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The Shawl · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
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  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Dr Thornwell Jacobs was a
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  Speaker 1: key figure in the life of Atlanta's Oglethorpe University. The
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  Speaker 1: school actually predates him, dating all the way back to
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  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty five, but the Civil War managed to close
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  Speaker 1: the place down for a number of years. It reopened
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy, but went bankrupt just two years later.
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  Speaker 1: For a very long while after that, it seemed the
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  Speaker 1: old college would never come back. But that's where Dr
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  Speaker 1: Jacobs entered the picture. In en he managed to get
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  Speaker 1: a new charter for the school, and two years after
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  Speaker 1: that it opened its doors to the public. It was
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  Speaker 1: a fitting accomplishment for Jacobs too, since his own grandfather
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  Speaker 1: had served on the faculty their years before poetic even
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  Speaker 1: Jacobs was an interesting man. For example, shortly after the
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  Speaker 1: school reopened, he dreamed up the unusual plan to travel
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  Speaker 1: to England and bring back the body of the man
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  Speaker 1: who founded Georgia and who the university was named after,
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  Speaker 1: British General James Oglethorpe. It turns out that after establishing
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  Speaker 1: the colony in what is now Savannah, the general returned
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  Speaker 1: to England, where he passed away in sevent Jacobs had
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  Speaker 1: this dream of burying Oglethorpe beneath the university, so he
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  Speaker 1: traveled to England to locate the general's tomb, which had
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  Speaker 1: been lost to time. Like a real life Indiana Jones,
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  Speaker 1: Jacobs found it and after digging down into it, he
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  Speaker 1: had himself lowered in just to verify his discovery. After that,
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  Speaker 1: he put in his request to have the body moved
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  Speaker 1: back across the Atlantic, and it was declined. Jacob certainly
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  Speaker 1: had a fascination with buried objects. When Ringling Brothers donated
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  Speaker 1: several dead elephants to the university, they first dissected them
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  Speaker 1: and then had them buried under the wilton Er Library.
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  Speaker 1: But that wasn't the weirdest thing Jacob's oversaw. No. His
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  Speaker 1: crowning achievement came a few years earlier, in the late
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  Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, when he started plans for something that had
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  Speaker 1: never been done before. Troubled by the lack of well
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  Speaker 1: preserved artifacts from human history, he set about making sure
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  Speaker 1: future generations wouldn't feel the same about our modern world.
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  Speaker 1: In the basement of Phoebe Hearst Hall, where an old
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  Speaker 1: swimming pool once sat, he began construction of a large chamber.
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  Speaker 1: His design called for a space measuring twenty ft long
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  Speaker 1: by ten feet wide, which would sit on a foundation
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  Speaker 1: of solid granite bedrock. Then the floor and walls were
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  Speaker 1: covered in plates of enameled porcelain and waterproofed with pitch.
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  Speaker 1: It was a massive project with exacting specifications, but that's
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  Speaker 1: because Jacobs had a very particular vision. When it was
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  Speaker 1: completed three years later, the room was filled with a
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  Speaker 1: huge assortment of objects that represented the world of nineteen
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  Speaker 1: forties America. There are micro film records of more than
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  Speaker 1: eight hundred books on every subject known to mankind, voice
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  Speaker 1: recordings of prominent individuals, including Stalin Hitler and a champion
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  Speaker 1: hog collar. I'll let you make your assumptions about that one.
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  Speaker 1: They put hundreds of other objects in there as well,
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  Speaker 1: a television, various pieces of furniture, sewing machines, artwork, even seeds,
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  Speaker 1: but nothing precious or theft worthy. In fact, jewelry wasn't allowed,
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  Speaker 1: or precious metals of any kind. It was a collection
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  Speaker 1: of easy, attainable, everyday objects. And then it was sealed.
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  Speaker 1: They had a massive stainless steel door set into the
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  Speaker 1: wall of the chamber, closed it tight, and then well,
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  Speaker 1: did it shut. Jacobs called it the Crypt of Civilization,
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  Speaker 1: but you and I would probably think of it as
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  Speaker 1: a time capsule. It was, in fact the first of
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  Speaker 1: its kind. Did it work well? Nearly eighty years later?
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  Speaker 1: No one knows. Everything could have rusted into piles of
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  Speaker 1: scrap by now, or it all might be as pristine
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  Speaker 1: as the day they sealed it. We'll never know, though,
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  Speaker 1: because this time capsule isn't one of those one year
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  Speaker 1: projects or something designed to be opened on a significant
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  Speaker 1: national or local anniversary. No, Jacobs had a much bigger
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  Speaker 1: target in mind when he had it built. The Crypt
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  Speaker 1: of Civilization won't be opened for another six thousand, nine years.
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  Speaker 1: I hope your patient. It seems we've got a lot
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  Speaker 1: of waiting to do. Dr Silas Weir Mitchell was an
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  Speaker 1: American physician with a career that straddled the Civil War
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  Speaker 1: and the decades beyond it. During his lifetime, he was
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  Speaker 1: known for his focus on what they called nervous disease,
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  Speaker 1: what we would refer to today as neurological disorders. Basically,
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  Speaker 1: if it had to do with the nervous system, he
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  Speaker 1: took care of it. But that's not all he pioneered.
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  Speaker 1: We've all bumped into his discoveries and ideas in our
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  Speaker 1: modern world. The concept known as the phantom limb. That
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  Speaker 1: was a Mitchell discovery. Headaches being caused by excessive eyestrain,
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  Speaker 1: that was Mitchell too. The idea of bed rest yep.
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  Speaker 1: Mitchell again. He had an intuitive understanding of medicine that
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  Speaker 1: transcended the textbook and moved right into everyday life, and
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  Speaker 1: people respected him for that. But one of his most
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  Speaker 1: memorable encounters happened after office hours. As the story goes,
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  Speaker 1: Dr Mitchell had come home after a long day of work,
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  Speaker 1: had himself a bit of food, and then sat down
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  Speaker 1: in front of the fire to read before bed. It
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  Speaker 1: was one of those quiet winter nights where the snow
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  Speaker 1: is falling in every sound seems to be muffled by it.
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  Speaker 1: I imagine. It didn't take long for his exhaustion to
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  Speaker 1: catch up with him, and before long he was sleeping
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  Speaker 1: right there in his chair. It was his doorbell that
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  Speaker 1: ended the brief nap, though Dr Mitchell found his way
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  Speaker 1: to the door and opened it to find a young
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  Speaker 1: girl standing in the snow. She was thin and pale,
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  Speaker 1: and had nothing warmer on than a well worn shawl
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  Speaker 1: pulled around her narrow shoulders. Without pausing, the girl motioned
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  Speaker 1: towards the street. My mother, she said, she's not well.
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  Speaker 1: Can you come and help her? Please? Before Mitchell could answer,
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  Speaker 1: the girl was off, heading down the steps of his
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  Speaker 1: house and into the snow covered streets of Philadelphia. Mitchell
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  Speaker 1: grabbed his coat and bag and quickly followed her. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: it was the excitement of the moment, or perhaps it
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  Speaker 1: was just the chill of the winter air, but all
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  Speaker 1: of a sudden he no longer felt tired. She led
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  Speaker 1: him to a worn down tenement house, up a set
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  Speaker 1: of stairs, and then through the maze like hallways to
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  Speaker 1: her own door. Inside, Mitchell was greeted by a familiar face,
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  Speaker 1: the girl's mother, it turned out, was a former housekeeper
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  Speaker 1: of his, although she was in much worse health than
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  Speaker 1: he had ever seen her before. Feeling a sense of urgency,
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  Speaker 1: Mitchell got to work Soon enough. He determined that the
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  Speaker 1: woman was suffering from pneumonia and found the necessary medication
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  Speaker 1: to administer. After rounding the critical corner, Mitchell sat back
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  Speaker 1: with relief, lad for a break, but also glad for
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  Speaker 1: the girl's quick timing. So he said as much, letting
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  Speaker 1: the woman know her daughter most likely saved her life.
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  Speaker 1: That can't be, she replied, My daughter died more than
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  Speaker 1: a month ago. Shocked, Mitchell described the girl who had
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  Speaker 1: led him there and the tattered shawl she had worn
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  Speaker 1: against the winter chill. The woman nodded in recognition. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: she replied, that sounds like my daughter. But her things
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  Speaker 1: are all put away over there in that cupboard, and
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  Speaker 1: she pointed to a small cabinet in the room. Mitchell
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  Speaker 1: approached it and then slowly opened the door. Inside he
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  Speaker 1: found a small pair of shoes and a perfectly folded shawl.
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  Speaker 1: The fabric was very worn, with carefully mended holes and
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  Speaker 1: faded colors, but it was also dry and warm. Confused,
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  Speaker 1: the good doctor quickly looked in the other rooms of
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  Speaker 1: the home, lancing around for the familiar face. Try as
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  Speaker 1: he might, he wasn't able to find her, the mysterious
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  Speaker 1: girl who had guided him to the woman's rescue. That night,
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  Speaker 1: It was no longer in the house. She was gone.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
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  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.