45,120 Speaker 1: For one, other artists and critics found the pigments origins 59 00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:48,160 Speaker 1: to be off putting. After all, trafficking in mummies was 60 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:52,360 Speaker 1: a vulgar act that disrespected the dead. Burns Jones had 61 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:55,160 Speaker 1: believed that the name was simply a descriptor and not 62 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:58,200 Speaker 1: an indication of the contents within the tube. What a 63 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: fellow artist and member of his emily confirmed it was true, 64 00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:05,080 Speaker 1: and the realization offended Edwards so much he went and 65 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,800 Speaker 1: buried his tube of mummy brown in his garden. Among 66 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:11,760 Speaker 1: those who helped with the burial was his nephew, who 67 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 1: was visiting him for Christmas. Though he was a young 68 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: man at the time, he would go on to great 69 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:19,000 Speaker 1: acclaim as a prominent writer in the nineteen and twenty 70 00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:23,880 Speaker 1: centuries that young man Rudyard Kipling. In addition to the 71 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: colors providence, the quality of the paint could also not 72 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:30,720 Speaker 1: be guaranteed. Not all mummies were created equally, it seems, 73 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:33,799 Speaker 1: and so while one tube of brown paint might be perfect, 74 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:37,960 Speaker 1: another might be rendered unusable. By the twentieth century, mummy 75 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:42,200 Speaker 1: brown was over, but mummy brown still exists today. The 76 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:44,760 Speaker 1: only difference now is that it's made from different minerals 77 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:49,599 Speaker 1: easily found in nature and not graves. Proof that sometimes 78 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:53,760 Speaker 1: a curious history can also be a little bit colorful. 79 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:10,120 Speaker 1: We don't realize it as it's happening, but our children 80 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:13,000 Speaker 1: grow up right before our eyes. One moment their babies 81 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:15,880 Speaker 1: depending on us for every diaper change and bottle feeding, 82 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:18,960 Speaker 1: and the next moment they're getting married and starting families 83 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:22,480 Speaker 1: of their own. And somewhere in between they grow, they 84 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:26,160 Speaker 1: develop personalities and pick up things like mannerisms and beliefs 85 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:31,360 Speaker 1: from the people around them, parents, teachers, siblings, friends. Everyone 86 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:36,440 Speaker 1: contributes something to who they become. Like Madaline. She was 87 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:40,479 Speaker 1: born Marie Madeleine Gera in seventy eight in a suburb 88 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:44,080 Speaker 1: of Montreal, Canada. Her father, Francois, was a soldier who 89 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:46,599 Speaker 1: arrived in town in sixteen sixty five to fight in 90 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:50,159 Speaker 1: the Beaver Wars against the Iroquois people. Four years later, 91 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:53,000 Speaker 1: he married Marie Perrault, and then moved to a plot 92 00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:55,960 Speaker 1: of land along the St. Lawrence River, and the couple 93 00:05:56,200 --> 00:05:59,360 Speaker 1: did well for themselves, with Francois becoming quite the landholder, 94 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:02,960 Speaker 1: while Marie raised a dozen children, of which Madeleine was 95 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:06,719 Speaker 1: the fourth oldest. Now, the Beaver Wars carried on in 96 00:06:06,839 --> 00:06:09,880 Speaker 1: some capacity for about a hundred years, with new battles 97 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:13,120 Speaker 1: cropping up every now and then. The Iroquois fur trade 98 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:16,160 Speaker 1: had been destroyed by the Algonquins and their French backers, 99 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:19,880 Speaker 1: sparking a lengthy fight between the two sides. On one occasion, 100 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 1: Madeleine's mother even helped stave off an attack on the 101 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: fort where they lived, thanks to the help of four 102 00:06:24,839 --> 00:06:28,360 Speaker 1: other soldiers. But in six two, when she was only 103 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:31,560 Speaker 1: fourteen years old, Madeleine was forced to step up to 104 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:34,400 Speaker 1: the front lines. Both her mother and her father had 105 00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:37,920 Speaker 1: left town to attend to business and gather supplies. While 106 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:40,359 Speaker 1: they were gone, the children stayed back at the fort 107 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: with several others. Meanwhile, the Iroquois had arrived in town, 108 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:48,120 Speaker 1: looting and setting fire to people's homes. Despite the threat, 109 00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:50,320 Speaker 1: a few of the people from the fort set out 110 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:53,240 Speaker 1: into the fields to do some work, and eight soldiers 111 00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:57,200 Speaker 1: followed for protection. Madeleine stayed close by, tending to the 112 00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:01,000 Speaker 1: cabbage garden, and that's when the Iroquois act, capturing the 113 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:04,159 Speaker 1: men in the fields before heading toward the fort. Madeleine 114 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:06,640 Speaker 1: ran back, chased by one of the Iroquois who got 115 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:10,200 Speaker 1: close enough to grab the scarf around her shoulders. Thinking fast, 116 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:13,680 Speaker 1: she untied it and darted inside the fourth shouting to 117 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:18,080 Speaker 1: arms to arms. The small garrison inside wouldn't be enough 118 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:21,360 Speaker 1: to fend off the incoming forces, but Madaline wasn't about 119 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:24,040 Speaker 1: to give up. She picked up a musket and fired 120 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:27,320 Speaker 1: shots from different points around the fort and told others 121 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:29,800 Speaker 1: to do the same, and then she shot off a cannon, 122 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:32,320 Speaker 1: a signal to other forts that they were under attack 123 00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:35,720 Speaker 1: and in need of reinforcements. Her goal was to make 124 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:39,080 Speaker 1: as much noise as possible to fool the Iroquois into 125 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:42,360 Speaker 1: thinking the fort was fully armed with soldiers at the ready, 126 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:44,920 Speaker 1: and they bought it. They hid on the outskirts of 127 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:47,600 Speaker 1: the trees and bushes, along with the settlers they had 128 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:51,280 Speaker 1: taken prisoner. Not long after, a canoe was seen drifting 129 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:54,000 Speaker 1: down the river toward them. On board was a family 130 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:56,760 Speaker 1: by the last name of Fontaine. Someone had to go 131 00:07:56,880 --> 00:08:00,120 Speaker 1: and retrieve them before they too were taken captive, but 132 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:02,280 Speaker 1: none of the soldiers were willing to leave the fort, 133 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:06,640 Speaker 1: so fourteen year old Madeleine volunteered. She snuck out and 134 00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:09,320 Speaker 1: helped the family get back to safety. She and her 135 00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:12,840 Speaker 1: siblings and the others inside literally held down the fort 136 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:16,400 Speaker 1: over the next eight days, and then on the ninth day, 137 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:19,400 Speaker 1: Madeleine was greeted by a welcome sight. A group of 138 00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:22,680 Speaker 1: forty frenchmen had arrived from Montreal to help defend them. 139 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:25,960 Speaker 1: She ordered the gate open and rushed out to greet them. 140 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:29,240 Speaker 1: To their leader, Monsieur de la Monteree. She said, Sir, 141 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:32,320 Speaker 1: I surrender my arms to you, and allowed him to 142 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:35,079 Speaker 1: take command of the fort. They managed to run off 143 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:39,160 Speaker 1: the attacking Iroquois as well as rescue the captured settlers, 144 00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:42,800 Speaker 1: just as her parents were returning home. For her service, 145 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:45,920 Speaker 1: Madeleine received a pension for the rest of her life 146 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:48,040 Speaker 1: bestowed upon her by none other than the King of 147 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:51,320 Speaker 1: France himself, and a statue was erected in her honor 148 00:08:51,559 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: along the river bank where she risked her life to 149 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:57,600 Speaker 1: help save the lives of others, lasting proof that heroes 150 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:02,360 Speaker 1: come in all shapes and sizes, and I'll ages too. 151 00:09:06,480 --> 00:09:09,160 Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet 152 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:13,080 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn 153 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:17,679 Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. 154 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:21,280 Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership 155 00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:24,600 Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show 156 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:28,800 Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, 157 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:30,920 Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the 158 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:35,880 Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.