History Commons^™

“Strike Up” And Mobilize The Band: Musical Activities In The United States Military During World War Ii, Max R. Bouchard

Student Publications

After the United States’ entry into the Second World War, music was one of the most prominent forms of art and popular entertainment to be repurposed by the federal government as part of the mobilization for war. The military implemented numerous music programs produced and consumed by a wide range of service personnel. These activities functioned as a means of building morale among military and civilian audiences, both on the domestic home front and in foreign nations, and disseminating an image of American culture that reinforced a set of values integral to the war effort. In order to present this …

European Jazz: A Comparative Investigation Into The Reception And Impact Of Jazz In Interwar Paris And The Weimar Republic, Douglas A. Kowalewski

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Both Paris and the Weimar Republic were fascinated with American jazz in the interwar period. Because of jazz's connection to African American culture, this fascination is linked with the themes of identity and race relations. This work will demonstrate that interwar Parisians were not always receptive of African Americans that played jazz, and that the citizens of the Weimar Republic were more aware of and interested in the African American culture that permeated jazz in the 1920s and 30s.

Rhapsody In Red, White And Blue: The Co-Evolution Of Popular And Art Music In The United States During World War Ii, Douglas A. Kowalewski

Student Publications

World War II was a watershed event in twentieth century American history. All aspects of life, including music, both found roles to play in the war effort and were forever altered by the conflict. Past work on the subject of American music in World War II tends to focus heavily on the nature and impact of popular music during this time period. While this paper will review and build upon this scholarship, art music during the war will also be considered. Using two distinctly different, yet complementary, autobiographies – those of army band musician Frank Mathias and composer Gunther Schuller …

Ms – 208: The Jim Henderson Papers, Class Of 1971, Devin Mckinney

All Finding Aids

This collection contains documents, photographs, and other material, mostly relating to Jim Henderson’s career at Gettysburg College. There are various writings, and a scrapbook with images covering Henderson’s life from just before to just after his time in Gettysburg. A significant subset of material concerns Henderson’s commencement address, and the subsequent controversy. The bulk of the material is in the form of handwritten scores and program notes created for various musical performances between 1966 and 1973. Most of these are rock or jazz arrangements of religious themes, and most premiered at Gettysburg College.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids …

Play American, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

Just seventy years ago, a Fortune poll reported that 62 percent of Americans listened to classical music, 40 percent could identify Arturo Toscanini as an orchestral conductor, and nine million listeners (11 percent of American households) tuned in to weekly Metropolitan Opera broadcasts from New York City. Astonishing. The “grand orchestra,” wrote Charles Edward Russell in 1927, “has become our sign of honor among the nations.” (excerpt)

One King To Rule Them All, Tyler J. Mann

Student Publications

He battled for superiority over his fellow musicians in the shady nightclubs of New Orleans, led his great Creole Jazz Band in the early 1920s, and stood tall in the face of racial prejudice. Joe “King” Oliver was the type of man to not just survive but thrive—like any true king would.

Instruments Of War: A Canadian Musician In A Rhode Island Regiment, Ryan M. Nadeau

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Canada! America’s hat! Our friendly little brother to the north. The home of hockey and Tim Horton’s and your home, too, when that other political party elects their crazy candidate. All jokes aside, the United States has long had a close relationship with our northern neighbor, and the Civil War proved no exception. An estimated 30,000 to 50,000 Canadians fought during the war, typically on the side of the Union due to their geographic proximity and cultural sympathies. Of that number, approximately 5,000 were killed. [excerpt]

Friends Of Musselman Library Newsletter Spring 2016, Musselman Library

Friends of Musselman Library Newsletter

From the Dean (Robin Wagner)

Library Receives 9/11 Commission Papers (Fred Fielding '16)

Library News

Digital Scholarship Fellows

From Paupers to Presidents

Fair Use Week

Reading About Race

Student Workers Save the Day (Nadia Romero Nardelli '19)

Life in the Fishbowl (Brittany Barry '17)

In Memory of Douglas R. Price; Former Aide to Eisenhower

Special Purchases

From the Piano Bench (Jay P. Brown ’51, Doug Brouder ’83, Julie Caterson ’84 and Mr. & Mrs. Michael Fiery)

Research Reflections: The Spirit of Gettysburg (Timothy Sestrick)

Gift of Art

Old Gettysburg Back to Thee (Jenna Fleming '16, Avery Fox '16, Melanie Fernandes …

Playing Bebop: Culture And Bebop’S Reciprocal Influence, Audra M. Deboy

Student Publications

Following the sweet, pleasant Swing era style music of the 1930’s, Bebop emerged within the United States as an aggressive, percussive, musician-focused style in the 1940’s. However, Bebop’s creation was not spontaneous. Its composers, John Birks Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk, wrote for the sake of the music itself as a form of self-expression, not as entertainment for an audience. Bebop’s dissonant sound expressed political and cultural frustrations, stemming from World War II and similarly shown in the early Civil Rights Movement. I will argue that not only did Bebop develop out of such conflicts, but in a reciprocal …

“Strength Shed By A New And Terrible Vision:” The Organic Evolution Of The Blues And The Blues Aesthetic In Richard Wright’S 'Uncle Tom’S Children', Jeffrey J. Horvath

Student Publications

An exploration into the development of the "blues aesthetic" in the African-American literary tradition.

“Caught Between Southern Pride And Southern Blame”: Brad Paisley’S “Accidental Racist”, Brianna E. Kirk

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

An ongoing and rather controversial debate in the Civil War world is that over the rightful placement of the Confederate battle flag in American memory. Being such a provocative symbol both in terms of history and race relations, its ‘true’ meaning and ‘true’ symbolism are constantly in flux. With recent disputes on the removal of the Confederate flag from Robert E. Lee’s tomb at Washington and Lee University making their way into the mainstream news, the complicated meaning of the rebel symbol and where it belongs in American memory have earned their places at the forefront of the national consciousness. …

Banished From The Present: Musicians In Nazi Germany, Thomas G. Bennett

Student Publications

This essay analyzes musical life in the Third Reich. More specifically, the focus will be on the Nazis’ regulation of music and the role that musicians themselves played in determining and enforcing cultural coordination. While some evidence extends into the war years (1939-1945), the bulk of the information presented here took place in the pre-war Nazi era (1933-1939). The purpose here is to show that those musicians who worked with and under the Nazis were affected in different ways and had varying levels of agency within the National Socialist system. Some have been branded collaborators, others victims, and this paper …

Musical Influence On Apartheid And The Civil Rights Movement, Katherine D. Power

Student Publications

Black South Africans and African Americans not only share similar identities, but also share similar historical struggles. Apartheid and the Civil Rights Movement were two movements on two separate continents in which black South Africans and African Americans resisted against deep injustice and defied oppression. This paper sets out to demonstrate the key role that music played, through factors of globalization, in influencing mass resistance and raising global awareness. As an elemental form of creative expression, music enables many of the vital tools needed to overcome hatred and violence. Jazz and Freedom songs were two of the most influential genres, …

How Bebop Came To Be: The Early History Of Modern Jazz, Colin M. Messinger

Student Publications

Bebop, despite its rather short lifespan, would become a key influence for every style that came after it. Bebop’s effects on improvisation, group structure, and harmony would be felt throughout jazz for decades to come, and the best known musicians of the bebop era are still regarded as some of the finest jazz musicians to ever take the stage. But the characteristics of bebop can easily be determined from the music itself. [excerpt]

Fun With Civil War Sheet Music, Emily A. Francisco

Blogging the Library

One project I haven’t blogged too much about yet is the Civil War Sheet Music exhibit for the Main Floor. Initially, Meggan only asked me to come up with a tentative list of pieces to display from the resources available; now, though, I’m finding myself assigned to the task of organizing, mounting, and labeling the exhibit. It’s a cool assignment, because it’s so different from everything else I’ve been working on this summer. [excerpt]

The Struggle To Create Soviet Opera, Miriam Grinberg

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

It is opera, and opera alone that brings you close to the people, that endears your music to the real public and makes your names popular not only with individual small circles but, under favourable conditions, with the whole people. – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, premier composer of symphonies, ballets, and operas in Imperial Russia in the mid- to late 1800s.

Tchaikovsky made this remark while living under a tsarist regime, but the pervasive, democratic, and uniting qualities of opera that he so vividly described appealed to an entirely different party: the Bolsheviks. Rather than discard the “bourgeois” remains of the …

Parker B. Wagnild Portrait In Schmucker Hall, Stephanie M. Bonnes

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

A painting of Parker B. Wagnild hangs outside of the College Choir rehearsal room in Schmucker hall. Only a plaque bearing his name is underneath the painting, even the artist remains unknown. The painting is quite small in comparison to what the man in the painting has done for Gettysburg College. Though perhaps the placement of the painting means more than its size, for it located at a central spot in the music department building, and it is right outside of the College Choir rehearsal room. This places Wagnild at the heart of both the department and the choir, both …

The Albany Movement And The Origin Of Freedom Songs, Nicole Lenart

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

“We became visible.” This is how Bernice Johnson Reagon, a Civil Rights Movement worker, a member of the Freedom Singers, and the founder of Sweet Honey In The Rock explained how songs uplifted and inspired those blacks and whites who worked tirelessly for freedom throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s. Indeed, freedom songs in the movement gave participants the ability to stand up against their fears, express their hopes and desires, and unite the diverse range of people who participated in the movement. Reagon, now a history professor and music legend, grew up right outside of Albany, Georgia, where freedom songs …