Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Arts and Humanities Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

History

Portland State University

Theses/Dissertations

Overland journeys to the Pacific

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Asiatic Cholera And Dysentery On The Oregon Trail: A Historical Medical Geography Study, Brian Lee Altonen May 2000

Asiatic Cholera And Dysentery On The Oregon Trail: A Historical Medical Geography Study, Brian Lee Altonen

Dissertations and Theses

Two disease regions existed on the Oregon Trail. Asiatic cholera impacted the Platte River flood plain from 1849 to 1852. Dysentery developed two endemic foci due to the decay of buffalo carcasses in eastern and middle Nebraska between 1844 and 1848, but later developed a much larger endemic region west of this Great Plains due to the infection of livestock carcasses by opportunistic bacteria.

This study demonstrates that whereas Asiatic cholera diffusion along the Trail was defined primarily by human population features, topography, and regional climate along the Platte River flood plain, the distribution of opportunistic dysentery along the Trail …


Diaries And Reminiscences Of Women On The Oregon Trail: A Study In Consciousness, Amy Kesselman Dec 1973

Diaries And Reminiscences Of Women On The Oregon Trail: A Study In Consciousness, Amy Kesselman

Dissertations and Theses

This study is an attempt to discover how women participating in the mid-nineteenth century migration to Oregon viewed the westward journey and themselves in relationship to it. It is not a survey of the responses of all women in the westward movement, but, rather, an exploration of the perspective of those women who left a written record of their perceptions or recollections. The thesis focuses on the diaries and reminiscences of women travelling, primarily but not exclusively, in the years 1851-1853.

The introductory material consists of a review of the existing historical literature on women and the West, and a …