The Slow Invention of Spray Paint
The possible contenders for the title of inventor of spray paint were actually working across decades. And really, all those people contributed pieces of the story. Research: Abplanalp, R.H. “Valve mechanism for dispensing gases and liquids under pressure.” U.S. Patent Office. March 17, 1953. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/e2/65/be/710e864cf870d8/US2631814.pdf “About Binks.” https://binks.com/about-us/ Andreassen, Dag. “The world's first spray can?” Teknismuseum. Nov. 6, 2024. https://www.tekniskmuseum.no/en/stories/spray-can “Atomizer.” Smithsonian National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_721925 Baisya, Pramila. “A Brief History of Spray Paint.” UP Magazine. https://upmag.com/a-brief-history-of-spray-paint/ Bancroft, Hubert Howe. “The book of the fair; an historical and descriptive presentation of the world's science, art, and industry, as viewed through the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893.” The Bancroft Co. 1893. https://archive.org/details/bookfair1banca/page/68/mode/2up Bellis, Mary. "The History of Aerosol Spray Cans." ThoughtCo, May. 11, 2025, thoughtco.com/history-of-aerosol-spray-cans-1991231 “Boss of the Year Secretary Speaker in Sycamore.” The Sycamore Tribune. April 29, 1960. https://www.newspapers.com/image/898198730/?match=1&terms=Edward%20H.%20Seymour “Definitions of “Aerosol Product” and Related Terms in Various Federal and State Regulations, Standards and Codes.” National Institute od Standards and Technology. February 2012. https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/pml/wmd/Definitions-of-Aerosol-Product.pdf “DeVilbiss Atomizers.” Wood Library Museum of Anesthesiology. https://www.woodlibrarymuseum.org/museum/devilbiss-atomizers/ “Francis Davis Millet and Millet family papers, 1858-1984, bulk 1858-1955.” Smithsonian. https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/francis-davis-millet-and-millet-family-papers-9048/biographical-note Greenbaum, Hillary and Dana Rubinstein. “The Origin of Spray Paint.” New York Times magazine. Nov. 4, 2011. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/magazine/who-made-spray-paint.html Haberkorn, Stephen. “Seymour of Sycamore: Aerosol Paint Inventor Still Mass Producing.” The Daily Chronicle. May 31, 2014. https://www.newspapers.com/image/183344909/?match=1&terms=%22Nancy%20Seymour%20Heatley%22 Linden, Chris. “The 1893 Columbian Exposition: Remembering Chicago’s White City.” Northwest Quarterly. Dec. 10, 2012. https://northwestchicagoland.northwestquarterly.com/2012/12/10/the-1893-columbian-exposition-remembering-chicagos-white-city/ “Oslo, Home of the Spray Can.” Oslo Science Park. Sept. 24, 2024. https://www.forskningsparken.no/en/news/2024-oslo-home-of-the-spray-can “A Patent on a Rattle in a Can.” The Lemont Herald. May 22, 1952. https://www.newspapers.com/image/700713398/?match=1&terms=%22Edward%20H.%20Seymour%22 Rotheim, Erik. “METHOD AND MEANS FOR THE ATOMIZING OR IDISTRIBUTION OF LIQUID OR SEMI-LIQUID MATERIALS.” United States Patent Office. April 7, 1931. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/f5/fb/c3/05208e6542c01c/US1800156.pdf Seymour, E.H. “HERMETICALLY SEALED PACKAGE FOR MIXING AND DISCHARGING ” Dec. 25, 1951. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/c0/4b/45/2677a2b12e2430/US2580132.pdf “Seymour Man Develops New Spray Device.” The Daily Chronicle. May 27, 1952. https://www.newspapers.com/image/126585367/?match=1&terms=%22Edward%20H.%20Seymour%22 “Summary of the Clean Air Act.” EPA. https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-air-act See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
25 Aug 35min
SYMHC Classics: Eunice Newton Foote
This 2021 episode covers Eunice Newton Foote, who became the first person to make a connection between the Earth’s temperature and the concentration of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere in 1856. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
23 Aug 39min
Behind the Scenes Minis: Estevan and Fury
Tracy discusses the concept of race as it has and hasn't existed in European history. Both Tracy and Holly share their frustration and fury about the Buck v. Bell story. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
22 Aug 22min
Buck v. Bell
Buck v. Bell is the 1927 SCOTUS decision that upheld the constitutionality of laws allowing involuntary sterilization of people deemed to be “unfit.” Most of these laws have been repealed, but Buck v. Bell has never been directly overturned. Research: "Buck v. Bell." Gale Encyclopedia of American Law, edited by Michael J. Tyrkus and Carol A. Schwartz, 4th ed., vol. 2, Gale, 2022, pp. 174-177. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX8276200650/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=84626437. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025. “BUCK v. BELL, Superintendent of State Colony Epileptics and Feeble Minded.” https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/274/200 Brosnahan, Cori. “Finding Carrie Buck.” American Experience. 11/2/2018. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/eugenics-finding-carrie-buck/ Circuit Court of Amherst County. "Judgment Against Carrie Buck (April 13, 1925)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 06 Aug. 2025 https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/judgment-against-carrie-buck-april-13-1925/ Derrig, Collin. “Buck v. Bell in the Aftermath of Dobbs v. Jackson: The Supreme Court’s Opportunity to Correct a Hundred-Year-Old Injustice.” University of Cincinnati Law Review Blog. 6/17/2025. https://uclawreview.org/2025/06/17/buck-v-bell-in-the-aftermath-of-dobbs-v-jackson-the-supreme-courts-opportunity-to-correct-a-hundred-year-old-injustice/ Disability Justice. “The Right to Self-Determination: Freedom from Involuntary Sterilization.” https://disabilityjustice.org/right-to-self-determination-freedom-from-involuntary-sterilization/ Dobbs, J.T.. "Petition to Commit Carrie Buck (January 23, 1924)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 06 Aug. 2025 https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/petition-to-commit-carrie-buck-january-23-1924/ Fair, Alexandra. “The Sterilization of Carrie Buck.” OSU.edu. https://origins.osu.edu/read/sterilization-carrie-buck General Assembly. "An ACT to define feeble-mindedness (1916)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 06 Aug. 2025. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/an-act-to-define-feeble-mindedness-1916/ General Assembly. "Chapter 46B of the Code of Virginia § 1095h–m (1924)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 06 Aug. 2025. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/chapter-46b-of-the-code-of-virginia-%c2%a7-1095h-m-1924/ Harris, Jasmine E. “Why Buck v. Bell Still Matters.” The Petrie-Flom Center. 10/14/2020. https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2020/10/14/why-buck-v-bell-still-matters/ Larson, Edward J. “Putting Buck v. Bell in Scientific and Historical Context: A Response to Victoria Nourse.” Pepperdine University. 12/15/2011. https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1353&context=plr Lombardo, Paul A. "Facing Carrie Buck. (essay)." The Hastings Center Report, vol. 33, no. 2, Mar.-Apr. 2003, pp. 14+. Gale OneFile: Business, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A101259980/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=46aca03c. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025. Lombardo, Paul A. "Involuntary sterilization in Virginia: from Buck v. Bell to Poe v. Lynchburg." Developments in Mental Health Law, vol. 3, no. 3, July-Sept. 1983, pp. 13+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A235104880/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=aad8cdbf. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025. Lombardo, Paul. “In the Letters of an ‘Imbecile,’ the Sham, and Shame, of Eugenics.’ Undark. 10/4/2017. https://undark.org/2017/10/04/carrie-buck-letters-eugenics/ Oberman, Michelle. “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Buck v. Bell: Thoughts Occasioned by Paul Lombardo’s Three Generations, No Imbeciles.” Journal of Legal Education, Volume 59, Number 3 (February 2010). https://jle.aals.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1268&context=home Smith, J., and Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "Carrie Buck (1906–1983)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 06 Aug. 2025. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/buck-carrie-1906-1983/ Thompson, Philip. “Silent Protest: A Catholic Justice Dissents in Buck v. Bell.” The Catholic Lawyer. Vol. 43, No. 1, spring 2004. https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/tcl/vol43/iss1/ Wolfe, Brendan. "Buck v. Bell (1927)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (12 Feb. 2021). Web. 06 Aug. 2025 https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/buck-v-bell-1927/ Lombardo, Paul A. “Carrie Buck’s Pedigree.” J Lab Clin Med 2001;138:278-82. doi:10.1067/mlc.2001.118091 Lombardo, Paul A. “Three Generations, No Imbeciles.” Johns Hopkins University Press. 2008. Gould, Stephen J. “Carrie Buck's Daughter.” Constitutional Commentary. 1015. 1985. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/concomm/1015 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
20 Aug 43min
Estevanico, aka Mustapha al-Azemmour
Estevanico was a translator and guide, and was probably the first person of any race from outside the Americas to enter what’s now Arizona and New Mexico – which happened in 1539. Research: Birzer, Dedra McDonald and J.M.H. Clark. “Esteban Dorantes.” Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade. Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation. https://enslaved.org/fullStory/16-23-92882/ Birzer, Dedra McDonald. "Esteban." Oxford African American Studies Center. May 31, 2013. Oxford University Press. Date of access 30 Jul. 2025, https://oxfordaasc.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-34375 Chipman, Donald E. and Robert S. Wedd. “How Historical Myths Are Born...... And Why They Seldom Die.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly , January, 2013. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24388345 Clark, J.M.H. "Esteban the African ‘Estebanico’." Oxford African American Studies Center. May 31, 2017. Oxford University Press. Date of access 30 Jul. 2025, https://oxfordaasc.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-73900 Docter, Mary. “Enriched by Otherness: The Transformational Journey of Cabeza de Vaca.” Christianity and Literature , Autumn 2008, Vol. 58, No. 1. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44313875 "Estevanico (1500-1539)." Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale, 1998. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A148426031/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=41f83344. Accessed 28 July 2025. Flint, Richard. “Dorantes, Esteban de.” New Mexico Office of the State Historian. Via archive.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20110728080635/http://www.newmexicohistory.org/filedetails.php?fileID=464 Gordon, Richard A. “Following Estevanico: The Influential Presence of an African Slave in Sixteenth-century New World Historiography.” Colonial Latin American Review Vol. 15, No. 2, December 2006. Gordon-Reed, Annette. “Estebanico’ s America.” The Atlantic. June 2021. Herrick, Dennis. “Esteban.” University of New Mexico Press. 2018. Project MUSE. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/60233. Ilahiane, Hsain. “Estevan de Dorantes, Estevanico: The First Moroccan and African Explorer of the American Southwest.” Southwest Center. Via YouTube. 2/21/2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLm0BsFDfvk Ilahiane, Hsain. “Estevan De Dorantes, the Moor or the Slave? The other Moroccan explorer of New Spain.” The Journal of North African Studies, 5:3, 1-14, DOI: 10.1080/13629380008718401 Ladd, Edmund J. “Zuni on the Day the Men in Metal Arrived.” From The Coronado Expedition to Tierra Nueva. Shirley Cushing Flint and Richard Flint, eds. University Press of Colorado. 2004. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/3827 Logan, Rayford. “Estevanico, Negro Discoverer of the Southwest: A Critical Reexamination.” Phylon (1940-1956), Vol. 1, No. 4 (4th Qtr., 1940). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/272298 Sando, Joe S. “Pueblo nations: eight centuries of Pueblo Indian history.” Santa Fe, N.M. : Clear Light. 1992. Shields, E. Thomson. "Esteban." Oxford African American Studies Center. December 01, 2006. Oxford University Press. Date of access 30 Jul. 2025, https://oxfordaasc-com.proxy.bostonathenaeum.org/view/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-17021 Simour, Lhoussain. “(De)slaving history: Mostafa al-Azemmouri, the sixteenth-century Moroccan captive in the tale of conquest.” European Review of History—Revue europe´enne d’histoire, 2013 Vol. 20, No. 3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13507486.2012.745830 Smith, Cassander L. “Beyond the Mediation: Esteban, Cabeza de Vaca's ‘Relación’ , and a Narrative Negotiation.” Early American Literature , 2012, Vol. 47, No. 2. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41705661 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
18 Aug 42min
SYMHC Classics: Prison Breaks
This 2022 episode covers six highly ingenious and low-violence prison breaks from history. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
16 Aug 35min
Behind the Scenes Minis: Learned Women and Sharkey
Tracy shares a funny confusion about Unitarians and the University of Utrecht she kept having during research. Holly talks about how often escape stories to claim the escaper was never heard from again, even if that's not true.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
15 Aug 18min
William J. Sharkey’s Not-so-great Escape
William J. Sharkey was a pickpocket, a con man, a politician, and a murderer, though whether or not that murder was an accident became the question at the center of a case that gripped New York for months. And then, he vanished. Sort of. Research: “An Assassin’s Career.” New York Times. March 22, 1875. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1875/03/22/91671169.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 Asbury, Herbert. “The Escape of William J. Sharkey.” The New Yorker. Feb. 27, 1931. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1931/03/07/and the-escape-of-william-j-sharkey “Criminal’s Chances.” New-York Tribune. Nov. 20, 1873. https://www.newspapers.com/image/85393879/?match=1&terms=William%20J.%20Sharkey “The Death Penalty.” The New York Times. July 4, 1873. https://www.newspapers.com/image/20559978/?match=1&terms=William%20J.%20Sharkey The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Boss Tweed". Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 May. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Boss-Tweed “The Escaped Murderer.” The Sun. Feb. 24, 1875. https://www.newspapers.com/image/51905732/?match=1&terms=maggie%20jourdan “Found Guilty.” New York Times. June 22, 1873. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1873/06/22/90527758.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 “Last Days of the Tombs.” New-York Tribune. May 23, 1897. https://www.newspapers.com/image/78349840/?match=1&terms=%22william%20j.%20sharkey%22 “Maggie Jourdan Bailed.” New York Daily Herald. Jan. 4, 1874. “The Murder Record: The Dunn Murder.” New York Times. June 20, 1873. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1873/06/20/90526851.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 “Scanlan, the Actor, Dead.” The Sun. Feb. 20, 1898. https://www.newspapers.com/image/79111299/?match=1&terms=%22william%20j.%20sharkey%22 “The Sharkey Case.” The New York Times. July 25, 1873. https://www.newspapers.com/image/20561956/?match=1&terms=William%20J.%20Sharkey%20%22writ%20of%20error%22 “Sharkey Is Still Alive.” The Evening World. March 6, 1900. https://www.newspapers.com/image/50555426/?match=1&terms=%22william%20j.%20sharkey%22 “Sharkey’s Escape.” New York Times. Nov. 20, 1873. https://www.newspapers.com/image/20503882/?match=1&terms=maggie%20jourdan “Trial of William J. Sharkey … “ New York Daily Herald. June 21, 1873. https://www.newspapers.com/image/329612596/?match=1&terms=William%20J.%20Sharkey “Why Is the Manhattan House of Detention Called the Tombs?” The New York Historical. https://www.nyhistory.org/community/manhattan-house-of-detention “Wm. J. Sharkey’s Escape.” The Sun. June 23, 1879. https://www.newspapers.com/image/78200292/?match=1&terms=maggie%20jourdan See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
13 Aug 33min
