Pod Insights Stuff You Missed in History Class Behind the Scenes Minis: Helen and Ada About this episode Tracy shares how much she loves the work of Helen McNicoll and how the gaps in her biography posed a challenge during research. Holly talks about Harry Craddock and his efforts to combat prohibition in Britain.
See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
0:04 Tracy V. Wilson? Whether you're calling the wise women in your life, video calling your girlfriends across the country, or checking in on someone who always knows how to make you smile, staying connected matters. Those small conversations, shared laughs and quick hellos are what keep relationships strong even when life gets busy. Some of the most life-giving conversations start with just a phone call. That's why AT&T guarantees the network you can rely on, so you can focus on the moments and people that matter most. That's the AT&T Guarantee. AT&T: Connecting Changes Everything. Terms and conditions apply. Visit att.com/guarantee for details. The Old Gays are back with Silver Linings, their lovable podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare.
0:47 Tracy V. Wilson? Robert, Mick, Bill and Jessa strut back down memory lane for season two, sharing lessons on life, love and loss. These are the kind of insights that only come from experience. So tune in to Silver Linings with The Old Gays on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Workplace chaos, we've all been there. Deadlines are slipping, projects are piling up, and suddenly you realize the missing piece is the right person. That's when you say, this is a job for sponsored jobs. With Indeed Sponsored Jobs, your job post gets a boost so you can connect with quality candidates faster. In fact, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs.
1:30 Tracy V. Wilson? Spend less time searching and more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. We've all tumbled down an internet rabbit hole trying to self-diagnose, and it leaves us more anxious than informed. Our feeds are full of wellness trends, but how do we know what's real, what's exaggerated, and what's just wrong?
1:56 Holly Frey? Versus Hype from the American Medical Association breaks it all down. Emmy nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez talks to doctors, influencers, and real people trying these trends, not to cancel them, but to understand them. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. So listen to Health Versus Hype wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.
2:27 Tracy V. Wilson? Hello and happy Friday. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
2:30 Holly Frey? And I'm Holly Frey.
2:32 Tracy V. Wilson? Boy, did I love talking about Helen McNicoll this week.
2:37 Holly Frey? Yeah.
2:39 Tracy V. Wilson? I, number one, I think it's probably clear to listeners that have been listening for a long time, I love impressionist art. I love it. And I love the women artists. And I love that she and Dorothea Sharp made a space for themselves in a world that was not really amenable to women living on their own without husbands.
3:04 Holly Frey? Right.
3:06 Tracy V. Wilson? Or, you know, outside of their, their family life for, you know, specifically white, middle class, upper middle class, in the case of Helen McNicoll, women.
3:19 Tracy V. Wilson? I love all of that. It was a challenging episode to work on because there's just not a lot of information about details.
3:31 Holly Frey? Right.
3:32 Tracy V. Wilson? That would be really helpful to know more about for an episode like this.
3:36 Holly Frey? Those are always tricky because it's like you can know what people have said about them, particularly, you know, in the intervening years, we are recording one coming up that I researched that's very similar in that regard. And it's like, but.
3:53 Holly Frey? What, what was she like?
3:55 Tracy V. Wilson? Right, right. Well, and she lived, I mean, she, she died more than a century ago, but that's still recent enough. Uh, and her, you know, family was large enough that there may be, you know, other remembrances, maybe even letters and diaries and things that just haven't been made available to historians or art historians. Like, so it's like, it's possible that there is more information about her. But having kind of a big gap in things like, uh, what she was like as a person, what her thoughts were on things like the suffrage movement.
4:40 Tracy V. Wilson? There was also a ton of stuff that we could have gotten into in this episode, but didn't, like, uh, the, the role of the railroads and Canadian Pacific Railway in particular in Canadian history, like hugely monumentally impactful on Canada as a nation and on the indigenous peoples of Canada. Um, and like, that was so far removed from the episode's core that I just, I did not get into it really at all. But boy, I love all of her art and I wish I had a little time machine and had, could have gone to that, uh, that exhibit that just closed a couple of weeks before researching this episode.
5:26 Holly Frey? Always a trick, always a trick.
5:28 Tracy V. Wilson? Uh, yes, definitely so. Um, there are some really lovely, you know, exhibition catalogs, um, that have, you know, lovely recre- or recrea- representations, recreations, prints, what am I saying? You know what I'm saying?
5:44 Holly Frey? Reprints of her work.
5:46 Tracy V. Wilson? Yes. Uh, I just lost all ability to have language.
5:50 Holly Frey? Sometimes it happens.
5:52 Tracy V. Wilson? Um, I don't have much to say beyond just sort of gushing that I, I love her, I love her artwork.
6:01 Tracy V. Wilson? I love looking at pictures of the same essential scene that she did and that Dorothy Ashar did and kind of comparing how they're similar and how they're different.
6:12 Holly Frey? Yeah. One of the things that I really liked, we, we only talked about it briefly, but it is important to remember, particularly when studying really anything historical, but it does specifically relate a lot to things like art, history and similar creative histories is that we tend, when discussing history, and I say we, meaning like humans in general, when we're talking about particularly, once it gets past a certain point, it's like we lose our ability to recognize the wiggliness of the timeline. And it'll be like, the Renaissance happened from this to this. And it's like, well, in some places, but other places, we're still working it out.
6:57 Tracy V. Wilson? Right.
6:57 Holly Frey? Like well after it, or they came into it later. And this is a good example of how, you know, Impressionism was kind of like, cool, cool, cool. We got it in France. And in Canada, it was still like, this is new.
7:11 Tracy V. Wilson? Yeah.
7:12 Holly Frey? I always think that's important to remember when you're looking, looking at anybody's work is where they're from is a really important part of where they fit into that bigger artistic timeline.
7:24 Tracy V. Wilson? Right, right. Anytime we're talking about things like Impressionism or the Renaissance, like in some cases, there's been, you know, a sort of manifesto of artists saying, this is what we are doing as artists. That becomes kind of a foundational text to the movement. But sometimes it's the process of looking back onto that time and trying to make sense of it and having a name for something as a movement. And that means there's a whole lot of stuff that was going on at that time that doesn't fit into that descriptor, similarly
8:04 Tracy V. Wilson? to what you were saying. And the fact that Impressionism became popularized in Canada so much later than in France, one of the articles that I was reading about it was like, I'm not trying to characterize Canadian art. As like a sleepy backwater.
8:25 Holly Frey? Right.
8:25 Tracy V. Wilson? Because there was others, like, there was other stuff happening in Canadian art. Uh, other, other people, other movements, Canada itself, a young nation as a nation at that point. But it did, you know, become kind of a later entry into this movement than a lot of other similarly connected to, uh, you know, the art world of Europe and specifically Paris.
8:54 Holly Frey? Yeah.
8:54 Tracy V. Wilson? So anyway, uh.
8:56 Holly Frey? Art, we always love it.
8:58 Tracy V. Wilson? We do. I will also confess that when I was deciding about things to cover on Unearthed, um, I had no concept of what the BBC TV show Faker Fortune is about beyond the title and the fact that they authenticated this painting. Um, it is not like a British counterpart to Antiques Roadshow. And I think there is an Antiques Roadshow in.
9:29 Holly Frey? Didn't it start in Britain?
9:31 Tracy V. Wilson? I, I don't remember.
9:32 Holly Frey? I'm not sure.
9:33 Tracy V. Wilson? My association with Antiques Roadshow is watching it at my parents' house.
9:39 Tracy V. Wilson? Um, but Faker Fortune is more, like, it's all about art authentication. It is not people finding a piece of art in their attic and saying authenticate this. And a lot of cases, a lot of cases, like, looking back at big questions about the authenticity of different pieces of artwork. So my ignorance about this TV show was a part of my decision about whether to, uh, put this, uh, find into Unearthed. But the bigger piece was, I just want to do a whole episode about Helen McNicoll, um, because I was immediately captivated.
10:16 Speaker 03 First thought is like, wow, how are we going to do all this?
10:19 Tracy V. Wilson? Hey, everybody. It's Tracy from Stuff You Missed in History Class. That's Alan Goya, a planning engineer at AT&T. He's talking about Intuit Dome, home of the Los Angeles Clippers, where every seat, screen, phone, and transaction is connected with AT&T fiber and 5G, defining the fan's experience. And Alan's master plan made it all possible.
10:40 Speaker 03 It was going to rival anything that was already built. And that takes quite a bit of people and different teams to all be on the same page.
10:47 Tracy V. Wilson? That includes field services manager Drexel Jones. His team made sure it all came together and held up on game day.
10:54 Speaker 04 Through what Alan's whole crew designed, we connected the event visitors to the world.
11:00 Tracy V. Wilson? And after years of hard work and collaboration, it was opening night.
11:03 Speaker 04 To actually see the whole stadium light up and data is flowing is a beautiful thing.
11:08 Speaker 03 What the fans experience is incredible. It gave me a lot of pride.
11:11 Tracy V. Wilson? AT&T, connecting fans to what they love.
11:14 Speaker 05 Connecting changes everything. AT&T.
11:17 Tracy V. Wilson? So you're considering getting a home security system, but you want something that fits your space. Well, with ADT Blue, it's easy to customize a system that's right for you and set it up yourself. Just pick the kit and monitoring plan that makes sense for your home. Let's say you're worried about package theft. The ADT Plus app can walk you through setting up a new doorbell camera kit. Once it's installed, ADT Pros can help you keep tabs on it 24/7, or you can manage it yourself from the ADT Plus app. There are no long-term contracts, so you can change your monitoring plan whenever you want. The flexibility doesn't end there. You can add to your system as you need to with things like extra cameras or motion sensors. Some life decisions are hard, but thanks to ADT Blue,
12:00 Tracy V. Wilson? you can DIY trusted ADT home security in a snap. Head to ADT.com/BLU to build your system today. And to hear more about home protection and other grown-up topics, check out new episodes of Grown Up Stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
12:24 Holly Frey? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. Tune in for season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Argenx. Hosted by public health and policy expert Dr. Martine Hackett, Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition pushes the conversation within the rare disease community forward. Featuring guests living with MG, CIDP, myositis, SMA, and other rare autoimmune conditions, each episode explores hope, progress, and connection. How does research create new opportunities? How do shared experiences help light the way forward? How do we best show up for each other?
13:09 Holly Frey? Tune in to find out. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
13:19 Speaker 06 This stress check, aka friendly reminder that your hobbies matter, is brought to you by State Farm, because you deserve to lose yourself in the stuff that brings you joy. Here's mine: painting my tabletop battle miniatures. Yeah, seriously. After a long day, I grab a brush, pop in some music, and just get into it. And there's no wrong way to do it. It helps me clear my head, slow down, and just breathe. But it works. Big stress, mini warriors, total reset. No pressure, just paint, creativity, and a little reminder of what makes me happy. Some people bake, some people garden. Me, I paint warriors with interesting tech. And guess what? It works. You don't have to be good at your hobby. You just have to enjoy it.
14:04 Speaker 06 So carve out that time, tune out the noise, and do something that's just for you. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
14:18 Holly Frey? Okay, I'm gonna get it out of the way and get the yucky thing out so we can get to talking about other stuff. In that 1905 report from the Joint Committee on the Employment of Bar Maids, they do the thing that we have talked about many times on the show that I absolutely hate, and you do too, I know. I'm paraphrasing, but it basically is like,
14:41 Holly Frey? white bar maids actually have it much worse than black enslaved people because they don't have it. They're, they're just stuck in this job and they're gonna age out of it and those people get treated better. It's like one of those horrible things. Just as a reminder to any of our listeners, anytime you see that in a document, whether modern or old, please know it's wrong. That's all. It just made my blood boil when I was reading it and I was like so angry, I didn't even want to put it in the episode. There are a lot of cool things about American Bar and the Savoy, one of which is that it was incredibly popular during World War II
15:26 Holly Frey? because Winston Churchill would kind of like headquarter there a little bit. Because the Savoy, we talked about how it was ultra-modern and had electricity before buildings normally did, etc. They had built their own power supply. So when there were bombing raids or, and you know, the Germans bombed London, it was more likely to maintain power than any of the other buildings. Just very cool.
15:54 Tracy V. Wilson? Yeah.
15:55 Holly Frey? Listen, I trash-talked Craddock a little bit here. He's very interesting in his own right. Heaven knows I've made a lot of his drinks. He really did a lot to promote the idea of drinking mixed drinks and cocktails as an elevated experience and not about drunkenness. He literally wrote papers about it. He would write newspaper articles about it. He would offer himself up for interviews. And one of the things that kept happening, we mentioned eight is four L's, the people that would not allow the temperance movement to pass any laws in England at the time. But there were people in England that wanted temperance laws and Craddock would
16:39 Holly Frey? always do this challenge and say like, Come to the bar, I will make you a cocktail along with, you know, whatever meal you order. And if you can honestly tell me that it did not enhance your enjoyment of the meal and of life, he would say, then we can have a talk about temperance, but I guarantee you're gonna love it. And almost, and as far as I know, every time they did, or they didn't take the challenge because they probably knew. But it was just kind of interesting. He was a big proponent of it. I am very delighted to see that American Bar's current menu, and I haven't gone back through all of their, their previous menus, but there are not all of the drinks, but a lot of their drinks. They're like, here's the alcoholic version, here's the mocktail version.
17:20 Tracy V. Wilson? Nice.
17:21 Holly Frey? Which is really cool and something that I am a big fan of. Cause sometimes people want to have the elevated experience of a delicious mixed beverage and they don't drink alcohol for any number of completely fine reasons. So it's nice to remember that those people deserve to have fun times in a bar as well. It doesn't have to be about being intoxicated, but tasting delicious things. There is only one picture of Ada Coleman that I know of. And it would have been fairly late in her career because she looks, you know, a bit more on the mature side at that point. And she looks so sweet and I just, she just has this great, very, she's cute as a button.
18:03 Holly Frey? And she has this very pleasant expression and I can see why probably people immediately gravitated toward her and wanted to, to spend time with her in addition to being their bartender, but also as their friend. There are a lot of stories of people who she served becoming her friends. And in some cases, including her in their wills and leaving her significant amounts of money, which is pretty interesting. I'm always fascinated by the relationship between bartenders and their patrons, because often there's like a weird parasocial thing that goes on. I just find the whole thing interesting.
18:46 Holly Frey? I want there to be a wild number of studies done of it, which is probably not going to happen to the degree I would desire. But I have not been to American Bar, it's on my list. One more excuse to go to London.
19:00 Tracy V. Wilson? I have only been to places that were called American Bar that are not that one.
19:04 Holly Frey? Yeah, there are a number of them. Um, and there were a number of them in Europe, as we said in the show, that did not rise to prominence. And some of them were just like, the way you would say, you would see noodle bar on a menu, right, that is not the name of the establishment, but says what it is. Some of them were like that, that just said that, and this one took on the name. I'm honestly not 100% clear if that was always intended to be its name or not. But there it is, one of the most famous bars in the world. You can, I feel like we should also say, we mentioned two very pricey drinks that are on the menu. They have the, their regular themed menu.
19:48 Holly Frey? The drinks are not cheap, but they're not that exorbitant either. They're like in the, I think, um, I feel like I'm going by memory here. The mocktails tended to be in the 18 pound range, which is pricey, but you know, not 5,000, that's for sure. And then the cocktails tended to be like in the 27 to 35 range, depending on the spirit. So expensive for sure, but also not like quite as eye popping as a $5,000 drink.
20:17 Tracy V. Wilson? Yeah.
20:17 Holly Frey? Um, this was a very fun one to research because as much as I hated how, um, condescending that report was, I liked picking it apart and reading it.
20:26 Tracy V. Wilson? Mm hmm.
20:27 Holly Frey? Being like, you dinglings. All of these problems are problems that are not caused by the women in the bartending industry.
20:38 Holly Frey? Why are you saying that women should get out rather than making laws that would protect them? Why is that the way? You want to make legislation, why not protective legislation? Obviously, they, they never passed that because women have stayed in the bartending industry and in, in the barmaid, as they were called then. Again, because they were usually aged out.
21:01 Tracy V. Wilson? Mm hmm.
21:02 Holly Frey? Pretty, when they would, you know, not be considered a young maid anymore. But I'm glad we have Ada to, to guide us. I love, love the Ada Colvin Project. I think it's so cool.
21:14 Tracy V. Wilson? Yeah.
21:15 Holly Frey? Um, so I will follow it in the ongoing years and see how it does and see if I can support it in some way. Anyway, uh, that is, that is that. If you are coming up on your weekend and you like to have a cocktail or mocktail, I hope you find one that is absolutely delicious and delights your palate and taste buds. Uh, if you don't have time off, maybe you could still sneak in something yummy to drink, uh, whether that contains alcohol or not. But we hope that you do get some rest and relaxation and that everyone is kind to one another. We will be right back here tomorrow with a classic story and then on Monday, we will have a brand new episode.
21:57 Tracy V. Wilson? Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
22:12 Tracy V. Wilson? You ever show up late to the game and your friends already saved your seat, your drink, even a plate? That's looking out. That's having your back. And that's exactly what AT&T does with the AT&T Guarantee. They know staying connected matters, so they actually guarantee a network that comes through when it counts. AT&T has connectivity you can depend on, or they'll proactively make it right, just like that friend who takes care of things before you even ask. AT&T, connecting changes everything. Terms and conditions apply. Visit att.com/guarantee for details.
22:46 Holly Frey? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, and connection. Produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argenx. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
23:18 Speaker 07 Wait, I came in for two things. How is this $47? All right, we're gonna need a plan here.
23:25 Speaker 05 Just start simple with Bank of America Advantage Safe Balance Banking. No overdraft item fees, no monthly maintenance fee if you're under 25.
23:34 Speaker 07 Oh, that's actually really simple.
23:37 Speaker 05 Safe Balance Banking, one less thing to figure out.
23:41 Speaker 05 Learn more at BofA.com/simplebanking. Terms and conditions apply. Bank of America and a member FDIC. Hey, it's Covino and Rich Davis from Covino and Rich.
23:50 Speaker 07 Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it starts with a great deal on an off-road ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's most capable and longest-lasting trucks. Combining power for work, tech for adventures and style in between. Built on reputation for quality and reliability. Toyota trucks are known for holding their value, which can mean big savings when it's time for your next Toyota. So get a great deal today and great value tomorrow. Shop Toyota.com for more. Toyota, let's go places.
24:21 Speaker 00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
Previous Ada Coleman and the Savoy’s American Bar Next SYMHC Classics: Chae Chan Ping vs. United States Page updated November 4, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated