Digital Commons Network^™

Abolitionist Aunty: Jane Chester, Christopher Mundis, Katie Heiser

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

Jane Morris Chester was born enslaved in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 5, 1801. Around 1828, she escaped enslavement and made a treacherous journey north to Harrisburg, where she married George Chester. After George’s death in 1859, Jane, fondly called “Aunty” by Harrisburg citizens, continued to operate the restaurant and opened a premier catering business for Harrisburg elites, including …

Conductor Of The Old Eighth: Harriet M. Marshall, Ian Mcilrath, David Ford, Josh Acevedo

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

Harriet McClintock Marshall was born in 1840. Her mother, Catherine, was one of the founding members of Wesley Union African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and Harriet worked with her mother to continue establishing the church's reputation. Wesley Union, located on Tanner's Alley, was a haven for those seeking freedom through the Underground Railroad. Harriet's and her mother's work …

Renaissance Woman: Gwendolyn Bennett, Eva Cunningham-Firkey, Kennesha Kelly-Davis, Janelle Soash, Faith Swarner

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

While she was still an undergraduate, Bennett established her reputation as a poet when her poem “Nocturne” was published in The Crisis (the journal of the NAACP), and her poem “Heritage” was published in Opportunity (a magazine published by National Urban League). Just a year later, Bennett read “To Usward, ” her tribute to novelist Jesse Fauset, at …

The Political Pen: Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Kate Kuc, Melissa Boyer, Chloe Dickson

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

In 1895, Alice Dunbar-Nelson published her first collection of short stories and poems, Violets and Other Tales. She also published a few plays, such as Mine Eyes Have Seen (1918) in The Crisis, the official magazine of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People. Dunbar-Nelson often used her creative works to address racism and …

Ardent Activist: Anne E. Amos, Anna Strange, Michaela Magners

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

Amos was involved in the temperance movement in Harrisburg. As a founding member of the Independent Order of Daughters of Temperance, she served as the Grand Recording Scribe and District Grand Deputy of the Good Samaritan Council, no. 1. The Council listed under her address on South Avenue functioned as a political hub in the Eighth Ward. Serving …

Mary Sachs: Two Types Of Beauty In Harrisburg, Robin Schwarzmann

Student Scholarship

Harrisburg’s City Beautiful Movement presented by historian, William H. Wilson, and journalist, Paul Beers, among others, often focuses too narrowly on the term beauty, leaving other types of beauty out of the narrative. The narrative frequently focuses on men instead of women, policies instead of people, and external beauty rather than internal beauty. However, both types of beauty were crucial in Harrisburg’s City Beautiful Movement.

Mary Sachs was a Russian born immigrant, who came to America with her family at four years old. Sachs began her life in Baltimore, where she worked in a factory as a teenager. However, when …

Friends Of Reform: The Correspondence Of J. Horace Mcfarland And Mira Lloyd Dock, Molly Elspas, Anna Strange

Student Scholarship

The City Beautiful movement in Harrisburg benefited from the part- nership of two key reformers, J. Horace McFarland and Mira Lloyd Dock. A close reading of their correspondence offers insight into the nature of their relationship, their personal views, and reflections on the long-term effects of City Beautiful.

Network Of City Beautiful Reformers: Humanizing Harrisburg’S Influencers, Anna Strange

Student Scholarship

How do we find out information about strangers in our society today? We ask their friends about them, observe their interactions with others, or possibly check their social media. When researching people in the early 20th century, we can uncover clues to people’s character by using archival research. We can study them in their space and place using geospatial and census data. Mira Lloyd Dock, J. Horace McFarland, and Warren H. Manning were three key reformers who rose to prominence during the City Beautiful Movement in Harrisburg, defined broadly as the period of urban development from 1900-1930 . They formed …

Joining White America: How The Irish Achieved Racial Assimilation, Benjamin Baddorf

Honors Projects and Presentations: Undergraduate

One of the hallmarks of British colonial oppression was the establishment of social control over the native Irish population. In the case of Ireland, the tool that was utilized the most effectively to establish this social control was racialized oppression. According to Theorodore Allen, in his monograph The Invention of the White Race , the hallmarks of racial oppression include an “assault on tribal affinities, customs, laws, and institutions,” all of which describe the systematic disempowerment campaign against the Irish people carried out throughout the majority of the period from the 16th century to 19th century. However, racialized control was …

Musician And Church Leader: Hannah Braxton Jones, Isis Ortiz-Scarlett, Max Weaver, Jarod Fry

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

Hannah's leadership and administrative skills extended beyond the church to civic organizations such as the House of Ruth, Good Samaritans, and Daughters of Samaritans. In addition, she was a dedicated music teacher. She did all of this while providing for her family by working as a domestic, one of the few jobs available to African-American women at that …

Rhythms Of Resilience In The Eighth: From Abolition To Suffrage, Jean Corey, Katie Wingert

Women of the Eighth Ward

Presented on Friday, February 21 as part of Messiah College’s 2020 Humanities Symposium. This exhibit, “Vulnerabilities & Securities in Historic Harrisburg: From Abolition to Suffrage,” was produced by the Center for Public Humanities Student Fellows and Dr. Sarah Myers’s Public History Class.

This exhibit seeks to honor the spirit of perseverance and resilience demonstrated by many individuals who fought for their rights and contributed positively to the community of the Old Eighth, Dauphin County, and beyond. In this year, we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment and the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. 2020 is also the …

History And Memory Of The Old Eighth Ward, Rachel Williams

Student Scholarship

The City Beautiful movement in Harrisburg brought many improve- ments to the capital city, but it also brought destruction to the diverse neighborhood directly east of the capitol building, known today as the “Old Eighth Ward.” Even though this community no longer exists, newspaper accounts of its razing and digital mapping of the families of the Old Eighth Ward preserve this story of displacement within public memory.