Arts and Humanities Commons^™

From The Yellow Springs To The Land Of Immortality, Sam Arkin, Georgia E. Benz, Allie N. Beronilla, Hailey L. Dedrick, Sophia Gravenstein, Alyssa G. Gubernick, Elizabeth C. Hobbs, Jennifer R. Johnson, Emily Lashendock, Georgia P. Morgan, Amanda J. Oross, Deirdre Sullivan, Margaret G. Sullivan, Hannah C. Turner, Lyndsey J. Winick, Yan Sun

Schmucker Art Catalogs

The Yellow Springs is a vivid metaphorical reference to the final destination of a mortal being and the dwelling place of a departed one in ancient China. In the writings of philosophers, historians, and poets during the long period of Chinese history, the Yellow Springs is not only considered as an underground physical locus where a grave is situated, but also an emotionally charged space invoke grieving, longing, and memory for the departed loved ones. The subterranean dwelling at the Yellow Springs is both a destination for a departed mortal being and an intermediary place to an ideal and imaginative …

Some Corner Forever: The Imperial War Graves Commission And The Meaning Of The Great War, Cameron T. Sauers

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This paper argues that sites administered by the Imperial War Graves Commission played a significant part in the British public’s mourning and understanding of the meaning of the Great War. Pilgrimages, due to their popularity, size, and accessibility, allowed the countless bereaved families to grieve the losses that they suffered during the war. Their visits to cemeteries were powerful experiences because of the painstaking work done by the IWGC to bury identified bodies, honor unidentified remains, and enshrined names for those whose remains could not be identified. The IWGC was a bureaucratic organization that overcame the cultural challenge posed by …

Death On Display, Kenzie Smith

The Mercury

No abstract provided.

A Sign, Rachel M. Crowe

Student Publications

"A Sign" is a narrative about the experience of grief and how relationships are strengthened by shared experience. It tells the story of two different women who come together and inhabit a space of mutual understanding in the wake of their mother's death.

Profound Impacts And Benefits Of Near-Death Experiences, Abigail D. Reitz

Student Publications

In his 1975 book, Life After Life, Dr. Raymond A. Moody coined the term “near-death experience (NDE)” as an umbrella term to describe the personal experiences and sensations that occur during an altered state of consciousness on the threshold of death. While controversy arises over the highly subjective nature of near-death experiences and the empirical research surrounding them, NDEs are usually marked by similar sensations and certainly have one thing in common: they often have profound, positive impacts on affected individuals that change their outlooks moving forward. Birk Engmann comments on the impact of NDEs in Near-Death Experiences: Heavenly Insight …

Physician Assisted Dying As An Extension Of Healing, Zoe I. Marinacci

Student Publications

The role of a physician is to provide care for those who seek their assistance. Lisa Yount attributes the most ancient statement about this activity to the Hippocratic Oath. Many doctors, in fact, still take this oath, part of which reads, “I will [not] give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to that effect,” (8). This vow is still widely considered to be the ultimate statement of the physician’s moral creed (Yount 8). Debate over whether active physician assisted dying is an extension of healing ability or a violation of their …

Separate But Equal? Gettysburg’S Lincoln Cemetery, Savannah A. Labbe

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

The most well-known cemetery in Gettysburg is, of course, the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. Another cemetery in Gettysburg that receives less attention is the Lincoln Cemetery, currently located on Lincoln Lane. This small cemetery is home to around thirty Civil War veterans. Why were these men not buried in the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, a cemetery created for all veterans of the Civil War? The answer: they were African-American. While they were allowed to fight for their freedom, even in death, these men were still not equal to the white soldiers they fought beside. [excerpt]

“The Vegetables Really Get More Tender Care”: An Introduction To Death And Dying In The Civil War, Zachary A. Wesley

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

The Victorian world was one of ceremony and order, even in death. Deathways–the practices of a society regarding death and dying–in 19thcentury America focused on elaborate rituals that earned the country the grisly distinction of possessing a “culture of death.” The American Civil War presented a four-year window in which many of these traditions were radically challenged in both the North and the South, as loved ones died anonymous deaths far from the embrace of kin. Nevertheless, the warring populations attempted to maintain important traditions even as the horrors of war surrounded them, thus allowing the deathways of the antebellum …

The Great Misread: Life And Death In Islam And Its Relation To The West, John M. Zak

Student Publications

Details of death in the Islamic faith and how it is related to the two major monotheistic religions of the West, Judaism and Christianity.

The Possibility Of An Afterlife As Examined Through Near-Death Experiences, Anastasia N. Semenov

Student Publications

Approximately five percent of the world’s population has dealt with a near-death experience, which is the unusual phenomenon after temporarily dying or coming close to death, where people feel like they have left their body and see an afterlife. Millions of accounts from people around the world who have experienced this occurrence tell of seeing an afterlife, which should allow for the possibility of a life after death. Although peoples’ experiences in another realm differ, they all have similar features such as travelling in a fast tunnel and encountering loving light beings. These experiences are so intense that they form …

Harry Potter And The Meaning Of Death, Harrison D. Brown

Student Publications

The paper reviews how J.K. Rowling is able to examine death in the Harry Potter book series. In the first part of the text the author touches on the deaths of Harry's parents and the scarring that Harry receives from that, as well as an examination of how the deaths of others, from close friends to acquaintances, have affected Harry, specifically pertaining to his personal responsibility for them and also his grieving process. The paper also goes into how Voldemort's inability to feel love, paired with his fear of dying, have pushed his quest for immortality (using Horcruxes). Harry's mastery …

The Person I Am Becoming, Ann M. Sasala

SURGE

Death, among other things, forces us to confront our own mortality, to question how we view ourselves in relation to others, to relive memories be they fond or not so much.

Over the past month, I lost both a grandfather -a quiet, intense, intelligent man who fostered in me a love for ice-cream and old movies- and a grandmother -the first family member to tell me it was OK to be queer. Their deaths left me scattered. My life became a dorm room floor during finals: covered in a mixture of clean and dirty clothing, food remains, and long-forgotten notes. …

In The Presence Of Death, Kevin P. Lavery

The Mercury

No abstract provided.

Shattered By War: The Huber Family, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

The tale of Sergent Frederick Huber is relatively well known. The young man, fighting at the battle of Fair Oaks, was struck by three rounds, the final a bullet through his breast that quickly sapped him of his life. The Adams Sentinel reported the incident in the early summer days of 1862, underlining Frederick's bravery in the face of the great beyond. "Tell Father," he reportedly said with his dying breath, according to the Sentinel, "I have died for my country." [excerpt]

Funeral Practices In Upper Northeast Adams, Nancy Delong

Adams County History

In 1994 in upper north-east Adams county, local people relate thoughts of death with advanced age, hospitals, and nursing homes. Occasionally, there is an accident or irreversible medical problem involving a younger person. These infrequent occurrences receive much attention from the community. Widespread fear of infant mortality is not manifest.

However, in this same area, from colonial times until about 1920 death occurred in a more widely dispersed fashion: far from being merely the prospect of the elderly, death's inevitability was the unseen companion of young and old alike. Death could occur at random. Mortality was a distinct possibility for …