At the peak of their existence, the Pinkerton Detective Agency was *the* crime fighting machine in the United States. They hired the first female detective, notoriously saved Abraham Lincoln from being killed on a train by dressing him in a disguise, among other feats. But, they admittedly had their flaws as well. However, without the Pinkertons' contributions to the industry, we would not have the CIA, FBI, and law enforcement as we know it today.

SOURCES:

www.legendsofamerica.com/pinkertons/

www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/james-agency/#:~:text=Scottish%20emigrant%20and%20abolitionist%20Allan,James%20brothers%2C%20and%20he%20failed

www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-pinkertons.

www.britannica.com/biography/Allan-Pinkerton.

www.britannica.com/event/Chartism-British-history.

www.intelligence.gov/evolution-of-espionage/civil-war/union-espionage/allan-pinkerton. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.

TW: mentions of su*cide

At the age of eight, Barbara Newhall Follett wrote her first novel, inventing her own mythical world and language. She was a published author by age 12. But, child prodigy Barbara Follett would go on to vanish without a trace. When she was 25, after a fight with her husband, she grabbed her coat, a notebook, and $30 in cash, and left their Boston home, never to be seen again. Today on Found Objects, I tell her story.

Follow us on IG: instagram.com/foundobjectspodcast

SOURCES --

www.laphamsquarterly.org/celebrity/vanishing-act.

blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20speople-investigating-the-strange-disappearance-of-mrs-agatha-christie/.

crimereads.com/what-happened-to-barbara-newhall-follett/.

www.britannica.com/biography/Virginia-Woolf.

www.mentalfloss.com/posts/barbara-newhall-follett-author-mystery.

www.biography.com/authors-writers/virginia-woolf.

During World War II, tens of thousands of priceless paintings, sculptures + other art mediums (think: Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt…) were stolen by Nazi forces. Plucked off of walls, ripped out of the hands of private collectors, discarded in rubble, burned in bonfires.. and yet, today, many of the stolen works are safely and legally hanging on the walls of museums. How were these priceless artworks rescued? Enter: “Protect what’s left. Find what’s missing.” — That was the motto of the Monuments Men, a group of men and women who risked their lives during wartime to recover the stolen artwork. And today on Found Objects, I share their heroic, often unknown, story.

Follow us on instagram:

https://instagram.com/foundobjectspodcast

SOURCES:

allthatsinteresting.com/looted-okinawa-artifacts.

encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/degenerate-art-1.

www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/02/07/the-true-story-behind-the-monuments-men.

www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/provenance-research-resources/monuments-men. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024.

www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-monuments-men-180949569/.

www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/summer/nazi-looted-art-1.

www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/monuments-men.

historycollection.com/10-pieces-art-stolen-nazis-still-missing-today/.

www.dailyartmagazine.com/the-story-of-the-lost-raphaels-portrait-of-a-young-man/.

www.britannica.com/topic/Volk