Major funding for backstory is provided by an anonymous donor, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.

From Virginia Humanities, this is Baxbury.

Welcome to Baxbury, the show that explains the history behind today's headlines. I'm Joanne Freeman.

Now, if you're new to the podcast each week, along with my colleagues Nathan Connelly, Ed Ayers, and Brian Ballot, we explore a different aspect of American history.

Now, I joined backstory in 2017, which seems like a short time ago and a long time ago somehow.

And although I was the only female co-host, I really didn't join the team thinking about that, nor did I really give much thought to my identity as a historian, because after all, all of the co-hosts were and are historians, so that was a given.

But during my time at Baxbury, different show segments surprised and moved me as a woman and as a historian in ways that I really hadn't anticipated and in ways that have really stuck with me.

It was not that hard for me to think back to these segments you're going to hear about today when I was asked to find some that stood out because so many of them do.

This is the second to last installment of an ongoing Best of Series we're doing as Baxbury starts to wrap up after more than 12 years.

The final one will be Best of Baxbury, the listener edition, which means we're looking for submissions from you.

Let us know what interview or backstory moment was most memorable for you and tell us why.

Just check the show notes to find out how to get in touch.

As for this episode, I'm excited to have the chance to share these three conversations with you, and I hope you enjoy them.

You'll learn about 19th century antiquarians, collectors who were nostalgic for the so-called Olden Times, and you'll hear my conversation from 2019 with Senator Tammy Duckworth about her life of some sort of a story.

She came to me at school, asking hundreds of people what to do in the opposite directions...

she said...

Maybe that's the reason we ll tell you that.

Maybe it's just one of the reasons why this is a crimes act today or no comments and never giving up a voice about it?

The affair was all about honor and politics and the culture demanded that men and particularly public men

protect their good names and reputations by any means necessary.

We might not see a lot of jewels anymore, but in many ways honor culture really does live on today.

A few years ago, I spoke with writer Karen Tintori about how she discovered a decades-old family secret.

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