History Commons^™

An Examination Of The Visual And Textual Influences On The Anthology Of American Folk Music, Ben Collier

History Theses

The Anthology of American Folk Music is a collection of eight-four selections of southern vernacular recordings made for commercial record labels in the 1920s and 1930s and assembled into a unified collage by Harry Smith. Smith was an experimental filmmaker, painter, and self-taught anthropologist with a deep interest in renaissance hermeticism and mysticism who worked with Moe Asch in 1952 to release the six-record set and accompanying handbook on Folkways Records. The release was heralded by musicians and critics as an essential piece of influence on the folk music revival. Despite this, the Anthology sold poorly and quickly faced legal …

Failoure On All Fronts: The United States Army In The First Year Of The War Of 1812, Gary H. Nobbs Jr.

History Theses

The United States declared war on the United Kingdom in the hopes of defending the nation's national honor. However, the United States Army was unprepared to go wage war. The army's supply system, militia system, and field commanders failed and led to a disastrous first year of conflict.

Influences Of Western Philosophy And Educational Thought In China And Their Effects On The New Culture Movement, Anthony C. Sturniolo

History Theses

This thesis will explore the progressive development of Chinese higher education from the time of the Opium Wars in the mid-nineteenth century through the Republican Era (1928-1949). This study will argue that the development of China’s modern higher education system can trace its roots back to China’s humiliating defeat during the Opium Wars and the country's subsequent efforts to reform itself in the final years of the Qing dynasty and the early decades of the twentieth century.

This thesis explores how the May Fourth Movement of the early twentieth century was not a single movement but rather a phenomenon that …

The Exile Of Assata Shakur: Marronage And American Borders, Joe Kaplan

History Theses

Former Black Panther, Assata Shakur, now living in exile in Cuba after breaking out of a U.S. prison, is a self-described escaped slave, or maroon. Shakur has adopted this identity to underscore how practices and ideologies developed under slavery continue to structure Black life in the Americas, and how resistance strategies produced by this historical milieu remain salient in critiques of modern U.S. state power. The transnational nature of Shakur’s flight points to the use of borders as a highly effective, yet overlooked, tactic of Black resistance that has both historical and contemporary relevance. For maroons, borders mark hard distinctions …

An Examination In The Evolution Of Iroquois Lacrosse, Christopher P. Root

History Theses

Once a niche sport to Canada and the northeastern United States, lacrosse has become the fastest growing sport in North America. Though it was played for hundreds of years by the indigenous peoples of this continent prior to the arrival of Europeans, the native roots of the game have not been truly appreciated on a wide scale until recent years. After the adaption and modernization of the game in the mid nineteenth century by Victorian Canadians, the inventors of lacrosse would see over a century of exclusion and discrimination. Native Americans were the victims of rules that were designed to …

Sensory History And Multisensory Museum Exhibits, Naomi Reden

History Theses

Drawing from the work of sensory historians, this paper will explore the importance of the senses in understanding one’s surroundings and define what qualifies as sensory experience in a museum setting. Through a combination of research and observations during museum visits, it explores examples of how each sense has been incorporated into museums and exhibits. It presents examples of immersive and interactive exhibits providing multi-sensory experiences, including examples of both effective and non-effective ways in which these elements have been used. It is the author’s premise that the museum should remain artifact-centered, and sensory elements should be used to supplement, …

The Ideal Museum Vs. The Real Museum: How Do Museums In Western New York Implement Preventive Conservation?, Jennifer R. Conn

History Theses

This thesis examines the need for preventive conservation in museums. Preventive conservation is an effort aimed at reducing damage and deterioration to collections by improving the environment. Out of the 4.8 billion objects in the museum collections in the United States, many of the objects are in need of some attention. They are at high risk of being lost forever, leaving future generations without such collection to learn from and enjoy. This thesis studies five institutions in the Western New York area. It examines how their preventive conservation practices hold up to standards put forth by museum experts. There are …