Digital Commons Network^™

"Yellow Fever Epidemic", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

Draft of text for the historical marker in Tuscumbia, Alabama honoring those who died of the yellow fever epidemic in the fall of 1878.

The current historical marker for the yellow fever epidemic in Tuscumbia can be viewed on the Historical Marker Database.

"Wilson Park", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

Article about the creation and naming of Wilson Park, originally called the Town Walk, in Florence, Alabama.

"A Yankee Patient At Pope's Tavern", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

The article relates the story of Private Oglvie E. Hamblin, a union soldier and one of the last patients to be treated at Pope's Tavern when it served as a Civil War hospital.

"The Yankee Connection", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

The article summarizes the impact of the Negley family in North Alabama, including the construction of the Negley Hotel.

Union Brigadier General, James Scott Negley entered North Alabama on May 13, 1862, and through a series of skirmishes began to occupy Florence. Later, his relative, Major Albert Gallatin Negley arrived in East Florence, Alabama in response to the industrial boom.

"Wesleyan Hall, An Alabama Landmark", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

A history of Wesleyan Hall, on the Campus on the University of North Alabama.

Digitized images of Wesleyan Hall are accessible in the University Architecture Collection and William Lindsey McDonald Image Collection. To find the images, simply click on a collection link, and use the search bar, located on the left side, to search for the images.

Analisis Aransemen Lagu Amdahil Mukammal Pada Grup Hadrah Al-Banjari Bismilhub Di Kecamatan Junrejo, Kota Batu, Riko Firman Maulana, Wida Rahayuningtyas

Journal of Language, Literature, and Arts

This study analyzes the arrangement structure, percussion rhythmic patterns, interlocking technique, and vocal harmony of Amdahil Mukammal as performed by the Bismilhub Hadrah Al-Banjari group in Junrejo, Batu, Indonesia. A descriptive qualitative method with a musicological approach was employed. Data were collected through observations, interviews, and documentation from February to May 2026. The informants included the group leader, trainer, lead vocalist, and terbang player. Data were analyzed through data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing, while data credibility was examined through methodological and source triangulation. The findings show that the arrangement of Amdahil Mukammal consists of four sections: intro, chorus, …

Sinergi Seniman, Institusi Pendidikan, Dan Komunitas Dalam Ekosistem Industri Kreatif Berkelanjutan, Bagaskara Bagaskara, Sumarwahyudi Sumarwahyudi

Journal of Language, Literature, and Arts

Developing a sustainable local creative industry ecosystem requires synergy among artists, educational institutions, and communities whose distinct roles complement one another. This study analyzes the roles and forms of collaboration among these actors and identifies key challenges and strategies for strengthening the creative ecosystem. A qualitative literature review was conducted using relevant journal articles, academic books, proceedings, reports, and institutional publications. The literature was analyzed thematically according to actor roles, forms of collaboration, challenges, and strengthening strategies. Artists contribute to artistic value creation, innovation, and cultural identity; educational institutions support competency development, knowledge, technology, and regeneration; while communities provide spaces …

The Tragicomedy Of C. S. Lewis The Bald: Reflections On An Unpublished Play, Jahdiel Perez

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

"Within the pages of a Vice-President’s Register (1920–1984), held in the Old Library archives of his Oxford College, Lewis handwrote, in mock Shakespearean English, 'The Tragicomicall Briefe Reigne of Lewis the Bald.' As far as we know, this is the only complete play in his corpus. Mostly unpublished until the recent release of C. S. Lewis’s Oxford (2024) by Simon Horobin, this piece has yet to receive the scholarly attention it deserves. In what follows, I seek to address this gap through a close analysis of portions of the text and its broader implications for Lewis’s approach to writing."

Tracing Sehnsucht: Longing For The "Hidden Country", Charlie Reeder

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

"This thesis will argue that Lewis employs a consistent set of literary themes and biblical echoes to articulate longing throughout his career, and that his early non-Christian, and often anti-Christian, poetry, such as Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics (1919) and Dymer (1926), plays a formative role in shaping his later depictions of Sehnsucht. Although his theological commitments and vocabulary evolve significantly after his conversion, an engagement with a predominantly Judeo-Christian literary inheritance is apparent from the outset. A central focus here will be Lewis’s use of place. In his early poetry, recurring biblical resonances, conceptual images, and spatial …

C. S. Lewis, The Expert Communicator, Steven A. Beebe

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

"What evidence supports the claim that Lewis is an expert communicator? He remains a popular author, one of the most read authors of all time. He was a professional communicator; he earned his living communicating: teaching, writing, and speaking. And, as this essay has documented, he was a professor of communication. He made insightful observations about the role, nature, and function of communication throughout the corpus of his work. Although his planned book with J. R. R. Tolkien, “Language and Human Nature,” was never published, his initial ideas found in the draft of the partial opening chapter, coupled with a …

Screwtape In Wartime, Joe Ricke

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

"This essay looks closely at the connections between Lewis’s wartime message to his listeners in his now famous, but then unlikely, sermon, “Learning in Wartime,” on 22 October 1939 and his wartime novel, The Screwtape Letters. It will range widely from biography to history to literary influences and to close reading of the texts to help reflect on its place not only in Lewis’s oeuvre but in his life and the lives of all those who, then and now, attend to the distinction between what Lewis (and, surprisingly, Screwtape) makes between the local wars of time and space and the …

Signifying Nothing? Narnia, Inanity, And A. L. Rowse, Michael Ward

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

"This essay explores the origins of the word Narnia, the name that Lewis gave to the fictional kingdom in which his seven Chronicles of Narnia are mostly set. How did he come by it? What, if anything, does the word mean?...I will be pursuing two lines of enquiry and two sets of intriguing connections that strike me as potentially illuminating. What follows is more of a theory for consideration than a hard-and-fast conclusion for acceptance. But though I write with a degree of tentativeness, I hope, nonetheless, to shed some light upon Lewis’s statements about his naming
of Narnia and …

"Expressing The Great Myths": Hugo Dyson And Shakespeare In C. S. Lewis's Conversion Narrative, Sarah R. A. Waters

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

"The conversations that took place on the night of 19 September 1931 in Addison’s Walk might, as David Downing has put it, “be considered the defining moment in Jack’s life.” And Lewis’s letters to Greeves are recognized to be a key source in this narrative, with Alister McGrath noting, for instance that these letters “explain the events of the night and their significance for his reflections on religious faith.” Often ignored in accounts of these conversations, however, is the importance of Dyson in the story, and often ignored in these letters are Lewis’s reflections on his current reading matter, including …

"Lewis Dodged": T. S. Eliot's Silence, C. S. Lewis's Critique (1931 - 1947), Hannah F. Roux

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

"Most agree that Lewis’s critique of Eliot’s work is important to his literary scholarship—whether they think that critique changes or not. There is no academic book of Lewis’s from the 1930s and 1940s in which he does not at some point engage with Eliot by name. The opposite question—whether Lewis’s work was important to Eliot—is comparatively neglected. This paper investigates this neglected question."

What Did Tolkien Really Think About Narnia?, Holly Ordway

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

"We are presented with two questions: “what did Tolkien really think about Narnia?” and “how did the idea that Tolkien hated Narnia become accepted as common knowledge?” In this essay, I will address both questions and conclude by suggesting why they matter for Inklings scholarship. At the outset, I will merely observe that since Tolkien and Lewis are two of the greatest fantasy writers of the twentieth century, it is worth knowing what one of them thought of the other’s work. …I have drawn my primary evidence from Tolkien’s published Letters (in the Revised and Expanded Edition), unpublished letters, and …

Book Review: The History And Politics Of Star Wars: Death Stars And Democracy, Petra Hendrickson

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Book Review: The History and Politics of Star Wars: Death Stars and Democracy

Frontmatter (Volume 19 Issue 2), Bruce R. Johnson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

No abstract provided.

Protective Factors Among African American Offspring Of Teen Parents, Janelle Ewing

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adolescent pregnancy remains a major public health and social issue, but research has primarily focused on risk factors and not the protective factors that contribute to resilience among those who successfully break the cycle. This qualitative study explored protective factors that African American adult offspring of teenage parents identified as supporting them in avoiding teenage pregnancy and parenthood. The study was theoretically grounded in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, which was used to explore the role of influence across environmental systems in participants’ developmental outcomes. The primary research question was “How do African American adult offspring of teenage parents describe the …

Exploring Multicultural Competence Among Mental Health Workers When Providing Treatment To African American Males, Ashley Hightower

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American men experience disproportionately low rates of mental health service utilization and often report negative perceptions of mental illness. Despite documented mental health disparities, limited research has explored how mental health workers understand and apply multicultural competence when providing treatment to African American men. Grounded in the theory of planned behavior and social identity theory, the purpose of this qualitative descriptive phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of mental health workers regarding multicultural competence in their work with African American men. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with seven mental health workers recruited through purposive sampling. Interview …

Unsex Me Here: Gendered Psychology In Shakespeare's Major Tragedies And Comedy, Md. Abu Bakkar

Journal of Language, Literature, and Arts

This study examines how gender shapes psychological experience across five of Shakespeare’s major plays: Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Twelfth Night. Existing scholarship treats Shakespeare’s tragic women, tragic men, and comic heroines as separate problems; this article asks whether one framework connects them. Its starting point is the reversal in psychological positions between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth: he resists killing on moral grounds and then grows recklessly violent, while she plans the murder with cold resolve and is later overwhelmed by guilt. The study asks whether this pattern recurs more broadly, and why. Drawing …

Dowland Is For Everyone! The Making Of A New Biography, K. Dawn Grapes, Katharyn R. Benessa

Soundboard Scholar

Following the publication of her new biography of the Elizabethan lutenist John Dowland, K. Dawn Grapes details her research journey in conversation with Katharyn Benessa. They discuss both the history of Dowland research, including the legacy of Diana Poulton, and the gaps that still remain. Grapes offers new context for understanding Dowland’s music and considers how his travels and experiences may have shaped his life and work.

More Than A Name: Reparative Description For Women’S Archives, Allison Mccormack, Hallie Oines

Journal of Western Archives

This article describes a reparative description initiative at an academic library aimed at improving access to women’s archival collections. By hiring a metadata specialist through grant funding, the project revised legacy MARC records to update, expand, and standardize collection descriptions. Prioritizing inclusive language and accurate subject headings, the team addressed gaps that previously hindered discovery of women’s materials. Over two years, 818 records were remediated, enhancing creator, topical, and genre/form access points. The article discusses project challenges, strategies for respectful description, and the resulting improved discoverability, offering a replicable model for reparative archival work.

On The Passing Of Wendell Berry, Gayle E. Doornbos, Jeff Ploegstra, Danielle Wyenberg, Howard Schaap

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Berry’s literary contributions are vast and multifaceted, but the central messages carry an invitation into a more intentional life, one that prioritizes people, land, communities, and the joy of good work."

Posting about Wendell Berry's passing and literary legacy ­­­­­­­­from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

On the Passing of Wendell Berry

"Robert Pain And The Legacy Of Leadership", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

Robert Paine was the first president of LaGrange College, the earliest predecessor of the University of North Alabama. The article gives a brief overview of Paine's leadership.

"T.S. Stribling" And "T.S. Stribling's Ties To Lauderdale County", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

The articles offer an overview of Pulitzer-prize winning author and Florence Normal College alum T.S. Stribling, as well as his connections to Lauderdale County, Alabama.

"The Story Of The Shawnees At The Muscle Shoals", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

A brief overview of the Shawnees in Northwest Alabama.

"The Sounds Of Handy's Music On The Tennessee River", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

William Christopher Handy "the father of the blues" was raised in Florence, Alabama. The article offers a synopsis of the connection between Handy, his music, and the Tennessee River.

More information about W.C. Handy and a digitized image gallery is available at the William Christopher Handy Collection.

"A Story Of The Beginning Of Old Brick Presbyterian Church", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

The article provides a general overview of the origins of the Presbyterian denomination and a history of the establishment of local Presbyterian churches in North Alabama.

"Sweetwater: The Story Of East Florence", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

Research article that depicts the story of various portions of East Florence, Alabama industrial district, resulting from the resource of the "sweet water" spring. The subheadings that McDonald uses are as follows:

• Sweetwater Plantation, pg. 1
• A Second Plantation Called "Sweetwater", pg. 1
• Early Water Powered Mills on Sweetwater Creek, pg. 3
• The Industrial Section of Florence Called Sweetwater, pg. 3
• Early Iron Furnaces at East Florence, pg. 4
• The Florence Wagon Works, pg. 6
• The East Florence Cotton Industry, pg. 7
• Cherry Cotton Mill, pg. 7
• Ashcraft Cotton Mill, pg. 9
• The Broadus Mill, pg. 10
• Gardiner Warring Knitting …

"A Renowned Slave In The Early Life Of Florence", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

Dred Scott, the plaintiff in Dred Scott v. Sanford, was a confirmed resident of Florence, Alabama in the 1820s-1830s. The article gives an overview of Dred Scott's life, including his time in Lauderdale County.