Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Baird, Nancy Disher, B. 1935 (Sc 3706), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3706. Notes and typescripted portions of letters, diaries and journals of women who emigrated to South Africa from the United Kingdom, 1819-1892. From collections in South African repositories, including the Cory Library, Grahamstown.

Ua94/5/6 Lucian Flora Student/Alumni Papers, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Scrapbook and memoirs created by alumni Lucian Flora of Smiths Grove, Kentucky of his activities as a soldier in World War II. Flora saw action through North Africa and Italy from 1941 to 1945.

Ua1c11/128 Lucian Flora Photo Collection, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Photographs and postcards removed from Lucian Flora's World War II scrapbook.

Landseer, Edwin, 1802-1873 (Sc 3703), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3703. Letter, 16 November 1828, from artist Edwin Landseer, Lisson Grove, London, to fellow artist and collector William Mayor in Islington. He apologizes for missing a recent meeting and asks Mayor to visit him the following Saturday and “dine in a very quiet way here.”

Anderson, Robert (Sc 3661), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3661. Certificate, 22 November 1822, of Robert Anderson, Cockplay Farm near Blackford, Scotland, confirming the faithful service of Helen Anderson for two years and her voluntary departure. Signed by Anderson and Helen Gray.

Beveridge, John (Sc 3660), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3660. Acknowledgment, 2 December 1826, of John Beveridge, Milnathort, Scotland, of wages owed to David Anderson and son; and direction, 31 March 1827, to shoemaker Andrew Morison to offset a debt owed to Beveridge by delivering a pair of shoes to Anderson as part of the settlement. The reverse includes notes of labor performed by Anderson for one Robert Ritchie.

"They Will Change The Situation Immediately": Perpetrator Subgroups And Germany's Genocidal Practices In Southwest Africa, James Michael Thaxton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The genocide of the Herero tribe in German Southwest Africa illuminates the horrors of colonialism broadly and of German settler colonialism more specifically. I contend that the perpetrators of this event can be separated into two broad subgroups, the Old Africans and the Metropole Soldiers, distinguished by their intentions, exploitative and exterminatory respectively, concerning the indigenous tribes. Those intentions were formed over varying lengths of time but are the result of either firsthand experience with the racial hierarchy in the colony or relying on information and misinformation relayed to the metropole. Utilizing primarily letters, diaries, journals, and postcards, I argue …

The Common Man And The Rise Of The Anabaptist Kingdom Of Munster, 1534-1535, Andrew Roebuck

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This essay studies the causes of the rise of the Anabaptist Kingdom of Munster, with special emphasis on the actions and agency of the common people. The analysis begins with the two main primary sources, Hermann von Kerssenbrock and Henry Gresbeck, whose accounts provide firsthand knowledge of how events in Munster led to the Anabaptist takeover. Care is taken to read beyond some of the biases and assumptions made by those authors to gain the clearest insight for what really happened.

The essay looks at Anabaptism itself, including what it meant to be Anabaptist from the perspectives of participants and …

Forgotten Mistakes: Crossing The Rhine Gorge, 1945, Michael Duncan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In the years following World War II, official military records along with news reports and personal accounts of senior military leaders formed a narrative that emphasized American exceptionalism and focused on the success of the United States military. That original narrative became a foundation for foreign policy and military doctrine, and its characterization of the tactical and operational decisions made by American military leaders has remained almost entirely unchallenged. This thesis seeks to reverse that trend by carefully analyzing the tactical and operational aspects of one specific event, the crossing of the Rhine Gorge by the 89th Infantry Division.

The …

Bethlehem Chapel: How A Place Can Be Reinterpreted By Government, Maya Lemaster

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

An important source of legitimacy for all types of government is the creation of or building up of a sense of nationhood for the citizens of the state. This can be achieved in many ways, including through the use of physical nationalist symbols. In my paper, I address this topic by exploring how the Communist government of Czechoslovakia reinterpreted and changed the traditional meaning of the historical Bethlehem Chapel in Prague in order to fit their own ideology. I found that the Communist government emphasized the communal aspects of the Hussite movement and ignored religious associations. My research is primarily …

"Future City In The Heroic Past: Rome, Romans, And Roman Landscapes In Aeneid 6–8", Eric Kondratieff

History Faculty Publications

From the Intro: “Arms and the Man I sing…” So Vergil begins his epic tale of Aeneas, who overcomes tremendous obstacles to find and establish a new home for his wandering band of Trojan refugees. Were it metrically possible, Vergil could have begun with “Cities and the Man I sing,” for Aeneas’ quest for a new home involves encounters with cities of all types: ancient and new, great and small, real and unreal. These include Dido’s Carthaginian boomtown (1.419–494), Helenus’ humble neo-Troy (3.349–353) and Latinus’ lofty citadel (7.149–192). Of course, central to his quest is the destiny of Rome, whose …

The Broad, Toiling Masses In All The Continents: Anticolonial Activists And The Atlantic Charter, Mark Reeves

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The 1941 Atlantic Charter’s references to self-determination galvanized anticolonial nationalists during the Second World War. These activists used the principles enumerated in the Atlantic Charter to frame their demands. This thesis examines three cases in the broader global context during the war, from vastly different colonial and wartime situations: British-ruled India, French-ruled Syria, and the U.S.- ruled Philippines. Across these different situations, anticolonial nationalists used the Atlantic Charter in an attempt to legitimate their own projects. This thesis shows that the elite nationalist movements examined here used a common rhetoric from the Charter, but in variable ways. Each case study …

The Student Researcher Volume 1 (Full Publication), Selena Sanderfer Faculty Advisor

The Student Researcher: A Phi Alpha Theta Publication

No abstract provided.

Rhetoric, Rights, And Pragmatism In The Germanies: Enlightenment Reform In Eighteenth-Century Prussia And Bavaria, Benjamin T. Harris

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This project highlights the nature of Enlightenment reform in 18^th-century Germany, particularly in the Kingdom of Prussia and the Electorate of Bavaria under Frederick II and Maximilian III Joseph. Both of these rulers launch similar reforms under the guise of enlightened absolutism and enlightenment rhetoric with very different results, each catering to the specific needs of their respective principalities. Reform is offered along the lines of compulsory education, codification, humanitarian legal reform, and religious toleration, all in the spirit of the Enlightenment. However, when the extent and details of these reforms are examined, it can be demonstrated that …

Collections & Connections, Jennifer Wilson

Collections & Connections

This is the Fall 2013-Winter 2014 issue of the biannual newsletter of the Western Kentucky University Libraries. It headlines WKU Manuscript/Folklife Archives Coordinator Jonathan Jeffrey's collection of the remembrances of JFK's visit to Bowling Green in 1960 and an excerpt from Ann Denes Wagner's recollection of her father Nick Denes, head coach at Western Kentucky State during the 1960s. Other major events featured in this issue include the Libraries' co-sponsorship of the International Film Series, its participation in the university's homecoming activities, its continued effort in offering the Far Away Places speaker series and the SOKY Reads program, and the …

All This Is Your World: Soviet Tourism At Home And Abroad After Stalin, Marko Dumančić

History Faculty Publications

Book Review in Nationalities Papers The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity

African Agency In The Rally Of French Equatorial Africa, August-November 1940, Mark Reeves

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

From August to November 1940, the territories of French Equatorial Africa rallied to Charles de Gaulle’s self-proclaimed Free French government in London, rather than the Vichy government set up after the German defeat of France in June. While this episode concerns European actions in European-ruled colonies, African actors pervade the story, especially as soldiers. Africans constituted the indirect audience of all the rallies by living in the territories whose policies were affected. Africans served as actors in the role of soldiers. As soldiers, African actors exhibited agency both in actions taken during operations and by their presence in the colonial …

Ua94/6/11 Student / Alumni Personal Papers Wku Darwin Newton, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Notebooks, notes and papers written by Darwin Newton during his time as a student at WKU.

Promoting Unity Through Propaganda: How The British Government Utilized Posters During The Second World War, Elizabeth Tate Goins

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Comprised of four separate countries, the United Kingdom is a state unlike any other. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have distinct identities, which has been a cause for discord throughout British history. However, during the Second World War the Ministry of Information, under the guidance of the Conservative government and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, launched a poster-based propaganda campaign aimed towards unifying the UK under a common national self-identity. By emphasizing shared qualities such as resilience, pragmatism, humor, patriotism and even the concept of unity itself, the Ministry of Information fostered a sense of national self-identity with the …

The Great Men Of Christendom: The Failure Of The Third Crusade, Justin Lee Mathews

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis is a study of the reasons for the failure of the Third Crusade to achieve its stated objectives, despite the many advantages with which the venture began. It is proposed herein that the Third Crusade—and by extension all of the previous and subsequent Crusades—were destined to fail because of structural disadvantages which plagued the expeditions to the Holy Land. The Christians in the Holy Land were not selfsufficient, and they depended on an extensive amount of aid from Europe for their existence, but the Christians of Europe had their own goals and concerns which did not allow them …

Kleijnen, Maria Jozefina, 1926-2010 (Mss 353), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 353. Correspondence of Maria Jozefina "Mia" Kleijnen and her family in the Netherlands with the Grise family of Bowling Green, Kentucky. She writes of family matters, conditions in the Netherlands following World War II, and of Dutch life and customs. Also included are letters to the Grises from other European correspondents.

Young Men's Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.) - Rennes, France (Mss 312), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 312. Guest book of the American YMCA kept at Rennes, France, February-August 1919. Includes soldiers' names, military units, home towns and remarks. Also includes a 1918 postcard showing typical YMCA "hut."

Mercer, George, 1733-1784 (Sc 90), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) only for Manuscripts Small Collection 90. Letter written by George Mercer from London, England, to his brother, James, in Virginia, in which he discusses his role as agent for the Ohio Company, the educating of Virginians in London, and a 1758 debt owed to him by George Washington. Mercer served under Washington in the French and Indian War. Includes research notes concerning the letter and the Mercer family.

The Much Married Michael Kramer’: Evangelical Clergy And Bigamy In Ernestine Saxony, 1522-1542, Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Smith, Rhonda L. (Sc 1666), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1666. Paper titled "Death on the Rails" written by Rhonda L. Smith for a history class at Western Kentucky University. Relays the World War I story of how members of the 113th Engineer Battalion and the 138th Field Artillery, which included many Kentuckians, were killed in a rail accident in France.

Logan, Anne, 1921-2008 (Sc 1637), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1637. Letter from Anne Logan, a U.S. Army sergeant serving in Frankfurt, Germany, to her family detailing a furlough to London during which time she was entertained by Eleanor Roosevelt and attended the unveiling of a statue of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Grosvenor Square.

Art As Propaganda In Revolutionary America And France: A Comparative Analysis, Megan Blair

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Historians should not limit themselves to studying political, economical, and social aspects of the American and French Revolutions, but should observe cultural factors, such as art, as well. Though wary of art as potentially corrupting, revolutionaries in both cultures employed it as propaganda, though focusing on different genres. In America, where formal art had not advanced either technically or in popularity, artistic propaganda was primarily exhibited through political cartoons, though a few examples of propagandistic portraiture do exist. Here, tradesmen, not trained artists, produced art. Contrarily, while there was an equally productive culture of political cartooning and pornography in France, …

The Wehrmarcht: Soldiers And Germans During The Second World War, Neil Varble

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The German Army, also known as the Wehrmacht, fought a brutal war on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. These soldiers, under the command of military officials of the Nazi state, vowed to destroy Bolshevism and Jewish populations. By examining letters from soldiers to family members on the German home front as well as letters from families to the men on the front lines, a better understanding of the motivations of war is revealed. Letters of these men and family members present insight into a vast area of research in German twentieth century history. An estimated 20 to …

Clerical Marriage And Territorial Reformation In Ernestine Saxony And The Diocese Of Merseburg In 1522-1524., Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Column And Coinage Of C. Duilius: Innovations In Iconography In Large And Small Media In The Middle Republic, Eric Kondratieff

History Faculty Publications

"[From the conclusion]: This discussion presents a linked series of hypotheses, each one suggested in its turn by evidence relating directly to C. Duilius (cos. 260), and contextualized by near-contemporary precedents wherever possible, or relevant-seeming analogues from slightly later periods. Taken together, these hypotheses support a plausible scenario in which the elogium on Duilius’ rostral column may be read not only as an account of a cunning and audacious commander whose pioneering efforts in naval warfare destroyed the myth of Carthaginian supremacy at sea, but also as an encomium on a generous benefactor to Rome’s citizenry. The inscription’s redactor has …