Curio Cabinet / Person, Place, or Thing

With the ongoing Calder Fire inching closer to Lake Tahoe, the future of this unique natural landmark is undoubtedly in jeopardy. As jarring photos of burning trees and ski resorts continue to roll in, many are reflecting on what it is that makes Lake Tahoe such a special place.
 
Nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains at a height of 6, 225 feet, straddling the state line between California and Nevada, Lake Tahoe is North America’s largest alpine lake. Its famously-clear waters are over 1,600 feet deep, making it deeper than the Empire State Building is tall. This impressive depth is a result of how the lake was formed over 2 million years ago, when a fault line on the continental and oceanic plates collapsed, creating the Lake Tahoe Basin and surrounding mountains. The basin was then scoured by glaciers, making it deeper, and sediment from an ancient volcanic eruption created a natural dam, allowing water to gather there. Lake Tahoe’s depth also prevents its waters from freezing completely, even though they remain cool throughout the year. This is because large volumes of water retain a lot of heat relative to their surface area, and would thus require incredibly low temperatures in order to freeze.
 
Long before Lake Tahoe became a worldwide tourist attraction with 15 million visitors per year, it was home to the Washoe people. This Native American Tribe lived throughout the Great Basin, with Lake Tahoe serving as the center of their territory. The Washoe people considered several sites in Lake Tahoe to be sacred, including Cave Rock, a cave and rock formation on the lake’s southeastern shore which was unfortunately blasted away, in 1931, due to highway construction.
 
Surprisingly, Lake Tahoe’s name was a subject of debate for some time. In 1844, explorer John C. Frémont named it Lake Bonpland after famed botanist Jacques Alexandre Bonpland. The name didn’t stick, however, and a few years later another explorer, John Calhoun Johnson, named it Lake Bigler after John Bigler, California’s governor at the time. However, when Bigler became an unpopular figure during the Civil War with both the union and the confederacy, several new names for the lake sprang up, including Mountain Lake and Maheon Lake. Finally, in 1862, federal mapmaker William Henry Knight asked his colleague, Dr. Henry DeGroot, to give the lake an official name. DeGroot chose Tahoe. The word was a mispronunciation of the Washoe word “da'aw”, which means “lake.” Nevertheless, Knight began printing it on all official U.S. maps, saying, “...I thought now would be a good time to select an appropriate name and fix it forever on that beautiful sheet of water.”
 
Today, Lake Tahoe’s stunning scenery, including mountains, tall pine trees and large boulders, make it a very instagram-worthy vacation spot. Wildlife enthusiasts enjoy the black bears, mountain lions and other impressive wildlife roaming free in Lake Tahoe State Park, which also allows for camping and scenic hikes. There are at least 15 ski resorts surrounding Lake Tahoe, making it a popular winter getaway. In fact, most of Lake Tahoe’s tourism revolves around skiing and other winter sports. On the Nevada side of the area, where gambling is legal, casinos are another popular attraction. Unfortunately, several of Lake Tahoe’s ski resorts, such as the popular Heavenly Mountain Resort, have already sustained damage in the Caldor Fire. Resorts’ snow machines are being used to fight the blaze, while evacuations have been ordered for many Lake Tahoe residents. Only time will tell how much damage the Lake Tahoe area may sustain, in the blaze. Hopefully, this beautiful area will remain unscorched for future visitors to enjoy.

 
[Image description: Lake Tahoe’s Emerald Bay under a blue sky with pine trees in the foreground] Credit & copyright: Blake Everett/Public Domain

By the time she was 17, she was the world’s youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and she hasn’t slowed down since. Malala Yousafzai, known the world over simply as Malala, is one of the world’s most outspoken womens’ rights activists. She’s had plenty to say about Afghanistan’s recent fall to the Taliban; this same militant group shot Malala In 2012, when she was just 15 years old, for attending school in defiance of their orders.
 
Born in Pakistan's Swat district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Malala was named for Malalai of Maiwand, an Afghani warrior woman and folk hero. As a child, Malala lived with her mother, Tor Pekai Yousafzai, her two younger brothers, Khushal and Atal, and her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, an education advocate who ran a chain of public schools. Malala was inspired by her father’s activism from a young age, and the two of them would often stay up late talking about politics. Malala’s activism began in 2008, at age 11, when her father took her to a press club in Peshawar to speak about the rising threat that the Taliban posed to girls’ education. After participating in the Open Minds Pakistan youth program, which taught students how to debate and write about social issues, Malala became an anonymous blogger for the BBC. Her posts, published under a pseudonym, informed the world about the day-to-day lives of those threatened by the Taliban. Malala wrote about the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education, their bombing of schools, and being forced to move to the countryside for her own protection.
 
By late 2009, Malala was becoming a household name in Pakistan. She participated in a New York Times documentary highlighting her continuing struggles to go to school. Her BBC blogger identity was publicly revealed, and she became involved with the Khpal Kor Foundation, a charity that helps orphaned Pakistani children. She often appeared on T.V., publicly advocating for girls’ education in direct defiance of Taliban edicts. In December, 2011, she was awarded Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. Afterwards, when asked about the danger the Taliban posed, 14-year-old Malala said, “Even if they come to kill me, I will tell them what they are trying to do is wrong, that education is our basic right.”
 
On October 9, 2012, as then-15-year-old Malala rode a bus home from taking an exam, a masked gunman hijacked the vehicle and demanded to know which student was Malala. He then shot her in the head, injuring two other students in the process. The bullet traveled through Malala’s head, neck, and shoulder. After a five-hour operation at a military hospital in Peshawar, during which the bullet was removed and a portion of Malala’s skull was taken out to allow her brain to swell safely, she was moved to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi. Doctors estimated her chance of survival to be around 70 percent.
 
Remarkably, after receiving further treatment in the UK, Malala made a full recovery and immediately returned to her activism. Her public platform was now enormous, as the attack against her had sparked international outrage. She spoke with the Pakistani government, then-U.S.-President Barack Obama, and appeared on television programs throughout the world. In 2013, Malala and her father founded the Malala Fund, an international organization which advocates for girls’ education. That same year, Malala published her autobiography, I am Malala. After becoming the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2014, Malala attended school at Edgbaston High School in Birmingham, England, then at Lady Margaret Hall, an Oxford University College, from which she graduated in 2020.
 
After Afghanistan’s sudden fall to the Taliban in August, 2021, Malala wrote an impassioned article for the online publication, Podium. She explained that as the Taliban took over, she was in Boston, undergoing her sixth operation to repair damage from the 2012 attempt on her life. “Nine years later, I am still recovering from just one bullet,” she wrote. “The people of Afghanistan have taken millions of bullets over the last four decades. My heart breaks for those whose names we will forget or never even know, whose cries for help will go unanswered.” No doubt the world will be hearing more from Malala as the situation in Afghanistan evolves, and her ongoing tenacity in the face of adversity will continue to inspire millions.

 
[Image description: Malala Yousafzai, wearing purple, prepares to speak into a microphone during an interview.] Credit & copyright: Southbank Centre, image cropped for size

It's Flashback Friday! Around the world, the end of summer is marked by fairs, festivals, and religious ceremonies. In that spirit, enjoy these curios highlighting celebrations from throughout the calendar year.
 

The famous beer bash started out as a royal wedding reception.

Taking place in Munich from mid-September to early October, Oktoberfest isn't just an excuse to don traditional Bavarian garb, like a dirndl skirt or lederhosen, and swill beer. Expecting over six million attendees this year, the largest festival in the world enjoys a storied history: it's a celebration of a royal wedding.
 

It all started over 200 years ago. On October 12, 1810, the Bavarian royal family invited the citizens of Munich to attend a feast in the fields outside the city: a wedding reception to end all wedding receptions in honor of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. The matrimonial bash went on for several blurry days and to this date, Oktoberfest is held on the same fields as this seminal celebration. In fact, the land was later named Theresienwiese, or Theresa's fields, in honor of the bride.
 

After that, Oktoberfest became an annual tradition. In its infancy, it featured horse racing and an agricultural show; later, a carousel was added, along with other rides. Today, visitors enjoy German specialties, including giant pretzels, bratwurst sausages, and gingerbread, along with parades and scary carnival rides. But the main event is, and always has been, beer, which is served up in giant, brimming steins. Each year, a special brew is concocted exclusively for the festival, and breweries must follow strict rules in the preparation of Oktoberfestbier, as it's called. But before anyone steals sips of brew, the Mayor of Munich must first kick off the celebration by using a large hammer to tap the first keg of beer, to which he or she proclaims, "O'zapft is!" ("It is tapped!")—and Oktoberfest begins.
 

But like any party, Oktoberfest has faced adversity. A cholera epidemic forced its cancellation in 1854, and it closed during both World Wars. At the 1980 celebration, a bomb exploded, killing 13 people and wounding over 200. The act of right-wing extremism was the second largest terror attack in German history. Yet through thick and thin, Oktoberfest's good times keep on rollin'.
 

So, if the festivities sound like a blast, but heading to Munich means a transatlantic flight, don't despair; Oktoberfest is now celebrated across the world, and that includes cities all over America. A quick internet search will almost certainly locate a festival nearby. Prost (Cheers)!
 

Below: The Munich mayor tapping the first keg at a recent Oktoberfest.
 

Image credit & copyright: AP/Matthias Schrader/NPR
 

He certainly had fashion sense (or not, depending on who was depicting him) but finery isn’t what made Charlemagne famous. This European ruler had plenty of titles and military victories to his name, though his army was defeated in the Battle of Roncevaux Pass on this day in 778. Sometimes called the “Father of Europe”, Charlemagne united Western Europe for the first time since the classical era. Of course, his rule wasn’t appreciated by everyone, particularly the peoples he conquered and forced to convert to Christianity.
 
Born around 742, Charlemagne, or Chalres I, was the eldest son of Pepin the Short, who ruled as King of the Franks from 751 to 768. Franks were a Germanic-speaking people who had invaded and taken over the Western Roman Empire during the 5th Century. By the time Charlemagne was born, the Franks already ruled present-day northern France, Belgium, and western Germany. Upon his father’s death in 768, Charlemagne found himself ruling alongside his younger brother, Carloman I. Problems between the two developed immediately. Aquitaine, a region in present-day southwestern France which the brothers ruled, broke into rebellion upon Pepin the Short’s death. In a display of his soon-to-be-famous decisive military tactics, Charlemagne sent his army to crush the rebellion. However, in a fairly clear effort to undermine Charlemagne’s authority, Carloman sent his own army to assist. Instead, the two armies embarrassingly clashed. Eventually, Carloman’s army withdrew, Charlemagne’s army went on to quash the rebellion, and Carloman was publicly disgraced. By 771, the brothers were fighting on a near-constant basis, but Carloman passed away due to unknown natural causes that same year, granting Charlemagne the sole power of King.
 
Charlemagne immediately made his ambitions known. First, he wanted to unite all Germanic peoples into a single kingdom. Second, he wanted to convert all of his subjects to Christianity, a tall order since many of those he wished to conquer were pagan or Muslim. His military campaigns, which would last for nearly the entirety of his reign, began with his conquering of the Lombards, in present-day northern Italy. More difficult to subdue were the Avars in present-day Austria and Hungary, but Charlemagne managed to do it. Although his wealth and military might grew with each new region he conquered, Charlemagne’s army did suffer occasional setbacks. After they successfully invaded the Iberian Peninsula and subdued most of the Basques who lived there, in 778, they were unexpectedly ambushed on a mountain pass in the Pyrenees. The Battle of Roncevaux Pass saw the death of Roland, Charlemagne’s good friend and commander of his army’s rearguard.
 
Charlemagne’s most infamous military campaign was the Saxon Wars, waged against the Saxons of present-day Germany. In 772, Charlemagne’s army destroyed a Saxon Irminsul, in present-day Bavaria. Irminsuls, or “great pillars”, were sacred objects in Saxon Paganism. It’s destruction led to an uprising and the start of Charlemagne’s three-decade-long war against the four Saxon regions: Westphalia, Eastphalia, Engria and Nordalbingia. Although greatly outnumbered, the Saxons put up a fierce fight under their main military leader, Widukind, about whom little is still known.
 
782 saw the bloodiest single event in the Saxon Wars. After subduing a Saxon rebellion in present day Verden, Germany and forcing the rebels’ surrender, Charlemagne had every rebel, around 4,500 people, publicly executed. The aptly-named Verden Massacre represented the turning point in the Saxon Wars. In 785, Widukind was captured and forced into baptism. Meanwhile, Charlemagne’s power was only growing. In 800, He was crowned Emperor of the Romans (or Holy Roman Emperor) by Pope Leo III. The Saxon Wars ended in 804, with the Saxons losing much of their lands and their right to practice paganism.
 
For a man known for leading military expeditions and carrying a sword everywhere he went, Charlemagne’s death from a nosebleed, in 814, was surprisingly non-violent. He was canonized (posthumously made into a saint) in 1165, but the modern Catholic church doesn’t recognize his sainthood. Instead, Charlemagne is remembered as a shrewd military strategist and a figure whose rule changed Europe forever. Of course, whether it was changed for the better depends on who you ask.

 
[Image description: A black and white illustration of Charlemagne holding a sword and staff while looking toward the sun.] Credit & copyright: Rijksmuseum/Public Domain

Watch out, they say there’s a wee monster in these waters! For decades, tourists have flocked to Scotland’s Loch Ness in hopes of spotting the fabled “Nessie”. On August 2, the Scottish government announced that people from certain countries (including the U.S.) who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 could once again travel to Schotland, so this summer is likely to see Loch Ness tourism boom once again. In all likelihood, the loch is entirely monster-free, but that doesn’t make its history of supposed monster sightings any less interesting, and it certainly doesn’t detract from the loch’s natural beauty.
 
So, what exactly is a loch? Loch is simply a word meaning “lake” in Gaelic, a language spoken in Scotland for centuries. Loch Ness is situated in the Scottish Highlands, a mountainous area in northern Scotland which covers around 10,000 square miles. Although Loch Ness isn’t the deepest loch in Scotland (that honor goes to Loch Morar, also in the Scottish Highlands) Loch Ness does have the largest volume of fresh water in all of Great Britain. In fact, there is more water in Loch Ness, around 263 billion cubic feet to be exact, than in all the lakes in Wales and England combined. Loch Ness lies in the Glen More, or Great Glen, a valley which stretches for around 60 miles, splitting the Highlands roughly in half. Despite its reputation as a solitary body of water, Loch Ness is actually fed by several rivers, such as the Oich and the Moriston. It connects to other bodies of water across Scotland via the Caledonian Canal, constructed in the early nineteenth century by famed Scottish engineer Thomas Telford. Due to its year-round frigid water temperatures and a natural phenomenon called seiches, standing waves in enclosed bodies of water which cause water levels to rapidly rise and fall, not many plants or animals live in Loch Ness. So, how did a place without many aquatic animals become the supposed home of marine monster?
 
The answer may lie with a saint. According to a 7th-Century biography of Irish missionary Saint Columba, the holy man not only saw a “beast” in Loch Ness, in 565 AD, but was involved in a scuffle with it. According to the account, the Loch Ness Monster rose from the water and attacked a man on shore, at which point Saint Columba invoked God’s name and commanded it to retreat to the water “with all speed”, which it did. Monster-wise, things were fairly quiet after that until 1930, when three fishermen reported to the Northern Chronicle that an enormous animal had approached their boat, churning up the water and making a “terrible noise.” In 1933, a new road along the loch’s shore was finished, giving drivers a clear view of its waters. That same year, a local couple claimed to have seen a huge aquatic animal breaching the loch’s surface. A media frenzy ensued after the story was reported in the Inverness Courier, describing the creature vanishing in a “boiling mass of foam.” The first supposed photo of “Nessie” soon surfaced. Taken by a local man named Hugh Gray, the bluffy photo appeared to show a long, serpentine shape on the surface of the water. With public interest at an all-time high, big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell was hired by London’s Daily Mail to travel to Scotland and capture the Loch Ness Monster. When he reported finding large, unidentified animal footprints near the loch, people from around the UK began flocking to Loch Ness. The following year, on April 21, 1934, the Daily Mail published what remains the most famous photo of Nessie. Known as the “Surgeon’s Photograph”, it was supposedly taken by a doctor named Robert Wilson and showed what appeared to be a long-necked creature poking its head out of Loch Ness’s waters. The photo was later revealed to be a hoax created by none other than Wetherell’s stepson by taping a paper neck and head to a toy submarine. Nevertheless, it cemented Nessie’s image as a long-necked serpentine creature, akin to a prehistoric plesiosaur, in the public consciousness. Today, Nessie remains a great way to attract tourists, but no scientific evidence for her existence has been found. That’s certainly no reason not to visit the Scottish Highlands though!

 
[Image description: A green hill dotted with trees and fields rises behind the waters of Lake Loch Ness. Urquhart Castle can be seen to the left.] Credit & copyright: Pappenheim at German Wikipedia/Public Domain

It’s just not summer without a hot dog! This easy-to-make, ultra-portable food has inspired much love and even some debate over the years, and not just in regard to which toppings are best! So grab some ketchup, mustard, relish, chili and whatever else you’d like and read on for a brief history of the American hot dog.
 
Sausages made from minced meat and seasonings encased in animal intestines or skin have been around for thousands of years. The hot dog’s closest ancestor is the German pork sausage, which originated in 13th Century Frankfurt. In fact, the hot dog nickname “frankfurter” is a nod to its origins. Some food historians believe that in the 18th Century, a butcher named Johann Georg Lahner brought pork sausage from Frankfurt to Vienna, Austria, where he popularized it and added beef to the mixture. Another common hot dog nickname, “wiener”, is a reference to Vienna, or Wién, in German.
 
The exact circumstances under which the German sausage transformed into the American hot dog are debated, with different stories often thrown around. Some say that in 1880, a German immigrant named Antoine Feuchtwanger began selling sausages in rolls in St. Louis, Missouri, so that customers could eat them on the go. Others say that Feuchtwanger began selling the first sausage-bun combos at the World’s Fair, either in 1893 or 1904. The most popular story, though, centers around Coney Island. The claim is that German-American restaurateur Charles Feltman began selling sausages in buns from a cart on Coney Island, calling them “Coney Island Red Hots”. His food became popular enough for him to build a permanent restaurant in 1871, Feltman’s Ocean Pavilion. By the early 1900s, not only was it the most popular attraction on Coney Island, it was an empire unto itself, covering a full city block with nine individual restaurants, a carousel, an outdoor theatre, and more. Whether or not Feltman actually invented hot dogs, he undisputedly popularized them...and added “hot” to their name!
 
So, what about the “dog” part of hot dogs? Unfortunately, it may have something to do with nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment. Because dog meat was eaten until the 20th Century in some German states, like Bavaria and Saxony, “hot dog” may have been a loaded term used by Americans to imply that German immigrants were selling sausages made from dog meat. A similar theory about nationalism involves sports cartoonist T.A. Dorgan, who drew offensive cartoons of German immigrants as dachshunds, but labeled them “hot dogs”, since he couldn’t spell the former word. Dorgan also took frequent stabs at the Coney Island Red Hots sold at Feltman’s Ocean Pavillion on Coney Island, implying they were made from dog meat. This caused such a stir that, in 1913, the words “hot dog” were banned from signs on Coney Island by the Chamber of Commerce. The move actually angered some hot dog sellers, who had begun using the term as a tongue-in-cheek joke. Eventually, the ban was lifted and dachshunds became popular mascots at many hot dog stands around the country.
 
It wasn’t the last time that hot dogs were embroiled in controversy, though. In the 1930s, as industrial farming techniques progressed and “skinless” hot dogs (those without natural skin or intestine casings) grew in popularity, so did the public’s wariness about the contents of their “dogs.” Some newspapers claimed that hot dogs were commonly made with leftover cow and pig parts, such as snouts and eyeballs. These claims were never proven and historians generally believe that they were simply a ploy to sell more papers. Squeamishness about hot dog production continues in some quarters even today, with fears about ingredients fueled by internet hoaxes. In reality, hot dogs are made from leftovers, but not from parts like eyeballs. Instead, trimmings of meat which don’t make good steaks or roasts (due to their fat content of texture) are typically used. Hey, as long as it's properly roasted and covered in ketchup, you won’t find us complaining!

 
[Image description: A close up photo of a hot dog with mustard and potato chips.] Credit & copyright: ACES/Janet Guynn/Alabama Extension/Public Domain

Get ready to vacation through history! The internet’s travel-sphere is buzzing after a popular travel expert cited Boston as one of the smartest places to go during this summer’s post-pandemic travel boom. Jamie Lane, Vice President of Research at AirDNA, told Yahoo Finance Live, “Demand is really at an all-time high and just about all markets predict that—except in major cities. You might want to think instead of Cape Cod, go to Boston…” Anyone taking Lane’s advice is sure to discover that Boston has a lot of historic landmarks to visit. To truly appreciate these sights, though, one must understand at least some of the history inherent to Massachusetts’ capital city.
 

Boston was founded in 1630, making it one of America’s oldest major cities. Oddly, it is also one of the smallest, geographically. Situated on Massachusetts Bay in the eastern part of the state, the city occupies just 48.4 square miles. This “city of firsts”, home to the U.S.’s first public school, first public park, and first subway system, was inhabited by Native American peoples since at least 2400 B.C. It got its start as the Boston we know today when Puritan settlers sailed into Massachusetts Bay in 1630. By merging with the Plymouth Colony, located in Cape Cod Bay about 40 miles south, the Puritans managed to build a strong community. They eventually named their settlement Boston, after the town in Lincolnshire, England that was once home to many of them. By the mid-1630s, the city’s location on Massachusetts Bay made it an important trading hub. According to some historians, Boston earned it’s “Beantown” nickname when merchants brought molasses to the city, which locals mixed with the beans that Native Americans had taught them to cultivate. However, the city’s most famous historical event took place over one hundred years after its founding.
 

The Boston Tea Party is one of the most referenced historical events in American history. It began when British Parliament passed the Tea Act, on May 10, 1773. Contrary to popular belief, the Tea Act didn’t impose any new taxes on American tea. Instead, it gave the floundering British East India Tea Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies. Tea had been taxed in the American colonies since the 1767 Townshend Revenue Act, which also imposed taxes on paper and other goods. However, these unpopular taxes were repealed in 1770, except for the tax on tea. The Tea Act angered American colonists not only because they believed that it was intended to drum up colonial support for the already-enforced tea tax, but because a new British monopoly on tea sales would destroy the businesses of American tea merchants. Several American ports in Philadelphia and New York refused to allow British ships to offload their tea, and some ships were even forced back to England. Beginning in November, the Boston-based Sons of Liberty, a group formed mainly to protest British taxes, attempted to send three British ships back to England. They were stopped by Thomas Hutchinson, Chief Justice of Massachusetts, who demanded that the ships be held in Boston Harbor until the colonists allowed the tea to be offloaded. However, on December 16, 1773, a group of 30 to 130 men from the Sons of Liberty boarded the British vessels (some disguised as Native Americans, to hide their identities) and dumped all of their 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. This act of defiance caused such a clash of fervent support and anger that many historians credit it as a significant step toward the American Revolution, which also began in Massachusetts, in 1775.
 

Of course, Boston isn’t all history. Though it was founded in the mid-1630s, Boston’s Harvard University remains one of America’s most prestigious school’s. The 26-mile Boston Marathon is one of the most famous sporting events in the world. The city is also famous for its scenic Harborwalk boardwalk and lobster rolls–sandwiches of lobster meat and condiments in hotdog-style buns. Clearly, there’s plenty for any savvy post-Covid traveler to get excited about. Who needs Cape Cod, anyway?

 
[Image description: A statue of George Washington on horseback stands in Boston’s Public Garden, surrounded by shrubs and flowers, with modern city buildings visible in the background.]

 
Written by: Maria C.

People waited in line for hours just for a chance to see it, and Michelle Obama called it “...the best piece of art in any form that I have ever seen in my life.” Hamilton: An American Musical captured the hearts and minds of theatre fans (and non-fans) in a way that few other shows ever have. Actor/playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda’s journey, in creating it, is nearly as interesting as the U.S. history behind his smash hit.
 
Born January 6, 1980, Lin-Manuel Miranda was raised in the largely Dominican-American neighborhood of Washington Heights, in New York City. Miranda’s parents had immigrated to the U.S. from Puerto Rico (a U.S. territory) before he was born, and he spent at least one month each year visiting his grandparents in Vega Alta. After watching a production of Les Misérables, at age 7, Miranda acquired a lifelong love for musical theatre. However, as he grew older, Miranda realized that common casting practices would limit him. “I realized I didn’t dance well enough to play Paul in ‘A Chorus Line’ nor Bernardo, and if you’re a Puerto Rican dude, that’s what you get,” he later said. Thus, Miranda began writing his own musical while attending college at Wesleyan University. In the Heights debuted on Broadway in 2008 with Miranda playing the lead role of Usnavi de la Vega, a Washington Heights bodega owner. Combining elements of hip hop and salsa music, In the Heights won four Tony Awards. However, Miranda knew that his next original project would be far more controversial.
 
The idea for a musical about U.S. founding father Alexander Hamilton had first hit Miranda in 2009, after reading a biography of Hamilton by historian Ron Chernow. Miranda later told CNBC, “I was swept up by the story....And it’s uniquely an immigrant story and it’s uniquely a story about writers.” Hamilton, as a figure, reminded Miranda of rapper Tupac Shakur. With that in mind, he began writing hip hop songs for Hamilton: An American Musical. When then-President Barack Obama invited Miranda to the White House, in May, 2009, to perform a song from In The Heights, Miranda instead performed the song Alexander Hamilton. The Obamas’ warm reception further inspired Miranda. However, many in the theatre world, including Miranda’s friend and mentor Stephen Sondheim, didn’t believe that a hip hop musical about the founding fathers could work, especially with the unprecedented casting choices that Miranda planned to make.
 
Miranda wanted the cast of Hamilton: An American Musical to be racially diverse. He allowed anyone, of any race or ethnicity, to audition for the parts. He later told The New York Times, “This is a story about America then, told by America now, and we want to eliminate any distance. Our story should look the way our country looks. Then we found the best people to embody these parts. I think it’s a very powerful statement without having to be a statement.” The choice did make a powerful statement though, especially with young people, who celebrated the show’s diversity. Over 700 people lined up for a chance at lottery-style tickets during the show’s first 2015 preview. The ticket lottery eventually became an event in and of itself, called Ham4Ham, in which Miranda hosted mini-performances for lottery participants. The show officially opened on Broadway on August 6, 2015.
 
Hamilton: An American Musical was praised for blending hip hop with traditional musical theater, and for demonstrating the importance of little-known historical figures, like Aaron Burr. In addition to overwhelming critical praise, Hamilton: An American Musical won 11 Tony Awards. That wasn’t to say that the show received no criticism at all. Some historians took onus with its inaccuracies (such as the implication that Aaron Burr was never Vice President). The show was criticized for having only three important female characters, all of whom are either obsessed or in love with Alexander Hamilton. Notably, Nobel and Pulitzer-Prize winning author Toni Morrison took such issue with what she considered the show’s glossing-over of slavery and race issues that she funded a play calling out the musical and its creator: The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda. However, when Hamilton: An American Musical began streaming on Disney +, in 2020, the response was once again largely positive. It’s clear that this unique musical will remain a part of popular culture for some time, and is likely to be one of the most anticipated re-openings of the after-Covid age.
 
[Image description: Lin-Manuel Miranda, in his costume as Alexander Hamilton, is surrounded by clapping castmates.] Credit & copyright: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic/Getty Images

 
Written by: Maria C.

Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, was an unusual and highly-controversial religious leader. In fact, the 19th-Century leader of the Church of Latter Day Saints was killed on this day in 1844 after a mob attacked the Illinois prison where he was being held. To understand why people were so agitated with Smith, one must understand the dominant socio-religious ideologies of his lifetime, and how tenacious he was in pushing their bounds.
 

Born December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont, Smith grew up without a formal education as the son of a poor tenant farmer. Yet he loved to read, especially the Bible and books about religious philosophy. In 1820, Smith’s family moved to Manchester, New York, where a widespread religious revival called The Second Great Awakening was taking place. The Second Great Awakening saw Protestants seeking to convert new members through large-scale, outdoor preaching events. This religious fervor greatly inspired 14-year-old Smith, yet he couldn’t decide which denomination he should join.
 

According to an account which Smith wrote years later, he went into the woods, in 1820, to pray about his problem. According to Smith, God and Jesus appeared to him, telling him that none of Christianity’s current denominations had things right. In 1823, Smith claimed he was visited by an angel named Moroni. According to Smith, Moroni told him where to find a book inscribed on golden plates, and seer stones to translate the unknown language they were written in, which Smith called “reformed Egyptian.” Over the next four years, Smith claimed to make multiple trips to a hill where the plates were buried, where he translated and transcribed them. Unfortunately for Smith, the Second Great Awakening had led to the passage of stricter religious laws. In 1826, Smith was brought before a court in Chenango County, New York, based on rumors that he’d been using seer stones, which was considered witchcraft. Although Smith didn’t spend any notable amount of time in jail, it was not the last time that his out-of-the-norm religious convictions got him into trouble.
 

In 1827, after eloping with Emma Hale, the daughter of a Pennsylvania businessman, Smith claimed that he retrieved the golden plates but was ordered not to show them to anyone. In 1829, Smith’s manuscript was completed. That same year, Smith had eight people sign a statement saying that they had seen the golden plates, heard the Voice of God, and saw the Angel Moroni take the plates back from Smith. The Book of Mormon was published in 1830, and Smith’s Church of Christ was established that same year. Unfortunately for Smith, he already had a reputation as a religious outsider. Thus, as his notoriety and church membership grew, so did opposition to the claims in his Book of Mormon, such as the claim that Jesus appointed disciples in America. Eventually, Smith was arrested, tried, but ultimately acquitted of disorderly conduct for baptizing people in his church, and he fled to Colesville, New York.
 

For the next few years, Smith and his followers moved frequently, due to the violence they routinely encountered. At the same time, Smith’s church, now called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, continued to grow. By 1838, Smith was living in Missouri with around 2,000 Mormons, but trouble broke out when non-Mormons tried to prevent Mormons from voting. The 1838 Mormon War followed, in which non-Mormons burned Mormon farms and Mormons attacked non-Mormon towns. Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs ordered that all Mormons be killed or driven from the state. Smith and his followers fled to Illinois, where he founded a small, Mormon city called Nauvoo. However, public opinion turned against Smith as he introduced controversial new aspects to his religion, such as plural marriage.
 

Eventually, problems arose within Smith’s own church. In 1844, several of Smith’s Mormon detractors published their own newspaper accusing him of luring women to Nauvoo for unsavory purposes. The Nauvoo City Council, with Smith’s support, had the newspaper’s printing press destroyed. This provoked an armed uprising, and Illinois Governor Thomas Ford stepped in to demand that Smith, his brother Hyrum, and the Nauvoo City Council surrender themselves to state custody. A mob of non-Mormons then stormed the Carthage jail, killing Hyrum and Smith. While non-Mormons were quick to portray Smith as a religious fanatic following his killing, Mormons memorialized him as a true prophet. Today, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has over 16 million members, and Joseph Smith is considered Mormonism’s most important mortal figure. Regardless of one’s beliefs, there’s no denying that Smith’s life was both interesting and influential.

 
[Image description: a painted portrait of Joseph Smith, wearing a black suit and white shirt with a high collar. ] Credit & copyright: Public Domain

 
Written by: Maria C.

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

The first national gay rights group.

Before Stonewall, before Marriage Equality, and before Gay Pride marches, there was the Mattachine Society. In an era of fervid homophobia, the group managed to unite gay individuals to collectively demand their due rights. In celebration of Pride month, we're learning how the pioneering group brought the fight for LGBTQ rights from the streets—to the courtroom.
 

To get to the origins of the Mattachine Society's inception, we have to go back to Los Angeles in 1948—to the youth of activist Henry Hay. Surviving on unsteady jobs, he had agreed to participate in interviews for Doctor Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, a book released that year which delved into the unforeseen nuances of human sexuality. It was a revelation to those who were homosexual that they had significant numbers in the millions living in America, and were definitely not alone.
 

At the same time, police were ramping up arrests and fines for "vagrancy-lewdness" which were used to harass people accused of homosexual acts. Hay, armed with Kinsey's statistics, made attempts to organize his gay friends and acquaintances into some sort of political action group to fight back. In 1950, he finally articulated what no one else could, that homosexuals were "an oppressed cultural minority." The following year, Hay gathered like-minded individuals into a group named the Mattachine Society, after the French Renaissance secret fraternity who would appear in public dressed in masks and use satire to speak truth to power.
 

The society's first test came in February of 1952 with the trial of member Dale Jennings. According to his testimony, Jennings was followed one night by a thuggish-looking man who kept making awkward advances at him. When the man let himself into Jennings apartment, he proceeded to harass Jennings until handcuffing and arresting him. Jennings was expected to plead guilty to his charges, pay a fine, and discreetly return to his life—as was often the case when men were charged with violating vag-lewd laws. Instead, Jennings called Hay, who posted his $50 bail and encouraged him to fight in court.
 

What came next was an unprecedented turn of events: the Mattachine Society called on donors across the country to help fund Jennings' legal expenses. In the ensuing jury trial, Jennings openly admitted he was a homosexual, but denounced the charges as a form of sexual entrapment that violated the Fifth Amendment. The trial went on for three days, with Jennings' lawyer arguing "homosexuality and lasciviousness are not the same thing." In the end, the jury was deadlocked with 11 finding Jennings innocent, and the chairman of the jury dissenting. The city attorney refused to continue prosecuting the case and moved for a dismissal, which the judge granted. It was the first time anyone had admitted they were homosexual and been exonerated of a vag-lewd case in California.
 

With the news of Jennings' trial making its way across the nation, Mattachine Society chapters were started in a number of cities. At their peak, 27 groups took on the name and the causes. Unfortunately, the organization collapsed after its leaders were accused of communism by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and a number of conventions failed to address the central goals of the organization: were they focused on radical political organization, or integrating the more conservative and high-minded gays into normal American society?
By the '70s, Mattachine was no more, but other movements arose to take its place: the Compton Cafeteria riots in San Francisco, the Stonewall Inn riots in New York, and the first Gay Pride Parade in June of 1970. These movements built on the society's hard-learned lessons in solidarity, self-actualization, and jurisprudence to lead the charge for future generations. Today, We're honoring the society, its successors, and the LGBTQ individuals who stood up and protested against police and state violence directed at them.

 

Image credit & copyright: Kay Tobin / New York Public Library