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Precocious · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Mankey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
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  Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
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  Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Art is an ever evolving concept. From ancient
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  Speaker 1: cave paintings to Egyptian hier glyphs and all the way
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  Speaker 1: through Impressionism, Cubism and campbell soup cans. The art world
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  Speaker 1: never stands still, but beyond the images themselves, how they're
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  Speaker 1: made has also changed. Those cave paintings were done using
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  Speaker 1: ground up minerals like ochre and charcoal. Artists like Rembrandt
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  Speaker 1: and van Gogh worked in paints made of linseed oil
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  Speaker 1: and pigments to achieve their signature looks. But in the
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  Speaker 1: fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a different material was introduced to
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  Speaker 1: the process, and by today's standards, its origin was highly
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  Speaker 1: unusual and controversial. It all started with the ancient Greeks
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  Speaker 1: and their use of a thing called bitumin. It was
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  Speaker 1: a black, viscous substance that was utilized in various applications,
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  Speaker 1: from construction to curing the common toothache. We also used
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  Speaker 1: bitumen today, but mainly for paving roads and filling in potholes,
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  Speaker 1: as bitumin is commonly known as asphalt to the Greeks, though,
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  Speaker 1: it was a miracle substance typically found seeping from the
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  Speaker 1: ground throughout Persia. One twelfth century physician, though, wrote a
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  Speaker 1: lot about ancient Egypt and a substance that he mistakenly
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  Speaker 1: believed was also bitumen. You see, he had seen the
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  Speaker 1: blackened nature of the embalmed bodies there, and he thought
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  Speaker 1: that they had been coated in it. In the event
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  Speaker 1: the natural supply, ever grew scarce, he claimed the viable
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  Speaker 1: substitute for bitumen could be harvested from these ancient Egyptian corpses.
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  Speaker 1: In reality, that black substance on them was just the
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  Speaker 1: embalming materials that had darkened over time, giving them their
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  Speaker 1: unique coloring. Persians had their own word for bitumen, which
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  Speaker 1: they called mum or mamma. This word was also found
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  Speaker 1: in Arabic, and if it sounds familiar, that's because the
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  Speaker 1: words specifically applied to the kind of bitumen that came
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  Speaker 1: from Egyptian bodies. Eventually, mamma became the term we know
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  Speaker 1: today mummy due to the widely held belief that bitumen
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  Speaker 1: had medicinal properties. Though an extensive mummy trade was established
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  Speaker 1: between Egypt and Europe, it grew quite big during the
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  Speaker 1: sixteenth century, with imported mummies being ground up into powders
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  Speaker 1: for various tinctures and the lixers. The use of mummies
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  Speaker 1: in medicine all but died out in the late seventeen hundreds,
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  Speaker 1: but many were still in circulation across Europe. Some were
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  Speaker 1: collected by the wealthy, while others were desecrated for entertainment purposes.
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  Speaker 1: Unwrapping parties even became popular, where mummified remains had their
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  Speaker 1: shrouds and wrappings removed so that the bodies inside could
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  Speaker 1: be examined by the gathered audience. But it was the
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  Speaker 1: art world that found a new way to use an
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  Speaker 1: old material, the ground up mummy. A powder that had
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  Speaker 1: been used in various medical applications was now being mixed
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  Speaker 1: in with oils and water colors to create a new
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  Speaker 1: pigment known as mummy brown. And while mummy brown did
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  Speaker 1: first appear during the sixteenth century, it really hit it big.
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  Speaker 1: A few hundred years later, artists like Edward Burne Jones
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  Speaker 1: and Martin Drolling used it in their paintings. Those who
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  Speaker 1: preferred it enjoyed how it behaved against the canvas, but
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  Speaker 1: as times changed, so did attitudes around the mummy trade.
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  Speaker 1: For one, other artists and critics found the pigments origins
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  Speaker 1: to be off putting. After all, trafficking in mummies was
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  Speaker 1: a vulgar act that disrespected the dead. Burns Jones had
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  Speaker 1: believed that the name was simply a descriptor and not
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  Speaker 1: an indication of the contents within the tube. What a
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  Speaker 1: fellow artist and member of his emily confirmed it was true,
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  Speaker 1: and the realization offended Edwards so much he went and
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  Speaker 1: buried his tube of mummy brown in his garden. Among
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  Speaker 1: those who helped with the burial was his nephew, who
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  Speaker 1: was visiting him for Christmas. Though he was a young
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  Speaker 1: man at the time, he would go on to great
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  Speaker 1: acclaim as a prominent writer in the nineteen and twenty
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  Speaker 1: centuries that young man Rudyard Kipling. In addition to the
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  Speaker 1: colors providence, the quality of the paint could also not
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  Speaker 1: be guaranteed. Not all mummies were created equally, it seems,
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  Speaker 1: and so while one tube of brown paint might be perfect,
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  Speaker 1: another might be rendered unusable. By the twentieth century, mummy
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  Speaker 1: brown was over, but mummy brown still exists today. The
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  Speaker 1: only difference now is that it's made from different minerals
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  Speaker 1: easily found in nature and not graves. Proof that sometimes
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  Speaker 1: a curious history can also be a little bit colorful.
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  Speaker 1: We don't realize it as it's happening, but our children
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  Speaker 1: grow up right before our eyes. One moment their babies
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  Speaker 1: depending on us for every diaper change and bottle feeding,
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  Speaker 1: and the next moment they're getting married and starting families
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  Speaker 1: of their own. And somewhere in between they grow, they
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  Speaker 1: develop personalities and pick up things like mannerisms and beliefs
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  Speaker 1: from the people around them, parents, teachers, siblings, friends. Everyone
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  Speaker 1: contributes something to who they become. Like Madaline. She was
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  Speaker 1: born Marie Madeleine Gera in seventy eight in a suburb
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  Speaker 1: of Montreal, Canada. Her father, Francois, was a soldier who
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  Speaker 1: arrived in town in sixteen sixty five to fight in
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  Speaker 1: the Beaver Wars against the Iroquois people. Four years later,
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  Speaker 1: he married Marie Perrault, and then moved to a plot
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  Speaker 1: of land along the St. Lawrence River, and the couple
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  Speaker 1: did well for themselves, with Francois becoming quite the landholder,
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  Speaker 1: while Marie raised a dozen children, of which Madeleine was
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  Speaker 1: the fourth oldest. Now, the Beaver Wars carried on in
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  Speaker 1: some capacity for about a hundred years, with new battles
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  Speaker 1: cropping up every now and then. The Iroquois fur trade
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  Speaker 1: had been destroyed by the Algonquins and their French backers,
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  Speaker 1: sparking a lengthy fight between the two sides. On one occasion,
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  Speaker 1: Madeleine's mother even helped stave off an attack on the
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  Speaker 1: fort where they lived, thanks to the help of four
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  Speaker 1: other soldiers. But in six two, when she was only
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  Speaker 1: fourteen years old, Madeleine was forced to step up to
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  Speaker 1: the front lines. Both her mother and her father had
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  Speaker 1: left town to attend to business and gather supplies. While
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  Speaker 1: they were gone, the children stayed back at the fort
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  Speaker 1: with several others. Meanwhile, the Iroquois had arrived in town,
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  Speaker 1: looting and setting fire to people's homes. Despite the threat,
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  Speaker 1: a few of the people from the fort set out
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  Speaker 1: into the fields to do some work, and eight soldiers
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  Speaker 1: followed for protection. Madeleine stayed close by, tending to the
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  Speaker 1: cabbage garden, and that's when the Iroquois act, capturing the
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  Speaker 1: men in the fields before heading toward the fort. Madeleine
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  Speaker 1: ran back, chased by one of the Iroquois who got
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  Speaker 1: close enough to grab the scarf around her shoulders. Thinking fast,
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  Speaker 1: she untied it and darted inside the fourth shouting to
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  Speaker 1: arms to arms. The small garrison inside wouldn't be enough
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  Speaker 1: to fend off the incoming forces, but Madaline wasn't about
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  Speaker 1: to give up. She picked up a musket and fired
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  Speaker 1: shots from different points around the fort and told others
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  Speaker 1: to do the same, and then she shot off a cannon,
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  Speaker 1: a signal to other forts that they were under attack
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  Speaker 1: and in need of reinforcements. Her goal was to make
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  Speaker 1: as much noise as possible to fool the Iroquois into
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  Speaker 1: thinking the fort was fully armed with soldiers at the ready,
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  Speaker 1: and they bought it. They hid on the outskirts of
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  Speaker 1: the trees and bushes, along with the settlers they had
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  Speaker 1: taken prisoner. Not long after, a canoe was seen drifting
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  Speaker 1: down the river toward them. On board was a family
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  Speaker 1: by the last name of Fontaine. Someone had to go
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  Speaker 1: and retrieve them before they too were taken captive, but
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  Speaker 1: none of the soldiers were willing to leave the fort,
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  Speaker 1: so fourteen year old Madeleine volunteered. She snuck out and
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  Speaker 1: helped the family get back to safety. She and her
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  Speaker 1: siblings and the others inside literally held down the fort
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  Speaker 1: over the next eight days, and then on the ninth day,
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  Speaker 1: Madeleine was greeted by a welcome sight. A group of
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  Speaker 1: forty frenchmen had arrived from Montreal to help defend them.
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  Speaker 1: She ordered the gate open and rushed out to greet them.
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  Speaker 1: To their leader, Monsieur de la Monteree. She said, Sir,
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  Speaker 1: I surrender my arms to you, and allowed him to
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  Speaker 1: take command of the fort. They managed to run off
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  Speaker 1: the attacking Iroquois as well as rescue the captured settlers,
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  Speaker 1: just as her parents were returning home. For her service,
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  Speaker 1: Madeleine received a pension for the rest of her life
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  Speaker 1: bestowed upon her by none other than the King of
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  Speaker 1: France himself, and a statue was erected in her honor
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  Speaker 1: along the river bank where she risked her life to
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  Speaker 1: help save the lives of others, lasting proof that heroes
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  Speaker 1: come in all shapes and sizes, and I'll ages too.
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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.