Season 2, Episode 3: Thunderbolt: A World War II Bomber Pilot’s Canine Companion

In this episode, we explore the story of Thunderbolt, a dog who served as a companion to an American bomber pilot and POW, Lieutenant Robert Payne, during World War II. Research Department Intern Ian Morrison guides us through this story by highlighting the letters and photos that he discovered in the MHS collection.

Episode transcript

Click the image above to view the photo. More information about the collection can be found here.

Episode Special Guests:

Ian Morrison, a Boston-area native, is a Junior at Bowdoin College where he is studying History and Francophone Studies. He first interned with us to learn more about curation and library science, and has since confirmed his desire to continue on in the field.

Lorien Foote is the Patricia & Bookman Peters Professor of History at Texas A&M University.

This episode uses materials from:

Cloudbank by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)
Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)
Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)

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