39 - The KKK of The Five Orange Pips

"this terrible secret society" [FIVE] 

The Ku Klux Klan famously plays a role in "The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips." To British audiences, the 'K.K.K.' note would have seemed mysterious - something along the lines of a Dancing Men code. But to American audiences, it was a known entity.

The KKK was a secret society founded in the southern United States following the Civil War, which committed many outrages. But the KKK as portrayed in this particular Sherlock Holmes story: was it true to life? Or was it a case of literary license?

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Links

• "The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips"
• "Two Southern Exposures of Sherlock Holmes," Manly Wade Wellman, The Baker Street Journal, Vol 2. No. 4 (1947) - available on the eBSJ.

Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra 

Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band 

Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

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38 - Photography

"fondness for photography" [REDH] 

During the earliest days of the Sherlock Holmes stories, photography was still in its infancy. And yet, we are greeted with a number of instances in which photography plays a central or partial role in the plot.

Who were the Canonical photographers and why did they pursue this hobby? And how did photographs play into Sherlock Holmes's ability to solve crimes?

We also have a follow-up item from Episode 37, thanks to some listener feedback.

Download | 8.1 MB, 17:45 

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Links

• Stories mentioned in this episode: 
• "The Red Headed League"
• "The Copper Beeches"
• "A Scandal in Bohemia"
• "The Veiled Lodger"
• "The Three Garridebs"
• "The Lion's Mane"
• Arthur Conan Doyle, Photographer and the tale of "Chawles" - The British Journal of Photography
• Evidence of Holmes's studies: Sherlock Holmes at Oxford (2nd edition 1981)
• Fibber McGee and Molly
• Walter Paget

Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra 

Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band 

Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

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37 - The Student Days of Sherlock Holmes

"I have no idea what he intends to go in for" [STUD] 

It's our Back to School Blowout Sale! Okay, not really. But since it's September and class is in session, we thought it would be the perfect time to talk about Sherlock Holmes's school days.

In his student days, Holmes said that he considered his habit of observation and deduction to be "the merest hobby." What subjects was he studying at college? What profession did he propose to follow before detective work lured him away? Wouldn't he have considered his skills at observation to be an asset in his main course of study, rather than a hobby unto itself? Or was he studying something where observation and deduction were not particularly useful to him?

And listen closely — particularly if you're Nick Utechin — there is a listener challenge.

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Links

• "The Gloria Scott"
• Episode 27 - Rebellion!

Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra 

Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band 

Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

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36 - Tradesmen in the Canon

"I was already in debt to my tradesmen" [COPP] 

With Labor Day just behind us, what do we find in the Sherlock Holmes stories in the ways of the working class? Holmes said that the public could hardly tell "a weaver by his tooth or a compositor by his left thumb," [COPP] as two examples of the working class.

Certainly, Sherlock Holmes himself took on the guise of workers, such as "a drunken-looking groom" [SCAN] and "a plumber with a rising business." [MILV] And the Molly Maguires played a role in VALL. What other Canonical tradesmen were we exposed to?

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Please leave us a rating and review on the podcast player of your choice, and consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.

Links

• The Encyclopedia Sherlockiana by Jack Tracy
• The famous sniffing scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra 

Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band 

Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

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