Digital Commons Network^™

“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 …

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 …

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 …

Kelly, Jonathan, Volume 1, Rowan County Genealogical Society.

Rowan County Genealogy Collection

Genealogy of the Jonathan Kelly family in Rowan County, Kentucky.

Ellis Island And American Immigration History: A Closer Look At History On Ellis Island And American Immigration Waves During The 19th And Early 20th Centuries, Maya Tirone-Goehring

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay.........................................3

II. Synthesis Bibliography............................17

III. Primary Documents ...............................18

IV. Textbook Critique....................................28

V. New Textbook Entry.................................32

The Tennessee Valley Authority, Kentucky Dam, And Land Between The Lakes

Jackson Purchase Historical Society Journal Archive

The Tennessee Valley Authority, Kentucky Dam, and Land Between The Lakes

Haley Garrison

Down The Bay Oral History Project Newsletter - Summer 2024, Center For Archaeological Studies, Mccall Library

Down the Bay Oral History Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Green, Lewis, Rowan County Genealogical Soicety.

Rowan County Genealogy Collection

Genealogy of the Lewis Green family in Rowan County, Kentucky.

Making Freedom A Place: Geographies Of Social Movement Activism And Repression In Oakland, California, Sophie Mcclain

Pitzer Senior Theses

This senior thesis explores the ways in which people in Oakland, California make place and spaces through their activism and subsequently how these places and spaces are policed by the state. Building off of the works of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Robin D.G. Kelley, David Harvey, and Henri Lefebvre, McClain examines the ways in which activists create abolition geographies while engaging in their right to the city through social movement activism with a particular focus on the Black Panther Party and Occupy Wall Street Movement in Oakland. Through these examples, McClain shows how abolition geographies often exist in a dialectical relationship …

Webster Parish Library, 1929-1935 : A Rosenwald Demonstration Library, Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

In 1929 the Julius Rosenwald Fund instituted its County Demonstration Library program of matching grants to promote public library service to Blacks in the South. By the end of the program, total circulation in the demonstration counties averaged 5.2 per capita, with circulation among Blacks more than twice what it had been the previous year. One such segregated library system was established in Webster Parish Louisiana with the support of the State Library Commission. The central white library and eight branches opened on October 4, 1929. The central Black library and four branches opened a short time later. The Library …

The Unseen River And Infrastructural Silences: The Santa Ana River And The Ontology Of Floods, Cooper Lennon Crane

Pomona Senior Theses

This article discusses the history of land development and infrastructure along the Santa Ana River in Southern California. The river plays a significant role in the landscape of many of Southern California’s cities and urban geographies but has been relatively underdiscussed in literature. This article approaches the river using a combination of historic ethnography and sociocultural theory to unpack the meanings of the infrastructure of the river and its relation to Southern Californians. From these meanings, the article places the river in context with environmental politics, urban development, and water management issues in California today. The article argues that the …

[Review Of The Book Sailing To Freedom: Maritime Dimensions Of The Underground Railroad, By T. D. Walker (Ed.)], Ingo Heidbrink

History Faculty Publications

"Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad" edited by Timothy D. Walker explores the often overlooked maritime aspects of the Underground Railroad. The book consists of ten chapters written by historians specializing in African American history and the land-based Underground Railroad. While the book offers valuable insights into African American history and escaping slavery, it is less focused on maritime history. The chapters discuss various ports along the Eastern Seaboard, detailing the preparation, boarding, and arrival of enslaved individuals seeking freedom. The book provides a nuanced analysis of individual escape stories, although some chapters may be repetitive. It …

"Many Fabulous Stories And Idle Tales": The Intersection Of Elizabethan Political Gambits And Indigenous Erasure In The Early American Republic, Daniel Ryan Lewis

Theses and Dissertations--History

Welsh Indian Theory, originating in Elizabethan England, stated that a group of Welsh explorers settled in the Americas in the late 12^th century and intermarried with the Indigenous tribes, thereby explaining “advanced cultures” ranging from the Mississippians to the Aztec Empire. This act of erasure became rooted in Kentucky and the surrounding area in the 18^th and 19^th centuries; a series of prominent individuals from Kentucky in turn contributed to a growing body of false historical narratives that denied Indigenous Americans their cultural identities and connection their ancestral lands in the United States. With a 460-year trail …

A Narrative Map Of Fort Missoula: Silence, Stillness And Death In Living Cultural Memory, Daniel A. Goldhamer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fort Missoula is a rare site of history, memory, and narrative. This project seeks to trace the complex web of identities and relationalities at the Fort through a narrative map: a method that combines site-based ethnography and qualitative storytelling relying on first-person perspective. This methodological framework reveals that Fort Missoula’s distinct character lies in its role as a living archive of cultural memory, accessible through the past, present, and future narratives of its places and spaces. Engaging with the theories of Foucault (1972), de Certeau (1984), and Low (2017), the narrative map of Fort Missoula is a work that investigates …

Empowering Families: The Role Of Labor Unions In Advancing Paid Family Leave Policy, Madison Goza

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

Enacted in 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was the first substantial piece of federal legislation offering job-protected, unpaid leave to Americans. Since then, several states have passed laws offering an expansion of these protections including paid leave options, but no further policies have been adopted federally. Americans in need of these expansions are looking to a social force capable of advocating for such policy adoptions: organized labor. Thus, labor unions offer a case of interest to economists, political scientists, and sociologists in search of the expansion of federal workplace protections. Using both comparative legal and policy analysis …

Religious Upheaval In A South Dakota Mennonite Community, 1874-1940, Ryan Mews

Dissertations and Theses

In 1874, multiple colonies of German-Russian Mennonites and Hutterites entered the Dakota Territory to settle into tightknit religious communities. These Anabaptists sought to escape religious persecution and assimilation in Russia but found themselves influenced by American religious groups. Their history of isolationism caused these groups to draw lines between their congregations that kept them small but allowed them to interact with new ideas in different ways, but caused them to redefine their German Mennonite identity. One such influence erupted from the Presbyterian Church called fundamentalism that encouraged evangelical works in America and sought to combat modernism in religious institutions. In …

In Memoriam: Fred R. Gowans (1936-2023), Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Historian, Jay H. Buckley

Faculty Publications

Fred R. Gowans is the proverbial American original – or, better yet, Western American original. Fred talked and wrote convincingly about the American West and the fur trade because he spent so much time in it, exploring or retracing old trails. Fred made no pretenses. He dressed for class, public talks, or academic presentations the same way he dressed for working with his horses: Western hat, Western shirt, Levis, cowboy boots, and on the rare occasion a sport coat and bolo tie. He lived with his wife Gloria in a log home that he and his father Floyd had built …

Contentment And Control: The Stonega Coke & Coal Company & Pioneering Welfare Capitalism In Southwest Virginia, Christopher Lloyd Tomlinson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Founded in 1902, the Stonega Coke & Coal Company was the largest coal operator in Virginia throughout the twentieth century, becoming even larger through its merger with the Westmoreland Coal Company in 1964. Over the course of this long history, the company used a brand of welfare capitalism aimed at keeping miners and their families satisfied enough with their living and working conditions that the workers would develop a sense of loyalty to the company. Management at SC&C termed these practices “contentment sociology.” While many coal operators began shifting away from such practices during the New Deal, SC&C maintained and …

Let Your Head Hang Down: A Narrative Examination Of Cultic & Conspiratorial Romance, Kyle Macy

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

A response to recent cultural trends of radicalization, extremism, and violence in American society, this dissertation, a novel rendered in ephemeral fragments of oral histories, interrogates the romanticist postures that compel a community of musical artists, the so-called “Folk Revival Revival,” toward infamy and tragedy. Where more traditional sociological approaches to cultic formations stress the importance of centralized charismatic authority, and more traditional psychological approaches rely upon a conspiratorial Cold War ethos of cognitive bias and coercive control (i.e. “brainwashing”), this project meets such assumptions with incredulity, asserting instead that cultic and conspiratorial entrancement awakens first from within, and may …

Analysis Of The Imperial And Racial Relationship In Santo Tomas Interment Camp And Manila, Wwii, Seongbin Hyun

Open Access Master's Theses

This thesis examines the experiences of American and European civilians in Manila, Philippines following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The introduction addresses the inconsistencies and contradictions between internee documents and official records. Additionally, it highlights the disparities between American colonial governance and racial perspectives in the pre-war Philippines and the conditions of internees in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp. By analyzing the circumstances and relationships of internees before February 1944, the thesis explores issues such as racial beliefs, colonial hierarchy, and American exceptionalism. The goal of this thesis is not to dispute the suffering of Allied citizens in the STIC …

This Land Is Our Land: Tree Planting And Environmental Construction On The Nebraska Prairie, Megan Sue Launchbaugh

History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

In 1895 the Nebraska Legislature passed a bill officially adopting the nickname the “Tree Planter’s State” on account of the founding of Arbor Day, the Timber Culture Act of 1873, and the “millions of trees planted by early settlers as windbreaks, woodlots, and orchards.” Since that time, Arbor Day and the Timber Culture Act have been the subject of countless historical studies, while the subject of settler tree planting remains largely unexplored. This thesis seeks to begin establishing a place for the stories, experiences, and legacy of settler tree planting within the regional narrative by examining the cultural, physical, and …

The United States And The Need For An Improved Global Citizenship In The Twenty-First Century: How History Shaped Our Identity As A Nation, Karin Mika

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article describes how accidents of geography and history enabled the United States to become the global power that it has become. It examines how the extended warring in Europe during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth century allowed the United States to develop as a country without the repeated necessity of continually rebuilding, as was happening in Europe. The Article explores how the isolation of the United States enabled it to develop continuity in its initially experimental political system—a continuity that was never available to Europe. These factors enabled the United States to be in the position of being able to …

"Innumerable Small Crafts": Maritime Work In The Estuarian Gulf, 1865-1900, Kevin Grubbs

Dissertations

Maritime historians have argued for a highpoint in maritime activity during the antebellum years. This peak was fed by Americans travelling on tall wooden sailing ships in international trade, in the whaling industries, and as members of the US Navy. The prowess of the American Merchant Marine faded quickly in the middle of the nineteenth century due to military losses during the American Civil War and due to the rise of steamships and steel hulls. This peak was followed by another lesser peak in the Twentieth Century as American ships caught up with technological changes. World War One provided a …

The Octofoil, October/November/December 2023, Ninth Infantry Division Association

The Octofoil

The Octofoil is the offical publication of the Ninth Infantry Division Association, Inc., an organization formed by the officers and men of the 9th Infantry Division in order to perpetuate the memory of fallen comrades, preserve the esprit de corps of the Division, promote peace and serve as an information bureau about the 9th Infantry Division. The Association is made up of 9th Infantry veterans from WWII and Vietnam, spouses, widows and lineal descendants.

Wagon Tracks Volume 38, Issue 1 (Nov 2023)

Wagon Tracks

Contents

2 On the Cover: The View from Wagon Mound: Jackie Fleming

4 Trail Writings: Chris Day

5 Joanne’s Jottings

6 News along the Trail

7-11 Tributes to Marc Simmons

12-13 The Caches: Joanne VanCoevern and Leo Oliva

14 SFTA Awards

15-20 Santa Fe Trail Association Hall of Fame

21-27 Hell on Wheels: El Moro,Trinidad, and Oteroby Dr. Michael L. Olsen

27 SFTA Action Items

28 Chapter Reports

29 Membership Form

32 Calendar

Geopolitics In Recent U.S. Professional Military Reading Lists, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Professional military reading lists have existed for a long time in the U.S. military and in other national militaries. They are frequently updated and intended to enhance the professional knowledge of military professionals in areas ranging from cultural awareness, ethics, leadership, international relations, military history and military operations, and areas of expertise considered essential to successfully executing the operations of their military service branch. These lists are prepared by the leadership organizations of these armed services such as the Air Force Chief of Staff, U.S. Army’s Chief of Staff, Chief of Naval Operations, and Marine Corps Commandant. Such readings are …

Enshrining Memory: The Production Of An American Catholic Past, Emily Arledge

Dissertations

American Catholics throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries advocated for a canonized American. To promote a candidate, organizers of canonization causes collected objects related to the person’s life and curated exhibits to educate Catholics about the candidate. American shrines became intertwined with creating museums or heritage tourism sites for Catholics to encounter their faith and learn about their place within the nation’s history. This dissertation argues that shrines create an American Catholic public memory by interpreting the lives of saints and potential saints through the American past, situating themselves into a national story, and reproducing a saint’s memory for future …

Environments Of War: The Pacific Northwest And The Waging Of World War Ii, Katherine L. Macica

Dissertations

The Pacific Northwest served an essential role in America’s “Arsenal of Democracy.” Weapons and material produced in the Northwest proved essential to the Allied victory in World War II. These weapons served as agents of destruction abroad, but became agents of transformation for the places in which they were produced. This dissertation examines four of the most important resources and industries in Oregon and Washington to emerge or expand as a result of the war: hydroelectric power, forest products, shipbuilding, and aircraft manufacture. The wartime development of these industries profoundly reshaped the physical and economic landscape of the Pacific Northwest, …

Grounding History Instruction: Engaging Place And Scale Through Iterative Local Inquiry Design, Megan Vangorder

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Teaching local history is often an afterthought in the high school history classroom. It is difficult to find enough instructional time to incorporate local stories and there are often gaps in resource development and approach from a local lens. This article seeks to help teachers articulate a locally driven inquiry approach. Using Illinois as the local framework and the C3 Inquiry Design Model as the tool, teachers can begin to map out how to implement the competing mandates to promote disciplinary skill development, demonstrate content expertise using state mandated units of study, drive student-oriented history, and foster civic competence all …

A Delicate Balance: Pennsylvania College In The Pennsylvania Borderlands, 1832-1860, Vivek K. Rallabandi

Student Publications

This paper discusses Pennsylvania College (now Gettysburg College) and its presence in the Pennsylvania borderlands region during the antebellum period, 1832-1860. The paper argues that Pennsylvania College's location and the "borderlands" identity of many of its students and faculty were integral to how discourse and actions surrounding slavery and abolition manifested themselves at the institution. The paper indicates that Pennsylvania College's antebellum history can serve as a microcosm of broader trends in American borderlands communities during this period. Crucially, this paper is shaped by primary source research conducting using minutes of Pennsylvania College's debating societies, the Philomathean and Phrenakosmian societies, …