Each week, The Extraordinary Times catches up with leading figures on the historical scene. This week, we catch up with celebrated cultural historian and culinary explorer Dann Woellert. Dann is passionate about regional food history. He has explored local food delicacies like he explores family genealogy. While a product marketer for over 20 years, he has written about local food history for the past decade and curates a food history blog called Dann Woellert the Food Etymologist. Affiliated with the many regional historical societies, he speaks regularly at local societies and museums about food history. He is a five time recipient of the Ohioana award for literary and artistic achievement.
* How have you been getting on during the current pandemic? I have been very lucky to be able to continue my marketing job working from home. In my free time during lockdown I got another book contract with my publisher and have been writing for my blog Dann Woellert the Food Etymologist. I’ve been Zooming into local history societies’ meetings and have even done a few Zoom presentations to history organizations myself, talking about historic Cincinnati restaurants and the history of goetta. * How has being from Cincinnati shaped your sense of history? Having grown up in a German, Catholic, multigenerational Cincinnati and northern Kentucky family, I see the world through Germanic, Catholic-cultured, and Kenner Toy-colored glasses. In Cincinnati, there is a German explanation to just about anything culturally. It wasn’t till I worked and travelled outside of Cincinnati that I realized eating foods like goetta, sauerkraut, pickled herring or saying phrases like Gesundheit after someone sneezes and asking Please? if I wanted someone to repeat something, were not normal. Growing up Catholic, Fridays in the Spring, during Lent meant fish frys or fish sandwiches, and lots of tartar sauce. Being in the town of Kenner Toys meant I grew up in the capital of Star Wars figures and games. The importance of play and creating or making are part of my history. My brother even worked for Kenner Toys as an engineering intern and took the mechanics out of my sister’s Baby Alive doll to make a motor car. I still own my original Star Wars figures and Millenium Falcon, designed here in Cincinnati. I’m such a geek. * How can Cincinnati's German heritage best be appreciated today? One of the great ways to celebrate Cincinnati’s German heritage is to enjoy the variety of craft brews from the many microbreweries we have. A virtual or physical walk through the Brewery district’s Brewery Heritage Trail in Over-the-Rhine is a great way to learn our rich brewing heritage. Another way is to—when it opens back up—visit the German Heritage Museum in Monfort Heights to see some great local German American immigrant artifacts. You can even taste your way through Germanic heritage cuisine by going to one of our area’s German restaurants like Tuba Baking in Covington, Kentucky (authentic German-Swabian food), Mecklenburg Gardens in Corryville, Kreimer’s Bier Haus, and the Hofbrauhaus in Newport, KY. Or – go to one of the many restaurants that serve Goetta—like Wiedemann Brewery in St. Bernard, or Tucker’s in Over-the-Rhine. * What, in your opinion, is the Queen City's greatest culinary contribution to the world? The easy answer would be to say its Cincinnati chili, goetta, or the Cincinnati brat, but I have to say the culinary contribution that has the largest legs outside of our city is our dressing of the American double decker with tartar sauce. When the American burger took off it was dressed California style, like the McDonald’s brothers and the Wian’s of Big Boy did theirs—with a red Thousand Island like sauce. Our love for tartar sauce in Greater Cincinnati comes from our Catholic pre-Vatican II Friday meat abstaining, and our current Lenten Friday fish fries and fish sandwich culture. When David Frisch brought the Big Boy franchise to Cincinnati in the 40s, he dressed the Big Boy with tartar sauce instead of Thousand Island and our love affair with the condiment became history. * What books have you enjoyed reading in recent months? During the pandemic I’ve read:
* Skyline or Gold Star? Both, and often!! I like menu items and families of both local iconic parlors. The Dauod family of Gold Star are wonderful and have been super-generous to our local charities. The founding Lambrinides family, which no longer own Skyline, are cool too and boast a great comedic writer, Billy Lambrinides, amongst their descendants.
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Each week, The Extraordinary Times catches up with friends from the historical and cultural scene. This week, we catch up with Miami University historian Kimberly Hamlin, author of Free Thinker: Sex, Suffrage, and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener (2020). While writing her book, she received support from a National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) Public Scholar Award and the Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women and Politics. An Organization of American Historians (OAH) Distinguished Lecturer, Dr. Hamlin speaks about the history of women, gender, and sex across the United States, and publishes in a wide array of scholarly journals and public media. August 18, 2020, marks the centenary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment which guaranteed women’s voting rights, so we asked Dr. Hamlin to share her perspectives:
* What have you been up to this summer? Like so many of our colleagues, I have been working on transitioning my courses to online and hybrid models, learning new technologies, and working on my syllabi. And since my new book Free Thinker: Sex, Suffrage, and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener (W.W. Norton) came out at the start of the pandemic, I have also transitioned my book tour to online. Each week, I have been participating in various suffrage centennial events and book talks online. Though the cancellation of in-person events was disappointing, it has been great to connect with readers, other scholars, and those interested in women’s history and the history of voting rights in this new way. In some cases, the transition to virtual events has created new opportunities that would not have been possible (because of the limitations of time and money for travel) in The Before Times. * Who was Helen Hamilton Gardener, and what inspired you to write about her life? HHG, as she often signed her letters to friends, was the “fallen woman” who changed her name, reinvented herself, negotiated Congressional passage of the 19th Amendment, and then became the highest-ranking woman in federal government and a national symbol of what it meant, finally, for women to be full citizens. I was drawn to her story because it is so unusual – she created an autonomous life for herself (besides picking her own name, she supported herself and her lover financially, traveled throughout the country and the world, defied expectations for female behavior and modeled new possibilities for women) with few role models and little support. She was a truly self-made woman and she lived many lives in one. I sometimes joke that she was like the Forrest Gump of the women’s rights movement that culminated in the 19th Amendment. From the 1880s till her death in 1925, she was at all the major women’s rights events, she knew three generations of suffrage leaders, and through her life readers can glimpse a more nuanced history of the suffrage movement, one that centers both sex and race. * Tell readers about your involvement with the 19th Amendment centennial! In addition to giving lots of talks about HHG and Free Thinker, I have been working with various groups, including high school teachers and community organizations, to enhance our understanding of the suffrage movement and its relationship to American history. For example, I led a workshop for Texas high school teachers on suffrage and am doing several similar events this fall for high school and college instructors. And I am teaching a three-part Master Class on Women’s Suffrage and Women’s Rights for the Chautauqua Institution. I filmed a short video on the National American Woman Suffrage Associations’ (NAWSA) Congressional Committee for the Schlesinger Library/Radcliffe Institute at Harvard. Locally, I am on the suffrage centennial advisory committee for the Cincinnati Museum Center and am the historical consultant on a new documentary in the works, by CET and Think-TV, called “Let Ohio Women Vote.” I have also been writing a lot about the centennial, its legacy, and the history of women in politics. I have essays coming out this month in NEH Humanities, BBC History, and Smithsonian magazines, and another op-ed in the Washington Post. * Why is it important to remember the 19th Amendment this month? August 2020 marks 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment, as well as the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 15th Amendment. In 2020, we are witnessing record numbers of women running for office as well as unprecedented, in my lifetime, attacks on voting rights and voting access especially targeting people of color. So I think the suffrage centennial is vital to understanding both of these trends, one positive and the other negative. I hope that learning about the suffrage movement – its leaders, their names and stories, as well as their limitations and failures – will inspire more women to run for office and more support for the women already running. And I hope that the suffrage centennial will spark many more conversations about voting rights and inspire us to continue the work toward universal voting rights and voting access. * What might HHG have made of our own extraordinary times? One thing that I love about HHG was how modern and ahead of her times she was, so I think in many ways she would fit right in. She would have to learn about the internet and social media, but she was a natural whiz at publicity and media, so I think she would figure that out. But one thing that I think would really surprise her is the huge gulf that now exists between citizens and our elected officials. In her day, she would meet with members of Congress, and even the President, on a regular basis. She would send a letter and expect an immediate response. And it was quite normal for suffragists on the whole, beyond HHG, to request to meet with Congressmen (they were all men, with the exception of Jeannette Rankin from 1916-1918) and receive prompt, positive replies. Now, because of the huge increase in campaign spending and the role of outside, special interest money in nearly every election, Members of Congress are no longer so beholden to their actual constituents (unless you happen to be a millionaire donor or head of a large PAC). I think this is a major issue facing every modern reform movement, and I think HHG would be shocked to see how little access to Congress citizens and citizen groups now have. To my mind, campaign finance reform is the mother of all other reforms, and I think HHG – who used her personal connections to members of Congress so skillfully – would agree. * Any new projects on the go? Yes, I am in the very early stages of my third book which will be a new history of the temperance movement, centering sex, sexual assault, and sexually transmitted disease. Like the suffragists, I think that temperance advocates often get short shrift, dismissed as nagging women who wanted to shut down the party. But, in reality, I think the temperance advocates were brilliant politicians who wanted to secure bodily autonomy for women and that it might be more accurate to think of them as the #MeToo movement of the 19th century. Each week, The Extraordinary Times catches up with friends from the historical and cultural scene. This week, we catch up with Susan Spellman, Associate Professor of History at Miami University. Dr. Spellman teaches at Miami’s Hamilton campus, and holds four degrees in U.S. history: a B.A. from Kent State University, an M.A. from Miami University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University. Her research focuses on American business, capitalism, and technology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She is the author of Cornering the Market: Independent Grocers and Innovation in American Small Business (Oxford University Press, 2016), in addition to several articles on US business. She received the 2005 Russel B. Nye Award for Outstanding Article in the Journal of Popular Culture, the 2011 J. Franklin Jameson Fellowship from the American Historical Association and Library of Congress, and has held fellowships from the Harvard Business School and National Museum of American History, among others.
* We often imagine the old-fashioned corner store with nostalgia, but how were the small business owners described in Cornering the Market the innovators of their day? While the “corner store” often was a site of community sociability, it always was a place where new ideas, methods, and innovations about the grocery trade percolated. From the Civil War to the New Deal, the grocery industry underwent radical changes in the production, transportation, and selling of goods. The independent grocer was a barometer for these commercial and economic developments. Inside his shop, one could identify the latest trends in retail technology, food packaging, advertising, and distribution, as well as organizational methods. He was among the first to adopt the cash register in the 1880s and adapt it to existing business methods while pioneering new ways of interacting and engaging consumers through technology. His shelves overflowed at first with local products bought in bulk before making way for nationally branded goods sold in cans, boxes, and wrappers. The independent grocer’s ability to both move with the times and forge the path ahead helped him maintain the lion’s share of the marketplace for decades, even as fears about his possible eclipse by chain stores in the 1930s dominated national and local conversations. * As a business historian, what parallels do you find between the 1918-1919 flu and our current pandemic in the US? The lack of comprehensive economic and business data from 1918-1919 make comparisons to today's environment difficult. Historians of business cycles have identified a "cyclical downturn" during that period consistent with localized quarantine orders, but surprisingly saw a low number of business failures in the same time frame largely because wartime restrictions had begun to ease, prompting an increase in consumer demand. One researcher in 2006 attempted to make sense of the economic impact of the World War I era pandemic by looking at local newspapers to get a feel for how the influenza scare had affected local businesses. Looking at Little Rock, Arkansas, a city under quarantine orders in 1918, he found the following: • Merchants indicated a 40% decline in business, with others estimating a 70% downturn • Retail groceries reported a 33% decline in business • One department store saw a nearly 50% loss in daily trade • Bed rest was emphasized in the treatment of influenza, resulting in increased demand for beds and mattresses • Little Rock drug stores were among the only businesses reporting increased business Perhaps the only positive (if morbid) economic outcome from the 1918-1919 pandemic was a rise in wages within some industries in areas where high mortality rates reduced the workforce, creating a demand for able-bodied workers. Moreover, most indicators show that the nationwide economic effects of the pandemic were short term; by the early 1920s, the economy (driven largely by retail production and consumption) and stock markets were booming, contributing to the "Roaring '20s." Of course, at the end of that decade came the Great Depression, so let's hope history does not repeat on that front! * Will online shopping mean the death of the retail industry as we know it? The retail industry will not (and cannot die), mostly because I don't see a future where Americans will be willing to make their own goods and grow all of their own foods! Moreover, the retail industry employs more Americans than other industries. Approximately 25% of all jobs are in retail, employing some 40 million (pre-pandemic). Segments of the retail industry undoubtedly will continue to contract with the increased growth, convenience, and cost-effectiveness of online shopping. Department, drug, and specialty goods stores already face enormous competition from online outlets, with the imminent death of department stores as we know them predicted by some. The retail grocery industry, however, likely will continue to remain robust largely because of the fresh and frozen nature of foods. Delivery of groceries, a common practice and service in the 19th century, has made a comeback in recent years and currently is experiencing a significant surge with pandemic-related fears about going to the store. One long-term change that could come about as a result of the pandemic is the centralization of retail groceries into local warehouses, where customers could shop online with pick up or delivery to your door as the only options (not unlike the controversial model Amazon implemented with its acquisition of Whole Foods). This could reduce, but not entirely eliminate, the number of brick and mortar grocery stores. * Any final thoughts for our readers? There is value in being a historian during difficult (and good) times because it provides important context and perspective on the world. The 1918-1919 pandemic, while extraordinarily deadly, was short lived and (until recently) had become little more than a blip on the historical radar. Indeed, in more than twenty years of teaching US history, I never included it in my survey courses because it generally warranted only a paragraph or two in most textbooks (I will be adding it to my course this fall). While it remains difficult to grasp the enormity and impact of pandemics then and now, history has shown that in historical terms they do tend to pass quickly. While that does not ease suffering and loss in the present, for me it suggests that we might be able to move through these difficult times in short order, hopefully having learned something that will enable us to respond more effectively to such threats in the future. In the meantime, stay safe! Each week, The Extraordinary Times catches up with friends in the local community. This week, it’s our pleasure to catch up with journalist and writer Richard O Jones. After a 25-year career working for his home-town newspaper, Richard took a buy-out from the grind of daily journalism in 2013 and turned to a life of true crime. He has written two books on historical murders in the area and has an international following for his podcast True Crime Historian, where he tells weekly stories culled from vintage newspaper accounts. You can also find his articles on local history in The Hamiltonian magazine.
* How have you been keeping lately? As well as can be expected, I suppose. This pandemic put a severe crimp on my plans to unfetter myself from the bondage of real estate and travel the country in my van, hunting down murders and good regional food. I came down with symptoms of Covid-19 way back in March, and have since been parked in front of my girlfriend’s house in Pleasant Ridge (a Cincinnati neighborhood). I have been fortunate in that I have still been able to work and only missed a couple of magazine articles when the libraries were closed, so I have been able to keep busy for the most part. I have also taken up sewing, first to create storage solutions for my van, but have also started making clothes for myself. And a friend recently challenged me to learn the harmonica, so I know two songs already, “Oh, Susannah” and “Turkey In The Straw.” Oh, and I’ve also given up pants and am starting to amass a nice collection of kilts. * What draws you to the dark side when it comes to true crime? Actually, it was my love of history that drew me to true crime. After I took the buy-out from the Journal-News in 2013, I started sending out queries to write books from local history, and it was the historical crime angle that got the best response from publishers, so I ended up with two books with History Press, one of them the story of Hamilton’s convicted wife murderer and alleged serial killer Alfred Knapp (“The First Celebrity Serial Killer”), and several shorter, novella-length ebooks that I self-published as “Two-Dollar Terrors”. In doing the research for the Knapp book, I fell in love with historical newspaper writing, and started doing the True Crime Historian podcast as a way of honoring and remembering the mostly un-named writers who documented the murder stories I was encountering. Evocative headlines are like shiny objects when you’re scrolling through old newspaper articles, so there are literally hundreds of forgotten stories out there, even though they may have been national front-page news for several weeks in their day. The newspaper writing back then--my “sweet spot” is from about 1870 to about 1940--was richer, more descriptive, more narrative, and more personal than newspaper writing today. I think I would have done better back then as a journalist myself. I’m in my fifth year of True Crime Historian, and I’m confident there is quite enough material to keep me going for another five. I’m also drawn to the human tragedy inherent in these stories, and that’s what I look for when I choose a case. Every murder has a back-story as well as the story of how justice is served or not, so I like that part of it, too. Every story is an epic, cautionary tale. Basically, though, true crime is just a niche of history that I’ve been able to find a market for, though I truly enjoy digging up the old stories. * From your most optimistic perspective, what is the future of local journalism? I wish you hadn’t asked that question. Frankly, there’s not much to bolster any optimism from what I see. The Internet and social media has killed local journalism, and with all due respect to my friends and colleagues still in the business, I don’t see any hope for real journalism on a local level, which is going to have a profound, negative effect on our social structures and institutions. Without getting into the politics of it, it already shows. Local governments are getting away with murder, sometimes literally, because they can carry on without anyone watching them. There’s a perception now that information is free, and people seem to only want to pay for information that bolsters their own view of the world. When I left the newspaper, I floated two projects, one to provide a truly local, home-grown source of news and information, and the other involving historical murders. No one wanted to pay me to do journalism, so murder won out. * What's on your bookshelf these days? Other than magazines and news, my choice of reading material has been purely escapist and veering toward the apocalyptic since the pandemic. I’ve been going through Stephen King’s Dark Tower series again and revisiting some of Kurt Vonnegut’s novels. A couple of years ago, when I told a friend that I’d been through just about everything Stephen King has written, some of it twice, she suggested Dean Koontz, so I’ve been working my way through his rather large canon. On the non-fiction side of the apocalypse, I’ve recently enjoyed reading Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. I have also been digging into my family tree and reading books related to that. In the spring, I read Benjamin Woolly’s Savage Kingdom: The True Story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America as I visited the ruins in Jamestown. In fact, I was there when I started getting the symptoms of Covid-19. * What new projects are you working on? My free-lance work and my podcast work keeps me pretty busy, but I’ve been reworking some of my favorite podcast episodes to turn into a book of true crime short stories, and I have hopes of turning my magazine articles on Hamilton’s Prohibition era into a book on the Little Chicago Gangster Wars. I have also recently started a second podcast, Catastrophic Calamities, in the same vein as True Crime Historian but focusing on disasters rather than murders. I also have an old project that I want to pick up again. Actually, it was my research on the 1975 Ruppert murders that got me started on this true crime career, but the book I wrote has not yet been published. I just haven’t found the right partnership to make that happen, but I’ve got a draft of the manuscript and a nice collection of photos to go with. I may end up self-publishing it, just to get it out there, but I don’t have the capital at the moment. |
AuthorMatthew Smith, PhD (History). Public Programs at Miami University Regionals. Historian of Appalachia, the Ohio Valley, & the early American republic. Archives
February 2024
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