Coca-Cola Trade Card - A contributor in Parkersburg, West Virginia, owns what seems to be an extraordinary piece of memorabilia: a pocket-sized card, dated 1886, depicting an image of a female model and imprinted with a rhyming verse that begins, "One very sultry, summer day/Through Atlanta, toiled on his way/A lawyer, overcome with heat,/His lips could only just repeat,/Coco-Cola ..." Trade cards were a popular vehicle for tradespersons to advertise their wares and often included entertaining poems or rhymes. Could this card be a unique piece of early Coca-Cola advertising? HISTORY DETECTIVES heads to Coca-Cola's headquarters in Atlanta to trace the legacy of the soft drink empire and examine its influential role in American commerce and advertising.  

Vicksburg Map - A contributor from Tucson, Arizona, owns a map that he believes is connected to the Civil War siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi. His great-grandfather commanded several batteries in this pivotal 1863 battle, and this document has been in the family ever since. President Lincoln called the victory at Vicksburg the "key" to breaking the back of the Confederacy, giving the Union armies undisputed control of the Mississippi River. HISTORY DETECTIVES heads to Mississippi and Washington, DC, to dig up details of this key Civil War battle.

Lawrence Strike - A contributor in Massachusetts owns a billy club with the words "Lawrence Strike" and the date 12/1/1912 cut crudely into the side. He's curious about the significance of these markings. In January 1912, tens of thousands of immigrant women, men and children led the Bread and Roses strike at a textile factory in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The workers clashed with textile mill operators and police as they asserted their demand for humane working conditions. During this cold and snowy January, pitched battles were fought in the streets of Lawrence in one of the most brutal strikes in U.S. history. HISTORY DETECTIVES travels to Massachusetts to investigate a struggle that paved the way for improved labor conditions throughout the country.