Consolation Prize

After two seasons, we have a lot to reflect on! We wanted you to hear the voices of the team, who have been working mostly behind the scenes for the past two seasons, and hear about their experiences working on Consolation Prize. Here, we have the honor to transmit to you our final report on our show about consuls.Show notes available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

In our final episode of Consolation Prize, we return to 1844 Hawai'i, where we look at another case involving vice consul William Hooper. In his efforts to gain power for the United States, Hooper may have made the lives of actual Americans more difficult. Hear how Hooper got involved in a legal case about a sexual assault, to the detriment of the accused, but to the ultimate benefit of the United States.This episode was produced by Abby Mullen and Kris Stinson. Show notes available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

In this episode of Consolation Prize, we meet two Americans in 1860s Thailand. Reverend Dan Beach Bradley was a Christian missionary and a newspaper publisher, and Captain James Madison Hood was the US consul to the Kingdom of Siam. These two men could not be more different from one another, but they both craved power in their own ways. In their quest for political power and moral superiority, they got involved in an international diplomatic kerfuffle of epic proportions in the Kingdom of Siam. This episode was produced by Abby Mullen, Deepthi Murali, and Kris Stinson. Shownotes available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

In this mini episode of Consolation Prize, we complete our tour of the world by going to the last continent where the United States had consuls: Australia. Alexander George Webster was a consul in Hobart, a port city on the island of Tasmania, but he also served on the Tasmanian Fisheries Commission, a group that was very concerned with making sure that Tasmanian rivers were stocked full of fish. In this episode, we see how Webster used his position as consul to move salmon halfway around the world, from the rivers of California to the rivers of Tasmania. This episode was produced by Abby Mullen and Kris Stinson. Show notes available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

they took on them. Consul Wesley Frost was stationed in Queenstown, Ireland during the early years of World War I. As part of his responsibilities, Frost assisted survivors from more than 80 German submarine attacks including the SS Lusitania, which at the time resulted in the greatest loss of civilian lives. Frost's response to these attacks helped establish the processes the United States Department of State still uses today in crises involving civilians.Consolation Prize is hosted by Abby Mullen. This episode was produced by Jeanette Patrick. Show notes, including full transcript, available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

Irena Wiley was a diplomat's wife. But she was also an artist who used her art to reflect the humanity of the many people she encountered all around the world. Bill Adair is an artist who purchased Wiley's pieces at a junk auction nearly 35 years after she died. This special episode of Consolation Prize is their story--how Wiley's work brought the humanity of devastated people to the fore, and how Bill's work has brought Wiley's work to the fore.Consolation Prize is a podcast of R2 Studios at George Mason University. This episode was produced by Abby Mullen and Frankie Bjork. Show notes are available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org; for more about Irena Wiley's work and life, visit irenawiley.com.

We explore the long and complicated relationship between the United States and the Papal States, the political-religious home of the Roman Catholic Church. The Papal States were ruled by the Pope from his seat in the Vatican until the city fell in 1870 and became the capital of a new nation called "Italy." In this episode, we follow the careers of consuls William Stillman and Edwin Cushman who served in the 1860s. Stillman and Cushman had the hard task of representing the United States during an era of intense conflict for both their home nation and the location of their consulate. For as the war in Italy between the Pope and the Italians escalated, so did the fight across the Atlantic ocean that became the American Civil War. As we focus in on Stillman and Cushman's experiences, we see how supposedly internal conflicts involve people and governments around the world.

In this episode of Consolation Prize, we are exploring a consul's involvement in a coup and a revolution. When the United States decided to construct a canal in Panama, the president of Nicaragua José Zelaya became upset. He believed the canal would be in his nation. Once it was clear it would not be, Zelaya began to turn his country away from the US. In response, the United States engineered a rebellion against Zelaya, and a president more favorable to American aims was installed. Not all Nicaraguans were happy with the new US-backed government and some rebelled. President Adolfo Díaz called on the United States to protect his government. Consul James Weldon Johnson, better known today for his work with the NAACP and as a songwriter, delayed this counter-rebellion long enough for more than 2,000 US Marines to land. But afterwards, Johnson began to reconsider his role in American nation-building in Latin America.This episode was produced by Jeanette Patrick and Abby Mullen. Show notes, including full transcript, available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org. Become a member of R2 Studios and support audio like this. Learn more at r2studios.org.

In this special bonus episode, we talk with a scholar who studies the history of the US consular service. We answer your questions like, What is a consul? What do they do? What makes them so interesting? Why should we care about consuls?

In this bonus holiday episode, a re-release from 2020, we explore the consular life of Joel Roberts Poinsett, everyone's favorite holiday historical figure. Before he went to Mexico, where he “discovered” the flower that now bears his name, Poinsett went all over the world, including to South American as a consul. While he was there, he got involved in quite a lot of activities that didn't really fit the consular program.

Consolation Prize is going true crime! In today's episode, we're going to hear about a murder case that a consul had to do some investigation of. William Hooper had to piece together what happened in the death of Jephtha Jenney, on board the whaleship Nassau in the Pacific Ocean. In his role as consul in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hooper was charged with dealing with crime committed by Americans--and this was a particularly gruesome one. Listen to the story as told through the materials he collected.Find show notes, including full transcripts, at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.Consolation Prize is a podcast of R2 Studios at George Mason University. Support our work at r2studios.org.

Gilmartin, a guide at Monterey State Historic Park, who told us about Monterey and how Thomas Larkin fit into its history.Show notes, including a full transcript, at consolationprize.rrchnm.org. Visit Monterey State Historic Park as well: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=575.

As Americans moved into California, the U.S. government wanted to provide them with an official representative. But the government also wanted California for the United States. So when Thomas Larkin was appointed as consul to Monterey, Alta California, he had the job of keeping the peace with Mexico---while other Americans tried to make war. But Larkin also wanted to bring California into the United States. He became a consul who literally worked himself out of a job, when California became part of the United States in 1847.Show notes, including a full transcript, available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

In our first Beyond the Consul episode, we're talking to Patty O'Brien about Tahiti. We talk about the power structures present in Tahiti when Europeans come in, how gender plays a role in Tahiti's history, and why we shouldn't really call Tahiti a "paradise," with all its connotations. Plus we think together about how our sources color the story we tell.Show notes, including a full transcript, at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

When the United States began to establish official commercial relations with Tahiti, the government and the sailors who visited there thought that the U.S. consuls would be able to help them get the most out of their visit. But instead, the first two U.S. consuls destroyed the reputation of the United States and actively sabotaged their changes of good relations with the sovereign Tahitian government. Either actively or passively, they helped the French take over Tahiti in 1842 and made Tahiti a much less friendly place for Americans.Full show notes, including a full transcript, available at https://consolationprize.rrchnm.org/s2e1-tahiti/.Support Consolation Prize by becoming a member at https://r2studios.org/support-us/.

Manifest Destiny is a term you hear a lot when you're learning about the history of the United States in the nineteenth century. But what is it, really? Several experts weigh in. You'll hear from Steve Inskeep, Matthew Raffety, Amy Greenberg, Gene Allen Smith, and Brian Rouleau--and then you'll hear a lot more from us on this season of Consolation Prize, where our first several shows will be dedicated to the consuls who went forth during the era of Manifest Destiny.

We're under "new" management! Not really, we're just joining a new division of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, R2 Studios.

In this second installment of our summer series on food and consuls, we shift our gaze to look at food ways from the bottom-up. Producers Deepthi Murali and Kris Stinson sit down with team member Megan Brett and executive producer Abby Mullen to taste such dishes as Boko-Boko, black bread, buttered shark, and mesquite beans! Together, we discuss the drastically different ways food is experienced depending on who and where you are as well as the many ways food and drink have changed over the last several hundred years. Show notes, including a full transcript, at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

In this bonus episode, we look back on the stories from season one with an eye for food. Alongside a cast of guest taste-testers, producers Deepthi Murali and Kris Stinson both try and discuss many of the dishes and drinks that have appeared in the accounts of consuls from places like Jerusalem, Algiers, Martinique, and Canton. Together, they explore the many ways that food has been a powerful force in the history of consuls, belonging, and empire!Show notes and a full transcript available at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

We've been to Mexico a few times this season, but we promised in the first episode that we'd return one last time, to talk about the relationship between Black Americans and the consuls in Mexico. So that's where we're closing out Season 1. In this episode, we're taking the perspective of the Black Americans who had to deal with consuls in the midst of incredibly difficult circumstances. We'll tell the story of Lucien Matthews, a free Black man who did business in Mexico before the Civil War, and the story of William Ellis, whose colonization scheme for Black Americans in the 1890s went horribly wrong. In each case, these Black Americans were sometimes unrecognizable to the American consuls--but that wasn't entirely a bad thing.Show notes: https://consolationprize.rrchnm.org/2021/05/05/episode-12-unrecognizable-citizens/

In Episode 11, we explore the complicated, and sometimes tragic, life of Richard Greener, the first Black consul to a predominantly white post. Before Greener went to Vladivostok, he was a trailblazer in education and politics, but questions about his race and his motivations followed him throughout his political life.

In this bonus episode, we learn about the much more recent history of women in the consular service, as Abby interviews Maura Harty, a career Foreign Service officer who concluded her career at the State Department in the role of Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs.Shownotes at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

In today’s episode, we take a look at some people connected to the consular service who are worthy of notice: the women. We’re telling the story of three women, whose stories range from the very conventional to the very unconventional (at least by the standards of the time). Each of these women contributed something significant to the history of the U.S. consular service, and each deserves to have her story told.Producers Deepthi Murali, Megan Brett, and Brenna Reilley bring us their stories, just in time to close out Women’s History Month.Shownotes at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

James Leander Cathcart and Richard O'Brien were uniquely suited to their jobs, from one point of view: they had spent a lot of time in the region they were consuls to--as captives of the ruler during the previous decade. Their struggles to do their jobs in the Barbary states was complicated by their inability to get along with each other, and in the end they couldn't accomplish the mission they'd been charged with: to make peace without payment with the Barbary states. Shownotes are at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

In this episode, we venture into the tragic story of the 1902 volcanic eruption of Mount Pelée on the island of Martinique. Consul, Thomas Prentis and his family were among the 30,000 victims of this natural disaster. We will discuss the eruption itself, and the diplomatic consequences for Martinique.Show notes are at https://consolationprize.rrchnm.org/2021/02/11/episode-8-eden-to-ashes/.

We go to Jerusalem to find out more about Selah Merrill, the longest-serving consul there before 1948. Despite his desire to be in Jerusalem, Merrill didn't like the city or the people he encountered. He positively hated Jews; he disdained the American tourists; and he picked fights with the American colonists. So why did he stay?

In this bonus holiday episode, we explore the consular life of Joel Roberts Poinsett, everyone's favorite holiday historical figure. Before he went to Mexico, where he "discovered" the flower that now bears his name, Poinsett went all over the world, including to South American as a consul. While he was there, he got involved in quite a lot of activities that didn't really fit the consular program.

Within a year of the end of the American Revolution, the United States sent a ship to China, where the government hoped Americans could start a robust (and lucrative) trade. Samuel Shaw was the supercargo on that first voyage of the Empress of China. On his next voyage to Canton, he went as the U.S. consul, charged with helping the United States gain a foothold in the China trade. On behalf of the United States, he had to make a good impression---all the while knowing that the United States might not make such a good trading partner.From the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, Consolation Prize is a podcast about the history of the United States in the world through the eyes of its consuls.

In this episode, we learn about Richard Waters. Waters served as the first consul from the United States to Zanzibar because the burgeoning trade of Salem merchants required some official oversight, but in order to be successful, he had to learn to navigate the world of Indian Ocean trade.

In this episode we continue our story of Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb from his decision to resign as an American consul to his inauguration as an honorary consul-general for the Ottoman Empire! We continue to wrestle with the intersection of politics and religion in Webb's career and the ways in which his legacy remains with us today, even if Webb himself faded from the American scene in the early twentieth century.

In this episode we meet Alexander Russell Webb, U.S. consul to Manila in the Philippines turned Muslim missionary to America. We will wrestle with the tension in Webb's life between his identity as an American and as a new convert to Islam. This episode explores the ways in which Webb tried to balance his political and religious commitments until he began to suspect they might be pulling in opposite directions.

In this episode, we travel to Havana, Cuba to meet the consul Nicholas Trist, as he struggles between the dilemma of morals and money. We will explore the role of Cuba and the consul in the slave trade. We dive deep into the story of ship deserters, flag foolery, and international crime! Show notes at consolationprize.rrchnm.org.

In this bonus episode, we delve into questions like "What is a consul?" "How do you get a job as a consul?" and other things. Listen to this if you feel adrift when listening to our regular episodes!

In this episode, we meet Liverpool consul James Maury, whose job included helping American sailors who had been shipwrecked, were out of work--or were kidnapped by the British navy! But how did he (and other officials) know who really was an American? Shownotes for this episode at https://consolationprize.rrchnm.org/.

In this episode, we travel to Vera Cruz, Mexico, to learn about how American consuls helped American businessmen assert their rights in contradiction of Mexican law. You can read more and find the transcript at https://consolationprize.rrchnm.org/blog/.