On January 18, the PBS program History Detectives visited Special Collections & Archives and Olin Library to investigate a book that was found in the open stacks of Olin this summer.
The book, August Spies’ Auto-Biography, appears to have the stamp of Lucy Parsons, a famous anarchist and the wife of one of the men executed in 1877 for alleged crimes related to the Haymarket Riot in Chicago. Because her books were confiscated at the time of her death, the book seemed especially rare. We called in the History Detectives to do more investigation, and were delighted when they decided to film a segment about it.
We won’t give away any secrets, but what they found out is surprising! The program will be shown some time in July, so check your PBS stations this summer.