History Detectives

A man from New Mexico bought a theremin, one of the first electronic instruments off e-Bay. When his theremin arrived, our contributor found an unusual document tacked to the inside of the cabinet. The letterhead paper bore the address to the Theremin Studios in New York City. Does our contributor have one of the fewer than a dozen instruments in the U.S. that Leon Theremin built himself?

Our contributor inherited a cane topped with a snake, According to family lore, the copperhead cane belonged to our viewer's great-great grandfather, Henry Clay Dean who opposed the Civil War. He was a member of a powerful anti-Lincoln group who were nicknamed the "Copperheads" after the snake known for striking without warning. History Detectives tracks the story behind the Copperhead Cane.

A Florida art curator purchased a a tiny ceramic chip with six images. The seller told him the tiny images were the works of several prominent artists and the chip was made as a miniature art museum to attach to the Apollo 12 lunar module. Did NASA actually deliver the artwork of Andy Warhol to the moon? Gwendolyn Wright tracks down three eyewitnesses to this historic moment.

A radio operator made contact with another radio hobbyist who said he was a NASA engineer. He promised to send a memento of their conversation. Our Florida contributor received a square of metallic fabric, along with a hand-drawn diagram. Piecing together information from the radio exchange and notes on the diagram, our contributor believes this could be a piece of an early space satellite.

Our contributor inherited a peculiar object from his father: a jerry-rigged ski boot with a magnetic metal brick bolted to the bottom. In the 1960s, his father worked as an engineer for Westinghouse, which played a role in the space program. Could this be the prototype for a NASA space boot? History Detectives finds out what place this boot has in space history.

Watch Gwen's exclusive interview about Alan Bean's journey from astronaut to artist.