Digital Commons Network^™

River City Blues: The Quest For Municipal Home Rule & Economic Security In St. Louis, Josef Wibbenmeyer

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The Great Divorce in St. Louis, the separation of the City and County of St. Louis in 1876 is one of the most impactful events in the region’s history. Most people will think of the Great Divorce in simple terms like "The County didn't like the City." or "The City didn't want to pay tax money that went to the County alone." Few, however, go further and ask why. Why didn't the City want to pay taxes to the County? The answer is economics. I found in my research compelling evidence that the City leadership believed that the municipal relationship …

A Most Despicable Hoax: Women, Crime, And Newspapers In Depression-Era St. Louis, Nancy Stiles

Theses

This paper delves into the captivating saga of Nellie Muench, a St. Louis housewife whose life intersected with the burgeoning celebrity culture, evolving media landscape, and shifting gender dynamics of the early 20th century. Muench's involvement as a co-conspirator in the 1931 kidnapping for ransom of a wealthy doctor propelled her into the spotlight, where she navigated media manipulation to attempt to craft her own narrative. Secretly obtaining a baby and passing it off as her own child to gain jury sympathy and blackmail a rich paramour took interest in her case to sensational tabloid (and legal) heights. Drawing from …

Preserving Sacred Memory: The Effort To Create The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Jessica Wachtel

Undergraduate Research Symposium

This poster attempts to provide insight on how the American government remembers the Holocaust through its formation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Topics include the physical structure of the museum, the history of the museum, and the relationship between original museum chairman Elie Wiesel and U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

"I Hate Illinois Nazis:" Remembering Hate Speech And The First Amendment In Skokie, Illinois, Morgan Myers

Undergraduate Research Symposium

In 1976, the leader of the Illinois chapter of the National Socialist Party of America (neo-Nazis) sent over 30 requests to hold demonstrations in various areas of Chicago. The village of Skokie was the only one to respond, denying their request. The Nazis sued the city, claiming their freedom of speech was being impeded. The resulting court case has had lasting legal and social consequences that continue to define the meaning of both free speech and hate speech in the United States.

"Killin' Nazis": How Jews Are Portrayed In Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, Skylar Baxter

Undergraduate Research Symposium

In Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, Jews are portrayed as violent, revenge-seeking Nazi hunters. This portrayal creates an ironic conflict within Tarantino's audience because Jews are seen as capable of the same atrocities of which they were victims. Under Hannah Arendt's definition of Nazis, the actions of the Jews in Inglorious Basterds are not equivalent to the crimes that Nazis committed. Jewish revenge fantasies are thereby not the same as the actual violence that Jews received from Nazis.

Unraveling The Truth: The Wannsee Conference And Holocaust Denial, Howie Parkes

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The Wannsee Conference, held in January 1942, marked a crucial turning point in the Holocaust, as it signified the Nazi regime's decision to systematically exterminate Europe's Jewish population on an industrial scale. This poster presentation examines the role of the Wannsee Conference in Holocaust denial narratives and the portrayal of the conference in the critically acclaimed film, Conspiracy (2001). I discuss how Holocaust deniers use the Wannsee Conference to argue against the existence of a plan to exterminate Jews or to suggest that the conference never took place. Through an analysis of the conference transcript, I demonstrate its significance in …

The 1904 World’S Fair: Intended Impact Of The U.S. Government Building Versus Visitor Experience, Dalton King

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The 1904 Saint Louis World’s Fair, known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, has long been known for its significant impact on America and the world. This research explores the intended purpose of the 1904 World’s Fair’s United States Government Building and its exhibits of the War and Navy Departments. Furthermore, this analysis investigates the visitor experience of the Government Building’s characteristics and exhibits. During the Progressive Era, American society was undergoing a significant paradigm shift through countless evolutions in industry, technology, and culture, and this research contextualizes historical study of the time. Though the recent body of literature revolves around …

The Failed 1971-1973 Redevelopment Of Pruitt-Igoe, Rachael Heriford

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Majority of public housing in the United States is a failure of cyclical nature. Historians have examined the collapse of public housing either at a local level via the examination of a specific housing project or through a federal level by researching HOPE VI, the current federal housing policy since the 1990s that encourages demolishing and privatization of public housing. Up until the 1990s, demolition wasn't as common as it is today, and became more normalized after the demolition of Pruitt-Igoe in 1973. Pruitt-Igoe is one of the more notable examples of how badly public housing can fail. However, the …

How The West Was Stolen: A Closer Look At The St.Louis Treaty Of 1804, Lisa Kozieja

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Land back is a social movement of indigenous groups in North America. Land justice is a high-priority topic in current society. Exploring the indignities of indigenous removal from their tribal land in the United States implores us to open our minds and look closer at the methodology of westward expansion. Aggressive tactics for acquiring ownership of land from non-cooperative tribes and land trade clauses in treaty language allowed the United states government to lay the foundation for The Indian Removal Act of 1830. The St. Louis Treaty of 1804 ceded 50 million acres of Sauk and Fox tribal land to …

Cinema Exhibition In St. Louis, 1920: A Thriving Business, Sarah E. Boslaugh

Undergraduate Research Symposium

In 1920, St. Louis was the 6th largest city in the United States, with a population of 772,897, and density of 11,684/square mile (twice today's density). The population was primarily (90.9%) white, with 14.7% of the white population foreign born. The city had a dense trolley network, while private ownership of automobiles was relatively rare (15.8 residents per car). Cinema exhibition was a thriving business in the city, with 120 cinemas and 29 film exchanges (as compared to, for instance, 12 live theatres in the same year).

Cinemas were located throughout the city, primarily on or near trolley lines. This …

The Diversification Of The Anti-Vietnam War Movement: An Analysis Of The St. Louis Peace Information Center Files, Reagan Elkhashab

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The St. Louis Peace Information Center (STLPIC) was founded in 1967 as part of an outreach effort of the St. Louis chapter's Vietnam Summer opinion poll. The center in St. Louis was founded to coordinate anti-Vietnam War groups based nationally and locally, as well as to inform the public about its anti-war mission and activities. The archives of the Peace Center were donated to the State Historical Society of Missouri by former member, secretary, and board director Yvonne Logan. The records contain administrative records, flyers, newsletters, event advertisements, and more pertaining to the organizations the STLPIC partnered with throughout its …

“From The House Come Everything”: Macler Shepard And Jeffvanderlou, Inc’S Effort To Rebuild A North St. Louis City Neighborhood, 1966-1978, Mark Loehrer

Theses

This thesis charts the course of the JeffVanderLou (JVL) organization between the pivotal years of 1966 to 1976, using the life of a man named Macler Shepard as the primary lens of exploration. Born in Marvell Arkansas, Macler Shepard followed in the footsteps of tens of thousands of other Southern migrants to cities like St. Louis, hoping to find a new life in the industrial North. However, no sooner had he settled in, he was displaced by the construction of Pruitt-Igoe, one of St. Louis’ first large-scale urban renewal programs. In response, Shepard became involved in neighborhood organizing, focusing on …

The Allies And The Holocaust, Mark Granicke

Undergraduate Research Symposium

During World War II, Nazi Germany carried out one of the most atrocious crimes in human history, the Holocaust. This systematic extermination of approximately 6 million Jews, along with other groups between 1941-1945, has become a focal point of modern human history. It is difficult to grasp the sheer magnitude of the undertaking by the Nazis. One question often asked is why the Allies did not do more to prevent this massacre. Were they simply ignorant of the entire event during the war? Knowing today the sheer magnitude of the Holocaust, it is difficult to believe knowledge of it would …

The Memoirs Of Guillaume Tell Poussin: The “French Connection” In The Construction Of American Roads, Canals, And Railroads, Steven Rowan

History Faculty Works

Guillaume Tell Poussin (1794-1876), indirectly related to the great French painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), was born in France, received an excellent technical education at the Lycée of Rouen and the School of Fine Arts in Paris, but fled to America after the collapse of Napoléon Bonaparte’s empire. He became a supervisor of the rebuilding of the United States Capitol, damaged in the War of 1812, and he was commissioned a captain of the US Army Corps of Engineers with the personal support of President James Madison. In partnership with his fellow Frenchman General Simon Bernard, he surveyed the waterways and …

Amelia Earhart: Myth And Memory, Amy Lutz

Theses

There are a range of theories about Amelia Earhart's disappearance. This thesis considers one of the most long-running theories - The Japanese Capture Theory. This theory posits that Earhart was captured and/or executed by the Japanese upon her disappearance in 1937. The Japanese Capture Theory, from its inception in 1942 to its continued existence today, has considerably impacted the historical memory of Amelia Earhart. A woman who was so beloved and celebrated in life is largely more famous for her death. Her story was retold in hindsight, without her voice. The emergence of theories about her disappearance and popular fascination …

The American Yawp, Joseph Locke, Ben Wright

Open Educational Resources Collection

The American Yawp constructs a coherent and accessible narrative from all the best of recent historical scholarship. Without losing sight of politics and power, it incorporates transnational perspectives, integrates diverse voices, recovers narratives of resistance, and explores the complex process of cultural creation. It looks for America in crowded slave cabins, bustling markets, congested tenements, and marbled halls. It navigates between maternity wards, prisons, streets, bars, and boardrooms. Whitman’s America, like ours, cut across the narrow boundaries that strangle many narratives. Balancing academic rigor with popular readability, The American Yawp offers a multi-layered, democratic alternative to the American past.

Reports From The United States Of North America On Railroads, Steamship Travel, Banks And Other Public Undertakings By Franz Anton Ritter Von Gerstner And Description Of A Journey Through The United States Of North America By Clara Von Gerstner, Née Von Epplen-Härtenstein Translated, With An Introduction, By Steven Rowan, Steven Rowan, Franz Anton Ritter Von Gerstner, Clara Von Gerstner, Née Von Epplen-Härtenstein

History Faculty Works

What follows contains a translation of the Berichte aus den Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika… [= Reports from the United States of North America] by Franz Anton Ritter von Gerstner, published in Leipzig in August 1839, and posted on the website of “austrian literature online.” It is the companion piece to two other classics of contemporary travel literature, one of them Ritter von Gerstner’s massive description of the transportation system of the United States published by F. A. von Gerstner’s assistant, Ludwig Klein,1 as well as the touching detailed travel narrative of his widow, Clara von Gerstner, Beschreibung einer Reise durch …

Designing Simplicity To Achieve Technological Improvement: The General Electric J79 Turbojet Engine; Innovations, Achievements And Effects, Matt C. Brimer

Theses

With the beginning of powered, manned flight, the piston engine drove a propeller or multiple propellers to provide the thrust for lift required to overcome the forces of drag and gravity for flight. As aircraft speeds gradually increased over time, the power needed to overcome the aerodynamic inefficiencies of the propeller to greater speeds and altitudes were quickly realized as a hindrance to the potential of aircraft. With the turbojet engine, this new mechanism and subsequent aerodynamic changes revolutionized aircraft to increased speeds and altitude never before achievable with a piston engine. The United States, after acquiring further and more …

U.S. History, P. Scott Corbett, Jay Precht, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, Sylvie Waskiewicz

Open Educational Resources Collection

U.S. History is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of most introductory courses. The text provides a balanced approach to U.S. history, considering the people, events, and ideas that have shaped the United States from both the top down (politics, economics, diplomacy) and bottom up (eyewitness accounts, lived experience). U.S. History covers key forces that form the American experience, with particular attention to issues of race, class, and gender.

The Devil In Confederate New Orleans: Baron Ludwig Von Reizenstein's Second Novel With A Translation Of Wie Der Teufel In New Orleans Ist (1861), Steven Rowan

History Faculty Works

A paper presented at the 26th Annual Symposium of the Society for German-American Studies, Amana, Iowa, 19 April 2002, "The Devil in Confederate New Orleans: Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein's Second Novel."

Wie der Teufel in New Orleans ist (1861)

Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein's Second Novel with a Translation of Wie der Teufel in New Orleans ist (1861)

Daniel Hertle's Narrative Of The Camp Jackson Incident In St. Louis, 10 May 1861, Steven Rowan

History Faculty Works

Paper presented at the Conference on the American Civil War sponsored by the LEUCOREA Foundation, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, 30 March 2001.