Lincoln Letter - A Tampa man made a potentially extraordinary discovery in a stack of old photos he purchased for eight dollars. Buried in the images was a letter with what appears to be the signature of Abraham Lincoln. It's dated 1858 and contains a short and cryptic note to someone named Henry Clay Whitney. The contributor is skeptical, as he's seen references on the Internet to several forgeries of this document, but Host Elyse Luray thinks it's worth a closer look. HISTORY DETECTIVES heads to the Land of Lincoln - Illinois - to investigate the future president's political calculations, and correspondence, at a pivotal time in his career.

Quaker Map - A hand-drawn map that a woman from New Jersey picked up at an estate sale is entitled "Meetings of Friends," and describes in crude strokes the state of Ohio in the early 19th century. She wants to know if this could be a map of the fabled Underground Railroad. Experts verify that the map dates to circa 1815 and plots the locations of key Quaker houses of worship in that day. Delving deeper into the history of the faith, HISTORY DETECTIVES makes some extraordinary discoveries about how Quakers roused anti-slavery sentiment. In New York City, Pennsylvania and Ohio, host Gwen Wright tracks cartographic clues to investigate the important role Quakers played in the Underground Railroad and launching the abolitionist movement.

U.S.S. Indianapolis- A Cleveland, Ohio, man owns some intriguing artifacts that he believes may date back to a kamikaze attack on the U.S.S. Indianapolis in March 1945. The contributor's uncle served on this battleship, and while home shared a story with his family about an attack on his boat. He returned to the ship and was killed when the Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese torpedo during the final weeks of World War II. Years later, the family uncovered fragments of aluminum, military patches and a Japanese placard that the uncle had placed inside a cedar chest during his time on leave. Could these items be from the kamikaze attack on the U.S.S. Indianapolis? HISTORY DETECTIVES host Wes Cowan ventures to Texas and Washington, DC, to examine the virulence and desperation of the Japanese suicide attacks that led up to one of the greatest sea disasters in U.S. naval history. (Repeat from Episode #405, OB: 7/17/06)