25 at 250: America's homegrown diamonds and Civil War mail-in ballots

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4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2026

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

The United States does not have a rich diamond mining history. But an exhibit at the Smithsonian proves that some of the world’s most dazzling gems are homegrown. We speak with Gabriela Farfan, curator of gems and minerals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, about two of their best American gems on display. And, voting by mail became a major political flashpoint during the COVID-19 pandemic, but controversies over voting remotely aren't new. During the Civil War, tens of thousands of soldiers used a simple envelope to cast their ballot from the battlefield. Dan Piazza from the Smithsonian National Postal Museum tells the story of one of those envelopes.

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0:00.0	Support for WBUR comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Mayrotra Institute at Boston University that explores questions like,
0:09.3	why is innovation and health care so hard? Is ESG just greenwashing? And of course, is business broken? Listen, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:20.4	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:26.2	I think we imagine we invented everything in the 21st century, but these are very old stories.
0:32.6	The first case of mass mail-in voting in the United States was, when do you think? I would not have
0:39.8	guessed all the way back in 1864. Today is Friday, March 6th, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WVR.
0:57.2	I'm Chris Bentley.
1:01.1	Did you know you can dig for diamonds in a state park in Arkansas?
1:06.2	If you get really lucky, you could turn up one of the largest diamonds ever discovered in the U.S.
1:12.6	It's happened before.
1:14.2	This stone completely covers the width of my ring finger when I put it on.
1:19.7	We'll have that story in a few minutes, but we're saving all the best diamond finding spots for ourselves.
1:27.4	Today on the show, we are continuing our series 25 at 250.
1:32.3	Every other week leading up to July 4th, which will mark 250 years since the founding of the United States,
1:39.0	we're popping into the archives of the Smithsonian to take a look at 25 objects that help tell the story of America.
1:46.1	And something you learn by looking through history is that things that seem new are actually
1:50.8	variations on old stories. Take voting by mail. After the 2020 pandemic, Republicans stoked
1:58.6	skepticism of mail-in ballots, claiming without evidence that there was
2:02.8	widespread fraud. But it's not a new controversy. The U.S. first rolled out mail-in ballots on a
2:09.7	large scale during the Civil War. And there was a similar backlash, says Dan Piazza at the National
2:16.3	Postal Museum. He spoke to Robin Young.
2:19.4	Dan, old yellowing male with elaborate cursive handwriting is one of my favorite things. Welcome
	...

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