Good morning, and this is a list of some of the documentaries that were featured on the blog for March 2024.

Nefertiti: Where is Her Mummy? - YouTube (46:36)
Nefertiti was one of Egypt’s most famous queens.  She was renowned for her beauty.  However, the whereabouts of her mummy remains unknown.  There have been potential candidates for the Nefertiti mummy.  What can modern research do to shed light on this enduring mystery?  Was the mummy of Queen Nefertiti really discovered?  Or should Egyptologists continue to search for the mummy?  Will the Nefertiti mummy ever be found?  *Recommend for research purposes.*

The Beautiful Nefertiti: Who Owns Her - YouTube (42:25)
The Berlin Museum houses the bust of the famous Queen Nefertiti.  It is the museum’s biggest attraction.  However, there are questions about who really owns the bust.  The Egyptians miss having the bust in their possession.  Since 1924, both France and Egypt have been challenging Germany for ownership.  The Nefertiti bust was ancient Egypt’s best know discovery, so who really does own the bust?  Art historian Benedicte Savoy explores the ownership question.  *NOT RECOMMENDED FOR A HISTORY CLASS.*

Traces of Cleopatra - YouTube (50:29)
A group of scholars comes together to investigate new evidence that is emerging about the life of Cleopatra.  This investigation combines new techniques and technology to explore the mystery of Cleopatra.  Cleopatra was Egypt’s last ruler before it fell to Rome.  Who really was Cleopatra?  Where were her origins?  How did she come to power?  How did she exert her power?  Where was she buried?  *NOT RECOMMENDED for a history class.*

The Lake District - YouTube (42:57)
The Lake District is where Beatrix Potter, a children’s author found her inspiration.  Our hosts will explore this area as well as tell a tale of Beatrix Potter.  She not only was a children’s author she was also a savvy businesswoman who enjoyed living in the Lake District.  She would become an outspoken advocate for the Lake District.  On this trip as well, Oz Clarke meets a team at the Plant Conservation Center.  Jon Culshaw also explores the Snowshill Manor.  *Not recommended for a history class, has potential for an English Literature class and Plant and Animal Science class.*

The Brilliant Bronte Sisters - YouTube (46:49)
Shelia Hancock is an actress and writer who has been fascinated by the Bronte Sisters.  She seeks to answer her questions: “How did three spinsters write the most shocking books?”  Hancock begins her journey in Haworth and the moors that would have inspired Emily Bronte.  Her quest takes her to Brussels where Charlotte Bronte developed her writing style.  Then she ends her journey in Scarborough and learns more about Anne Bronte.  Along the way, she meets with the leading voices of the Brontës as well as the artists who continued to be inspired by the Brontës.   *Recommended for an English Class, please pair with Tony Robinson's Walking Through History episode about the Brontes.*

Calamity Jane: The Legend of the West - YouTube (52:42)
The west was a vast plain that was inhabited by the First Nations.  However, these lands would become invaded when gold was discovered.  Thousands of pioneers went out west to make a new life.  It was here that Calamity Jane found herself.  She was the first legendary woman of the West.  She had plays written about her.  She was the most famous woman in America and a living legend.  A peak in South Dakota was named for her.  New York depicted her as the Queen of the Plains.  Who was the real woman behind the legend?  *Excellent for research purposes.*

Citizen - YouTube (56:46)
Women for a time were considered the property of their husbands.  Women were not even allowed to own property or have custody of their children.  Women wanted to be considered citizens of this nation and fully participate in the decisions of the nation.  They wanted to have the right to vote.  This documentary looks at a variety of activists such as Gertrude Bonnin and Nellie Griswold Francis.  These women worked for the right to vote.  *Recommended for a local high school history class.*

Christabel and Sylvia: A Tale of Two Sisters - YouTube (43:51)
It was one of the biggest political changes in the Twentieth Century: women gaining the right to vote.  It had taken decades of successive governments before women obtained the right to vote.  The Pankhurst Family fought hard for the right to vote.  They campaigned in public and were militant suffragettes.  They would have many encounters with law enforcement.  However, behind the scenes, there were some serious tensions in the family which would lead to one member being expelled from the suffragette movement.  *Recommended for a history classroom and for research purposes.*

Emmeline Pankhurst: Making of a Militant - YouTube (51:20)
Emmeline Pankhurst led the suffrage movement in Britain.  Under her, an army of women took to the streets of Britain to demand the right to vote.  They acted at the time, contrary to what was expected of women at the time.  Sally Lindsay an actress takes a look at the life of Emmeline Pankhurst.  She takes a rare look at the woman whose personal loves and losses transformed her from a working-class woman into a militant activist.  Who was the real Emmeline Pankhurst?  *Recommended for a history classroom and for research purposes.  Can easily be mined for clips as well.*

The Secrets of a Suffragette - YouTube (46:52)
Emily Davison was a British suffragette who protested for women’s right to vote.  She stepped into history by stepping into the path of the King’s horse at the 1913 Derby.  She was fatally injured.  Claire Balding explores Emily Davison’s story.  Growing up she was told that Emily threw herself in front of the King’s horse and that it was the end of it.  However, Claire was to investigate the real story behind this episode in British History.  *Recommended for a history classroom and for research purposes.*

Amelia: A Tale of Two Sisters - YouTube (44:02)
Society was changing and men were now taking to the skies in airplanes.  Women were demanding more rights and were finding achievements in aeronautics.  One such woman was Amelia Earhart.  Earhart was attracted to aviation and through determination and hard work, she would become the most famous aviator at the time.  She would inspire female aviators in future generations.  Her sister Muriel would not only champion her sister Amelia but would keep Amelia’s legacy alive.  To this day, people are still looking to solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance.  *Recommended for both a history class and for research.*

A Tale of Two Sisters: Diana and Jessica Mitford - YouTube (44:25)
Jessica and Diana Mitford were two aristocratic young women who were part of the famous Mitford family.  There were four other sisters in the family and the sisters were fiercely competitive.  Jessica and Diana were separated by only a few years but they had wildly different political views.  Jessica would become a communist and Diana was a fascist.  Europe was divided at the beginning of the 20th Century and was full of political tension and citizens were forced to decide what political views they wanted to adopt.  This is the story of the two sisters and their political beliefs.  *Recommended for both a history class and for research.*

Stalin's Daughter - YouTube (52:13)
Svetlana Alliluyeva was Josef Stalin’s daughter and in the midst of the Cold War, she fled to the United States through India.  Her defection was a bombshell and sent shockwaves through the Soviet authorities.  While in the United States, she became a media rockstar.  Her arrival in New York was a sensation. However, she finds that she still cannot escape her father’s shadow.  How did this young woman become the most famous defector?  What drove this woman to defect to the United States?  *Recommended for both research purposes and for a history classroom.*

A Tale of Two Sisters: Jackie - YouTube (44:30)
Jackie Kennedy and Lee Radziwill were sisters who had a complicated relationship.  One sister would marry a future president and would become known for her impeccable style.  She would regularly appear on the front pages of magazines.  However, with all this success there was suffering.  The other sister was younger and would provide great support for the older sister.  Their lives were intertwined.  However, beneath the surface, there was a great rivalry.  *Recommended for research purposes.*

Outlier: The Story of Katherine Johnson - YouTube (54:12)
Katherine Johnson was an African American girl-wonder who was a mathematical genius.  She loved mathematics and would count the steps going into church.  Her genius helped catapult astronauts into space.  She was an integral part of NASA and was profiled in the movie “Hidden Figures.”  Her computations were important to the first missions to space.  Who was this woman?  Why did she have such an impact on history?  This documentary features an interview with Katherine Johnson.  *HIGHLY Recommended for a history and math class.*

The Women of Iran Let Their Hair Down - YouTube (51:56)
Masih Alinejad is an Iranian-born journalist who lives in New York City.  She fights against the compulsory wearing of the headscarf in Iran.  She is the most prominent critic of the regime in Iran.  She is also under threat because there was an assassination attempt on her life.  She has called on women in Iran to film themselves taking off the headscarf.  She publishes the videos she receives and has more than seven million followers on social media.  This film follows Masih’s story. *Recommended for older high school students.*

Good morning, March is winding down and now I am going to look at a documentary on Jackie Kennedy and her sister Lee Radziwill.  The run time for this documentary is 44:30 and is called Jackie: A Tale of Two Sisters.

Jackie Kennedy and Lee Radziwill were sisters who had a complicated relationship.  One sister would marry a future president and would become known for her impeccable style.  She would regularly appear on the front pages of magazines.  However, with all this success there was suffering.  The other sister was younger and would provide great support for the older sister.  Their lives were intertwined.  However, beneath the surface, there was a great rivalry.

Jackie Bouvier was born in the Upper Class of American Society.  Four years later she was joined by her younger Lee.  They grew up going to the best schools, vacationing in the Hamptons, and riding horses.  One historian likens Jackie’s and Lee’s upbringing to growing up aristocratic in the English Countryside.  However, competition between the sisters was fierce and Lee found herself overshadowed by Jackie.  Jackie and Lee were incredibly close with their father, and they both gained their sense of style from their father.  However, their parents’ marriage was imploding and their mother would sue their father for a divorce.

Her mother would eventually remarry and this new marriage was a challenge for the sisters.  They were the outsiders to their mother’s new family.  It would have been a challenging time for the sisters indeed.  Eventually, the sisters had to turn their own thoughts to marriage.  They were expected to marry well and to marry a man with real money.  Their mother was determined for her daughters to marry well.  Lee was considered the prettier of the sister and would marry Michael Canfield.  Jackie was taking her time in searching for a husband.

Jackie had her views on marriage and she would eventually go into photojournalism in Washington DC.  She had a natural curiosity and enjoyed the job.  Her family was despairing over whether or not Jackie would marry.  Eventually, Jackie would meet John F. Kennedy.  Both saw in each other someone they could not be bored with.  Jackie was a woman with brains and Joe Kennedy liked her.  Eventually, the pair would marry.  Their wedding would be the society wedding of the year.

Lee was becoming increasingly unhappy with her marriage choice.  She and Michael Canfield moved to London and had a full society calendar.  Eventually, she would meet with Prince Stanislaw Radziwill, a Polish aristocrat.  His old-world charm would sway her and they would eventually marry.  Jackie would face her own difficulties with marriage to John.  Kennedy was a man who enjoyed the company of women, and Jackie knew what was going on but took the approach that as long as he came back to her and her children she would turn a blind eye.

While Lee embarked on a life in London with Prince Radizwill, Jackie helped her husband win the presidency.  John F. Kennedy would win the presidency and Jackie’s world would change.  She knew her history well, and the challenge of the White House was a daunting challenge.  However, Jackie would take on the challenge brilliantly.  While Jackie’s star was soring, Lee’s marriage was suffering.  Eventually, Prince Stanislaw and Lee would divorce.

Things would change for both women when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.  The assassination sent shockwaves around the world.  Lee would fly to Washington to be at Jackie’s side.  The grief of the nation fell on her shoulders and she would hold the country together during this time.  Jackie struggled to recover from what she witnessed.  Lee tried to comfort Jackie the best she could.  However, it was Bobby Kennedy that would be the biggest help to Jackie.  How would Lee react to these changes?  How would Jackie navigate a life without John Kennedy?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more about Jackie and Lee.

This was a fascinating look at the lives of Jackie and Lee Bouvier.  The pacing of this documentary was good and oh wow, the historians’ contributions were very well done.  Over all this would be a good documentary for research purposes and not to be shown in a history class.

Good morning, now I am going to look at a documentary on Josef Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva.  The run time for this documentary is 52:13 and it is called Stalin’s Daughter.

Svetlana Alliluyeva was Josef Stalin’s daughter and in the midst of the Cold War, she fled to the United States through India.  Her defection was a bombshell and sent shockwaves through the Soviet authorities.  While in the United States, she became a media rockstar.  Her arrival in New York was a sensation. However, she finds that she still cannot escape her father’s shadow.  How did this young woman become the most famous defector?  What drove this woman to defect to the United States?

Svetlana Alliluyeva’s story begins in New Delhi.  A young woman entered the American Embassy and announced that she was Stalin’s daughter.  She was asking for political asylum.  Nobody really believed her and so she was brought to the United States with a CIA agent.  Everyone thought that she was a KGB plant.  However, the reality was very different.

This documentary leads off with a discussion on Joseph Stalin the man, and this discussion is led by his grandson.  The interview was very good and I appreciated that the grandson gave his time for this documentary.  Then there is a transition to Lenin and his death and how Stalin rose to power in the Soviet Union.  Lenin had warned the party leaders about Lenin’s ambitions.  As the leaders gathered around Lenin’s coffin the struggle for party leadership would begin.  Stalin’s second wife’s mother was key to the rise of Stalin.  She was Lenin’s secretary.

Then the documentary airs shows interviews with Svetlana Alliluyeva and she talks about her childhood.  Letters from Joseph Stalin to her daughter were discovered in the archives.  Their relationship was tender.  There was one letter where Svetlana orders her father to take her to the movie theater and Stalin agrees.  This is a stark contrast to the man history knows him as.  Svetlana’s mother would go back to school and would introduce Nikita Khrushchev to Stalin.  Joseph Stalin rules the Soviet Union with an iron fist.  He is determined to force collectivism in agriculture.  Millions die as a result of these policies.

Stalin’s wife, because she was going to school knew that the people were starving.  When she questioned her husband about what was going on he was furious.  Her personality would change and many people would notice that he looked very depressed and that there was fear in her eyes.  Then the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Communist Revolution came about.  Joseph Stalin was slightly drunk and was throwing things at his wife.  At the end of the night, his wife was dead.  The events surrounding her death are a mystery and her official cause of death was a “ruptured appendix.”  His wife’s death would change Stalin for the worse.

The documentary then transitions to an interview with a playmate of Stalin’s children.  He talks about the fear that Joseph Stalin inspired.  His father was in Stalin’s inner circle and his father often would say “You never knew what would happen after a dinner at Joseph Stalin.”  However, he was an affectionate father to Svetlana and would often write her little leaders.  It is here that a granddaughter of one of the Soviet writers: Maxim Gorky.  She was the best friends with Svetlana and she would have witnessed the rare occasion when Joseph Stalin was an affectionate father.  She also remembers the shudders she felt while dining with Joseph Stalin.  To learn more about Svetlana and the lead-up to her defection to the United States tune into the rest of the documentary.

This documentary did a really good job in laying out Joseph Stalin’s background and the interviewees were very well done and thoughtful with their answers.  You can see why Svetlana would eventually defect to the United States because of the climate of fear and intimidation around her father.  She was told her mother died from a ruptured appendix instead of being shot by her father.  Overall, this documentary was a very eye-opening look at Joseph Stalin and his daughter and it perhaps should have been a longer documentary.  This would be very good for research purposes and for history classes.

Good morning, once again we are exploring the Bronte Sisters as I am winding down March 2024.  This time we are getting the perspective of Shelia Hancock who has been long fascinated by the Bronte sisters.  The documentary is called The Brilliant Bronte Sisters and has a run time of 46:46.

Shelia Hancock is an actress and writer who has been fascinated by the Bronte Sisters.  She seeks to answer her questions: “How did three spinsters write the most shocking books?”  Hancock begins her journey in Haworth and the moors that would have inspired Emily Bronte.  Her quest takes her to Brussels where Charlotte Bronte developed her writing style.  Then she ends her journey in Scarborough and learns more about Anne Bronte.  Along the way, she meets with the leading voices of the Brontës as well as the artists who continued to be inspired by the Brontës.

Shelia kicks off the documentary with her love for Wuthering Heights, how she loved the movies, and how she would run wild on the moors.  However, as she grew up she dug a little bit deeper into Wuthering Heights and looks at how the item was a dark look at the human romance.  Then this transitions into a discussion on both Jane Eyre and Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Shelia goes to the parsonage where the Bronte Sisters grew up.  Patrick Bronte took on a parish with his wife and six young children.  Patrick was a man who pulled himself up by his bootstraps and made his way through the world.  Unfortunately, two of the Brontes passed away as well as Mrs. Bronte, leaving Patrick to raise four children on his own.  Emily, Ann, Charlotte, and Bramwell were raised in the parsonage and Patrick would encourage their creativity.  They all showed potential as artists, however, storytelling was their great passion.

While Patrick prepared his sermons, upstairs, the children allowed their imaginations to run wild.  They were inspired by a gift of twelve soldiers.  It was with these soldiers they would create their imaginary world.  They would act out plays with their soldiers and create adventures for their soldiers.  Like Tony, Shelia examines the magazines that were created by the Bronte siblings.  These small magazines are very impressive, I cannot believe that the children could write that small.  I find it impossible to write that small myself!  Bramwell and Charlotte collaborated on these initial stories and created their own world.  Anne and Emily, not to be outdone by Charlotte and Bramwell, created their own world as well.  Emily sneakily created an entry for her fantasy world and put it in a geography textbook!

From these stories, Shelia then explores the Brontës as individual women.  She kicks off this exploration with a look at Emily and her exploration of the moors in Wuthering Heights.  Shelia parallels Emily’s own love of the moors with Cathy’s obsession with Heathcliffe.  Even today, Wuthering Heights continues to inspire.  Shelia takes in a ballet rehearsal inspired by Wuthering Heights.  She talks with the company that is performing the ballet.  Emily was only twenty-seven when she completed Wuthering Heights.

Charlotte and Anne were inspired by moors as well.  Charlotte was ambitious and wanted fame.  Unfortunately at the time, Charlotte could only secure a position as a teacher instead of the writing career she wanted.  Charlotte was ambitious and driven and hated teaching and the students she had under her care.  However, Charlotte, Anne, and Emily would hatch a new plan.  They would set up their own school.  Charlotte would set off for Brussels to improve her French.  It was this trip that would change Charlotte’s life.  She met the love of her life and was so deeply unhappy with the relationship that she went to a catholic priest to confess the relationship.  Would Charlotte be able to complete her ambitions?  What about Anne’s ambitions?  Will the Brontës ever be published?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out!

I find Shelia a delightful narrator, and she shows a genuine curiosity about her subjects.  I like that she moved beyond the parsonage to places where the Brontës went.  Shelia tells the story of the Brontës very well.  This would be a good documentary to show to an English class, I would also pair it with Tony’s Walking Through History episode on the Brontës.

Good morning, I am going through a documentary about women’s voting rights done by the Twin Cities PBS station.  The run time for this documentary is 56:46 it is called Citizen.

Women for a time were considered the property of their husbands.  Women were not even allowed to own property or have custody of their children.  Women wanted to be considered citizens of this nation and fully participate in the decisions of the nation.  They wanted to have the right to vote.  This documentary looks at a variety of activists such as Gertrude Bonnin and Nellie Griswold Francis.  These women worked for the right to vote.

This documentary kicks off with a look at a voting machine that was built in 1909.  In all likelihood, this voting machine is the last of its kind.  It was set up to only allow women to vote for school board and library board positions.  Next, it transitions to a college student setting up a table to talk about voting and getting students out to vote in the upcoming primary election.  It then transitions into a discussion on the 1870s and how women did not have the right to own property.  Widows had more rights, while wives could be subject to the whims of their husbands.  Women own property and voting was unthinkable.

Mary Wollstonecraft seems to have been considered the mother of women’s right to vote.  She wrote about how women should vote in the 19th Century.  The documentaries then transition into talking about the abolition movement and how women became involved in the Slavery Abolition Vote.  Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott emerged from this movement and decided to argue for women’s right to vote. 

In Minnesota, Harriett Bishop and Jane Gray were early women’s rights advocates.  The pioneers would have carved a life out of tough circumstances.  Women pioneers were especially tough and had to learn self-reliance, independence, and self-determination.  Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton would eventually recognize the early efforts and ladies behind women’s rights in Minnesota.  Women in Minnesota were active in advocating the right to vote.  Sarah Berger Stearns was one such woman and in Michigan would help push the University of Michigan to admit women into the college.  She and her husband would eventually settle in Minnesota.  Women in Minnesota not only worked on the right to vote but were out in the community working on other issues.

Julie B. Nelson was another women’s rights advocate in Minnesota.  She believed that women should be empowered and not be bound to the home. She came from Connecticut and settled in Minnesota when she was fifteen years old.  She was a university education and had a teaching degree.  She lost her husband due to illness.  Eventually, she would move south with a missionary group to teach African American students.

The women’s temperance movement also arose during this period.  Women were concerned about husbands going out and drinking excessively.  In the minds of some women, a drunk husband could come home and beat their wife.  A group of women would frame their argument for the right to vote as a way to protect the home.  They also argued for the right to vote on school boards because they wanted the best opportunities for their children.  Minnesota would put this question to the test and the women gained the right to vote in school boards.  It was a small stepping stone in gaining women’s right to vote.  How else would women advocate for the right to vote?  To learn more about how Minnesota advocated for women’s rights tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

I was a little bit nervous about this documentary because the description did not mention any of the better-known players in gaining the right to vote.  However, as the documentary progressed big names like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were mentioned.  There were a variety of women mentioned from different backgrounds in this documentary.  The pacing of this documentary was good and the narration was very well done.  It provided a picture of the fight for women’s right to vote in Minnesota very well.  This would be good for a local history class rather than a general American history class.

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening whenever you are reading this blog post and planning.  This documentary just popped up on my feed and I am going to do a second documentary on Queen Nefertiti.  This one is going to talk about the bust of Queen Nefertiti it is called The Beautiful Nefertiti: Who Owns Her and has a run time of 42:52.

The Berlin Museum houses the bust of the famous Queen Nefertiti.  It is the museum’s biggest attraction.  However, there are questions about who really owns the bust.  The Egyptians miss having the bust in their possession.  Since 1924, both France and Egypt have been challenging Germany for ownership.  The Nefertiti bust was ancient Egypt’s best know discovery, so who really does own the bust?  Art historian Benedicte Savoy explores the ownership question.

Benedicte Savoy begins her exploration of the Nefertiti busts in Amarna where the bust was discovered.  She wants to explore the story behind the discovery of the Nefertiti bust.  In 1912, the bust of Queen Nefertiti was discovered by Ludwig Borchardt.  He brought it straight to Berlin where it remains to this day.  During the early 1900s, archeologists worked quickly to discover Ancient Egyptian history.  It has never made an appearance in Egypt since its discovery other than copies of the bust.  This bust has been the subject of man disputes for decades. 

The mummy of Queen Nefertiti has never been discovered, so the bust is a glance at how the beautiful queen looked.  An unfinished bust of the late queen is on display in the Egyptian Museum.  However, it is always compared to the Berlin Nefertiti bust.  There are many Egyptians who long to see the Nefertiti bust back in Egypt.  Sabah Abdel Razik, the director of the Egyptian Museum in Cario talks about the Nefertiti bust and her wish for the bust to come back to Egypt.

Berlin is the next stop on this question of who owns the Nefertiti bust.  Prussian kings established a museum area and filled it with treasures from around the world.  The Nefertiti bust is the biggest draw to the Berlin Museum.  So far there have been no official demands for the return of the bust.  Egyptian ambassadors recognize that the bust is the best ambassador for Egypt and use the museum as a reception space.

The bust was created 3,000 years ago out of limestone.  The bust was covered in plaster and painted.  How did this bust end up in the Berlin Museum?  Benedicte Savoy explores the relations and their role in how museums gathered their collections.  Savoy goes to the place where the Nefertiti bust was discovered and to the exact room where the bust was discovered.  It was here that I was looking for a quick little discussion on the debate over the authenticity of the bust.  However, it is here that there is a look at the documents about the discovery of the Nefertiti bust.

Ludwig Borchardt knew what he had discovered and was going to find any way to get her back to Germany for display.  There were laws in place that meant any finds that were discovered needed to be divided up equally for display.  The bust was found in what would have been considered a sculpture workshop.  It was found among other busts in this room.  Savoy continues to explore the partnership between France and Germany and the exploration of Ancient Egypt.  Who really owns the Nefertiti bust?  Tune into the rest of this documentary to discover more about the debate.

I would have appreciated hearing more about Queen Nefertiti herself as well as the bust.  It would have provided additional context to the story of the bust.  It should have been made clearer as to the context in which the bust was discovered.  I would have skipped talking about the impact of the Arab Spring.  Perhaps this documentary should have been made longer to add that context.  I was waiting for Kara to make an appearance in the documentary, and when she did not I was left disappointed.  This would be one documentary to skip showing to a history class and I would not even bother to use this for research purposes.

Now for something different as part of my exploration of women’s history.  This is a documentary on the Bronte Sisters part of Tony Robinson’s Walking Through History Series.  I am going to go through this series over the summer, but since it is Women’s History Month a Tony exploring the life of the Bronte sisters would make an excellent addition to the blogs for March.  The run time for this episode is 47:03 and is called Bronte Country.

Tony Robinson does a four-day tour of the West Yorkshire Moors.  It is there that he will be exploring the lives of the Bronte sisters.  This is a place known as Bronte Country and provided the legendary Bronte Sisters with inspiration for their writing.  Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte were born on these moors amongst the mills.  It was here they would produce literary classics such as “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights.”  Their lives and their early deaths left an impact on West Yorkshire.

Tony kicks off this episode with an exploration of the Bronte Sisters and tours the old wool exchange.  It is currently a bookshop and Tony picks up a copy of Jane Eyre.  He talks about the writing style of the Bronte Sisters, although he finds the writing style of the sisters a bit challenging.  Both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are known worldwide and have been translated into every known language and have been made into movies.  Tony will tour the country and explore the inspiration behind these novels.

The first stop on Tony’s journey is the Bronte Home.  Thornton kicks off the tour, where a curate was making a home with his wife.  Mr. Bronte had brought his wife and two daughters to Thornton to take over the parish.  The house where the Bronte sisters were born is now a coffee shop.  Mr. Bronte complained that it was poorly built and not very convenient, but it would be a happy home for the Brontës.  After taking in the ambiance of the coffee shop, Tony moves on to Haworth House.

Patrick Bronte, the Bronte family patriarch took on a larger parish.  A larger parish meant a larger house and the family moved to Haworth House.  It is here that Tony gets his first taste of the Moors.  Today, like yesteryear the moors are still a tough place to live.  Tony tours the church and the parish home.  The new Bronte home would have overlooked the graveyard.  He tours the graveyard with the current curate of the church.  Although beautiful now, when Bronte took over the parish the church was in rough shape.

Life would have been tough for the Bronte Family.  Haworth was one of the unhealthiest places to live.  Forty percent of the kids never reached their fifth birthday.  The previous curate performed 1,000 baptisms per year but never saw an increase in the parish population.  The average life expectancy was twenty-five years.  A year after the Brontës’ move, Mrs. Bronte passed away and then two daughters passed away after contracting tuberculous.  Patrick would then raise the other children at home which forged a bond between the survivors.

Tony explores the lives of the Bronte siblings growing up in this house.  The Brontës were highly imaginative.  They created their own fantasy world and they would chronicle their world through tiny magazines.  Tony is allowed to handle the tiny magazines and this was a very nice touch in this episode.  They wrote parodies and poetry.  Charlotte and Bramwell were in charge of their world and chronicled the Glass Town very carefully.  The Bronte children had extraordinary imaginations and loved storytelling and writing.

Tony then looks forward to his walk across the moors a place that would have continued to fuel the imaginations of the Bronte family.  How did their storytelling evolve?  Would they manage to break through with their writing?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more about the Brilliant Bronte Family.

This would be a very appropriate episode for an English literature class because of the emphasis on the Bronte family.  Tony is a delight when it comes to his narration of the Bronte family and I would hope that he would do something beyond Walking Through History about the Bronte Family.  I highly recommend teachers you add this documentary to your watch list.

Good morning, I am going to be looking at a documentary on Katherine Johnson, whom was a girl wonder when it came to math.  She was the genius behind the first space flights for the United States.  The documentary is called Outlier: The Story of Katherine Johnson and the run time for this documentary is 54:12.

Katherine Johnson was an African American girl-wonder who was a mathematical genius.  She loved mathematics and would count the steps going into church.  Her genius helped catapult astronauts into space.  She was an integral part of NASA and was profiled in the movie “Hidden Figures.”  Her computations were important to the first missions to space.  Who was this woman?  Why did she have such an impact on history?  This documentary features an interview with Katherine Johnson.

Everything in mathematics has a solution, either you are right or wrong.   The introduction to Katherine Johnson’s story is awesome, it really sets the pace for the documentary about her.  She was born in West Virginia and her father encouraged her love of math and the love of learning.  She was the youngest of four children.  Katherine enjoyed math and loved going outside with her brothers.  She was always prepared to defend herself against bullies.

Katherine was ten when she was ready for high school.  However, schools were segregated and so to go to high school was a challenge.  Her family would move so she and her siblings could go to high school and earn high school diplomas.  Katherine would have grown up in the Great Depression.  The farm income was not enough to send four children to high school.  Her father would get a job at an exclusive resort.  Katherine would work at this resort on school break.  Katherine was cleaning a room with a French woman.  She understood the conversation and as a result, someone was able to help her out with learning French.

Eventually, she would go to college and graduate with two degrees.  One of those degrees was in French.  In college she would encounter a math professor, Dr. Schieffelin Clayton and he was a mathematical genius himself.  She took every single math class that the college was offered and so new classes needed to be created and Dr. Schieffelin Clayton was the one to do it.  He also encouraged her to go into math research.  Career opportunities for Katherine would have been limited and she became a teacher.  She made the class interesting for her students.

She would eventually get married to James Goble and she married him in secret.  Married women at the time would quit their jobs at the time of their marriage.  Even after her marriage she continued to work and continued her education.  She enrolled in a master’s program.  Eventually, she discovered that she was pregnant so she would quit graduate school and her teaching job.  Katherine would go back to teaching when the rules were relaxed when it came to married women teaching.

Eventually, Katherine would apply for a government job in Hampton Roads Virginia.  The job required her to do research to help assist in improving airplane efficiency.  At the facility, there was a wind tunnel that would test a variety of airplanes.  There was a lot of data that was created during these tests and this data needed to be interpreted.  The government would hire computers, people who were good at data interpretation and condensing that data down.  These people would be a resource for the government to further aeronautics research.  Katherine passed all the tests when she applied for the job and would eventually get a job with this government program.  What would Katherine do with this job?  Where would this job take her?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more about Katherine Johnson.

The interviews with Katherine and her daughters were very good.  I enjoyed listening to stories from her former students as well.  The documentary was very well-paced and I enjoyed the narrator.  This documentary featured a good deal of information on Katherine Johnson.  It was also excellent in talking about the space race.  Overall, this would be a documentary that I would show to a history class room and I would show this to a math classroom as well.

Good morning, now I am going to look at a documentary on Emily Davison.  She was a Suffragette who lost her life fighting for the right to vote.  She would go down in history as the woman who threw herself in front of the King’s horse.  The run time for this documentary is 46:52 and is called Claire Balding’s Secrets of a Suffragette.

Emily Davison was a British suffragette who protested for women’s right to vote.  She stepped into history by stepping into the path of the King’s horse at the 1913 Derby.  She was fatally injured.  Claire Balding explores Emily Davison’s story.  Growing up she was told that Emily threw herself in front of the King’s horse and that it was the end of it.  However, Claire was to investigate the real story behind this episode in British History.

Claire kicks off Emily’s story by looking at the video of the incident. She explores the lead-up to this incident even showing the train ticket Emily had in her pocket at the time of her death.  What were Emily’s motives?  Why would she throw herself in front of the King’s horse?  The footage still shocks even today as forensic video examiner looks over the film.  The commentary on the film was very well done.  The examination of the film continues.  The latest in technology is being employed to help learn what happened.

Claire moves on to look at horse racing itself to separate fact from fiction when it comes to Emily’s protest.  She meets up with her father and other members of her family to learn if Emily would be able to deliberately target the King’s horse.  The Balding Family has been involved with horse racing for decades and her father trained a Derby winner.  Her father Ian Balding said that it was not possible for Emily to grab a horse to stop it.  She may have seen the king’s colors but not the horse itself.  There was also no evidence that she intended on killing herself either.  This was a very cool section to watch and I rather liked Claire’s interactions with her family.

Emily Davison went to school and went to a school founded with the express purpose of educating women.  She went to this school but was forced to leave because her father died.  However, she continued to learn on her own and was able to get credentials.  Suffragette women would have gone to school and Emily would have encountered these women during her short stay at this school.  Claire then touches on the Pankhurst family and their impact on the women’s suffrage movement in the United Kingdom.

The Pankhurst’s were advocates of militancy and direct action when it came to gaining the right to vote.  Emily Davison was attracted to this action and joined the suffragettes in 1906.  The women would have bombed and burned their way in order to get the right to vote.  Claire is shocked by the violence.  Emily would have been arrested for storming the House of Commons.  Eventually, it seemed that the women would get the right to vote and the Pankhursts suspended their militancy.  However, it was a ruse and the bill was not brought to the floor of Parliament.  Parliament would have been Emily’s target for this failure and she would have been suspended from Parliament twice.  Claire is taken into the bowls of the Palace of Westminster to learn about the extent of Emily’s protest. 

Suffragette militancy was eventually seen as a threat to society and so Claire explores the files that were kept on the suffragettes.  The contents shock Claire as she learns that the government beefed up the special branch and started surveying the suffragettes.  What do these files contain?  What else does Claire learn about Emily Davison?  Continue to follow this documentary to find out.

I was brought back to an episode of Manor House when I saw this documentary pop up.  One of the episodes mentioned Emily’s protest and death.  Claire’s investigation into Emily’s death was very thoughtful and I found her narration witty at times.  The forensic examination of the video footage was very well done as well.  Over all, this would be a good documentary to show in a high school and college class.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this blog post.  Today I am looking at a documentary about the Mitford Sisters.  Particularly this documentary is about two sisters: Jessica and Diana.  The run time for this documentary is 44:25 and is part of the Tale of Two Sisters series.  This documentary is called A Tale of Two Sisters: Diana and Jessica Mitford. 

Jessica and Diana Mitford were two aristocratic young women who were part of the famous Mitford family.  There were four other sisters in the family and the sisters were fiercely competitive.  Jessica and Diana were separated by only a few years but they had wildly different political views.  Jessica would become a communist and Diana was a fascist.  Europe was divided at the beginning of the 20th Century and was full of political tension and citizens were forced to decide what political views they wanted to adopt.  This is the story of the two sisters and their political beliefs.

The Mitfords were an aristocratic family in England.  There were six sisters and one brother.  Their names were Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah.  They were the most famous sisters in all of England.  They were witty, beautiful, and eccentric.  The sisters were primarily home schooled and were highly competitive with each other.  They each sought out their own identities leading to many clashes in the family.  Their world was isolated in a house in the countryside.  They grew up in a changing world.  One historian describes them as feral.

The family did not have great wealth, and so the family constantly sold off land and houses.  Eventually, they settled in a house in the country.  Growing up Jessica idolized Diana.  The girls were home schooled and were not sent to a public school.  Often times their schooling was piecemeal.  From time to time, they were taught by governesses, however for the most part they were self-educated.  They were fiercely intelligent and had the run of the library.  Jessica wanted to go to school like the other children, but it was forbidden.  This would hint at future rebellions.

Diana in the meantime wanted to leave home and she was considered a society beauty.  She would eventually marry Bryan Guinness.  He was handsome, intelligent, and wealthy.  He adored her and they would eventually marry.  They would have two children together.  Unfortunately, Diana would discover her husband was quite boring.  She would grow bored with this marriage and realize that the world was much bigger than she imagined.  However, this marriage would fall apart when she met Oswald Mosley.  He was the leader of the British Fascists.  Mosley was a stark contrast to Guinness, and she gave up everything to follow Mosley.  This affair would stun the Mitford family.

Jessica would follow a different path.  She was disturbed by the raging unemployment and thought Britain was going downhill.  Her idolization of Diana would end and she would turn against Diana and her sister Unity.  Unity would become obsessed with the Nazis as well.  Unity would move to Germany and would often stalk Hitler in the restaurants he frequented.  She charmed the dictator and she was invited to many different occasions.  Diana would eventually come over and the pair would go to Germany together.  Unity was Hitler’s close companion and she was ingrained in the Nazi Party.  Jessica was repulsed by Unity and Diana’s action.  She would elope with Esmond Romilly in Spain to participate in the Spanish Civil War.  Romilly would fight on the side of the revolutionaries during the Spanish Civil War.  What would Jessica face in the Spanish Civil War?  What would prompt her to move to the United States?  Would the sisters ever reconcile their differences?  To learn more about Jessica and Diana continue to watch this documentary. 

I rather enjoyed AN Wilson’s participation in this documentary.  He is very thoughtful in his analysis of the two sisters.  I also found Hope Whitemore and Laura Thompson’s commentary very interesting and equally thoughtful too.  Hope was rather measured with her presentation while Laura was more boisterous with her presentation.  I enjoyed them both.  This is a fascinating look at the dynamics of one family and the politics of the world between World War I and World War II.  This would be one very good documentary to show to a history class because of the interwar year dynamics.