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Curator's Choice - A podcast for history nerds and museum lovers

This week we head to Virginia to visit Luray Caverns, the most highly decorated caverns in the world according to the Smithsonian. In this episode, we hear from three professionals who share the history of the caverns, the science behind the decorating formations, and how The Great Stalacpipe Organ creates music.

Phantom Chasers

Luray Caverns was discovered on August 13th, 1878 by three local men: Andrew J. Campbell (a local tinsmith), William Campbell, and local photographer Benton Stebbins. These fellows were prospecting for a show cave as they knew of a cave in southern Virginia that was open and giving tours. If they could find a cave, they too could make some money.

They spent a whole summer looking at every sinkhole on every farmer's land, all around town. The townspeople thought they were crazy, calling them “Phantom Chasers”. Eventually, the group came across one particular sinkhole. When they put their hands down, they felt cool air coming out of a quarter-size hole in the ground. They enlarged the hole enough for one man, Andrew Campbell, to slide down on a rope with a candle in hand. They discovered what they were looking for, one of the largest caverns in the world.

The Science of Cavern Decor

Cavern formations are created when water on the surface infiltrates into the ground. It picks up minerals that are in the soil and rock as it seeps into the earth.

Eventually, it enters the cavern system through microscopic pores in the rock. As the water drips and flows in, it deposits those minerals along the ceilings, walls, and floors. And over many, many years those minerals build up and reconstitute into these larger formations.
On average, scientists estimate that formations at Luray take around 120 years to grow one cubic inch. The largest formation in the cavern system is 40 feet tall, 120 feet in circumference at the base, and is an estimated seven and a half million years old. It’s called the Giant Redwood Tree as it resembles the trunk of a giant Sequoia.

The Great Stalacpipe Organ

Mr. Leland Sprinkles brought his son to Luray Caverns for his fifth birthday. At the time, tour guides would play a tune on the stalactites and stalagmites by striking them with a mallet. This gave Mr. Sprinkles, an engineer and organist, the idea to create a playable organ using the cave’s formations. With an agreement over a handshake, Sprinkles began developing the organ.

He would scout for tones by striking the formations and pick those that were closest. Then he would tune them to concert pitch by sanding them down. It was first played in 1957 and is still in use today. It covers three and a half acres, making it the world’s largest natural musical instrument!
Episode Links:

• Luray Caverns webpage: https://luraycaverns.com/
• Discovery of Luray Caverns, Virginia by Russell H. Gurneebook: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/discovery-of-luray-caverns-virginia_russell-h-gurnee/1801668/item/8715266/#edition=727824&idiq=32909429

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Curator's Choice - A podcast for history nerds and museum lovers

This week we meet with Tim Baxter at the Oakwood Cemetery in Niagara Falls, New York. Historic Oakwood Cemetery was founded in 1852 on land donated by Lavinia Porter, daughter of Judge Augustus Porter (who is also one of the acknowledged founders of Niagara Falls). The Oakwood landscape we know today dates from an original design drawn in 1852 by noted civil engineer T.D. Judah. Drake Whitney, and consists of 18.5 acres of land in downtown Niagara Falls. Oakwood today contains many outstanding examples of funerary art including obelisks, sarcophagi, and beautiful statuary. Additionally, the landscape is lush with mature plantings and trees, many dating from the earliest time of the cemetery.
Annie Taylor
Among those buried at Oakwood Cemetery is Annie Taylor, the first person to travel over the falls in a barrel. Annie wrote a book about her trip and in it she describes her inspiration for making the dangerous ride over the Falls:

“For two years I had been constantly studying, when not occupied in teaching, what I could do to make money-to make it honestly and quickly. All kinds of schemes ran riot through my brain. Reading in a New York paper about people going to the Pan-American Exposition, and from there to Niagara Falls, the idea came to me like a flash of light, “Go over the Niagara Falls in a barrel. No one has ever accomplished this feat.” -Over the Falls: Annie Taylor’s story of her trip Homan Walsh
Also laid to rest at Oakwood is Homan Walsh, the young kite flyer whose kite and progressively larger ropes sent the cable across the gorge for the suspension bridge.
In the mid 1800’s, the area around Niagara Falls was growing in terms of population and recognition as a tourist destination. To increase the opportunities of travel for the Niagara area, a bridge was needed to connect the Canada side of the Gorge with the United States side. The Niagara Gorge is 800 feet across and up to 200 feet deep, and many ideas were concocted to complete this challenging task. However, a kite competition in 1848 proved successful! With an award of $10 (or $5, depending on your source) for the first person to fly their kite across the Gorge, Homan Walsh entered the competition with his kit ‘Union’, and won! Using his kite’s string, stronger string was attached an pulled across, followed with steel cables, until a small cable car could be ridden across the Gorge. This process created the foundation for the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge, which stood from 1855 to 1897 and played an important role not only in tourist activity and everyday transportation between two countries, but also as an important escape route of the Underground Railroad.
Episode Links:

• Niagara Falls Oakwood Cemetery: https://oakwoodniagara.org/
• “Over the Falls”, written by Annie Taylor in 1902 about her trip over Horseshoe Falls : https://archive.org/details/overfallsannieed00tayluoft/page/n3/mode/2up
• “The Kite that Bridged a River” article from Kit History: http://www.kitehistory.com/Miscellaneous/Homan_Walsh.htm
• The Kite That Bridged Two Nations – The Musical: https://thekitemusical.com/

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Curator's Choice - A podcast for history nerds and museum lovers

For our second October bonus episode, we speak with Katy Perrine, who is a paranormal tour guide at the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum and the co-owner of Appalachian Oddities. During this episode, we cover the tools of the trade for paranormal investigations, stories about the asylum and the infamous lobotomist Walter Freeman, and how Katy’s work at the asylum and knowledge of the macabre led to the establishment of her wild and wonderfully weird business venture.
Appalachian Oddities is a store for the love of all things odd and interesting. They support and encourage talented artisans throughout the Appalachian region and beyond offer an interesting experience for anyone looking for something not always found in stores.
WALTER FREEMAN II
Freeman was an American doctor who developed the “revolutionary” medical procedure called the transorbital lobotomy. Modeled after Dr. Egas Moniz’s leucotomy procedure, Freeman’s "ice pick" lobotomy and was performed by inserting a metal pick near the corner of the eyes and moving the pick in an arc to sever the connections of the prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobe of the brain. Freeman claimed that this severed the bad connections in the brain, which were the cause of melancholy and mental disturbances, and allowed new positive connections to grow that would lead to positive behaviors. Though some lobotomized patients did see improvement, the procedure was vastly traumatic, leading to infection and often times death. Though his career ended in disgrace, Freeman performed an estimated 2,500 ice pick lobotomies in 23 states, including at least 787 lobotomies at the State Hospital (later the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum).
Episode Links:

• Appalachian Oddities webpage: https://www.appalachianodditieswv.com/
• Lunatic: The Rise and Fall of an American Asylum by Edward S. Gleason: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/25954367-lunatic
• “Psychosurgery, ethics, and media: a history of Walter Freeman and the lobotomy”, written by James P. Caruso and Jason P. Sheehan, DOI: 10.3171/2017.6.FOCUS17257: https://thejns.org/focus/view/journals/neurosurg-focus/43/3/article-pE6.xml

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Curator's Choice - A podcast for history nerds and museum lovers

This week we meet with Bethany Cutright, Office Manager at the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Though known as one of the most haunted places in North America, it was originally designed to be a place of help and healing for the mentally ill. Bethany shares with us the intent of the Kirkbride plan and architecture of the hospital, the art programs designed to open communication and create a positive outlet for patients, and the exceptional work of the Irish, Scottish, and German immigrant stonemasons with their unique signatures and styles.

Stonemason Gargoyles

When construction began on the Hospital in 1858, many of the stonemasons were immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, and Germany. They each brought their own styles and skill, and their creativity is displayed in the form of 8 faces located on the original ward of the Hospital. Bethany was able to recover original payroll records from some of these workers: Mr. Wright who was born in Scotland and Mr. May who was born in Germany. To denote which stone block was crafted by which stonemason, they had their own “signatures”, which were series of patterns in hash-marks on the edges of each block.

Art Program

The art program at the hospital was designed to give patients the opportunity to express themselves in ways they couldn't otherwise; some individuals may have been unable to speak, but they could paint or draw as a form of expression. It was a creative way to open communications between patients and doctors, and it gave them something fun to do. They could also sell their artwork for some income. The hospital even had its own kiln for pottery projects.
Episode Links:

• Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum webpage: http://www.trans-alleghenylunaticasylum.com/
• Dorothea Dix Biography: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/dorothea-dix
• Jacks, Kim, "Weston State Hospital" (2008). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 857: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1860&context=etd
  
• Lunatic: The Rise and Fall of an American Asylum by Edward S. Gleason: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/25954367-lunatic

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Curator's Choice - A podcast for history nerds and museum lovers