Digital Commons Network^™

Creating Neighborhood In Postwar Buffalo, New York: Transformations Of The West Side, 1950-1980, Caitlin Boyle Moriarty

Theses and Dissertations

This project reconsiders post-World War II neighborhood change by examining how various groups in Buffalo, New York conceptualized, experienced and produced the West Side as a cultural and economic artifact between 1950 and 1980. This approach offers an alternative to conceptualizing neighborhoods as bounded, natural entities and it encourages narratives that complicate the prevailing metaphor of decline in rust belt cities by illuminating other components of postwar neighborhood change than population loss and economic disinvestment. This project uses neighborhood retail as a lens through which to examine how city planners, the West Side Business Men's Club, the Federation of Italian …

"Murderous Mania": Gender And Homicide In Milwaukee Newspapers, 1840-1900, Kadie Kroening Seitz

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the ways in which Milwaukee's newspapers used gender norms to make sense of acts of murder during the nineteenth century. First, women victims of men's violence are examined, particularly through the lenses of ethnicity, class and race. Women victims who did not fit into middle class gender norms were less likely to be portrayed as "beautiful female murder victims." Then, women perpetrators of violence (not exclusively against men) are discussed, including a specific examination of women's use of an insanity defense. Newspaper tropes used to describe women's motivations for filicide are also examined, and found to vary …

Marvel Comics And New York Stories: Anti-Heroes And Street Level Vigilantes Daredevil And The Punisher, Jesse Allen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis argues that the creation of street level, vigilante heroes The Punisher and Daredevil created by Marvel Comics authors and illustrators in the late 1970s and early 1980s reflected the socio-economic environment of New York City at this same moment in history. By examining an era of New York that was fiscally and socially tense along with the development of characters created by the New York based Marvel Comics, I aim to show how their creation was directly related to the environment which they were produced in.

Works In Progress: Child Characters In Victorian And Postcolonial Fiction, 1814 - 2006, Kiran Mascarenhas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation I analyze the relationship between national and individual development in Victorian and postcolonial novels set in India. My central argument is that the investment in the idea of progress that characterizes colonial narratives of childhood gives way in postcolonial fiction to a suspicion of dominant understandings of progress, and that this difference is manifest in the identity formation of the child character as well as in the form of the novel.

In the Victorian colonial narratives discussed in this study, the bildung of the child involves the overcoming of the child's conflicted cultural identity. The children of …

“So Succeeded By A Kind Providence”: Communities Of Color In Eighteenth Century Boston, Eric M. Hanson Plass

Graduate Masters Theses

The Freedom Trail has become an iconic symbol and major tourist attraction in the City of Boston. Yet since its Cold War-era inception, the Freedom Trail has remained problematically focused on a consensus history of leading white men who brought forth the American Revolution. Other heritage trails - most notably the Black Heritage Trail - have been established to correct the deficiencies of the Freedom Trail. These organizations have attempted to provide a revisionist counter-point by telling stories of internal struggle and by exploring groups traditionally overlooked by historians. However, with so many trails possessing so many particularized foci, many …

We Are Aquin: The Creation Of Community And Personal Identity In The Freeport Catholic Schools, Sherry Ann Cluver

Theses and Dissertations

Aquin Central Catholic High School, a tiny institution in the rural, Midwestern town of Freeport, Illinois, is a case study unlike the schools from Chicago, Boston, and other large cities highlighted in previous scholarship. Freeport's patterns of schooling in the 1970s and 1980s were largely unaffected by race or "white flight," and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford afforded to its schools a greater than usual degree of local control. Yet, Aquin (founded in 1923) followed the trends of Catholic schools with regard to the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), assimilation of previously immigrant Catholic families into middle class American social …

Bet Lee: An American Civil War Novella, Tamara J. Lafountain

MAIS Projects and Theses

An estimated 400 women disguised themselves as men to fight in the American Civil War. Though the war ended nearly 150 years ago and over 65,000 books have covered every aspect of the subject in that time, only a handful of recent works have explored the subject of the female civil war soldier. The vast majority of these women lived in secret; and, since secrets kept are difficult to research, it is likely that the published historical studies on the subject have found all that can be discovered (Leonard, 1999; Cooke and Blanton, 2002; Hall, 2006). This novella takes what …

Pittsburgh's Response To Deindustrialization: Renaissance, Renewal And Recovery, 1946-1999, Mariel P. Isaacson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Pittsburgh was able to gradually ease its transition into a post-industrial economy in the second half of the twentieth century because of an elite-driven planning movement known as the Pittsburgh Renaissance. The Renaissance first addressed the physical failings of the city and sought state legislation that would support further urban redevelopment immediately following World War II. While the physical improvements were underway, Renaissance organizers began working with the University of Pittsburgh to upgrade Pitt's educational and recreational facilities so that it would become an engine for the city's future economic growth. City support for improved facilities, especially those pertaining to …

U.S. Immigration: The Origins And Evolution Of Contemporary Issues And The Architecture Of Future Reform, Andrew Beaule

Honors Theses

In 1965, the United States Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, attempting to remove racial, religious, and cultural discrimination from the immigration system. However, the infamous act and subsequent legislation have caused unintended consequences. Illegal immigration has skyrocketed despite a massive increase in border enforcement; and Central Americans, particularly Mexicans, have become the target of racial and cultural discrimination, much like the Southern European immigrants of the early 1900s. The current immigration system still relies on the framework passed nearly 50 years ago, proving to be insufficient for contemporary United States. This thesis investigates the historical patterns in immigration …

Finding Margaret Haughery: The Forgotten And Remembered Lives Of New Orleans’S “Bread Woman” In The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries, Katherine Adrienne Luck

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Margaret Haughery (1813-1882), a widowed, illiterate Irish immigrant who became known as “the Bread Woman” of New Orleans and the “Angel of the Delta” had grossed over $40,000 by the time of her death. She owned and ran a dairy farm and nationally-known bakery, donated to orphanages, leased property, owned slaves, joined with business partners and brought lawsuits. Although Haughery accomplished much in her life, she is commonly remembered only for her benevolent work with orphans and the poor. In 1884, a statue of her, posed with orphans, was erected by the city’s elite, one of the earliest statues of …

The Science Of Charity: The Social Network That Restructured Law And Order In Baltimore, 1881-1901, Hope Elizabeth Byers

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Social networks undeniably build more cohesive ideologies between its members. Historians can better understand the path that urban reform took at the end of the nineteenth by focusing on the social networks that participated in many different reform efforts. In Baltimore, a group of elite businessmen began a variety of association and societies to aid the poor in their midst. The Charity Organization Society best combined this group of men. The Charity Organization Society of Baltimore sought to uplift the poor through advice rather than monetary aid. The group’s campaign to remove alms distribution from the police department in the …

The National Identity Of C.S. Lewis, Caleb Rhett Covington

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

William Grant Still And The Balance Of Popular Vs. Classical: Pace & Handy, Black Swan, And Shuffle Along, Jacqueline Brellenthin

Theses and Dissertations

Although known for his classical compositions, the African American composer William Grant Still worked in the popular music market at Pace & Handy Music Publishing, Black Swan Records, and as an orchestrator and pit musician for the black musical, Shuffle Along. These are all early experiences that must be considered when discussing his later success in art and popular music and that can offer valuable insight for scholars. In order to understand these employment experiences, this thesis places Still in the cultural context of early-1920s New York. By examining the ideology of racial uplift and the African American entertainment scene …

Illuminating The Irish Free State: Nationalism, National Identity, And The Promotion Of The Shannon Hydroelectric Scheme, Mckayla Kay Sutton

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation focuses on the ways in which the Shannon Hydroelectric Scheme influenced perceptions of Irishness in the fraught context of postcolonial nation building. The Irish Free State, established by a treaty with Great Britain in 1921, faced the difficult task of maintaining order and establishing stable institutions for the new state. One of the government's most audacious efforts to achieve these objectives was to construct the largest hydroelectric dam in the world on the River Shannon in 1925 with the help of German contractors from Siemens-Schuckert. The first half of the dissertation deals with several ideological issues brought to …

"Going Native" In The British Empire; David Livingstone And T.E. Lawrence Revisited, Anthony Volpe

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Rent: Same-Sex Prostitution In Modern Britain, 1885-1957, Jonathan Coleman

Theses and Dissertations--History

Rent: Same-Sex Prostitution in Modern Britain, 1885-1957 chronicles the concept of “rent boys” and the men who purchased their services. This dissertation demonstrates how queer identity in Britain, until contemporary times, was largely regulated by class, in which middle-and-upper-class queer men often perceived of working-class bodies as fetishized consumer goods. The “rent boy” was an upper-class queer fantasy, and working-class men sometimes used this fantasy for their own agenda while others intentionally dismantled the “rent boy” trope, refusing to submit to upper-class expectations. This work also explains how the “rent boy” fantasy was eventually relegated to the periphery of queer …

Convocations Of Empire: Public Spectacle And Ceremony In Britain, 1851-2012, Ryan G. Hudnall

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Britain has long been associated with the staging of grand ceremonies, popular spectacles, massive exhibitions, state occasions, and Royal events which embody historically-informed conceptualizations of “Britishness.” To this end, significant public spectacles occurred periodically from the height of the British Empire until its decline—many of which spoke to the nature of British imperial ambition. This project traces the evolution of those key popular gatherings which relate to the shifting British imperial scene from 1851-2012, providing an in-depth accounting of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Jubilees of Queen Victoria in 1887 and 1897, the postwar memorial movements after the First …

A Brief History Of The Irish-American Athletic Club: The "Winged Fists" Of Celtic Park, Ian Mcgowan

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Call Of The Sidhe: Poetic And Mythological Influences In Ireland's Struggle For Freedom, Anna Wakeling

Honors Theses

The mythology of Ireland is millennia old, birthing a poetic tradition that has endured with the nation. This presentation explores how important Ireland's mythological heritage has been to its people, sustaining their fighting spirit during foreign invasions, political instability, and conflicts with England. The work if William Butler Yeats, in particular, embodies the struggles between the Protestant Ascendancy and the native Irish; Christianity and paganism; the Gaelic poetic tradition and newer English literature; and the push for peaceful independence negotiation versus the radical revolutionary movements inspired by ancient heroes. His life and poetry serve as a lens that brings the …

Temptress Of The Stage: Whither The Widow-Woman?, Kathryn Elizabeth Snyder

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Art Of State / State Of Art : The European Tours Of Martha Graham And Her Dance Company, 1950-1967, Ileana Camelia Lenart

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Praised for inventing a new language of dance and for freeing the human body and spirit through it, Martha Graham (1894-1991) is one of the most revered artistic innovators of the 20th century. In spite of the complexity of her art and persona, the scholarly work devoted to her reflects a fascination with "Graham the artist", limited to the "magic years" of the thirties and the forties, considered the peak of her artistry and "technique" dance innovation. The rest of her long life and artistic career have not been not thoroughly explored by dance historians, since they unjustly assume this …