Digital Commons Network^™

The Lost Cause And The Commonwealth: The United Daughters Of The Confederacy And Forging Civil War Memory In Kentucky., Emma Donaghy

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

For over a century, the Kentucky division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy has worked to instill the Lost Cause myth of the Confederacy in the state’s public schools, libraries, and places where a white child could learn about the past. Few scholars have studied the activities of the Kentucky division of the UDC, although some of the organization’s most influential work took place in the state, and the organization’s national founder, Caroline Meriwether Goodlett, was born in Todd County, Kentucky. This honors thesis offers an in-depth examination of the work of the Kentucky division, drawing from the rich …

Full Court Press: The Influence Of Midnight Basketball, Talk Radio, And Racial Coding On The Violent Crime Control And Law Enforcement Act Of 1994, George “Matt” Patino

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

During the latter half of the twentieth century, “dog whistle” rhetoric increasingly entered the common vernacular, normalized by politicians and media personalities. Initially, the terminology was ambiguous, but it became racially charged when the media started broadcasting images of African Americans alongside the “thug” label. This research explores how “dog whistles” were, in part, a neoconservative response to the liberal policies of President Lyndon B. Johnson and his “Great Society.”

This study explores how “Great Society” policies aimed to balance the liberal expansion of Civil Rights with neoconservative “law and order” policing strategies. This research also investigates how right-wing talk …

U.S History: The Constant Reliance On Immigrant Labor From Asian Immigrants In The 19th And Early 20th Century To Mexican Immigrants In The Bracero Program, Moises Gonzalez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

During the late 19th and early 20th century, as the United States implemented stricter immigration laws, there was a gradual shift from Asian migrant labor to Mexican migrant Labor. The Bracero Program, which was established in 1942 at the request of U.S agribusinesses, best exemplified this development in the U.S. Throughout the duration of this guest work program, it demonstrated the discriminatory and exploitative nature of U.S agribusinesses. Yet, few studies have emphasized the thoughts of former braceros. Therefore, this proposed thesis will shed light on a more positive outlook of the Bracero Program where former braceros would persevere through …

Wives, Warriors, And Womanhood: A Study Of Women’S War Roles, Megan Lee

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

Since starting the War, Diplomacy, and Society program, my interests have included a focus on the soldier’s experience in war, women’s changing roles in war, and the study of war journalism, ranging from World War II, the Cold War, to the Vietnam War. This thesis project is a culmination of these themes.

The first article examines the crucial nature of a soldier’s connection to the Home Front by analyzing a collection of letters between a soldier and his fiancé during World War II. Filled with declarations of love and occasional expressions of insecurity, these letters reveal the importance of a …

Visual Representation Of Black Individuals At The Forefront Of Underground Railroad Interpretation, Alison Spongr

Museum Studies Theses

This thesis is grounded in a reflection and analysis of the building of an institution whose foundation and visuals position the narratives of Black individuals at the forefront of Underground Railroad interpretation. In 2018, the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center opened to the public after decades in the making. Its permanent exhibition, One More River to Cross, set in motion a shift in power – of whose stories are represented and shared – generated by visual activism.

“Between the American Revolution in 1776 and the end of the Civil War in 1865, thousands of freedom seekers escaped slavery …

Community In The Cell: Queer Women’S Space And Place In New Orleans, Jordan Hammon, Jordan Hammon

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines queer women’s history and space/places of community in New Orleans using spatial analysis and feminist theory to fill the silences. The Special Citizens Committee for the Vieux Carré laid the foundation for regulating queer women and transmasculine people starting in the 1950s. Even after the committee ended, New Orleans Police Department and the Vice Squad had the power to invade and harass places of community for queer women and transmasculine people. Despite this hostility, queer women and transmasculine people resisted and made a place for themselves in New Orleans. As a result of their persistence through visibility …

Crafting Journalism: The Pseudonyms Of American Reform, Sierra Fishman

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States saw the rise of "Stunt Girls" and "Sob Sisters" in journalism. These pioneering women defied traditional societal expectations of housewives and pursued careers in reporting, gaining recognition for their accomplishments through the dangerous nature of their work. While many may know the name Nellie Bly, the pseudonym for Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, other reporters played a vital role in the transformation of journalism, including Caloipe, Nellie Bly, Lola, Annie Laurie, Dorothy Dix, Enid, Eva Gay, Nora Marks, Girl Reporter, Nell Nelson, Grace Ermine, Meb, and Olivia. It is important to …

An Exhibition Of Women's United States Air Force Uniforms, Michelle Robinson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The new Women in the Air Force exhibit under development at the Hill Aerospace Museum, located at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is long overdue. The exhibit is set to replace the existing display in order to more accurately and comprehensively represent women’s continuing legacy of service to our nation. The uniforms in the Hill Aerospace Museum collection constitute the focal point of the new exhibit. Material culture methodologies form the foundation of this exhibit work; seeking to provide greater understanding of women’s military experience and history through the analysis of their uniforms. This approach therefore utilizes uniforms, the museum’s …

The Gray Area: Sexuality And Gender In Wartime Reevaluated, Natalie Pendergraft

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

These three works, two academic papers and one screenplay, challenge traditional notions of gender and sexuality during wartime. Queer Vietnam service members did not all experience oppression, all the time, but rather carved out a space for themselves amongst their peers. Female nurses in the early cold war could keep their careers in the medical field due to its unique gendered history despite demobilization efforts across the country in different industries. Finally, through the medium of historical fiction, a Civil War soldier’s fears and desires are questioned as he experiences the phenomenon of the Angel’s Glow, a blue light that …

The Silence In America’S Classrooms: The Portrayal Of Women And Gender In United States High School History Textbooks, Allie Elizabeth Morris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the twenty-first century, the process of adopting statewide history textbooks has become a political battleground surrounding concepts of race, gender, and identity in American history. By contextualizing the current discussion surrounding content in American history textbooks, I examine the portrayal of women in secondary United States social studies textbooks from the 1960s to the 2010s. In doing so, I show how portrayals of women's history evolve in the most widely adopted high school post-Civil War American history textbooks in each decade from the 1960s through to the 2000s. By comparing the evolution of the women’s and gender historiography to …

Leaders On The Ground: Command Influence On War Crimes In The Armies Of France And The United States, Hayward Hood

All Theses

Utilizing torture during the Battle of Algiers, the My Lai Massacre, and torture at Abu Ghraib as specific case studies, this thesis contends that negligence or dereliction of duty by the brigade, battalion, and company commanders were the primary factors. Additional factors included commanders stressing rapid results, and external stressors in the soldiers’ immediate environment. War crimes are defined as violations of the 1907 Hague Convention which was supported by the 1949 Geneva Protocols, and negligence is defined in the legal sense.1 Contrary to the existing narrative, this thesis contends that lower-level commanders did more to create the conditions required …

The End Of The Prisoner Exchange System In The Civil War: A Case Study Into The Effects On The Daily Conditions Of Prisoners In Confederate And Union Prisons, Rachel Stoner

Honors Theses

The Dix-Hill Cartel was a system of prisoner exchange established during the Civil War. Only a year after it was created, the exchange system was shut down due to Confederate refusal to acknowledge black soldiers as prisoners of war rather than slave labor. This paper is an exploration of the effects the shut down of this system had on both Confederate and Northern prisons. In order to accomplish this, I analyzed the diaries of six prisoners who were held in the Confederate prison of Andersonville in Georgia and the Union prison of Elmira in New York.

I examine the daily …

From Enslaver To White Savior: The Blackford Family And The Memory Of The American Colonization Society, Helen Dhue

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Part of the same family but with a generation dividing them, Mary Berkeley Minor Blackford and her grandson, Launcelot Minor Blackford Junior, shared much of the same sentiment toward the American Colonization Society (ACS). Mary, active in the ACS before the Civil War, supported the organization despite criticisms wielded by abolitionists of the period. Mary looked to the ACS for salvation from discussions about the morality of enslavement while enjoying the comforts that the thought of an all-white America brought her. Launcelot, writing fifty years after Mary’s passing at the beginning of an emerging national conversation about Black civil rights, …

Mental Health In M*A*S*H: An Analysis Of The Changing Portrayal Of Mental Health Topics In The 1970s And Early 1980s, Lyndsey Clark

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper studies all eleven seasons of the hit television show M*A*S*H (1972-1973) and examines how the portrayal of mental health changed in the show’s plotlines in response to changing guidelines and mental health policy in the 1970s and early 1980s. This study focuses on the association of mental illness with homosexuality, the changes made to the American Psychological Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in the 1970s and early 1980s, the rise and fall of mental health policies from the Kennedy Administration to the Reagan Administration, and the portrayal of several pertinent mental conditions, such as …

The Media Intervenes: Tulsa's 1921 Massacre And The Destruction Of The Greenwood District, Maclain M. Wheeler

ATU Scholars Symposium

This scholarly presentation and research paper focuses on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, specifically the ways in which the media progressed and intensified the events the Greenwood community faced. A vibrant community filled with opportunity and promise, Greenwood welcomed any African American who accepted its warm embrace. Ransacked and burned to the ground within two days, Greenwood residents were forced to reckon with the destruction. Greenwood became unrecognizable. Properties and possessions that had taken people many years to acquire were gone within a matter of hours. The framing put forth by the Tulsa Tribune provoked much of the white public …

The Colonial American Historical Significance Of St. David's Church, Maximus Marlowe

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

Thomas Calhoun Walker (1862-1953): The "Black Governor Of Virginia", Madelyn Junker

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

The Scientific Inquiries Of Professor John Winthrop, 1714-1779, Angel Peralta

Graduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

America’S New Industry?: How Guidebooks Motivated Sericulture In The 19th Century, Caroline Smith

Student Scholarship

In 1840, George C. Sibley, a Missouri resident best known for his time as an Indian agent and one of the founders of what is now Lindenwood University, received a letter from his cousin Origen Sibley the contents of which discussed family matters, politics, and lastly a peek into what Origen believed was a budding industry in America1. The industry in question, silk production. In the letter, Origen opens a hooking discussion about the requirements of silk production, primarily regarding the food supply of the silkworm and the profitability that he estimates will come from it. This is the kind …

"Between Too Much & Not Enough," A Meta-Analysis Of The 1619 Project, Nathan Pipes

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

When the New York Times released the 1619 Project in August 2019 it was met with enthusiasm and critical review. The outcome of the public debate, as of now, is mixed. Research is also mixed. Education findings suggests the project has the power to heal. Case study evidence indicates culturally centered approaches positively impact academic outcomes and mental health of historically oppressed peoples. By emphasizing and affirming African American experiences 1619 has potential to narrow the achievement gap and disrupt rising suicide rates. However, philosophy and psychology warn against overemphasizing culture. Excessive affirmation can cause groupthink. Continual praise aggrandizes the …

Demons In The City Of Angeles: Gay Neo-Nazis In Southern California, Emma Bianco

Madison Historical Review

This article explores the perplexing history of self-proclaimed “Aryan homophiles:” the National Socialist League of Los Angeles. A neo-Nazi group made up of exclusively gay men, this organization’s reign from the 1970s to mid-1980s offers an atypical perspective into Southern California’s racial and political settings. Garnered from the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, this story showcases how far from utilizing a “paranoid style,” the NSL’s brand of hate did not stray too far from that already clearly established in the mainstream environment. The NSL forces us to challenge our preconceptions about what makes up the “typical” racial extremist.

"'Joo Wa Dare?' Who Is The Queen?" Queen Contests During The Wartime Incarceration Of Japanese Americans, Bailey Irene Midori Hoy

Madison Historical Review

This paper examines beauty pageants held at incarceration centers during the Japanese-American internment. Although there has been literature created on beauty pageants before and after WWII, there is very little information on these war-era pageants, despite their prolific nature. Using mostly primary sources and material culture, the paper examines the coverage of the contestants, clothing, and presentation within the Center’s newspapers and in coverage by the Wartime Relocation Authority, whilst also problematizing uncritical readings of these documents. This paper highlights the difficulty in determining agency within spaces of incarceration, and calls for further research on the subject.

The Grizzly, April 13, 2023, Layla Halterman, Georgia Gardner, Marie Sykes, Erin Corcoran, Kate Horan, Samantha Kiessling, Laura Rothschild, Brian Tague, Katie Cressman

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Photo Essay: Spring Has Sprung! • Escape Velocity: "Avenge"[ance] in the Air • Ursinus Installs New Sustainable Rain Garden • GSA: Creating a Safe Space on Campus • Senior Honors Projects • Opinions: What Renovations Do You Want to See in Lower Wismer? • Playing Ball Like a Girl • "Raising the Bar": Ursinus College Women's Lacrosse Team

History And Myths Around The Battle Of Shiloh, Trey Lowenthal

Student Scholarship

On April 6th and 7th, 1862, the deadliest battle in American history up to that time was waged, with a staggering total of twenty three thousand dead, wounded, and missing.1 Though as guns fell silent on the evening of the 7th, another battle began, the battle for the narrative. It was a battle for the truth of what happened, and it is one that is still waged to this day. Unlike the physical confrontation that took place in 1862, the lines of battle and allegiance are not so easily defined. It is a patchwork of veterans, generals, newspapers, and historians. …

Gen Ms 73 Brenda Plummer Ration Book, Jill Piekut Roy

Search the General Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Description:

Brenda Plummer was born in Westbrook, Maine in 1958 and grew up in the area. Collection consists of a War Ration Book Four issued by the United States Office of Price Administration during World War II. The book belonged to Etta J. Mayberry, a family friend who lived in the donor's childhood home. The book has several partially used pages of stamps for coffee and unidentified food stuffs.

Date Range:

approximately 1943

Size of Collection:

1 File Folder

Lg Ms 160 Dale Mccormick Gay Side Story Interview, Jill Piekut Roy

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Collection includes two copies of an oral history interview (one edited) and an automatically generated transcript.

In the edited version of the interview, Dale McCormick recalls her role as producer of "Gay Side Story," an adaptation of the musical West Side Story, with Diane Elze, Miles J. Rightmire, Cheryl Ring, and others. The play was performed for two nights in Luther Bonney Hall at University of Southern Maine during the 10th Maine Lesbian & Gaymen's Symposium in May 1983. McCormick discusses her work on the writing team, the set design, and the positive reception of the production during a …

Gen Ms 44 Doris Roberts Humphrey Papers, Jill Piekut Roy

Search the General Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Description:

Doris Mae Roberts Humphrey (1907-2002) of Gray, Maine, was a teacher educated at Gorham Normal School. Papers contain a a teaching contract for East Gray School dated September 1926, and notebook labeled "Drawing Grade 8" from Gorham Normal School 1928 with lessons and drawings.

Date Range:

1926-1928

Size of Collection:

2 File Folders

Graduate, 1st Place: World War I War Front And Home Front: The Correspondence That Brought Them Together, Michelle Thole

2023 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents

The First World War was the first time American soldiers had participated in a war at a distance from home that did not easily facilitate home furloughs. Although the United States and Europe are physically separated by more than 3,500 miles, the relative distance between American World War I soldiers on the war front and their families on the home front was minor; the correspondence between them mitigated the physical and cognitive distance.

Historians of the First World War have explored soldiers’ contact with their families while in training camps and the US military’s intentional cultivation of a balance between …

Disillusionment And The American Civil War: Confederate Women And Changing Self-Perceptions, Emma Hively

Senior Honors Theses

Confederate females in the antebellum South viewed themselves in light of the ideology of Southern womanhood, a series of gender norms that outlined their proper place in the home and society. The Civil War upended the social structure supporting Southern womanhood and challenged female commitment to the Confederacy, as increasing hardships and suffering led to widespread disillusionment among Confederate females. Conventional interpretations of female disillusionment maintain that it represented continuity in antebellum self-perceptions, amounting to bitterness over the forced abandonment of their way of life and an ardent desire to return to normalcy. However, the focus on the overall continuity …

Contemporary Environmental Art: The Multidimensional Relationship Between Black Communities And The American Landscape, Sophia Perkins

Honors Capstones

Contemporary environmental art can be inspired by personal experience and reflections between the artist and their surroundings. Black women have a unique interaction with and relation to their environment. I would like to unpack the relationships between Black women and the environment by exploring a few different artists’ work, and by dissecting the effects race and gender have on one’s view of the natural world. I have studied the work of four artists: Torkwase Dyson, Allison Jane Hamilton, LaToya Ruby Frazier, and Calida Garcia Rawles. Environmentally, I have a specific interest in bodies of water / Black waterways because of …