History Detectives

Sideshow Babies - A Colorado woman has a silver baby cup engraved "Patricia - 1933. A Century of Progress Chicago." She hopes this 1933 Chicago World's Fair souvenir can unlock the mystery of her mother's unusual start in life. Family lore holds that the Chicago Public Health Board took premature Patricia from her shoebox cradle at home and put her in an incubator at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Why were babies exhibited at the fair? HISTORY DETECTIVES host Elyse Luray learns about the forgotten doctor who brought life-saving incubator technology to the United States at the turn of the 20th century. Lubin Photos - A contributor from Branford, Florida, inherited two bulging photo albums, dated 1914 to 1916, that contain hundreds of photos of old silent film stars and a behind-the-scenes look into an enormous film studio empire - not in Hollywood, but Philadelphia. She received the albums from a distant relative, Herbie Lubin. One of the books holds many Western scenes, including a cowboy character captioned "Herbert Lubin." Other captions refer to the Siegmund Lubin Studios. Who was Siegmund Lubin? And was Herbie a movie star? HISTORY DETECTIVES host Tukufu Zuberi takes viewers on an excursion through an early movie mogul's dramatic rise and fall. Navajo Rug - At auction, a contributor bought a rug whose woven designs intrigued him. A Southwest American history buff, he's fascinated by the rug's central figure of a man with a feathered head holding lightning bolts. He believes the figure was never meant to be captured by a loom. Did the weaver violate a taboo? Who wove the rug? HISTORY DETECTIVES guest host Eduardo Pagan meets with a Navajo medicine man and a traditional Navajo weaver and travels to Crownpoint, New Mexico, long considered the center of Navajo weaving. Finally, HISTORY DETECTIVES visits a textile historian to find out who may have been behind this controversial design.

Episode Duration: 56 minutes and 46 seconds

Episode Number: 704

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About History Detectives:

HISTORY DETECTIVES returns to explore the stories behind historic sites, artifacts and tall tales told in cities across the country, with the help of an inquisitive team of fact-finders with an uncanny talent for uncovering the truth.