1-800-1894: Queen Victoria Woodhull

Welcome back to 1-800-1800. This week, we are talking 1894, the year that Victoria Woodhull (Spiritualist medium, Wall Street broker, Presidential candidate, newspaper publisher, etc.) sued the British Museum for harboring libelous material about her. For this special episode we were joined by Alex Sujong Laughlin, podcaster, writer, and co-owner of Defector Media. Alex is the author of the forthcoming book The Talent Cult: Ambition, Visibility, and Power in the Attention Economy, coming 2027 from One World/Penguin Random House!!! Find more information about her book here and listen to her podcast Try Hard!!!

Victoria Woodhull was a truly singular 19th-century figure. Born into poverty in Homer, Ohio, Victoria California Claflin transformed herself several times over. First, following in their Mesmerist mother’s footsteps, she and her sister performed as Spiritualist mediums as a traveling roadshow. After a few unsuccessful marriages, Victoria remade herself as a clairvoyant to Cornelius Vanderbilt, ultimately running a Wall Street brokerage and opening a newspaper with her sister Tennessee. The sisters became the subject of huge scandal when they broke the Beecher-Tilton Affair, one of the biggest controversies of their time. In her spare time, Victoria advocated for free love and women gaining the vote. She even ran for president in 1872. In her final act, Victoria remade herself as a fine English lady, not unlike her namesake, Queen Victoria. You can take the girl out of Homer, Ohio, but you can’t take the Homer, Ohio out of the girl, and Victoria ended up suing the British Museum for (maybe) harboring (allegedly) libelous material about her. Listen and enjoy!!! This episode was edited by Jack Gorman. :)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe