United States History Commons^™

Unraveling The Truth: The Wannsee Conference And Holocaust Denial, Howie Parkes

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The Wannsee Conference, held in January 1942, marked a crucial turning point in the Holocaust, as it signified the Nazi regime's decision to systematically exterminate Europe's Jewish population on an industrial scale. This poster presentation examines the role of the Wannsee Conference in Holocaust denial narratives and the portrayal of the conference in the critically acclaimed film, Conspiracy (2001). I discuss how Holocaust deniers use the Wannsee Conference to argue against the existence of a plan to exterminate Jews or to suggest that the conference never took place. Through an analysis of the conference transcript, I demonstrate its significance in …

The 1904 World’S Fair: Intended Impact Of The U.S. Government Building Versus Visitor Experience, Dalton King

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The 1904 Saint Louis World’s Fair, known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, has long been known for its significant impact on America and the world. This research explores the intended purpose of the 1904 World’s Fair’s United States Government Building and its exhibits of the War and Navy Departments. Furthermore, this analysis investigates the visitor experience of the Government Building’s characteristics and exhibits. During the Progressive Era, American society was undergoing a significant paradigm shift through countless evolutions in industry, technology, and culture, and this research contextualizes historical study of the time. Though the recent body of literature revolves around …

The Failed 1971-1973 Redevelopment Of Pruitt-Igoe, Rachael Heriford

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Majority of public housing in the United States is a failure of cyclical nature. Historians have examined the collapse of public housing either at a local level via the examination of a specific housing project or through a federal level by researching HOPE VI, the current federal housing policy since the 1990s that encourages demolishing and privatization of public housing. Up until the 1990s, demolition wasn't as common as it is today, and became more normalized after the demolition of Pruitt-Igoe in 1973. Pruitt-Igoe is one of the more notable examples of how badly public housing can fail. However, the …

Hines, Annie Duncan (Hines), 1873-1951 (Sc 3716), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3716. Recipe book of Annie Duncan Hines, Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Behen, Lafe Johnson, 1881-1971 (Sc 3715), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3715. Letter, 5 April 1941, to Gayle Carver at the Kentucky Museum, WKU, from L. J. Behen, Clerk of the City of Cloverport, Kentucky. He describes two defunct nineteenth-century railway lines constructed from Cloverport for the transport of cannel coal, and suggests items for the Museum such as pieces of the rails and novelty items cut from the coal. He also makes known the location of other artifacts, namely the bed in which Jefferson Davis was born, and an Aeolian piano.

Mccormick, Gordon, 1894-1967 (Sc 3714), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3714. Letter, 20 February 1951, of Gordon McCormick, Chicago, Illinois, to Duncan Hines, Bowling Green, Kentucky. McCormick lists his recommended restaurants in Paris and London and offers general advice on travel. Includes a letter, 2 April 1952, from an associate of McCormick’s regarding a booklet, “Where to Dine in London and Paris,” that McCormick had suggested Hines take with him.

Old Fort Jackson Still Stands At Five Fathom Hole On The Savannah River, Bob Ruegsegger

Defending Savannah: History and Archaeology of the Gibson's Point Battery

An article on the flags and signals used by the Confederate Signal Corps along the Savannah River during the American Civil War, written by Bob Ruegsegger on December 7, 2021.

Ruegsegger, Bob. "Old Fort Jackson Still Stands at Five Fathom Hole on the Savannah River." Last modified January 25, 2024.

Downing, Joseph Dudley, 1925-2007 - Relating To (Sc 3711), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3711. Summary of the career of artist Joe Dudley Downing, prepared by Jack LeSieur, Director of the Downing Museum, Bowling Green, Kentucky. The summary documents the dates and locations of Downing’s principal galleries, solo exhibitions, theatrical sets, group exhibitions, and salons. Includes a select bibliography, books and articles by Downing, and the locations of public collections.

Lesieur, John Bryan "Jack," B. 1986 (Sc 3713), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3713. Photographs, floor plans, and specifications relating to a proposed restoration of the Reservoir Hill Pump House, Bowling Green, Kentucky, as an office for the Landmark Association.

Lesieur, John Bryan "Jack," B. 1986 (Sc 3712), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3712. Narrative, photographs, and floor plans relating to a proposed restoration of “Potter Castle,” the former home of James Erasmus Potter at 1310 College Street, Bowling Green, Kentucky.

The Battle Over Memory: The Contestations Of Public And Familial Narratives In Remembering 9/11, Cheng-Yen Wu

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

On September 11, 2001, the four plane crashes marked the three sites of trauma that, to this day, sit in the heart of United States history. The paper examines the contested and often conflicting public and familial narratives at sites of memory and the recurring themes behind commemoration narratives. Drawing on newsletter articles and seven interviews with members of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and The Peace Abbey, the paper concludes that national and public remembrances of 9/11 adopted a top-down approach that has repressed familial remembrances in three main ways: by glorifying the victims, co-opting the version told …

“Now, What’S One Story I Wanted To Tell You?”: Oral History Exhibition Archives At The Chicago History Museum At The Turn Of The 21st Century, Arianne Nguyen

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

Starting in the 1970s, American history museums have undergone a shift away from seeing themselves collections-focused historical societies acting as “temples to the past.” In the face of broader political challenges—civil rights, increasingly multicultural urban audiences, and the “culture wars” of the 1980s, public historians have sought to reclaim their institutions’ relevance by seeking to share their authority and mission with those “publics” they serve.

While secondary literature on public history has generally agreed that museums pulled off this shift—and museums themselves have touted successful exhibits and outreach—this essay uses a specific case study to complicate the narrative. The Chicago …

With Liberty And Justice For All? The U.S. Internment Of Japanese Peruvians During World War Ii, Catherine T. Meisenheimer

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States committed to a policy of interning more than 120,000 Japanese Americans. While Japanese American detention remains the most researched instance of wartime internment, the U.S. incarceration of Japanese Peruvians merits equal attention. The political forces behind Japanese Peruvian internment transcended the more common explanations that haunt so much of literature today. Racism and hysteria played their respective roles in this history of wartime internment, but as the war progressed, other reasons for Japanese internment emerged. On January 4, 1942, the Japanese began interning American civilians in the …

The Black American Revolution: The American Revolution As Experienced By African Americans, Amy Kurian

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

This paper focuses on how the American Revolution mobilized the enslaved and free black population in a way that constitutes a "Black American Revolution." In particular, the enslaved population engaged in multiple efforts for freedom, ranging from fighting in the Revolutionary War to writing petitions to state legislatures. First, I present how the "slavery metaphor" propagated by white Loyalists indicates the inherent differences in how the white and black populations experienced the Revolution. There is an overall discussion of the various methods the enslaved used in their attempts to gain freedom: military service, slave petitions, freedom suits, and escape. I …

A Spirit Of Revolution: The Story Of Lt. Colonel John Laurens, Sophia A. Fossati

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

Though he has become a figure all but forgotten or merely glossed over, John Laurens (1754-1782) was the purest form of an early American hero, a pioneer for proto-abolitionism in the South, and a queer historical figure. His complex character and legacy is deserving of recognition and remembering. In this article, I intend to do just that by giving a brief historical summary of his life and person.

Conflict, Resistance, And Resolve: Uncovering Lost Narratives In Japanese-American Internment, Hannah De Oliveira

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

By the end of 1942, the U.S. army and the national government had forcibly removed 120,000 Japanese descended individuals from their homes on the West Coast, confining them to ten internment camps across the nation. In an effort to construct a more accurate representation of the mindset of internees in the wartime era, my thesis hones in on conflict and division within camp life. I emphasize the heterogeneity of Japanese-American voices and push back against the oversimplification of the different internee subgroups: the Japan-born immigrants (“Issei”), U.S.-born citizens (“Nisei”), and Japan-educated Nisei who returned home before the war (“Kibei”). Throughout …

Baird, Nancy Disher, B. 1935 (Sc 3710), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3710. Miscellaneous papers of WKU faculty member Nancy Baird: a diary of her travel in South Africa in 2005; a 2010 e-mail to her regarding conditions in South Africa; and her remarks on the presentation of her portrait of professor Lowell Harrison to WKU’s Kentucky Library, 2015.

Ai Meets Ai: Chatgpt As A Pedagogical Tool To Teach American Indian History, Jeffrey Washburn, Jennifer Monroe Mccutchen

Critical Humanities

Our paper illustrates how we used Artificial Intelligence to teach the tools of ethnohistory and highlight American Indian voices in our classrooms. It overviews our integration of ChatGPT in both survey and upper-level history courses at two different institutions: a small liberal arts college in the Midwest and a regional-comprehensive university in Texas. Though it acknowledges the benefits and pitfalls of using ChatGPT to teach Native American history, this article emphasizes the pedagogical value of large language models (LLMs) for student engagement and analytical thinking through a variety of critical review, peer review, and group annotation assessments; this included analyses …

Cook, John Loy, 1838-1878 (Sc 3709), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3709. Biographical data on John L. Cook, a physician of Henderson, Kentucky. Includes an 1878 article on yellow fever by Cook, published in the Louisville Medical News just prior to his death from the disease; a memorial address read before the McDowell Medical Society at Hopkinsville, Kentucky after his death; and information on his wife Annie.

Hill, John W., 1836-1928 (Sc 3708), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3708. Letters of John W. Hill, a sergeant in Terry’s Texas Rangers of the Confederate Army, written from Bowling Green, Kentucky and vicinity. Recovering from measles, he recounts the illnesses of some of his comrades, and scouting expeditions in which they experienced a skirmish and stole livestock from Union men. He also describes the battle and casualties at Woodsonville, Kentucky. Includes letters from Hill’s brother Robert (Bob), serving as assistant surgeon with the company, remarking on the fortifications at Bowling Green and the possibility that Union troops would find a “second Manassas” if …