DETECTIVE GWEN WRIGHT

All the stories below feature the History Detective Gwen Wright . Just click on one of the links below to go to the story or go back to the Archive.

Alcoholics Anonymous Letter

Is this letter from the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous proof of one man's contribution to this secretive society?...More

Black Tom Shell

Is this shell from a devastating act of foreign sabotage on American soil?...More

Body in the Basement

While on a dig, “The Lost Towns of Anne Arundel County” Project unearthed a rather surprising discovery...More

Boxcar Home

Why is a boxcar buried beneath this suburban kitchen?...More

Calhoun Books

Do these books shed light on the thinking of one of the most powerful politicians in 19th-century America? ...More

Cannon House

Could a Maryland family's home once have been the headquarters for the kidnapper and slave trader Patty Cannon, coined "the most wicked woman in America?"...More

Cesar Chavez Banner

A San Francisco woman has heard about a beautiful old banner owned by a local archive that, rumor has it, was carried at the head of the famous Delano Grape Boycott march led by Cesar Chavez in 1966...More

Charlie Parker's Saxophone

A woman owns a beautiful old alto saxophone that belonged to her father and according to family legend was once owned by the legendary jazz musician Charlie "Bird" Parker...More

Cherokee Bible

A Texan of Cherokee descent inherits a mysterious bible from her father...More

China Marine Jacket

Can the symbols on this unusual item of clothing identify a marine who may have witnessed a Chinese paradise tumbling into disaster?  ...More

Chinese Poems

In the first half of the 20th century, nearly 250,000 Chinese immigrants attempted to enter the United States...More

Coney Island Lions

A New York resident recently purchased a pair of giant zinc lion's claws from the estate sale of a deceased collector of amusement park memorabilia...More

Continental Currency

Could this $6 bill represent America’s first declaration of its independence? ...More

Creole Poems

Does this manuscript contain words of love or illegal acts of rebellion?...More

First Movie Studio

Lincoln Heights is a quiet neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles located far from the glitz and glamour normally associated with Hollywood...More

Geronimo Photograph

One woman's heritage goes back to the 1870s, when her great-great-grandfather was Lieutenant Governor of the still-wild New Mexico territory...More

Hitler Films

Could these rusting film canisters contain unknown footage of one of the 20th century's most heinous murderers? ...More

Home of Lincoln Assassination Plot

Did John Wilkes Booth, the infamous assassin of Abraham Lincoln, spend time in this house?...More

Houdini Poster

A Chicago man replacing roof insulation in his home realized that the old material contained scores of old posters for a Harry Houdini magic show...More

Howard Hughes' Invention

A man in San Jose, California has a letter that he believes will prove his grandfather deserves credit for the Howard Hughes' drill bit invention. ...More

Independence Trumpet

Is a Pennsylvania man's trumpet, which he bought at a local auction, somehow tied to the Revolutionary War?..More

Isleton Tong

Was this building a safe haven for persecuted immigrants, or a hub for organized crime? ...More

Japanese House

How did an authentic Japanese house become part of the famed San Francisco World's Fair in a time just preceding World War II...More

John Adams Book

Do these tattered pages open the book on a President who built a nation even as his own son fell into ruin?...More

Koranic School Book

A History Detectives viewer in Mulvane, Kansas, owns a 200-year-old schoolbook with a startling secret...More

Lafayette China

Hearts and arrows blaze across an unusual set of china at the Powel House in Philadelphia...More

Leisurama Homes

The grandson of Andrew Geller, the designer of Leisureama homes, is trying to find some of his grandfather's products in Florida..More

Lou Gehrig Autograph

An Oregon man has a baseball ticket that bears an autograph “Lou Gehrig” and a scribbled date: July 4th, 1939...More

Monroe Letter

Does this letter link America's fifth President to the high seas piracy of U.S. merchant ships in the early 1800s?...More

Movie Palace

Is it possible that a theater in the small town of Baraboo, Wisconsin, could have been the country's first great movie palace?...More

N.E.A.R Device

Was this device invented to help Americans believe they could survive a soviet nuclear attack?...More

Nora Holt Autograph Book

Why did this Harlem Renaissance luminary own a book bearing the signatures of Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge?...More

Old Fire Station

Did President Ulysses S. Grant stop by a Morristown, New Jersey, firehouse on the centennial of America?...More

"Pop" Lloyd Baseball Stadium

Why was a baseball field in Atlantic City, New Jersey, named after an African-American ballplayer in a time of intense racial tension?...More

Psychophone

Did Thomas Edison make a machine to unlock the secrets of the dead?...More

Quaker Map

Did this faded map once guide slaves to freedom on the underground railroad? ...More

Railroad Station

A local historian calls in the history detectives to find out if a disused depot was the first railroad station in Texas and if it was responsible for putting Dallas on the map...More

Red Cloud Letter

How was a leader of the Lakota people connected with the controversial sculptor of Mount Rushmore? ...More

Rebel Whiskey Flask

It’s the Fall of 1794, and trouble is brewing in western Pennsylvania. Thousands of protestors are daring to fight back against the newly established U.S. government, protesting a tax on whiskey...More

Revolutionary War Poem 109

The History Detectives arrive in Salem, Oregon to look into the story of a Revolutionary War poem found 25 years ago hiding in an antique trunk...More

"Scottsboro Boys" Stamp

Did a penny stamp help save the Scottsboro Boys from the electric chair?...More

Sears Home

Might an Ohio couple's residence be a long-forgotten Sears home?...More

Shippen Golf Club

A children’s golf foundation recently received a surprising donation, an antique golf club...More

Shipwreck Cannons

Are these the last remains of a navy schooner that fought in a border dispute with the mighty British Empire?...More

Society Circus Program

Why are some of New York's wealthiest planning a high society circus at the very depth of the Great Depression? ...More

Silent Film Reel

Is this silent film reel a lost piece of film history and will it ever screen again? ...More

Texas POW Camp

A resident of Hearne, Texas recently heard rumors that a German POW camp was based in her town during World War II...More

Thomas Edison's House

Was this home designed and built by inventor Thomas Edison?...More

Tokyo Rose

Did this 1940s recording help convict the woman alleged to be a Japanese spy?...More

Unwed Mothers' Home

The only reminder one woman has of her birth parents is a medallion of the Virgin Mary that was attached to her diaper when she was presented from a home for unwed mothers to her adoptive parents...More

USS Thresher

How are these documents connected to a nuclear submarine, which sank with all hands during the height of the Cold War? ...More

Women's Suffrage Painting

What role did this watercolor painting play in securing women the right to vote?... More

Witch's House

Could a house in Essex County, Massachusetts, have once belonged to an accused witch?...More

WW1 Chemical Warfare Map

A woman inherits a map of a World War I battlefield in France from her grandfather, an engineer under General Pershing...More