History Commons^™

Strahm Family Collection (Mss 655), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 655. Data, clippings and information about the Strahm family and related families. Most of the material relates to Franz J. Strahm, WKU music director from 1910-1941, and his son Victor H. Strahm’s career in military service. Includes photographs of Franz, Victor, and other family members.

World At War: Final Research Paper, Elise Nelson

History Class Publications

The Ottoman Empire reigned for over five centuries throughout today’s Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Southern Europe, starting around 1299. However, after World War I, it completely disbanded, creating several nation-states. What led to the fall of this massive Empire? There seem to be several factors including actions of World War I. Both the Allies and the Entente fought in the Middle East, each side supporting different groups within the Ottoman Empire. During the World War I period, the Young Turks, those in government in the Ottoman Empire, desired to create a “Turanian nationality.” This included a “Turkification” …

Ms-232: Edward A Frederick Papers, Joy Zanghi

All Finding Aids

This collection is a small collection mostly comprised of postcards written by Edward A. Frederick to his family. The postcards follow Frederick from his training with the Aero Squadron in San Antonio Texas at Kelly Field to his service overseas in the UK and France. The collection also contains photographs, a newspaper clipping, and a ring and pins from the US Aero Squadron. Overall, the postcards and the collection as a whole do not provide much insight or detail about the life of a soldier during WWI.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe …

100 Years Ago: The Death Of Quentin Roosevelt, Keith J. Muchowski

Publications and Research

This blog post focuses on the life and military career of Quentin Roosevelt. Lieutenant Roosevelt died in an aviation firefight in France on July 14, 2018, Bastille Day. He left behind his fiancee Flora Payne Whitney, an heir to the Whitney and Vanderbilt fortunes.

100 Years: The Death Of John Purroy Mitchel – New York City’S Boy Mayor, Keith J. Muchowski

Publications and Research

The blog post focuses on the life and times of John Purroy Mitchel, the mayor of New York City during the First World War. Mitchel was active in the Preparedness Movement and eventually killed in a military training exercise in July 1918, six months after leaving office.

Buckberry, Ray B., Jr., B. 1934 (Sc 3227), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3227. “Warren County War Dead: World War I,” by Ray Buckberry, Jr., a compilation containing data on Warren County, Kentucky soldiers who died in World War I. Includes data on overseas cemeteries and visits by Gold Star mothers and wives of the dead.

George C. Marshall, A Dynamic Leader Of Transition & Adaptation, John Robert Isaiah Emmert

Masters Theses

George Catlett Marshall was the Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the tumultuous years of the Second World War. Prior to the war, Marshall headed various officers’ schools and professional development centers, mentoring an entire generation of young officers who would become field commanders and general officers during the World War II. Eventually, he oversaw the monumental task of modernizing and enlarging the United States Army as World War II began and escalated. Together with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his opposites in the British military, he helped formulate the grand strategy that the Allied powers implemented …

From The Trenches: Cross-Campus Digital History Collaboration, Amy E. Lucadamo, Ian A. Isherwood, R.C. Miessler, Jenna Fleming, Meghan E. O'Donnell

All Musselman Library Staff Works

In September 2015, our team launched The First World War Letters of H.J.C. Peirs (www.jackpeirs.org), a digital history initiative built on collaboration between faculty, students, and library staff. The project is founded on amazing primary source material, but with limited financial support and little dedicated staff time. We leveraged the creativity and hard work of our team members to build a website that is maintained by students and enhanced whenever possible with features and commentary from faculty and staff. Members of #TeamPeirs discussed the evolution of the project, the nature of our collaboration, and the intersection of audiences …

Black Us Army Bands And Their Bandmasters In World War I, Peter M. Lefferts

Glenn Korff School of Music: Faculty Publications

This essay sketches the story of the bands and bandmasters of the twenty seven new black army regiments which served in the U.S. Army in World War I. The new bands underwent rapid mobilization and demobilization with their regiments over 1917-1919. They were for the most part unconnected by personnel or traditions to the long-established bands of the four black regular U.S. Army regiments that preceded them and that continued to serve outside Europe during and after the Great War. Pressed to find sufficient numbers of willing and able black band leaders for these new regiments, the Army turned to …

The Colby Community In World War I, Eleanor A. Hanson

Honors Theses

This thesis discusses the roles of members of the Colby community during World War I from 1914 until after the Armistice. It covers the roles of soldiers, students, and members of the home front, all somehow related to Colby College to discover how Colby and its community engaged with the war.