Digital Commons Network^™

“They Were Planning On It”: Recasting The 1967 Buffalo Uprising As A Student-Driven Insurgency, Matthew P. Gawley

Honors Theses

The past two decades have witnessed a critical re-analysis of the many African American urban “ghetto revolts” of the 1960s and 1970s. This paper analyzes one of the one hundred fifty-seven violent incidents of the “Long Hot Summer” of 1967, the Buffalo Uprising (June 26 – July 1, 1967). Building from recent research which indicates this incident had deeply political overtones, this work demonstrates the student-driven nature of the five-day rebellion, and the internal collaboration participants engaged in during their violent and non-violent activities. Drawing upon personally conducted interviews, interviews from 1967, newspaper testimony, and various publications, this new understanding …

Understanding The Role Of Race In American Medicine, Fariel C. A. Lamountain

Honors Theses

Long running inequity in health care and outcomes in the United States stem from failure to acknowledge the underlying role of the Transatlantic slave trade as it manifests in all facets of American society and commerce. This paper focuses specifically on the American medical system and its foundations to understand the precursors to generational trends in lack of access to healthcare and poor health for Black communities. This paper uses a three-pronged approach to understand the racist cycle of inequity, highlighting the history and origins of racism in American medicine, personal accounts and statistical evidence of inequity, and community and …

Memories And New Beginnings: Chinese American Restaurants And Food As A Contact Zone In Early-Twentieth Century California, Nicholas Kim

Honors Theses

In previous Asian American studies, authors largely focus on urban centers. In my thesis, I center rural Chinese American communities in early-twentieth century California in the making of the Chinese American identity. I argue that they, along with Chinese American food, acted as contact zones for Chinese and non-Chinese Americans. This paper covers a range of themes, including most prominently the connection between food and culture. I additionally address how Chinese American restaurants and food challenged perceptions of Chinese Americans as foreigners, their role in gender relations, and what we consider to be authentic. This paper largely uses archival newspaper …

"They Shall Be A Kosmos:" Alexander Von Humboldt And The Ecopoetics Of Walt Whitman, Benjamin Theyerl

Honors Theses

Places the naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt's proto-ecological ideas in conversation with Walt Whitman's poetry to show how the poet developed an ecopoetics in conversation with the natural sciences of his time, with specific attention to Von Humboldt's theory of the "kosmos" - by which Whitman's poetic persona self-identified. These recognitions are combined with how Whitman's idealized version of the American poet as a “kosmos” creates a political ecology in Whitman’s work, placing his ecopoetics into environmental discourses that resonate from their origin in the nineteenth century to our present ecological moment today.

Abraham Lincoln, The United States, And Mexico: The Implications Of Memory In A Continental History, Emilie E. Ginn

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the malleability of memory through an analysis of both domestic and international memories of Abraham Lincoln. With a particular focus on the American Civil War Era in a North American continental context, key individuals are identified and their contributions are illuminated. While Abraham Lincoln is remembered for all that he accomplished during this time, others such as Matías Romero, Ulysses S. Grant, and Plácido Vega, also greatly contributed to the development of the relationship between the United States and Mexico.

Additionally, institutional and collective memories of Abraham Lincoln invoke present-day examples of intentional manipulation of these memories …

The Colby Community In World War I, Eleanor A. Hanson

Honors Theses

This thesis discusses the roles of members of the Colby community during World War I from 1914 until after the Armistice. It covers the roles of soldiers, students, and members of the home front, all somehow related to Colby College to discover how Colby and its community engaged with the war.

Rewriting History - With Alan Taylor '77, Kate Carlisle

Colby Magazine

"Lets go back to the American Revolution and try to look at it with fresh eyes and a neutral perspective and see what happens when you treat everyone with some respect, and try to understand why they did what they did, rather than put labels on them." - Alan Taylor '77

Making It In Maine: Stories Of Jewish Life In Small-Town America, David M. Freidenreich

Faculty Scholarship

There are countless stories of Jewish life in Maine, stretching back 200 years. These are stories worth telling not only for their enjoyment value but also because we can learn a great deal from them. They reflect the challenges that confronted members of an immigrant community as they sought to become true Mainers, as well as the challenges this ethnic group now faces as a result of its successful integration. The experiences of Jews in Maine, moreover, encapsulate in many ways the experiences of small-town Jews throughout New England and the United States. Their stories offer glimpses into the changing …

From Development To Desintegration: Elites And The Connectedness Of Mountain Communities In Western North Carolina From The Antebellum Period To The End Of The Civil War, Colin W. Hull

Honors Theses

This paper undertakes as study of western North Carolina and the connectedness of mountain communities as they developed and disintegrated over the course of the antebellum period and the American Civil War. The research and conclusions in this paper confront common stereotypes of Appalachia, which include individualism, backwardness, isolation, and unionism during the Civil War. These stereotypes and generalizations have been attributed to the region by early histories, outsider accounts, and popular representations and have led to a myth of an engrained mountain culture, embodying those stereotypes. Mountain communities were not stagnant and unchanged throughout the 19^th century, but …

Aram Goudsouzian '94 And The Meredith March, Robert Weisbrot

Colby Magazine

James Meredith, an African-American Air Force veteran from Mississippi, did not perish during the civil rights protests of the 1960s, but it was not for lack of trying. On Oct. 1, 1962, Meredith became the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi at Oxford, a death-defying step that impelled President Kennedy to send federal marshals and the U.S. Army to keep racist mobs at bay. On June 5, 1966, following passage of a Voting Rights Act that promised federal protection to blacks seeking the ballot, Meredith began a solitary 220-mile March Against Fear from Memphis, Tenn., through Jackson, …

In Their Footsteps, In Their Words: Special Section, 1964-2013

Colby Magazine

Civil rights, the Vietnam War, end of fraternities—Colby explores the past 50 years.

In Their Footsteps, In Their Words: Special Section, 1914-1963

Colby Magazine

Three wars. A devastating economic depression. Construction of an entirely new campus from scratch. And all in 50 years.

The period that began as World War I erupted and ended as the tumult of the 1960s loomed was marked by a series of unprecedented events that could have mortally wounded a modestly funded liberal arts college in central Maine. The Great War emptied the campus. World War II turned Colby into a military training center. The bold decision to move the College to Mayflower Hill was sandwiched by the Depression and the Korean War and marked by the return of …

In Their Footsteps, In Their Words: Special Section, 1864-1913

Colby Magazine

In Their Footsteps and In Their Words: Colby explores the second 50 years, 1864-1913.

In Their Footsteps, In Their Words: Special Section, 1813-1863

Colby Magazine

In Their Footsteps and In Their Words: Colby explores the first 50 years, from Jeremiah Chaplin to the Civil War.

When The Confederates Terrorized Maine: The Battle Of Portland Harbor, Carter Stevens

Honors Theses

Saturday, June 27, 1863, dawned brightly over Portland, Maine. As the city’s residents began to go about their weekend business, they suddenly realized that the Caleb Cushing, the United States Revenue Cutter (U.S.R.C.) which had been stationed in Portland Harbor on and off again since 1853, was missing. Rumors flew about a traitorous Southerner on board, the work of pirates on the coast, and more. Before the day was over, the revenue cutter would be destroyed and the Casco Bay area would be transformed forever, a victim of one of the northernmost events of the Civil War on the periphery. …

"Kill The Indian, Save The Man," Americanization Through Education: Richard Henry Pratt's Legacy, Lindsay Peterson

Honors Theses

"Even wild turkeys only need the environment and kind treatment of domestic civilized life to become a very part of it.” Richard Henry Pratt made this observation while preparing for Thanksgiving with his family in 1867 in response to his interactions with Native Americans on the frontier. He served out West as second lieutenant in the 10th United States Cavalry, an African American regiment. The basic idea behind Pratt’s mentality was that the Indians’ inferiority was cultural, not racial, and that even Native Americans could become educated and “civilized” if only given the same opportunities provided to white Americans, African …

The American Rifled Musket: Technical Revolution Or Tactical Redundancy?, Alexandre F. Caillot

Honors Theses

The German soldier and military writer Freiherr von Bülow (1755-1816) once said that tactics were “the science of movements which are made in the presence of the enemy, that is, within his view, and within reach of his artillery.” This viewpoint, which he espoused in his seminal text Spirit of the System of Modern War (published in German in 1799), was representative of principles that would hold dominion over much of 19th-century-military thought. However, the 1850s was hardly a time of intellectual stagnation in which innovation lacked amongst the military theorists of Europe. Indeed, it was a period of discovery …

The Kennebec River: A Historic Maine Resource, Elise Begin

Historical Ecology Atlas of New England

The Kennebec River has been considered one of Maine’s most important resources for at least the past 6-8 thousand years; its basin is located in west central Maine and drains 5,893 square miles, an area that is approximately one-fifth the area of the state. The river originates at Moosehead lake and runs 170 miles to the Atlantic Ocean. The river can be divided into two basins: the upper basin, which spans from Moosehead Lake to Waterville; and the lower basin, which spans from Waterville to the ocean.

Before the arrival of Europeans in 1606, the Abenaki Indians controlled the entirety …

Maine Learns To Love Dairying, Erin Love

Historical Ecology Atlas of New England

The transition from subsistence to commercial farming is a defining trend in Maine dairying that continues today. Technological advances that often caused large landscape scale changes were catalysts in the division between small and large farmers. The industry developed in a relatively short time period—the last thirty years of the 19th century—but the characteristic divide between large and small farmers has continued to be exacerbated.

Bath, Maine: A City Of Ships, Taylor Witkin

Historical Ecology Atlas of New England

Known as Maine’s city of ships, Bath sits on the shores of the Kennebec River, about 15 miles from the Gulf of Maine and 40 miles up the coast from Portland. Though small in population, Bath’s impact on Maine, the rest of United States, and even on the world has been anything but small. Today Bath is known mostly for the Bath Iron Works, which supplies the US Navy with a large portion of its fleets, however, in Bath’s early days it built large, wooden yachts and schooners mostly for trade, not war. The next few pages will explore Bath’s …

The Happy Valley, Cassie Raker

Historical Ecology Atlas of New England

On the Connecticut River in Western Massachusetts, there exists the Happy Valley. Surrounded by the humble Holyoke Range, today you will find a bustling New England settlement dominated by local colleges and universities. But it was not always so. The picturesque Mount Holyoke and its accompanying hotel, known as the Summit House, have overlooked the area for hundreds of years, watching it change from forest to farmland to industry to the modern landscape it is today.

Forecasting The Future: The Early United States Weather Bureau, Robert T. Canning

Honors Theses

The national weather service of the United States came into being in 1870 for the practical utility of the American people. The interaction between weather, agriculture, and commerce provided the impetus for the inception of the service. Many historians put forward the notion of an obdurate weather bureau, a scientific backwater with no interest in modernization until after World War II. I disagree with this popular historiography and instead offer a history of the weather bureau’s attempts to institute the latest meteorological practices that takes into consideration the burdens and obligations of the bureau, as well as the historical context. …

Symposium Participants' Bios, Bern Porter

Bern Porter Occasional Symposium Series

Biographical information about presenters and participants of the Bern Porter Occasional Symposium Series: The Bomb, the National Security State and the Advanced Thinking of Bern Porter.

Symposium Program, Bern Porter

Bern Porter Occasional Symposium Series

Printed program of the Bern Porter Occasional Symposium Series: The Bomb, the National Security State and the Advanced Thinking of Bern Porter.

Symposium Flyer, Bern Porter

Bern Porter Occasional Symposium Series

Flyer advertising the Bern Porter Occasional Symposium Series: The Bomb, the National Security State and the Advanced Thinking of Bern Porter.

"System Of Silence": Philadelphia Orphanages And The Limits Of Benevolence, 1780s-1830s, Brian Sweeney

Honors Theses

In 1831, Mathew Carey, a well-known Philadelphia economist, wrote a city official describing the situation of black children in the city. He called for the creation of an orphanage to aid these children and described the motives for this action as not only the “humanity and benevolence” of Philadelphians, but also “personal interest”, as this class could otherwise turn “lawless”. Unknown to Carey, the Association for the Care of Coloured Orphans had been established in 1822 by a group of benevolent Quaker women dedicated to aiding this destitute class in an effort to promote compensatory justice for generations of oppression …

Motorized Obsessions: Life, Liberty, And The Small-Bore Engine, Paul R. Josephson

Faculty Books

From dirt bikes and jet skis to weed wackers and snowblowers, machines powered by small gas engines have become a permanent—and loud—fixture in American culture. But fifty years of high-speed fun and pristine lawns have not come without cost.

In the first comprehensive history of the small-bore engine and the technology it powers, Paul R. Josephson explores the political, environmental, and public health issues surrounding one of America's most dangerous pastimes. Each chapter tells the story of an ecosystem within the United States and the devices that wreak havoc on it—personal watercraft (PWCs) on inland lakes and rivers; all-terrain vehicles …

Remembered Maine, Ernest Cummings Marriner

Colby Books

No abstract provided.

Kennebec Yesterdays, Ernest Cummings Marriner

Colby Books

A “social history of the Pine Tree State…especially…the Kennebec Valley” inspired by Marriner’s long-running Sunday evening radio program “Little Talks on Common Things,” broadcast by Waterville’s WTVL beginning in 1948.

From the foreword:

To my amazement I found hundreds of people interested in the social history of the Pine Tree State. Material has always poured in faster than I could use it. Out of trunks and boxes stored away in attics, came letters and diaries, account books and legal documents. Scrap books prepared by patient hands many decades ago were opened for my inspection. Yellowed newspapers, tied in neat bundles …

The Waterville Mail (Vol. 59, No. 52): May 9, 1906, The Mail Publishing Company

The Waterville Mail (Waterville, Maine)

Continues The Eastern Mail (July 1847-August 1863).
Published weekly, September 4, 1863 - May 9, 1906.
Publishers: Maxham & Wing (1863 - December 2,1885); Ephraim Maxham (December 1885); Wing & Wing (January 1886 - March 21, 1891); Charles G. Wing (March 21, 1891 - April 17, 1891); Prince & Wyman (April 17, 1891 - February 26, 1896); The Mail Publishing Company (February 26, 1896 - May 9, 1906).
See Gerould, W.G.: American newspapers, 1821-1836; Whittemore, E.C.: Centennial history of Waterville.
Colby Libraries catalog record (CBBcat): http://cbbcat.net/record=b1209701~S19
WorldCat record (OCLC): http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10486964