December, 1851: New York City. In the midst of winter, America’s press and public are gripped by the celebrity scandal of the century. Edwin Forrest, the most famous actor in the country, is pitted in a courtroom battle against his estranged wife, as they accuse each other of adultery. One of them must prevail for a divorce to be granted. As the jury and public rake over every titillating and salacious detail of the failed marriage, the conduct and reporting on the trial provide a striking foreshadowing of another celebrity couple court case that would play out over 270 years later.

Archive Sleuth is available on all major podcast apps. Subscribe at https://shows.acast.com/archive-sleuth.

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Resources:

Report on the Forrest Divorce Case, digitized by Harvard University Library.

Various contemporary newspapers, including the New York Daily Tribune; the New York Herald Tribune; and The Sunday Dispatch, are accessible on the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America resource.

Music:

Waltz of Treachery by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4606-waltz-of-treachery

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Sonatina in C Minor by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4393-sonatina-in-c-minor

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/archive-sleuth.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

October 1941. In the darkest days of the Second World War, Alan Turing and a group of code breakers at Bletchley Park write a letter to Winston Churchill – in desperation. They have achieved the supposedly impossible feat of cracking the German Enigma encryptions. But this breakthrough is in danger of being squandered.

70 years later, I came across Turing’s letter – and Churchill’s handwritten response – in the archives.

This is the story of Enigma, the codebreakers, and the letter that helped ensure the success of the most important top-secret breakthrough of World War II.

Archive Sleuth is available on all major podcast apps. Subscribe at https://shows.acast.com/archive-sleuth.

For news on future episodes, please follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

Please rate and review the show on your favourite podcast app, or on Podchaser.

Help keep the show running by supporting me here: https://supporter.acast.com/archive-sleuth

Resources:

The Bletchley Park codebreakers’ letter, along with the notes from Winston Churchill and Hastings Ismay, are held in file HW 1/155 at the National Archives, UK. It is digitized in Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War available from Coherent Digital.

Music:

Waltz of Treachery by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4606-waltz-of-treachery

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Depth Of Focus by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Sonatina in C Minor by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4393-sonatina-in-c-minor

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/archive-sleuth.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 13th, 1799. The captain of a Royal Navy sloop writes an urgent letter to his admiral. But this isn’t any captain. This captain is the sailor brother of writer Jane Austen. And the admiral is Horatio Nelson, currently residing in Sicily with the love of his life, Emma Hamilton. This single letter from the archives opens a window onto a moment in time for four remarkable people from the Age of Revolution and Napoleon. The names of three of these people are immortal. The fourth person, Francis Austen, is the thread that links their fascinating stories.

Archive Sleuth is available on all major podcast apps. Subscribe at https://shows.acast.com/archive-sleuth.

For news on future episodes, please follow the show on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

Help keep the show running by supporting me here: https://supporter.acast.com/archive-sleuth

Resources:

Francis Austen’s 13th May 1799 letter to Admiral Horatio Nelson is from item AUS/7, Francis Austen’s Letter Book. Held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/archive/rmgc-object-492597

Any infringement of copyright is unintended.

Jane Austen’s letters quoted in this episode were written to Cassandra Austen on the 28th December 1798 (https://pemberley.com/janeinfo/brablet2.html#letter15) and the 17th May 1799 (https://pemberley.com/janeinfo/brablet3.html#letter18).

Music includes:

Waltz of Treachery by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4606-waltz-of-treachery

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Sonatina in C Minor by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4393-sonatina-in-c-minor

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/archive-sleuth.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.