United States History Commons^™

Garrett Davey, Garret Davey, Meg Miner

All oral histories

Davey recalls a class visit to Myers' home and the many things Myers shared about his collecting; reflects on the meaning he took from Myers' collecting and the influence his personal characteristics had. Davey observes that Myers' passion for his collections was contagious and that Myers' desire to find meaning in these objects was inspirational.

Dr. Muirhead recalls the same class visit and a copy of the name tag Davey recalls is associated with her interview.

Warren, Robert Penn, 1905-1989 (Sc 2977), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2977. Newspaper and magazine clippings, programs and correspondence relating to the 80th anniversary of the Rhodes Scholars program at Oxford University. Robert Penn Warren participated in these festivities as a program alumnus. Includes a brief correspondence between Warren and fellow Rhodes alumnus Don Price.

Black Heritage Stamp Series: Richard Allen, United States Postal Service. Stamp Division

Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr. Stamp Collection

Informational pages for Richard Allen Commemorative stamp – Black Heritage Series, includes images of the stamps, information about the physical stamps and biographical information for Richard Allen. First issued February 2, 2016, 39th in a series.

James Martin, James Martin, Meg Miner

All oral histories

Martin felt Myers' greatest influence was by being a positive personality who was present at events. He states that the presences of a positive authority influences students and faculty to want to do well. Martin uses the phrase "ministry of presence" to describe the impact this trait has. Martin felt the campus became more world-minded and interdisciplinary, with an emphasis on curiosity and diversity under Myer's leadership. The fire and passion Myers exemplified influenced the character of IWU.

Taylor, Charles Forman, Jr., 1862-1946 (Sc 2975), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2975. Letter, 21 October 1939, written by druggist Charles Forman Taylor Jr., Bowling Green, Kentucky to Joe Werthan, Nashville, Tennessee, describing a cough syrup to be used on Mr. Werthan’s horses. The letter includes a list of Taylor’s other equine medications with prices.

Diddle, Louise, 1900-1992 (Sc 2974), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2974. Letter written by Louise Diddle to Mr. and Mrs. Carlisle thanking them for the flowers that they sent her while she was in the hospital.

Bacorn, Almira Louise (Winans), 1838-1920 (Sc 2973), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2973. Letters from Almira L. Bacorn, Gardiner, Montana, to Mrs. E.G. Anderson, Oak Park, Illinois, in which she discusses family matters, mutual friends, and the aging process. In one letter she mentions the wounding of a young man, the son of mutual friends.

Lisa Wolfinger, Executive Producer Of Pbs’S Mercy Street, Talks History And Memory, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

This winter, the Gettysburg Compiler will be releasing weekly posts as part of a Mercy Monday feature that will cover issues of medical history, gender and race relations, historical memory, and other themes depicted in the new PBS series Mercy Street.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Lisa Wolfinger, the executive producer and co-creator of Mercy Street. She kindly agreed to be interviewed by the Gettysburg Compiler about her work on the series. Wolfinger also participated in a recent conversation on local public radio station WITF’s Smart Talk program alongside the CWI’s Jill Titus and Ian Isherwood. …

The Fictions Of Whiteness: Transatlantic Race Science, Gender, Nationalism, And The Construction Of Race In Nineteenth-Century American Fiction (1823-1867), Philip E. Kadish

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Fictions of Whiteness argues that political beliefs preceded and determined the race science theories which nineteenth century American white novelists applied or invoked in their work, the inverse of the current critical consensus. For issues ranging from Indian removal to slavery and Reconstruction, and utilizing theories from of Condorcet, Buffon, Camper, Louis Agassiz, James Pritchard, Johannes Blumenbach, and George Borrow these authors shifted allegiances to divergent race theories between and within works, applied those theories selectively to white, black, and Indians characters, and applied the same scientific race theories to politically divergent rhetorical ends. By analyzing shifting application of different …

This Species Of Property: Slavery And The Properties Of Subjecthood In Anglo-American Law And Politics, 1619-1783, John N. Blanton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This Species of Property examines the development of the law and practice of slavery in the 17^th and 18^th century Anglo-American empire through analysis of common law court decisions in England, Massachusetts, and Virginia. The dissertation argues that there was a long and vibrant debate over the legitimacy of the chattel principle – the definition of enslaved persons as a type of property – and that enslaved people and their allies pushed for the recognition of the legal humanity or subjecthood of the enslaved in colonial and metropolitan courts. This antislavery legal tradition culminated in the famous Somerset …

Martin Luther King Jr. In Dialogue With The Ancient Greeks, Timothy Joseph

Classics Department Faculty Scholarship

To mark the start of Black History Month, a Classicist reflects on the inspiration King drew from ancient Greek culture.

Unhealed Cultural Memories: Styron’S Nat Turner, Shaun O'Connell

New England Journal of Public Policy

William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner, a novel about the leader of a slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831, was highly praised after its publication in 1967. Then African American essayists in William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond took issue with the novel and rejected Styron’s asserted right to reimagine Nat Turner’s life and to assume his voice, claiming their rights of racial heritage and historical accuracy to castigate Styron for his offensive presumption. That distant argument of unshared assumptions and crossed purposes between high-minded and hypersensitive artists and intellectuals of another day may throw refracted …

The History Of Public Education In New Orleans Still Matters, Al Kennedy

History Faculty Publications

Ten years after the flood waters from negligently constructed federal levees inundated New Orleans, public education reformers have unhitched their narrative from the pre-Katrina history of the Crescent City. They cleverly placed the blame for the condition of the schools on the backs of the teachers--and their union. The reformers contend that New Orleans was a “blank sheet of paper” upon which they put in place a successful system of charter schools. Perhaps the reference to the “blank sheet of paper” makes more sense as an effort to paper-over a long and painful history that includes the lingering effects of …

Samuel Slater And The Development Of Southern Worcester County, Massachusetts, Nicole C. Smith

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

A written piece detailing the impact of Samuel Slater on the rural towns of Southern Worcester County Massachusetts.

Marianne Carus, Marianne Carus, Meg Miner

All oral histories

Mrs. Carus recalls meeting Myers once and touring The Ames Library with him. She speaks of Myers as a supporter of her work in publishing literature for children.

Export / Import: The Promotion Of Contemporary Italian Art In The United States, 1935–1969, Raffaele Bedarida

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Export / Import examines the exportation of contemporary Italian art to the United States from 1935 to 1969 and how it refashioned Italian national identity in the process. I do not concentrate on the Italian art scene per se, or on the American reception of Italian shows. Through a transnational perspective, instead, I examine the role of art exhibitions, publications, and critical discourse aimed at American audiences. Inaugurated by the Fascist regime as a form of political propaganda, this form of cultural outreach to the United States continued after WWII as Italian museums, dealers, and critics aimed to vaunt the …

Animal Performance In Big-Time Vaudeville, Catherine M. Young

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Animal vaudevillians have been neglected by academic accounts of vaudeville. Drawing on the rapidly proliferating and highly interdisciplinary field of animal studies, this dissertation combines archival research and cultural theory to fill an important gap in our understanding of how animal bodies and images circulated during the vaudeville era. Taking up Nicole Shukin’s notion of animal capital as both animal “signs and substances” circulating in cultures of capital, I argue that vaudeville animal acts theatricalized animal capital for US citizen-consumers and often circulated animalized capital via racist ideologies and performance modes.

Theatre bookers balanced their reliance on animal acts …

Hamilton: Musical Theater, Public History’S New Frontier?, Megan E. Mcnish

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Hamilton is one of Broadway’s newest musicals and it’s the hottest thing to hit the stage in a long time. The show, a rap-opera, follows the life of Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s ‘forgotten Founding Father.’ The show has had immense success since it opened in August 2015, with thousands of followers on the show’s Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube pages. It has exploded from the stage into a cultural phenomenon, but what makes the story of this Founding Father so compelling for audiences? Previous productions of historical musicals and plays have failed on the stage, while Hamilton thrives. What is its …

2016-01-29 Beautyville: Murder In My Family (Part 1), Lydia Justice Edwards, Eastern Kentucky Voice

Robert S. Frasure Murder Trials

Part 1 of "Beautyville: Murder in my Family" by Lydia Justice Edwards published in the Eastern Kentucky Voice on January 29, 2016.

Joy Doran, Joy Doran, Meg Miner

All oral histories

Doran recalls the musical interests she shared with Myers, including being founding board members of the Pratt Music Foundation, which sponsors music education in the local community, and that they shared a vision for expanding the preparatory program available through the IWU School of Music. The former was realized during Myers' era but the latter idea did not come to fruition. She and Myers viewed themselves as "philosophers of potential and advocates of opportunity" and Doran was pleased to have support for her ideas even if they were not always success.