History Commons^™

“Before I Am Quite Forgot": Women’S Critical Literary Biography And The Future, Susan Carlile

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

“‘Before I am Quite Forgot’: Women’s Critical Literary Biography and the Future” extends the conversation about literary “worth” in the twenty-first century as it still judges and ignores women authors of the past. Specifically, this essay explores the role of women’s literary historical biography as a primary marker of worth and as a means of shaping legacy. I also discuss my (perhaps more non-traditional) experience—both my personal circumstances and particular material conditions—writing the critical biography Charlotte Lennox: An Independent Mind. Without a substantial biography that shows the scope of Lennox’s mind, her significant corpus, and her interventions in literary history …

What Mother Meant: Maternal Competence, Medical Authority, And Memory In The Case Of Mary Bickerdyke (1820-1910), Megan Marie Vangorder

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Mary Ann Bickerdyke, a poor widowed mother from Galesburg, Illinois, cared for sick and wounded soldiers across the Western theater throughout the course of the American Civil War. As a result of her efforts, authors and historians lauded her accomplishments. Her success as a Civil War nurse and Sanitary Commission agent has been the subject of several biographies and young adult books that idealize the role of women during the war. These portrayals suggest that Mary Bickerdyke provided an example of determined professionalism during the war years.

Those histories, however, do not tell the whole story. Mary Bickerdyke’s professional journey …

Black Apollo Of Science: The Life Of Ernest Everett Just - Summarizing Timeline, Sumitography And Concept Poster, Lillie R. Jenkins

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

This two-part chronology is based on Kenneth R. Manning’s biography, Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just (1983). Like other such timelines, this one details Just’s life and pioneering research work. Additionally, and distinctively, this timetable lays out Just’s pioneering fund-seeking and his work mentoring African American female co-researchers (Part 1). A sumitography featuring the United States Postal Service’s postage stamp (1996) recognizes Just’s innovative thinking in biology (Part 2). Following this logic, the author includes a proof-of-concept poster commending E.E. Just’s work as a forward-thinking administrator. This timeline summarizes, chronicles, and aims to re-frame Just’s …

Andrea Revised: Andrea Dworkin: The Feminist As Revolutionary By Martin Duberman, Phyllis Chesler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

The History Of Martha J. Lamb: Her Origin, Rise, And Progress., Mary Collins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

On June 16, 1883, Harper’s Weekly ran a story foreshadowing the transformation of the City of New York from the island of Manhattan to a massive metropolis, the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. Another article on the page announced that Martha J. Lamb “has become editor of the ‘The Magazine of American History.’” It does not mention that she was also president of the company purchasing the journal. Ten years later, just a few months after her death, Mrs. Lamb’s great work, her History of the City of New York: Its Origin, Rise, and Progress, was included in …

Everything With A Smile: Loxie Dowdy, Alexandra Graham

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

This biography details the life of Vietnam Veteran Loxie Dowdy and her partner Lucille Laugesen.

Emancipating The Passive Muse: A Call For A Feminist Approach To Writing Biographies On Historical Women, Ina C. Seethaler

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

This essay analyzes two popular biographies on historical women to interrogate how a focus on gender has shaped the genre: Nancy Ruben Stuart’s The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation (2008) and Jung Chang’s Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China (2013). I argue that biographers who perpetuate gender stereotypes miss a momentous opportunity during the current life writing boom in the United States to educate readers on women’s social, cultural, and political contributions worldwide. In proposing that feminist-informed biographies are more accurate, complete, and make social …

Book Review - Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice In Appalachia, Rebecca Rose

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Journey With No Maps: A Life Of P.K. Page By Sandra Djwa, Mckay Mcfadden

The Goose

Review of Journey With No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page by Sandra Djwa.

Anna Julia Cooper: A Quintessential Leader, Janice Y. Ferguson

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This study is a leadership biography which provides, through the lens of Black feminist thought, an alternative view and understanding of the leadership of Black women. Specifically, this analysis highlights ways in which Black women, frequently not identified by the dominant society as leaders, have and can become leaders. Lessons are drawn from the life of Anna Julia Cooper that provides new insights in leadership that heretofore were not evident. Additionally, this research offers provocative recommendations that provide a different perspective of what leadership is among Black women and how that kind of leadership can inform the canon of leadership. …

Queen Of The Underworld: The Biography Of Sophie Lyons (1848-1924), Barbara M. Gray

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Sophie Lyons was a nineteenth-century American pickpocket, blackmailer, con-woman, and bank robber. She was raised in New York City's underworld, by Jewish immigrant parents who were criminals that trained their children to pick pockets and shoplift. "Pretty Sophie" possessed a rare combination of skill at thievery, intellect, guts and beauty and became the woman Herbert Ashbury described in Gangs of New York as, "the most notorious confidence woman America has ever produced." Newspapers around the world chronicled Sophie's exploits for more than sixty years, because her life read like a novel. Her mentor was another forgotten woman who held a …

Mary Shelley, Romantic-Era Women, And Frankenstein's Genesis, Jan Wellington

Jan Wellington

No abstract provided.

Blurring The Borders Of Nation And Gender: Mary Wollstonecraft's Character (R)Evolution, Jan Wellington

Jan Wellington

No abstract provided.

Excerpt From Wrestling With Rustin, Or The Left Will Rise Again, Maybe, John D'Emilio

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Four years ago, CLAGS sponsored a conference on the state of gay and lesbian history. I was one of several presenters in a session on biography. None of us on the panel had consulted beforehand. But by the beginning of the third or fourth presentation, a common pattern had emerged, and the audience erupted with laughter. Each one of us had opened our remarks with a mixture of apology and denial: we each were not, we assured the audience, writing a biography!

Boomer: Railroad Memoirs, Linda Niemann

Linda G. Niemann

No abstract provided.