Digital Commons Network^™

Adelaide Louise Butman Irving '04, Adelaide Louise Butman Irving

Westbrook College Alumni Reminiscences

Essay describing Adelaide Irving's experiences as a Westbrook Seminary student 1900-1904.

Marguerite Shaw '37, Marguerite Shaw

Westbrook College Alumni Reminiscences

Letter from Marguerite Shaw to Dorothy Healy detailing her experiences at Westbrook Junior College in the 1930s.

Miriam Fisher Fosher '08, Miriam Fosher

Westbrook College Alumni Reminiscences

Essay written by Miriam Fisher Fosher regarding her experience at Westbrook Seminary 1907-1908.

Nancy Mckeen '45, Nancy Mckeen

Westbrook College Alumni Reminiscences

Essay written by Nancy McKeen "45 regarding her experience at Westbrook Junior College 1943-1945.

“I Am A Refugee Direct From Mississippi:” Drafting And Substitution As Muster Methods In Shaping Black Participation In The Union Army, 1863–1865, Carson R. Maschmeier

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Historians have frequently emphasized voluntary enlistment as the primary means through which Black men entered military service, portraying military participation as an expression of autonomy and a pathway toward freedom and citizenship. Within this scholarship, few historians have examined how Black participation in the Union army as draftees and substitutes impacted Black men and their families. This thesis examines the role of drafting and substitution in shaping Black military participation in the Union Army during the American Civil War. By focusing on Pennsylvania's 8th United States Colored Troops (USCT), this study argues that drafting and substitution complicate the commonly accepted …

German Science, American Manufacturing: Ethnic Capital, Transnational Technology, And Corporate Development At Bausch & Lomb, 1853–1953, George L. Grobe Iv

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation examines the first century of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company, founded in Rochester, NY in 1853 by German immigrants John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb. It argues the firm’s success was driven by leveraging of management’s German ethnic identity as “ethnic capital” to access resources like financial liquidity, immigrant labor, and technical expertise. These resources allowed for the transformation of the firm from a small optical retail shop into a major manufacturer of advanced optical instruments. However, as later generations of the family Americanized, the ability of the firm to leverage ethnic capital eroded until breaking completely …

Light And Fire: Kerosene And The Rise And Fall Of Standard Oil, 1859-1911, Minseok Jang

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation revisits the rise and fall of Standard Oil between 1859 and 1911 through the lens of petroleum’s materiality and the fire hazards it posed. Moving beyond traditional narratives that focus on the company’s corporate strategy, this study argues that the volatility of petroleum and the global consumer experience of its environmental risks were central to shaping the company’s trajectory. The research highlights how Standard Oil struggled to control the flammable nature of kerosene—the primary petroleum product used for illumination at the time—before aligning with Great Britain’s advanced inspection technologies and regulatory frameworks. This transimperial cooperation enabled Standard Oil …

Models Of Emulation: Representations Of Foreign, Indigenous, And Accented Speech In Early American Literature, Elaina A. Frulla

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

“Models of Emulation: Representations of Foreign, Indigenous, and Accented Speech in Early American Literature” explores how American writers used depictions of “nonstandard” English and accented English language speech, traditionally described as “literary dialect,” as a way to negotiate identity, power, and political belonging in the formative years of nation building after the American Revolution. Beginning with Noah Webster’s mission to establish a standardized pronunciation of the English language that would simplify and purify spoken American-English and definitively differentiate it from what he saw as the corrupted, cosmopolitan British-English model, each of the three chapters examines literary representations of nonstandard emulated …

Something To Say: Nativism, Prohibition, And The Loss Of Political Alignment In Davenport, Iowa’S German-American Community 1848-1922, Clayton R. Schuler

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis ends with the municipal elections of 1920 in Davenport, Iowa. Amid the First Red Scare, the Socialist Party was swept into power. The party won under inauspicious national conditions thanks in part to a successful campaign on local concerns; the party had something to say. An examination of the years prior to the election, however, reveals that other factors contributed to political unalignment for the city’s large German descended population. Frustrated with Republican and Democratic parties that seemed to have no place for them, these voters had something to say as well. Ultimately the opportunity that this unalignment …

Visible And Invisible Empires: The Revival Of The Ku Klux Klan 100 Years Ago, Christian Molina

Theses

Hatred and violence breed division, and division breeds more hatred and more violence. In an America where our politics has become name-calling, finger-pointing, scapegoating, and whataboutisms, and violence, unfortunately, it is safe to say our nation has entered this self-perpetuating cycle. A place for malicious groups concerned with growth, power, and profit to capture the angry, the stressed, and the less informed in their webs of elaborate lies and misleading, misinterpreted numbers the way they have in decades past.

Healing Through History, Nancy Baker Jones

Journal of Texas History

This is the written transcription of the author’s closing plenary address to the inaugural conference of the Alliance for Texas History, May 17, 2025. Its purpose is to put into both broad and personal historical contexts the events of 2023 and 2024 that led to the founding of the Alliance for Texas History. It concludes that, despite the difficulties of those events for her and for many other historians of Texas, history offers a potentially healing context for moving forward.

Testing Tocqueville’S Troops: American Democracy At War In Mexico, Corbin V. Cali

History Theses

This thesis explores Alexis de Tocqueville's theory of democratic armies through the lens of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), testing his predictions about how democratic social conditions influence military institutions and performance. Tocqueville argued that armies in democratic societies would face tensions between egalitarian ideals and military discipline, with citizen-soldiers resisting hierarchy while professional officers, often isolated from civil society, grew dangerously ambitious for war. He predicted that democratic armies would show energetic initiative but struggle with weak formal discipline, and that equality would fundamentally change the relationship between the military and the broader society. The Mexican-American War serves as an …

Redefining Frontier Womanhood: Irish Female Landownership In Mexican Texas, Kelly Mcmichael

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Editorial Team

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, Editorial Team

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Orthodoxy, Culture And Language: Alaska In Russia’S Religious Diplomacy Of The 21st Century, Oleksandr Lukyanenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to the analysis of the religious factor of the Russian foreign diplomacy in the light of Vladimir Putin’s high-profile visit to Alaska n August 15, 2025. The paper studies a special place of Alaska in the historical imagination of Russian political and church discourse. The status of this particular territory in Russian state worldview – the former “Russian America” – is indicative: it refers to the idea of an unfinished imperial legacy. The research doesn’t touch a main event that included a meeting with US President Donald Trump but an off-schedule meeting with Archbishop Alexei (Trader) …

Knowing One's Place At The Table: Taste As A Means Of Othering In The American Colonies, 1700-1775, Nicholas Harp

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

This thesis began as an inquiry into a simple question. How did people in the American colonies talk about the food that they ate? This question led to a fascinating look into the social dynamics of the people living in eighteenth century America. Their own personal writings demonstrate how they understood their place in society through the food that they ate. Moreover, they often wrote about the way that other people ate in ways that alienated or discriminated against different ethnic groups. A look into the secondary historiography revealed that other historians had noticed this trend. However, very few addressed …

The Edge Of The World: An Examination Of The Wild West In California, 1840-1880, Chloe J. Cushing

Master's Theses

“The Edge of the World” revolves around the history of the Wild West in California through the lens of Richard Maxwell Brown’s Western War of Incorporation theory. Rather than being a mythology sensationalized by Hollywood and literature, for the Golden State, the Wild West was a very real and tangible part of its early-American era, characterized by U.S. imperialism, high murder rates, anti-authoritarianism, and other rampant forms of chaos that affected the state for generations. By examining the conditions and effects of the late Mexican period, the Gold Rush, Confederate sympathizers, and the Southern Pacific Railroad, this thesis highlights the …

Rise Above!! Second-Wave Post Punk/ Hardcore In Orange County, 1977-1983, Jessie Zepeda

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Post-punk and Hardcore played a pivotal role in creating a youth identity in Orange County that created a stark contrast to the more recognized Republican image of O.C. during the late 1970s and early 1980s. While historians view this era of California for its Republican ties with former presidents such as Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, we overlook the much more underground, yet important, identity created by many of the adolescents and young adults during this time. Though it is essential to recognize these Republican ties as they play a key role in understanding political dynamics and cultural studies that …

Itadakimasu: Recipes From Japanese American Internment Camps, Alexander K. Nishida

Graphic Communication

This project presents a historical narrative told through the format of a cookbook, exploring the relationship between food, memory, and resilience during the Japanese American Internment of World War II. Using primary resources such as news publications from within the camps (Topaz Times,1943), historical interviews (Herzig, 1994), and secondary resources from an archival podcast (Campu, 2021) to highlight how food served as both a means of survival and an expression of identity under confinement.

The cookbook will combine recipes inspired by documented internment-era meals with stories and reflections gathered from interviews, archival materials, and community voices. Each section will contextualize …

"Forgive Our Living And Our Dead": Colonial Warfare In The Philippines, Mattie Fitzpatrick

History

In March of 1906, American troops massacred over 1,000 Filipino civilians on Bud Dajo mountain. American service members were commended for this incident. My research examines this massacre to ask why wars of insurgency are specifically subject to abuses of power, particularly during the American-Philippines War and the ensuing colonial warfare between 1898 and 1906 under the colonization of the US. My research will focus on the circumstances created to excuse US soldiers after atrocities were committed and the colonial attitudes of the time in addition to the brutal methods used by the American government in Philippines. American colonial administrators …

A Voice To Remember: Recovering The Rhetoric Of Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, Diana Lynne Nogay

English Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation will recover Mordecai Johnson's rhetoric to demonstrate how he addressed the political issues of his time, which were often related to race, and were frequently reduced or even forgotten. In this dissertation, titled “A Voice to Remember: Recovering the Rhetoric of Mordecai Wyatt Johnson,” I perform and analyze the rhetoric associated with him. Johnson was well known for being the president of Howard University; the goal of this project is to recover the rhetoric and identify the common themes. The two themes identified in Johnson’s rhetoric are religion and education. Personal traits and associations with religion are traced …

The Seed That Begot America: How Political Principles Of The Reformation Contributed To The American Founding, Gabriel Stisser

Senior Honors Theses

When teaching the American founding, the contemporary public-school curriculum tends to emphasize the influence of the thinkers from the antiquity and Enlightenment periods. However, the curriculum tends to neglect the impact that the Reformation had upon America's formation. Through a qualitative historical review, this study will analyze both primary and secondary sources to examine how Reformed ideals of the political covenant, limited government, and resistance to tyranny influenced the American founding. This analysis finds that the Reformed (sometimes called Calvinist) political ideals from the Reformation had a significant influence upon the formation of the New England colonies, the enlightenment figures …

Trump’S Lasting Impact On The U.S. Presidency, Imer Kj Cespedes-Alvarado

Political Science Student Research

The first presidency of Donald J. Trump had a lasting impact on the American Presidency, expanding executive power through robust assertions of constitutional power, unconventional communications, and an unprecedented disregard for political norms. The two terms further blurred the line between governance and personal branding, cultivating this new model of leadership that depends on constant public exposure and polarization among the American people. This research examines how Trump's executive power and political tactics during both of his presidencies redefined expectations of presidential behavior and accountability by consolidating executive authority, reorganizing federal institutions, and placing even greater emphasis on loyalty and …

Wagon Tracks Volume 39, Issue 2 (Feb 2025)

Wagon Tracks

Contents

2 On the Cover: Jicarillo Young Woman and Cowboy Edward S. Curtis

4 Trail Writings: Chris Day

5-7 Joanne’s Jottings

7 Letter to Editor: Mike Olsen

7-9 News along the Trail

10 Preservation Committee: Alexa Roberts

12-17 An 1859 Contract for Exporting Wool on the Santa Fe Trail By Mary Penner

18-21 White Men Now Living Amongst Us By Ronald D. Parks

22-24 Jicarillo Apache Resistance By Doug Hocking

7/24 SFTA and Chapter 2024 Highlights

25 Chapter Reports

25 Membership Form

28 Calendar

Slave Society Upon A Hill: A Historiography Of Slavery In Colonial Massachusetts, Katherine Mcgann

The Graduate Review

This paper explores the treatment of slavery in New England by different historians throughout the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Slavery in the U.S. is most often associated with the American South, but slavery also existed and flourished in New England. The study of how slavery developed in New England is an integral part of American history, as it is significant to see how slavery could have existed in a place known for its liberal ideals and democratic heroism and how that affected the development of American society. It is also important to explore why the story of slavery in …

Stolen, Lost, And Replaced: Testimonios Regarding Chicana Responsibilities To The Spanish Language, Fawn-Amber Montoya, Ashley Martinez

International Journal on Responsibility

Using testimonio, the authors address how the Spanish language represents a component of Chicana identity. They illustrate how geography, history, and colonization impact Chicanas’ relationship with the Spanish language. Using testimonio allows the writers to explore the Spanish language in the United States through their personal experiences.

Resumen

Usando “testimonio”, las autoras abordan cómo el idioma español representa un componente de la identidad chicana. Ilustran cómo la geografía, la historia y la colonización afectan la relación de las chicanas con el idioma español. El uso de “testimonio” permite a las autoras explorar el idioma español en los Estados Unidos a …

The American Friends Of Irish Neutrality And The American Irish Defense Association: The Last Irish American Committees, Patrick J. Horan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the complex narratives surrounding Irish neutrality during World War II within the Irish American community. It focuses on two key organizations, the American Friends of Irish Neutrality (AFIN) and the American Irish Defense Association (AIDA), arguing that the conflict over neutrality was a pivotal moment in the assimilation of Irish American identity. The study explores how Irish Americans balanced their connection to their ancestral homeland with their desire for full acceptance in the United States.

The research reveals a fervent propaganda war between the AFIN, a grassroots organization defending Ireland’s right to remain neutral, and the AIDA, …

Henry J. Duff – Unheralded Reformer, Russell J. Desimone

Dorr Scholarship

In the aftermath of the failed 1842 Dorr Rebellion, a new Rhode Island state constitution was drafted and ratified. It was claimed that the new constitution included many of the provisions that were in the extra-legal People’s Constitution. This was not exactly true. In one respect the new state constitution differed from the People’s Constitution in that naturalized citizens were required to have a freehold while native born citizens were not. Henry J. Duff, a naturalized citizen from Ireland, fought for a period of five years to have the state constitution amended to remove the freehold requirement for naturalized citizens. …

Nicola Wenz:, C. Naseer Ahmad

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Nicola Wenz is an award-winning bi-national producer and journalist from Switzerland and Germany, based in Washington, D.C. She works as a news producer for the German public television service Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), where she manages U.S. political coverage, including the White House, State Department, Capitol Hill, and the Pentagon. Her assignments are diverse, ranging from indepth feature stories and environmental issues to major news events across a wide geographic area from North America to China.