Hagley History Hangout

Hagley Museum and Library

4.6 (9)
Education
Updated Semimonthly

Podcast by Hagley Museum and Library

6d ago

Susquehanna Steam: Three Centuries of Speculation in Northeastern Pennsylvania with Nancy Campbell

From the 1750s to the present day, Salem Township in northeastern Pennsylvania has been a site of financial speculation and the social changes it sets in motion. In her latest book project, Dr. Nancy Campbell, professor of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, uncovers the many superimposed layers of speculation and extraction that have left Salem Township with a complex series of social legacies and infrastructures. From land wars and coal mines, to nuclear plants and data centers, Campbell traces three centuries of speculation in one small location. In support of her research Dr. Campbell received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.
Jul 6

Credit to the Nation: Jewish Immigrant Bankers in American Finance 1873-1930 with Rebecca Kobrin

In this episode of the Hagley History Hangout, Roger Horowitz interviews Rebecca Kobrin about her new book, Credit to the Nation: Eastern European Jewish Immigrant Bankers and American Finance 1873-1930. From the publisher: "What are immigrants to do when business opportunities abound in their new home, but banks refuse essential financial support? How could they make the journey in the first place without helping hands? In this lively history, Rebecca Kobrin chronicles the turn-of-the-twentieth-century Jewish immigrants who stepped up by doing the lending themselves. Arriving from the Russian Empire and settling primarily in New York, they made livelihoods by assisting fellow Jews so they could purchase passage to the United States and, after arriving, obtain credit that other lenders would not dare provide. "Credit to the Nation traces the novel practices of bankers who not only enabled the flourishing of American Jewry but also revolutionized the US financial industry. Drawing on previously unexamined archival materials in Russian, Yiddish, German, and English, Kobrin tells a story that is also crucial to the history of New York, as immigrant bankers’ financing of real estate transformed wide swathes of the city. Lenders drove a boom in the prices of tenement buildings, but heavy speculation eventually precipitated the downfall of immigrant banking. Kobrin notes in particular the case of the Bank of United States—a private lender catering primarily to Jewish businessmen—which the Federal Reserve refused to bail out from bankruptcy in 1930. "Immigrants’ grasping for credit, and the rise and fall of immigrant banks, gave way to a contemporary banking industry that, ironically, refuses credit to today’s immigrants. Kobrin reminds us that now, as before, the denial of credit pushes entrepreneurial Americans into unregulated money-lending and the trap of endless debt." For more Hagley History Hangouts, and information on the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library, visit us online at hagley.org. To make a donation underwriting this program and others like it please visit our donations page: https://host.nxt.blackbaud.com/donor-form/?svcid=tcs&formId=c2f4e3f6-2d8a-4251-9a8b-cfdea1fe0e4a&envid=p-wYaPX570-EiMzBCsCu8rSg&zone=usa
Jun 20

Awash: Sensation, Infiltration, and the Bather in Queer and Trans Art with Jay Buchanan

Images of bathers have recurred in art through the ages, and their depictions tell us something about attitudes toward human bodies, sex, gender, cleanliness, and much more. In his dissertation research, art historian Jay Buchanan, PhD candidate at Washington University in St. Louis, analyses images of bathers in bathtubs, swimming pools, beaches, and bathhouses to understand the changing cultural valence of bathing relevant to its sensual and sexual dimensions. Buchanan used several collections in the Hagley Library, including Ernst Dichter, Fingerman, William Pahlmann, and more, to recreate the material culture of bathing and swimming in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century United States. In support of his research, Buchanan received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information, and more Hagley History Hangouts, please visit us at hagley.org.
Jun 8

Menace of Prosperity: NYC's Struggle for Economic Development 1865-1981 with Daniel Wortel-London

Does a strong economy serve the interests of the few or the many? The policy pendulum has swung in either direction over the long term. In his new book, The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development, 1865-1981, Dr. Daniel Wortel-London, visiting assistant professor at Bard College, explores the debates over economic development strategies that raged in New York City over more than a century. Punctuated by fiscal crises, the history is one of competing claims on city resources, and more keenly, competing ideas of what policies best serve the city and its people. In support of his work, Wortel-London received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org. To make a donation underwriting this program and others like it please visit our Eventbrite page: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/underwriting-donation-tickets-1470779985529?aff=oddtdtcreator
May 25

International Geophysics in the Interwar Period, 1919-1939 with Erik Isberg

Geophysics, or the study of Earth using the tools and methods of physics, is often understood to have begun in the post-WWII period. However, the period between the world wars saw ferment and innovation in the field, and the emergence of the term geophysics itself. In his latest research, Dr. Erik Isberg, postdoctoral researcher at the KTH Institute of Technology and the University of Copenhagen, uncovers the emergence of geophysics as a science and an international industry during the interwar period. Using the Sun oil collection held in the Hagley Library, Isberg found that intense basic research between the wars laid the foundation for the postwar revolutions in how we view and govern our world. In support of his work, Isberg received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org. To make a donation underwriting this program and others like it please visit our Eventbrite page: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/underwriting-donation-tickets-1470779985529?aff=oddtdtcreator
May 10

Postindustrial Heritagization: Serra do Navio, Brazil and Bethlehem, PA with Julia Silva de Medeiros

What happens when industrial towns lose their defining industries? How do the remaining communities and infrastructures find meaning and a future among the postindustrial remains. The key often lies in heritagization, the process by which certain aspects of the past are identified, preserved, and presented as heritage. In her dissertation research, Julia Silva de Medeiros, associate researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, compares the postindustrial heritagization processes in Serra do Navio, Brazil and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, both of which once had major metallurgical industries, mining manganese and making steel respectively. Silva de Medeiros shows that the values prevailing among decision makers get embedded in the heritage passed down to future generations. In support of her work Silva de Medeiros received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org. To make a donation underwriting this program and others like it please visit our Eventbrite page: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/underwriting-donation-tickets-1470779985529?aff=oddtdtcreator
Apr 27

Gilded Age Entrepreneur: The Curious Life of American Financier Albert Benton Pullman with Simon Cordery

Iowa State University historian Simon Cordery talks about his recently published biography of Albert Pullman with Hagley’s Ben Spohn. From the publisher: “Simon Cordery's Gilded Age Entrepreneur illuminates the fascinating and chaotic business world of Albert Pullman. The influential but little-known older brother of George Pullman and the craftsman of the family, Albert designed the first luxurious Pullman railroad cars and hosted promotional trips to show them off. In those heady early days, he met national business and political leaders and hired the first Pullman porters. “Albert and George made a formidable team, but as the Pullman Company grew, Albert's role shrank. He turned to his own investment portfolio, often with disastrous results. Beginning with the industrial laundry that cleaned sleeping-car linens, Albert appeared before the Supreme Court after a catastrophic insurance investment, ran afoul of federal banking regulations, and failed in an attempt to corner wheat futures. With evermore unsuccessful speculations, Albert was tempted by extralegal land sales and entered the silver-mining game. Finally, his own family in crisis and his relationship with George shattered, Albert Pullman launched into one last round of adventurous investments with mixed results. “Gilded Age Entrepreneur demonstrates that Albert Pullman embodied the small-time investors who were legion after the Civil War. From banking and insurance to manufacturing and mining, a host of hopeful dreamers like Albert Pullman fueled the circulation of capital by forging political connections, creating and losing businesses, issuing shares, and longing for profit.” For more Hagley History Hangouts, and more information on the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library, visit us online at hagley.org.
Apr 13

IBM and Third World Modernities with André Dao

The overtly intimate relationship between tech industry leaders and politicians is on frequent display in newspapers and on screens today. In an international context, this builds on a long history of corporate involvement in shaping favorable policy. In his latest research, André Dao, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Melbourne, traces the long history of IBM and its predecessor the Tabulator Machine Company, as actors on the international stage, especially with respect to countries in the Global South. Using multiple collections held in the Hagley Library, Dao reveals a potential revolution amongst Third World countries vying to control multinational corporations and to foster their own computer industries, that was met and reversed by a counter revolution led by major Western firms and their institutional allies. In support of his work, Dr. Dao received finding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library. For more information and more Hagley History Hangouts visit hagley.org. To make a donation underwriting this program and others like it please visit our Eventbrite page: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/underwriting-donation-tickets-1470779985529?aff=oddtdtcreator

4.6

out of 5

9 Ratings

Deep Archive of Episodes

10/01/2021

Hist Listener

So many fascinating subjects covered by experts in a very accessible style.

Podcast by Hagley Museum and Library

Creator

Hagley Museum and Library
Years Active

2016 - 2026
Episodes

225
Rating

Clean
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Hagley History Hangout

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