History Commons^™

Racializing American ‘Egyptians’: Shifting Legal Discourse, 1690s–1860s, Ann Ostendorf

History Faculty Scholarship

This article situates the historical “Egyptian,” more commonly referred to as “Gypsy,” into the increasingly racist legal structures formed in the British North American colonies and the early United States, between the 1690s and 1860s. It simultaneously considers how those who considered themselves, or were considered by others, as “Egyptians” or “Gypsies” navigated life in the new realities created by such laws. Despite the limitations of state-produced sources from each era under study, inferences about these people’s experiences remain significant to building a more accurate and inclusive history of the United States. The following history narrates the lives of Joan …

Catherine Miligan Mclane, Kayla Webb, Cullen True, Mel Flippen

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

This project will explore the life of Catherine Milligan McLane, a member of the suffrage movement in Baltimore, Maryland. This presentation is a contribution to the Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States. This is the 100th year anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the United States’ Constitution. This presentation will also include a brief family history of Mrs. McLane. Throughout this process we have found evidence of Mrs. McLane’s life, such as letters, newspapers, and several archives that led us to books such as “Woman’s Who’s Who of America.”

Fixing America's Founding, Maeve Glass

Faculty Scholarship

The forty-fifth presidency of the United States has sent lawyers reaching once more for the Founders’ dictionaries and legal treatises. In courtrooms, law schools, and media outlets across the country, the original meanings of the words etched into the U.S. Constitution in 1787 have become the staging ground for debates ranging from the power of a president to trademark his name in China to the rights of a legal permanent resident facing deportation. And yet, in this age when big data promises to solve potential challenges of interpretation and judges have for the most part agreed that original meaning should …

Charles A. Dana, The Civil War Era, And American Republicanism, Eric X. Rivas

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When Charles A. Dana bought the New York Sun in 1868, he used it to support the presidential candidacy of Ulysses S. Grant and the Republican Party ticket to unify the post-Civil War nation. After a victory for the Civil War general and Republican Party, though, the first fifteen months of the new administration turned the editor against the president and his party. Dana’s Sun criticized Grant and his allies as corrupt, of using the military for political ends, and of growing the size and power of government beyond traditional American practice. Against the backdrop of Reconstruction, Dana also decried …

‘Pa-Jew-Cah’: Reclaiming The History Of Paducah’S Jewish Community, Hannah Newberry

Posters-at-the-Capitol Presentations

When imagining Kentucky’s religious heritage, most people picture churches, not synagogues. Yet historian Lee Shai Weissbach demonstrates that Kentucky’s first synagogue was built in Louisville in 1849, and Jews had been living in the Commonwealth almost as long as it existed. Kentucky’s Jewish heritage is rich and varied as illustrated by Arwen Donahue’s This is Home Now: Kentucky’s Holocaust Survivors Speak, Deborah Weiner’s Coalfield Jews: An Appalachian History, and Amy Shevitz’s Jewish Communities on the Ohio River: A History. While each of these texts refers to Paducah as an early and important Jewish settlement, none offers exclusive …

Henry Wirz And The Tragedy Of Andersonville: A Question Of Responsibility, Albert Winkler

Faculty Publications

Henry Wirz was the most controversial Swiss American. Born in Zurich, Wirz migrated to the United States and joined the Confederacy at the outbreak of the Civil War. He was assigned to oversee the military prison at Andersonville, Georgia, which had a very high death rate. Following the war, Wirz was arrested and tried for war crimes. The trial was a travesty of justice. Many of his supposed crimes were milder punishments than the Union inflicted on its own soldiers. The court allowed hearsay evidence, Wirz was no allowed to call key witnesses for his defense, and many leaders of …

A Personal Look At America's Foremost Communist, Laura Browder

English Faculty Publications

There is nothing quite like the experience of being in the beautiful, sunlit special collections reading room on the top floor of Bird Library—especially when one is about to dive into 86 meticulously cataloged boxes of family history. I was there to do research for a documentary about my grandfather, Earl Browder, as well as a joint biography of him and my grandmother, Raissa Berkmann Browder—a task that was almost overwhelming to contemplate.

After all, my grandfather Earl Browder was the head of the American Communist Party (CPUSA) during its most influential period—the Great Depression. He coined the slogan “Communism …

Civility And American Democracy: A National Forum, Barbara L. Graceffa, Center For Civil Discourse, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

At a time when political discourse seems to be on the path to paralysis, this forum brought together prominent humanities scholars, political thinkers, and journalists to explore the meaning of civility and its role in American democracy. The forum holds the following sessions: Civility in American History; Civility and Morality; Civility and Culture; Civility, Politics, and the Media.

The Counterculture Movement, Hannah Fink

A with Honors Projects

This project includes a paper of counterculture and a concert poster from the 1960's.

Henry Wirz And Andersonville: The Career Of The Most Controversial Swiss American, Albert Winkler

Faculty Publications

Henry Wirz is the most controversial Swiss American. He was assigned to oversee the Andersonville Prison during the Civil War, and he was blamed for the high death rate in that prison even though he had no means of getting additional food and supplies to the captives. He was tried for war crimes after the Civil War. He was not allowed an adequate defense at his trial, and he was found guilty in a travesty of justice. He refused an offer of clemency if he would implicate Jefferson Davis and other high Confederate officials in a plot to kill Union …

Getting The Facts Straight: New Views Of Mexico And Its Peoples In Recently Adopted U.S. History Textbooks In Texas, Linda K. Salvucci

History Faculty Research

Every six years, the Texas State Board of Education holds public hearings as part of the complex process of "adopting" or approving primary and secondary school textbooks for free distribution to over 1,100 public school districts. Publishers vie to capture a share of this extremely large and lucrative market by placing their products in one of usually five approved slots in each subject category. The significance of the textbook approval process extends far beyond the borders of the Lone Star State, since sales of titles successful in Texas often soar nationwide as well. In an interesting coincidence, the commemoration of …

A Late Report On The Ship "Hibernia" Captured By A French Privateer In The Year 1800, William L. Lucey S.J.

History Department Faculty Scholarship

The Hibernia of Brstol, an American cargo ship, was captured by the privateer Jeune Creole in December of 1800. Over twenty years after the incident, the ship's owners were still seeking compensation. This article provides historical descriptions as well as a reprint of the memorial of claims presented by the shipowners to the commission appointed to hear their case.The shipowners never recovered their loss.

Introductory Lecture To The Course Of Anatomy, Delivered In Jefferson Medical College, October 19th, 1849., Joseph Pancoast, Md

Jefferson Medical College Opening Addresses

No abstract provided.

Introductory Lecture To The Course Of The Practice Of Medicine, Delivered In Jefferson Medical College, October 16th, 1849., John K. Mitchell, Md

Jefferson Medical College Opening Addresses

No abstract provided.

Professor Meigs' Introductory Lecture Delivered In Jefferson Medical College Of Philadelphia, October 18, 1848., Charles D. Meigs, Md

Jefferson Medical College Opening Addresses

No abstract provided.

Lecture Introductory To The Course On The Practice Of Medicine In The Jefferson Medical College, Delivered November 2, 1847., John K. Mitchell, Md

Jefferson Medical College Opening Addresses

No abstract provided.