For photos of this episode, click here.
This week we meet with Laura Scharle at the Indian River Life-Saving Station Museum in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Life saving stations were erected along the Eastern coastline, at about 5 - 7 mile intervals. The purpose of these stations was to offer rescue and first aid to victims of shipwrecks. A precursor to today’s U.S. Coast Guard, the United States Lifesaving Service staffed these stations with trained servicemen who practiced drills during the day, and conducted beach-patrols at night. The station at Indian River was originally in 1876, but was moved to its present location in 1877 due to a sand dune building up around the station. It has since been restored to it’s 1905 appearance.

Breeches Buoy

A lyle gun was used to deploy the breeches buoy: a gun and carriage of solid bronze weighing 186 pounds would fire a 17 pound steel projectile with a line attached. Once this whip line was secured to the mast of the ship in distress, the hozer line would be strung up. Hanging from the hozer line was a life ring with a pair of pants sewn to it. Using the system as a zip-line, sailors could be pulled from the sinking vessel to safety on shore.

Beach Patrols

Beach patrols were a daily part of life for the men working the stations, and between nightly patrols and daily drills, there may have been a man or two who would rather take a quick nap than complete their patrol. With the life saving stations only about 5 to 7 miles apart from each other, the men walking the patrols would meet in the middle, one heading South, the other North) and exchange surfman’s checks with their corresponding identification information. This ensured no one skipped out on doing their portion of the patrol! If a water source like a river inlet blocked the path to next station, a patrol clock would be installed. This clock would punch out a time on a piece of paper (effectively acting as the first punch clock) to show the guard completed his route.

Episode Links:

• Indian River Life Saving Station webpage: https://destateparks.com/History/IRLifeSavingStation
• U.S. Life-saving Station Service Heritage Association: https://uslife-savingservice.org/station/locate-a-station/

For photos of this episode, click here.
This week we meet with Bob Beggs, co-founder of the American Helicopter Museum and Education Center in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He shares with us the process of establishing a museum and what progressive programs have been developed there. We discuss rotor heads, whirly girls, and the impressive ingenuity of rotary flight, as well as Harold Pitcairn and his Collier Award for his development of the autogyro and the human-powered, award-winning Aerovelo Atlas helicopter.

Whirly-Girls

The Whirly-Girls are an international organization of women helicopter pilots that was developed “in hopes of sharing information and camaraderie regardless of country, race, religion or politics”-Jean Ross Howard Phelan, founder and first president of the organization. The first Whirly Girl, Hanna Reistch (WG#1) was the first woman in the world to fly a helicopter, an FW-61 Focke-Achegelis. She also holds the world record for sustained flight and altitude in gliders, flew horizontal bombers, dive-bombers, fighter planes, and a ME 163 rocket plane. She was the only person, male or female to ever successfully fly the V-1 rocket.

Harold Frederick Pitcairn

Harold is credited with developing the autogyro, the precursor to rotary-wing helicopters. For this, he won the Collier Award, which is a prestigious award given to someone in the aviation industry for the most significant accomplishment in aviation that year. The Collier Award trophy is kept at the National Air and Space Museum in D.C., but each winner is given a personal, mini replica. Harold’s trophy is now on display at the American Helicopter Museum.
Find a list of all the Collier Award Winners, click here: https://www.curatorschoicepodcast.com/collier-trophy-award-winners

Aerovelo Atlas

The Aerovelo Atlas is the first human-powered helicopter that achieved the goals of the American Helicopter Society International’s Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition. It was designed by Dr. Todd Reichert and Dr. Cameron Robertson of the University of Toronto and constructed with the help of students and graduates of the University. Steering was accomplished by leaning the bicycle to tilt the rotor axes. On June 13, 2013, the Aerovelo team flew the Atlas for 64 seconds and achieved an altitude of 3.3 meters (11 feet) in a Toronto area arena, and captured the $250,000 prize.
Episode Links:

• American Helicopter Museum and Education Center webpage: https://americanhelicopter.museum/
• Whirly-Girls International Women Helicopter Pilots webpage: https://whirlygirls.org/history/
• Aerovelo website: http://www.aerovelo.com/

For photos of this episode, click here.
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/

For pictures of this episode, click here.
Starting off the new year and season two, we meet at Historic Sotterley and speak with Katherine Humphries, who is the Education Coordinator, and Jeanne Pirtle, who is the Director of Educational Programming and Partnerships. Sotterley is a historic plantation, with parts of the house dating back to 1703. It has survived 3 major wars, hurricanes, lightning strikes, and numerous renovations, and today is an interpretive site comprised of 94 acres of land, over 20 authentic historical structures, and a sustainable farm that donates food to local pantries. For this episode, we focus on the Chinese Chippendale Banister, which was constructed ~1780, and the portrait of Sarah Satterlee, whose artist was a mystery until a curator from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery visited and thought the style looked familiar!
Episode Links:

• Official Historic Sotterley webpage: https://www.sotterley.org/
• Met Museum’s artifact “The Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's Director: Being a Large Collection of Designs of Household Furniture in the Gothic, Chinese and Modern Taste 1754”: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/591840
• Seth Cheney’s painting of James Jackosn, circa 1842, at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery: https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.98.126?destination=edan-search/default_search%3Fedan_local%3D1%26edan_q%3Dseth%252Bcheney%26edan_fq%255B0%255D%3Donline_visual_material%253Atrue

Sotterleys Recognitions and Awards

2012 Designated a Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Marker’s Project Site

2017 Maryland Sustainable Growth Award for Preservation & Conservation

2018 Maryland Preservation Award for Slave Cabin Exhibit dedicated to Agnes Kane Callum

2019 Designated a UNESCO Site of Memory for the Slave Route Project

2020 Maryland Preservation Award for Excellence in Public Programming for Common Ground

For photos of this episode, click here.
Continuing our trek in Luray, Virginia, I meet with Isabela Graves from the Shenandoah Heritage Village Museum. She shares the incredible work she and her husband have been doing to preserve the history of the valley, and some truly spectacular artifacts housed there.
Shenandoah Heritage Village
The Shenandoah Heritage Village is a seven-acre re-creation of a small 19th-century farming community made up of restored historic buildings, cottage-style gardens, and a small vineyard with a scenic mountain backdrop. They even have a cafe and gem mining sluice!
Iron Stoves
It was a very complicated process, to create the highly decorated iron stoves. The artists would have to carve their designs to create a wooden mold. Then that carving would be pressed into very hard sand, so molten iron could be poured in. These different plates of iron would then be assembled into a stove that could replace large, dangerous hearths. They were safer, easier to cook with, and really revolutionized kitchen life for colonials. And they were made with incredibly elaborate designs.
1539 Bible
This bible was not only an important religious relic but also a catalog of historic events. It was printed in Zurich, Switzerland in 1536 by Christopher Froschauer who was a printer of the Swiss Reformation. It has illustrations painted by Hans Holbein the Younger, the King's Painter to Henry VIII of England.
Episode Links:

• Shenandoah Heritage Village website: https://luraycaverns.com/attractions/shenandoah-heritage-village/

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