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Encore - A WWII Marine’s jacket with stitched inscriptions; a vintage Airstream that may have made a historic journey; and sheet music bearing Abraham Lincoln’s signature.
China Marine Jacket - A man in Santa Monica, California, received
an embroidered jacket as a gift from his son. The contributor, a
former Marine, is intrigued by the jacket's stitched inscriptions,
which read: "4th Marines," "Shanghai," "China," "1937-1939" and
"MWD." He knows the 4th Marines were transferred from Shanghai to
the Philippines in November 1941 amidst growing tensions with the
Japanese. The unit was attacked by the Japanese on the same day as
the Pearl Harbor bombings. Some of the men who fought in the
Philippines never returned, having suffered Japanese imprisonment
and the Bataan Death March. But to whom did this particular jacket
belong, and what was his legacy as a Marine? HISTORY DETECTIVES
host Gwendolyn Wright travels to Washington, DC, and Los Angeles to
investigate the story of the "China Marines," a regiment that
worked under extreme circumstances to keep the peace and protect
American interests during the perilous ramp up to World War II.
Airstream Caravan - A couple in Southern California owns a classic
Airstream trailer that may lay claim to an illustrious past. The
trailer's fading numbers and logo indicate that it is an early
member of the elite Wally Byam Caravan Club International. In the
mid-20th century, members of this adventure club followed legendary
leader and Airstream founder Wally Byam all over the world: Central
America, Europe, Africa and the Yucatan Peninsula. Did this
particular Airstream make the journey on the historic "Cape Town to
Cairo Caravan" of 1959? HISTORY DETECTIVES host Tukufu Zuberi heads
to Denver and Southern California to explore one man's wanderlust
at the birth of American leisure travel and, ultimately, to a
spectacular 221-day, 14,307-mile trek from the tip of Southern
Africa to the pyramids of Ancient Egypt.
Lincoln Forgery - A woman in Portland, Oregon, owns a bound volume
of 19th-century sheet music. The book contains several "Abraham
Lincoln" signatures on random pages. At the end of one of the
compositions, a handwritten notarized inscription claims the music
is a gift from President Lincoln's widow, Mary Todd Lincoln, to
Lincoln's former coachman, William P. Brown, in 1866. Could the
sheet music really be from Lincoln's personal library? HISTORY
DETECTIVES host Wes Cowan travels to Chicago and Springfield,
Illinois, to explore the years after Lincoln's death and to
illuminate the origins of these curious documents.