WEBVTT - 9 Page-Turning Secrets of the Library of Congress 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.519 You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope, 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:07.640 and iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:12.160 Guess what, Mango? 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:13.400 What's that? Will? 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:15.840 Actually, before I share something with you, I've got to 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:17.320 ask you. Are you a Spider Man fan? 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:21.079 I think less and less with each movie, but I 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.200 was a Spider Man fan at one point. 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:26.720 Yeah. Yeah, Well you obviously know. I have one kiddo that, 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:30.400 for probably a year or so, was wearing a Spider 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:34.760 Man costume into every local restaurant to where people working 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:38.240 at those restaurants would just know our kid as Spider Man. 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:40.680 And so it's pretty funny. We've been watching Spider Man 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:43.600 films for a long time now. But UH got a 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:45.559 fact for you, so you may be interested to know 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:49.040 that the Library of Congress has the original Spider Man drawings, 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.880 like from the very first time he appeared in print. 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:54.240 That has to be the one where, like Peter Parker 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.680 is getting bitten by a radioactive spider I'm guessing right. 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:00.520 The one and only. So in two thou and eight, 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.480 an anonymous Downer gave the library twenty four black and 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:06.640 white drawings. This was from the August nineteen sixty two 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:09.679 issue of Amazing Fantasy Now it's funny to look back 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:12.440 on because apparently Marvel wasn't sure people would like this 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:15.760 new character. The first page of the comic reads like 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:19.600 costume heroes. Confidentially, we in the comic mag business refer 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.440 to them as long underwear characters, and as you know, 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:24.840 they're a dime a dozen. But we think you may 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:28.080 find our Spider Man just a bit different. It's funny 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:30.479 how they were just like setting this up as though. 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:31.559 It might selling him out. 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.319 It's just so weird. But you know, what's particularly cool 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:37.480 about these drawings is that you can see some of 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.240 the back and forth artist Steve Ditko had with Marvel 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.600 publisher Stan Lee. For example, on one page where Peter 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:45.720 Parker has jumped out of the way of a car, 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.440 Stan wrote a note in the margins, quote, Steve, make 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:53.080 this a covered sedan, no arms hanging. Don't imply wild 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:54.840 reckless driving. It's pretty great. 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:58.920 That's such a strange thing to be concerned about. I mean, 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:02.840 you've got this guy like slinging webs all over the place, 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:05.400 and you're worried about a driver with his arms out. 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:06.600 That's pretty well. 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:08.959 It is amazing that there's a copy in the Library 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:09.920 of Congress, though. 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:12.400 I know, and the library actually has over one hundred 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:16.120 and sixty five thousand original comic books, but that's just 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:18.960 a tiny part of its collection. It's considered the largest 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:21.360 library on the planet, with over one hundred and seventy 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:28.200 eight point two million items. Is of course include books, newspapers, music, maps, posters, photographs, 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.880 and more, which means these nine facts will barely scratch 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.320 the surface. But you got to start somewhere, so let's 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:57.440 dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. 0:02:57.560 --> 0:02:59.880 I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm here with my 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.560 good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer on the other side of 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.760 that booth. Hidden behind stacks and stacks. I mean, I 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:09.519 can't books. There are so many stacks of books. That's 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.519 our friend and producer, Dylan Fagan. He's also taped a 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:15.720 sign to the window. It says, down with Dewey, adopt 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.639 the Dylan decimal system. Always getting bald today. 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:22.200 I had no idea he'd been working on a system 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:22.800 of his own. 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:25.480 Yeah, I think he's I think he's trying to make 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:27.240 it a thing. We'll see how it goes. But I 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:28.240 have confidence in Delai. 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:32.920 Yeah, I obviously support Dylan and whatever he does. But anyway, 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.440 to kick off this episode about the Library of Congress, 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:38.840 let's talk about what it actually is. So, as the 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.160 name suggests, it is a library for Congress and the 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:45.800 rest of government, but it's also a library for the public. 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:48.920 In fact, anyone sixteen or older can go there to 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.160 do research. And the current Library in of Congress is 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:55.800 Carla Hayden. She's the fourteenth ever head and also the 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:58.480 first ever woman and the first person of color to 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:01.400 have that job. And besides running the library and leading 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.480 acquisition efforts, I had no idea about this, she's also 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:08.680 responsible for managing the US Copyright Office and for choosing 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.280 the Poet Laureate each year, which is amazing. I had 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.760 no idea that the responsibilities extended that far. 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:14.080 Yeah. 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.960 Either, these responsibilities didn't exist in eighteen hundred when the 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.680 library began. That year, President John Adams signed a bill 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.440 providing five thousand dollars to buy books that congressmen might 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.440 find useful, including histories of the Roman Empire and other 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:31.240 European countries, and the books were stored in a room 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.400 in the Capitol. So when the building was set on 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:36.279 fire by the British and this was back in eighteen fourteen. 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.880 Three thousand of those books were destroyed. Now that was 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:43.080 most of the collection. Thomas Jefferson was so upset that 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:45.680 he actually offered to sell his own personal library to 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.280 the government to help at restock, and Congress agreed to 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:52.239 pay him about twenty four thousand dollars for over six 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:56.040 thousand books. It was closer to six thy five hundred. Now. Unfortunately, 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:58.880 there was another fire in eighteen fifty one that actually 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.520 destroyed a lot of Jefferson's books plus others in the collection. 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:04.599 But it was built back up and finally put in 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:08.800 a fireproof room. That is until the library needed its 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.960 own building, which it got in eighteen ninety seven. And 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.040 that's now known as the Thomas Jefferson Building, which is 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:16.240 right near the Capitol. 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:18.920 Yeah, and I've been in there before, and it truly 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:20.239 is just a gorgeous place. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.000 Yeah, it is. And it's just one of the Library's 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:26.160 five buildings. There are three on Capitol Hill and two 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:28.920 in the DC suburbs, but the Thomas Jefferson Building is 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:30.159 definitely the most famous one. 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:32.839 Yeah, And it makes sense. So actually I read a 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.160 lot about this building. It is made up of four 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.760 hundred thousand cubic feet of granite, as well as fifteen 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:42.599 kinds of marble, gold, bronze, and mahogany. It was modeled 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.599 on the Paris Opera House and designed in the bows 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:49.000 Art style, which was very popular in the late nineteenth 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.760 and early twentieth century. I think symmetry, opulence, lots of 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.960 columns with decorations, big halls, staircases, that sort of thing. 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:59.800 So when the building opened to the public in November first, 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:04.080 eighteen ninety seven, people lined up to enter, and within 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.080 minutes they began requesting books. You want to guess what 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:08.520 the first request. 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:13.159 Was, Dale Carnegie is How to win friends and influence people. 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.640 Very very very close. Actually not close at all. No, 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:20.480 the very first request in the new building was for 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:24.000 a book called Year Book by Roger Williams. But it 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.320 had just been published and the library hadn't actually secured 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:28.120 a copy yet. 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:32.080 That is very embarrassing that the first first book requested 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.280 wasn't there. So was there a second request? There was, 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:37.160 and it was for a book called History of the 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.719 City of New York by Martha Lamb, which had been 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.000 published in eighteen seventy seven, So no problems there, and 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.799 actually how you requested the book back then was pretty cool. 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:48.440 Do you remember going through to like a drive through bank. 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:52.120 I actually think about this a lot, like how futuristic 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.520 it felt. And when you put that like you put 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:56.800 it like that stuff in a tube, and I just 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:59.400 like watching my mom. It felt like watching the Jetsons 0:06:59.480 --> 0:06:59.800 or something. 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:02.320 It was pretty much believe it or not. I actually 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:04.599 did this not too long ago, and yes I remember 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:06.960 going there as a kid. But they don't put a 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:09.720 sucker in there anymore. That's the downside once you get old. 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:11.640 It was the best part that was Yeah, that was 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.800 really the reason to go. But the library also used 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.240 the system of these pneumatic tubes for book requests. So 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:20.120 first you'd fill out a ticket with the book you 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.440 were looking for, and then the slip would be sent 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.120 via tube to the appropriate shelf where a staff member 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.720 would find the book and send it back via tube. 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:30.080 The whole thing took I don't know, maybe like five 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:31.360 minutes or so. 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:33.960 That is pretty incredible and I had no idea. Another 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.840 way books have been delivered for years is through a 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:38.200 series of tunnels. 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:42.480 Ooh, whenever somebody says tunnels and I think libraries, I 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:44.280 feel like, this is the kind of secret I've been 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:44.720 waiting for. 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:49.880 Mega. So, as you mentioned, in eighteen ninety seven, the 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:52.400 Library of Congress made a big move from the Capital 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:55.200 to the Jefferson Building. But the problem was this new 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.280 building was about a quarter of a mile away, and 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:00.800 congressmen didn't have the time to work that far when 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.880 they needed a book, especially if Congress was in session. 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:07.920 So the Army Corps of Engineers built a special underground 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:09.680 tunnel to connect the two buildings. 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:11.440 It was just six feet. 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.680 High, four feet wide, and about eleven hundred feet long, 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:16.720 and it was made entirely of brick. 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.120 I'm curious, so how does it help the members of 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:20.240 Congress get there faster? 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.920 Yeah, it really didn't. The tunnel included telephone wires and 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:27.080 pneumatic tubes for conveying book requests from Congress to the 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.560 new library building, and most excitingly, there was a special 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.320 book carrying apparatus that carried books and other materials through 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:38.480 the tunnel via an electric conveyor system with tracks. Now, 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:41.000 the system could move books at around six hundred feet 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:43.880 per minute, which meant that a book could arrive at 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:46.559 the Capitol just a couple of minutes after a request 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:50.400 came in, though Congressmen did start complaining about it because 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.920 often it would take about twenty five minutes for a 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:54.720 request to be delivered upon. 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:56.679 I mean that still seems pretty fast. 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:59.160 It does to me too. And the tunnel was effective 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.559 enough that ninety another was built to connect the library 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.000 to the Supreme Court, and then another to connect the 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:08.160 main Jefferson building to the John Adams Library building across 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:08.560 the street. 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:11.480 So do these tunnels still exist or rather, do they 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:13.959 still kind of whisk books back and forth between the buildings. 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.199 So Sadly, when they were building the new Capital Visitors 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:19.800 Center in two thousand, the Capital section of the tunnel 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:23.000 was destroyed and the library section was sealed. But a 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:26.120 pedestrian tunnel that connects the library to the Capitol building 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:28.880 is still around and it's actually open to the public. 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:31.600 All right, Well, there's a bunch of stuff that people 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:33.520 can obviously still see, and so we're going to talk 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:38.000 about some of those things right after a quick break. 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.800 Welcome back to part time Genius. Today, we're revealing nine 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.880 secrets about the Library of Congress. Although I use the 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.240 word secret sort of loosely. I mean, the mission of 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:01.160 the library is that their collection is a available to everyone. 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:03.640 But before I get to my next fact, I wanted 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:05.640 to ask, so are you a fan of pasta? And 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:07.240 I started out by asking whether they were a famed 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:09.800 Spider Man. Now I need to know are you a 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:11.000 fan of pasta? 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:13.320 So I'm going to go back and say I actually 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.200 really loved Spider Man comics as a kid. So I 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.360 want to retrofit this episode to make sure no one 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:22.360 is angry at me. I'm also, of course a huge 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:23.760 fan of pasta. Are you Kiddingeah? 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:25.840 I mean pasta is so good? And then you have 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.640 something in common with Thomas Jefferson. Here another noted pasta fan. 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:32.560 But back in the seventeen hundreds, pasta wasn't known that 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:35.520 much in America. Jefferson discovered it while he was serving 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.200 as the US Minister to France. This was from seventeen 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.040 eighty four to seventeen eighty nine, and to be honest, 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.800 that time in France made him a little bit fancy. 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.080 He developed a taste for French cooking, and also at 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.040 the time, pasta was all the rage in France. So 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.600 while he was in Europe, Jefferson either saw or read 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:56.360 about quote a mold for making macaroni, and being a 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:58.800 fan of macaroni, which was the catch all term for 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:01.840 pasta pretty much of any kind, he wanted a machine 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:04.560 of his own, so he sent one from Naples to 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.520 his home at Monticello, and unfortunately it didn't work for 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.040 very long, and nobody knows what happened to it. 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.480 So I am very into all of this, but I 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:15.079 am curious, like, what does this stuff to do with 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:16.040 the Library of Congress. 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:18.760 So Jefferson had pasta on the mind, and so he 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:21.960 drew up his own design for a pasta machine, complete 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:24.760 with instructions for making different shapes. And he noted that 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.480 the best pasta is made in Naples from a special 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:31.000 kind of flower called somola, but that any good, finely 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:34.239 ground flower would also do. And the Library of Congress 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:36.920 had these plans. I think you'd probably doubted I was 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.360 ever going to ride around to it, But there it is. 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:41.199 The Library of Congress has these plants. 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:44.520 I love that you said. Jefferson and I are both 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:48.959 noted pasta lovers, so you too. That's the two most 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:50.040 well known things about what the. 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.199 Yeah, I'm pretty sure I saw a Wikipedia entry about 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:54.600 pasta lovers and you and Jefferson when we're sort of. 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:56.560 Back to back. Yeah, just the two of us. But 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:00.640 I am amazed by this. Did he ever build his machine? 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.520 He did not, unfortunately, so those plans in the library 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.000 are the only record of Thomas Jefferson's career as a 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.560 pasta machine designer. But he did serve fresh pasta at 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:12.640 dinners at Monticello, courtesy of course, of his kitchen staff, 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.400 rolling out dough and cutting it into different shapes. But 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.280 pasta was too adventurous for some of his guests. One 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:22.080 visitor actually complained that his pasta meal quote tasted very 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:23.599 strong and not agreeable. 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:28.600 It feels like if your macaroni is strong and not agreeable, 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:30.160 you're not doing it right. Yeah. 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:31.920 I think that's probably true. 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.760 So, speaking of food, did you know that the Library 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.920 of Congress has a piece of wedding cake that's over 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.439 one hundred and sixty years old inside of it? I 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:42.600 did not know this, and to be clear, and nobody 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:44.680 has tried to eat it. And the only reason it 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.880 survived this long is that it's likely a fruitcake soaked 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.440 in brandy. But this old cake has a pretty great story. 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:54.240 It's from the wedding of Charles Stratton aka General Tom 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:57.680 Thumb and Lavinia Warren. Both of them worked for Pt. 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:00.840 Barnum at a circus. Lavinia was thirty inches tall, Charles 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:03.600 was around thirty five inches, and in eighteen sixty three 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:05.720 when they got married, Tom Thumb was one of the 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.760 most popular stars in the country. So this wedding was 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.839 a huge, huge deal and also kind of a welcome 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.520 distraction from the Civil War which was going on at 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:17.280 that time. Now, the event took place in New York City, 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.760 and even the Astors and the Vanderbilts were jonesing for 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.360 an invite, and The New York Times wrote that there 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:25.960 were crowds for miles trying to get a glimpse of 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:29.440 the couple. The reception was at a downtown hotel and 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.600 five thousand guests paid seventy five dollars each. That's almost 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:36.240 two thousand dollars today to attend these festivities. 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:38.199 Yeah, I was going to say, seventy five bucks was 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:39.680 a lot of money at that point. And let me 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:41.679 guess there was cake at the reception. 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.000 Definitely, so. According to the Barnum Museum, which also has 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:46.720 a piece of this cake, it was tradition at the 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:49.040 time to give a slice to female guests as they 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.880 left the reception. I had never heard of that. Apparently 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:54.439 that's true. Now. The Library of Congress got its piece 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:57.120 of cake from Harrison Fisk, a manager and editor of 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.400 at Theater magazine. In nineteen oh five, Lavinia, who had 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:03.319 remarried after Tom Thumb died, sent him a slice of 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:05.520 her wedding cake, which at that point was actually more 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:08.280 than forty years old. The library suspects she was trying 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.199 to publicize her autobiography or get cast in a role, 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:12.960 and so she was trying to carry some favor there. 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.400 Wow. Well, Mengo, I don't know if I can top 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.960 old cake, but I do have old flutes and a 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:21.880 lot of them. So we talked about all the stuff 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:24.400 that the library has, and it's an amazing collection. Do 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:26.760 you remember in twenty twenty two when Lizzo played James 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:28.920 Madison's crystal flute at her concert in DC. 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:31.440 Yeah, of course, it was such a big deal. 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.560 Well, it actually came from the Library's flute collection, which 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:36.840 is the largest in the world, and I'd had no 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.720 idea that this was the case. They're around seventeen hundred 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.720 flutes and wind instruments there. Most donated by a physicist 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:46.240 and amateur floutist named Dayton C. Miller. Now he came 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:48.800 by this honestly. His father played the fife and the 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:52.280 Union Army during the Civil War. Besides the crystal flute, 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.400 which Miller bought for two hundred dollars in nineteen twenty three, 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:59.040 the library has John Phillips SUS's piccolo, which Lizzo tried 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:01.680 out too, And there's also a flute that belonged to 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:05.200 Frederick the Great, a collection of Native American courting flutes, 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:08.520 and an instrument shaped like quote a horns toad climbing 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:10.240 a tree. You know, it's the whole range here. 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.360 But going back to that crystal flute, did Madison actually 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:14.720 play it? 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:17.600 He did not so, but it was it was somehow 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:19.680 important to his family. It was a gift from a 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:23.160 French flute maker named Charles Laurent, and the library has 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:27.120 seventeen crystal flutes from Lorent's workshop. Now, interestingly, the workshop 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:30.360 didn't use glass because it sounded better. It was because 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:33.920 glass handled heat and humidity better than wood or ivory. 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.160 So another person who didn't play the flute, as far 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.360 as we know it was Amelia Earhart However, she was 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.080 the first woman and the second person ever to fly 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.280 solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Now, as you might remember, 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.080 she disappeared when her plane crashed in nineteen thirty seven 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:50.480 as she was attempting to fly around the world. The 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:54.520 Library of Congress has an amazing collection of Earhart Efemera, 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.920 including photos and even audio of a speech she gave. 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.480 But my favorite item is an autograph slide of her 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:05.160 palm print. So back in the nineteen thirties, palmistry was 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:08.400 really popular. It's this wu wu thing that claims that 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:10.720 your personality and interest can be seen in your hand. 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.640 And one of the world's foremost practitioners at the time 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:16.960 was a woman named Nellie Simmons Meyer, and in June 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.239 nineteen thirty three she analyzed Erhart's hence. 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:21.320 And what did she find? 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:25.840 Accord to Meyer, apparently, the aviator had a particularly large palm, 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:28.960 showing a love of physical activity and a strong will. 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.000 Her long finger showed her attention to detail and her 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:37.000 rational personality. Meyer also wrote, quote the diplomacy indicated by 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:39.920 the little finger enables her to conform to such restrictions 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:42.480 for a certain period, and then the urge for physical 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:45.960 and mental activity becomes so strong that she seeks escape 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:47.680 by a flight in her plane. 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.280 I want somebody to compliment my little finger like that 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:51.000 one day, Mango. 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:54.320 I'm pretty sure your little finger indicates that you're from 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:57.200 Alabama and that you have our final factor of the day. 0:16:57.560 --> 0:16:59.680 Nail it. That's exactly what it said. So I'm going 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:01.880 to end and done. Another person who has quite a 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:05.439 bit in the library archives in that is Abraham Lincoln. So, 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.480 as you'll recall, he went to Ford's Theater on April fourteenth, 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:12.400 eighteen sixty five, where he was shot by John Wilkes Booth. Now. 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:14.919 He died the following morning, and the contents of his 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:17.720 pockets were given to his son Robert. Now, these were 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.320 kept in the Lincoln family for more than seventy years 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:24.240 until Lincoln's granddaughter gave them to the library in nineteen 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:28.399 seventy six. Then Librarian of Congress Daniel Borston decided he 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:30.520 wanted to display them because he wanted to give back 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:32.919 a bit of humanity to a man he said, became 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:34.840 quote mythically engulfed. 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.720 Yeah, I imagine his like, so legend is looming very large. 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.200 But what did he have in his pockets? Was there 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:42.439 anything super secret. 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:45.480 Well, actually, I mean it's all pretty commonplace stuff, which 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:47.760 which weirdly I think makes it that much more meaningful. 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:51.320 So he had a linen handkerchief with a Lincoln embroidered 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:53.919 on it. There was a pyramid shaped watch fob, a 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.240 kind of pocket watch counterbalance. There was also two pairs 0:17:57.280 --> 0:17:59.560 of glasses. Lincoln had a lot of vision problems, so 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.600 he often switched between pairs, and that evening he had 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.480 a small metal folding pair and a larger gold rim 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:08.600 pair that had been mended by Abe himself with a string. 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.639 There was also a lens polisher, a button, and a 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:13.399 pocket knife. And this got a bunch of stuff in 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.920 his pockets, and that pocket knife he probably had in case, 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.120 you know, he needed to repair his glasses. So back 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:21.960 to that idea as well. But he was also carrying 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:25.760 a brown leather wallet, and what's inside is also interesting. 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:29.560 So there was a pencil in eight newspaper clippings, including 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:33.159 an article about his recent successful re election campaign, and 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:36.760 strangest of all, he had a confederate five dollars bill. 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:39.480 I mean, first of all, it's insane that he had 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.640 a wallet with like eight clippings of his recent election victories. 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.640 Crazy and in additioned like all these glasses. But why 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:48.600 Confederate money? 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:51.440 Yeah, it's weird, right, Well, we can only speculate why 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.200 he had it, but historians note that Lincoln had traveled 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:56.720 to Richmond, Virginia, about a week before his death, and 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:58.640 this was right after the city had been taken by 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.159 the Union army, so it may have been given to 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.480 him as kind of a souvenir. But on that Notemega, 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.399 We've made it. We reached nine facts, and I'm going 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:11.200 to give you this episode's trophy because you had secret tunnels, 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:13.639 you had old cake, which is just the shoe. And 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:16.760 when you get old cake, so what else did you do? 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:19.520 You do compliments to the pinky fingers, so you really 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.520 you've hit the full spectrum. I had a loss for words, Mango, 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:23.240 it's so amazing. 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:28.480 Well, I'm very honored, and I'll be sure to donate 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:32.080