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The History Hour
The return of Chief Long Wolf and The Statue of Liberty's facelift
The History Hour
Jul 3, 2026

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

Our guest is Jan English from the American Museum and Gardens in Bath in the UK.

We start with the moment the remains of a Native American chief were returned to the US, more than a century after his death in England in 1892.

Next we head to 1959 when Hawaii was brought into the United States of America as the 50th state with the passing of the Hawaiian Admission Act.

And we go back to the 1940s, when a Mexican American launched the US's first radio service in Spanish.

We fast forward to the 1980s, when the Statue of Liberty was showing her age and was given a multi-million-dollar facelift.

To the story of Rosa Parks who made civil rights history in 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on the bus, despite segregation laws discriminating against black people. This story contains outdated language.

Finally, the creative vision behind West Germany's 1990 World Cup shirt which became a design classic and is now one of the most sought-after by kit collectors around the world.

Contributors: Mary Black Feather Condon - Chief Long Wolf’s great‑granddaughter. John Waihe'e - Former governor of Hawaii. Jan English - American Museum and Gardens Collections and Public Engagement Director. Guillermo Nicolas - Raoul Cortez's grandson. Peter Dessauer - Architect who oversaw the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. Rosa Parks - Civil rights activist. Ina Franzmann - Designer of West Germany’s 1990 football shirt.

(Photo: The Statue of Liberty surrounded by scaffolding during its restoration. Credit: Terry Disney/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

More Episodes
Aug 15, 2026
The Mau Mau uprising and man-eating lions

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes focussing on Kenya.

We hear about Muthoni Kirima, one of the last Mau Mau fighters to come out of hiding and lay down her arms.

Caroline Elkins, Professor of History at Harvard University, discusses the brutality of the conflict between Kenya’s Land and Freedom Army, the British and Kenyan loyalists.

Next, when Princess Elizabeth became queen while staying at the Treetops Hotel, a lodge in the Aberdare National Park.

In 1997, scientists travelled to Kenya, in search of a cave believed to have been the den of the man-eating lions that terrorised railway workers in 1898.

Plus, we hear how Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga signed an unprecedented power-sharing deal to end a wave of violence that left more than 1,200 people dead.

And the heartwarming story of the friendship between a baby hippo and a 130-year-old giant tortoise.

Finally for our Sporting Witness story, we head to the first Ultimate Frisbee World Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1983.

Contributors: Caroline Elkins - Professor of History at Harvard University, and author of Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. Muthoni Kirima - Field Marshall in the Kenya Land and Freedom Army. Frank Gillard - BBC correspondent. Thomas Gnoske - Scientist. Alan Patterson - British Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson's grandson. Maina Kiai - Chair of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights in 2008. Maini Schildt - Swedish Ultimate Frisbee player.

(Photo: Mau Mau suspects are rounded up by police outside the camp in Manyani, Kenya, 1955. Credit: Getty Images/Authenticated News)


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The return of Chief Long Wolf and The Statue of Liberty's facelift

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