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Data To Support The "Mapping The Second Ku Klux Klan, 1919-1940" Project, John T. Kneebone, Shariq D. Torres

History Data

Data to support the "Mapping the Second Ku Klux Klan, 1919-1940" project. The data provides a rough timeline of the rise of the second Ku Klux Klan between 1915 and 1940.

http://labs.library.vcu.edu/klan/

The article, "Publicity and Prejudice: The New York World’s Exposé of 1921 and the History of the Second Ku Klux Klan", provides additional context to the data:

http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/hist_pubs/12/

Data

Research compiled by Dr. John Kneebone. Database export and quality assurance from 2015 by Shariq Torres. 2023 updates include significant contributions regarding Alabama from Dr. Kenneth C. Barnes, Professor of History, University of Central Arkansas. 2024 updates include …

La Historia Externa Del Español Hasta La Reconquista, Alicia Westmoreland

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

This paper talks about the romance language, Spanish, which evolved from Vulgar Latin after the fall of the Roman Empire. Influenced by the Visigoths, Moors, and the Christian Reconquista, its linguistic development reflects centuries of cultural exchange. The Moors introduced Arabic vocabulary, while the Reconquista reinforced Castilian dominance. Despite external influences, Spanish retains a phonetic system closely linked to Latin. This essay examines Spanish’s historical linguistics, highlighting how conquests, migrations, and societal shifts shaped its evolution.

Down The Bay Oral History Project Newsletter - Winter 2025, Center For Archaeological Studies, Mccall Library

Down the Bay Oral History Project Newsletter

Public newsletter sharing information about progress and discoveries during the Down The Bay Project.

This Land Isn’T My Land: How Canonical Literature Has Shaped Representation In The Outdoors, Claire Himmel

American Studies Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

The Power Of Community: A History Of African American Education In New London County, Connecticut, Jack Lavorel

History Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Wine As Gossip: The Making Of Living Objects And Human Experience, Elena Angerman

American Studies Honors Papers

In this honors study Wine as Gossip: The Making of Living Objects and Human Experience, I argue that there is an inherent power to wine as a means to subvert the narrative of the current American myth. I emphasize how the living nature of wine reflects how objects can have a level of consciousness and power. In the opening chapter, “Gossip and Wine: Uncovering Forms of Resistance and Methods to Subvert and Revise Power Structures” gossip serves as a means to understand how wine can be used in this subversion. I argue that wine and gossip are linked in …

Heroes Or Tyrants? Using The Leadership Of Chiang Kai-Shek To Re-Examine The Legacy Of Abraham Lincoln, Edward Woolery

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Today, reappraisal of history has become paramount in society. Scholars seek to contextualize building names, statues, and the land we live on. However, historians time and time again fail to reappraise popular figures in American history and misrepresent them by placing them on a pedestal. This thesis will analyze the existing body of scholarly work and primary historical sources to compare two such leaders from history in Chiang Kai-shek and Abraham Lincoln. Chiang Kai-shek is largely unfamiliar to American audiences; however, he provides a model in which Americans can reappraise Lincoln. Both Lincoln and Chiang led their nations through civil …

How Did A Democrat Win In Deep Red Kentucky? A Study Of Andy Beshear's 2019 And 2023 Electoral Victories, Edwin Wilborn

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Democrat Andy Beshear won his first election as governor of Kentucky in 2019, surprising many by defeating an incumbent Republican governor in a GOP-dominated state and a state that Donald Trump had won handedly in 2016. While Democrats had historically been the dominant party in the commonwealth, by the time of Beshear’s 2019 gubernatorial campaign, that was no longer the case. Beshear’s ability to not only win again but to win by a larger margin against a Trump-backed candidate in 2023 begs two questions: how did Beshear win, and is his success replicable for future Democrats?

Following a discussion of …

Captain George W. Bradley, A.Q.M., And The Bradley Base Ball Clubs, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

George W. Bradley served as a quartermaster for the New York Volunteers during the US Civil War. After the war, he became an assistant quartermaster (A.Q.M.) in the regular army with the rank of captain. Captain Bradley served at several posts, mostly in the West. While serving at Fort Harker, Kansas in 1867 and at Fort Union, New Mexico in 1868, teams from the forts were organized under the name Bradley Base Ball Club (BBC). In Kansas, the Bradley BBC defeated the Smoky Hill BBC from Ellsworth, but in New Mexico, they lost to the Santa Fe BBC in a …

Seventh Us Cavalry Base Ball In Kansas, 1868–1870, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

From 1868 through 1870, the Seventh US Cavalry and other military units played baseball in Kansas at their various posts and in the field. Details of several games were reported in local newspapers, as well as the New York Clipper. The Seventh Cavalry clubs, most notably Captain Frederick Benteen’s Company H, continued to play through 1875 while stationed in the South and the Dakota Territory, before the regiment was decimated at the Battle of Little Bighorn (Greasy Grass) in 1876. This essay focuses on the Seventh Cavalry’s baseball experiences in Kansas. A list of known games played by the regiment …

Baseball Takes Root In Kansas, Colorado, And Nebraska, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

The spread of baseball during the mid-nineteenth century is sometimes associated with soldiers and former soldiers who served during the US Civil War. This association is partly true in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. However, white settlers from the Northeast and Midwest also brought baseball and similar ball games to the region before the Civil War began, and civilians played ball during the war. The first team organized in the region was the Denver Base Ball Club (BBC) in March 1862, although it disbanded as warmer weather permitted mining activity to resume. Increasing numbers of baseball clubs were organized in Colorado, …

Baseball Takes Root In New Mexico, 1867–1883, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

The first known baseball club in New Mexico was organized in Santa Fe in 1867 as the Santa Fe Base Ball Club (BBC). As the only club in the area, games were initially played between teams picked from the club’s members. In November 1868, the Bradley BBC at Fort Union in northeastern New Mexico challenged the Santa Fe BBC to a game. Given the distance between Santa Fe and Fort Union, they met for the game in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Originally scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, the game was postponed two days because of snow. This was the first known …

River Flowing Through: Lost River Cave And Its Community, Elizabeth Coleman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Lost River Cave and Valley is a popular tourist attraction in Bowling Green, Kentucky, that also holds historical significance and importance to the local community. The Cave and Valley have functioned as a business, place of leisure, green space, and place of work for over 200 years. This thesis will explore the different ways that humans and non-humans have worked together to create a sense of place in this natural space. This will be accomplished utilizing “assemblage” theory from the discipline of philosophy. These assemblages will be made up of oral history interviews completed in 1999, one from 2009, and …

Supplementary Materials To "Preindustrial Inequality In Mexico", Amilcar Challú, Israel García Solares, Aurora Gómez-Galvarriato

History Faculty Publications

Supplementary material to "Preindustrial Inequality in Mexico" by Amílcar Challú, Israel García Solares, Aurora Gómez-Galvarriato, in Preindustrial Inequality in Latin America, edited by María Inés Moraes and Amílcar E. Challú (Routledge, forthcoming 2026).

Metaphors For Metamorphosis: The Poetics Of Kenosis And The Apophasis Of Self In Saint John Of The Cross, George Faithful

Social Justice | Faculty Scholarship

Spanish mystic Saint Juan (John) of the Cross (1542–1591) began writing poetry while imprisoned by his own monastic order. He developed manuals for contemplation, in part, in the form of commentaries on his principal poems. Their first-person narrators were women who underwent metamorphoses in order to pursue love: one became a dove in her despair; another became flame itself; the last disguised herself as a knight. Juan explained that all three represented the soul that is seeking God. For readers, these metaphors could engender cognitive dissonance, through which they might step outside of themselves and move closer to union with …

Perspectivism And Wicked Problems: Patterns In The Discovery Process Of Leibniz, Bohr, And Turing, Ernesto Diaz

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Authored Dissertations and Theses

This research investigates fundamental patterns in how transformative scientific knowledge emerges and becomes established, examining three pivotal cases: Leibniz's development of calculus, Bohr's formulation of complementarity, and Turing's conceptualisation of computation and artificial intelligence. The study introduces the o-é-c model (Ouverture Ontologique - Épistémè Socialisante - Connaissance Éclairante) to explain how individual insights become integrated into collective knowledge through structured phases of development. Drawing on Minsky's conception of knowledge as mental models for problem-solving and Longino's social epistemology, the research demonstrates how wicked problems—those that resist formulation within existing frameworks—catalyse the creation of new knowledge domains. The model reveals how …

Early Baseball And Historic Liberty Park Stadium In Sedalia, Missouri, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Small baseball parks with grandstands constructed prior to the Second World War continue to be lost around the country, and much of the sport’s history is lost with them. Missouri has a few such ballparks remaining within its borders, including those in Carthage, Hannibal, and St. Joseph. In addition, Sedalia has what is arguably one of the finest examples in the nation of a small ballpark with an historic wooden grandstand constructed in 1937–1938 that continues to serve its original purpose. This article is a brief introduction to baseball in Sedalia from the end of the Civil War through the …

Toward A Black Baseball League For Kansas City, 1898–1916: Proposals And Challenges, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Studies of Negro Leagues baseball from 1920 through the 1950s address various aspects of the organization and operation of the leagues and provide portraits of the teams, players, and other prominent individuals. However, there were earlier attempts by Black teams to organize leagues during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Given the many proposed and short-lived leagues prior to 1920, the focus of this monograph is the proposals that included teams from Kansas City. None of the leagues proposed before the First World War survived beyond its inaugural season, but the number of proposals offered during a span of three …

Who’S On First? Kansas City’S Female Baseball Stars, 1899–1929, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Although female players were typically excluded from formal baseball teams, teams consisting entirely or partly of female players were organized across the country as early as the mid-1800s. The first female baseball club in Kansas and adjacent states was organized in Wichita in 1873. These early teams predated the arrival of the barnstorming teams with female players and usually one or more male players, who were sometimes disguised as women. Female players on most of these early traveling teams wore bloomers, and the teams were referred to as “bloomer girls.” Women on later teams wore traditional baseball uniforms and objected …

The Color Line In Kansas Baseball And The “Champion Stars” Of Fort Scott, 1874–1878, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Fort Scott was represented by the second baseball team in Kansas to join the National Association of Base-Ball Players in 1866. The city was also the site of the state’s first known baseball games between segregated teams of Black and white players. In 1874 and 1877, a Black baseball team named the Star Base Ball Club claimed the informal city championship of Fort Scott. This essay describes the first games between Black and white teams in Kansas, the early history of baseball in Fort Scott, and the history of the Star Base Ball Club during the 1870s. This essay was …

Black Baseball In Kansas City, 1870–1919, Revised And Expanded, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

The Kansas City Monarchs, a Black baseball team founded by J.L. Wilkinson in 1920, is one of the storied franchises in Negro Leagues history. The story of Black baseball teams and players in Kansas City prior to this is less known, yet it forms the foundation on which the 1920 Monarchs were established. The early amateur and semipro teams first organized in the 1870s each played a few years, but in 1899, former classmates organized the Lincoln High Schools and played as the Jenkins’ Sons in 1900–1907 and the “original” Kansas City Monarchs in 1908–1909. Two professional teams—the Kansas City …

Deaf Baseball Players In Kansas And Kansas City, 1878–1911, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, William Hoy and Luther Taylor were well-known baseball players in the major leagues. Hoy and Taylor were also deaf. Consequently, they were given the same inappropriate nickname—Dummy. Several other deaf ballplayers enjoyed careers in the major and minor leagues, as well as on other professional teams. This narrative focuses on the lesser-known aspects of the early history of deaf baseball players and teams, with an emphasis on Kansas. It opens with the experiences of students at the Kansas State School for the Deaf at the end of the nineteenth century, where Luther Taylor …

Baseball’S Color Line In Kansas And The Chanute Black Diamonds Of 1904–1906, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

The major and minor leagues excluded black baseball players for most of their history until Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1946 and 1947. However, at the local level, the color line was not always so absolute. Town teams were occasionally integrated, and segregated teams played each other, sometimes with the local championship on the line. Among the small towns where this occurred was Chanute, Kansas, where a black ball club named the Chanute Black Diamonds was first organized in 1900. From 1904 through 1906, the Black Diamonds assembled a team of the best players from Chanute and nearby …

Scott Joplin, Ragtime, And Baseball In Sedalia, Missouri In 1900, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Scott Joplin first achieved recognition as a composer with the publication of his Maple Leaf Rag in Sedalia, Missouri in 1899. A few months later, a Sedalia newspaper reported that Joplin and fellow musician Henry Jackson organized the Shortridge-Robb baseball club. They planned to host a team from Kansas City at Liberty Park in Sedalia on 4 August 1900. Nothing else was published about the team in surviving Sedalia newspapers. This monograph examines the circumstances surrounding the organization of the Shortridge-Robb baseball club in an attempt to ascertain why it was organized and whether it played any games. This essay …

Promoting Good Roads: Basketball And Baseball On The Red Line Road In 1915, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

The first good road associations in Kansas with an interest in interstate travel were organized in 1910–1914. Construction of roads in rural Kansas was seen as a benefit to farmers and ranchers and to towns trying to attract visitors as automobiles and cross-country trips became more common. Initially, most of these efforts were implemented by counties and other local entities, with volunteers making substantial contributions. Most of these early routes were marked by colored bands painted on telegraph and telephone poles. Thus, they were sometimes known by names such as the Red Line Road or Golden Belt Road. These two …

Topeka Enters The Minor Leagues, 1886–1887: Bud Fowler And Goldsby’S Golden Giants, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

The first minor league baseball teams in Kansas represented Topeka and Leavenworth as members of the Western League in 1886 and 1887. The 1886 Topeka Base Ball Club was an integrated team, featuring Bud Fowler at second base. Although Black ballplayers were generally excluded from playing on minor league or major league clubs prior to 1946, Fowler was a fan favorite in Topeka and the team’s leading hitter. The team finished fourth among the six teams. In 1887, the Topeka Base Ball Association hired Walton Goldsby to manage the club and improve on the previous record. Goldsby assembled a team …

Integrated Baseball In Kansas During The Sport's Era Of Segregation, 1865-1945, Second Edition, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Black athletes were barred from playing baseball in the major and minor leagues prior to 1946 with few exceptions. Less studied is integrated baseball among independent town teams, and this research has focused on particular players or circumstances rather than an entire state or region across a long span of baseball history. Most newspapers published in Kansas prior to 1923 and several published after that year have been digitized, providing a substantial amount of information that makes the state well suited to serve as a case study of the broader history of integrated baseball from 1865 to 1945. This book …

Cricket And Base Ball In Kansas, 1860–1869, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

During the 1860s, cricket clubs were organized before the first baseball clubs in Kansas. Following the US Civil War, baseball grew in popularity, and soldiers and immigrants from the Northeast and Midwest brought the sport with them to the state. This essay describes the first two cricket clubs in Kansas—the Leavenworth Occidental Cricket Club and the Wyandotte City Cricket Club—and the transition to baseball. This essay was originally published in 2019 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is …

Early Football In Abilene, Kansas, From Lott To Eisenhower, 1891–1910, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

During the late nineteenth century, the name “football” could refer to early versions of soccer, rugby, or American football. In 1891, the city of Concordia, Kansas even had a women’s football team, who probably played soccer (association football). However, American football soon dominated interest in Kansas. Given the likelihood of injury and the organized practice time and coaching necessary, communities were slow to take up American football during the early years of the sport. Consequently, few games were played against teams from other communities. Another monograph summarized the history of football in Kansas through 1891 and the beginning of intercollegiate …

“Foot Ball Seems To Be Usurping The Place Of Base Ball.” Football In Kansas, 1856–1891, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

Following the US Civil War, baseball quickly spread among communities across Kansas. Football was less widespread, and the first reports of “foot ball” during this period referred to early versions of association football (soccer) or rugby. American football developed from modifications to rugby rules beginning in the late 1870s and continuing into the early twentieth century. A few Kansas communities experimented briefly with soccer, rugby, and American football teams based on the model of town team baseball. However, interest in American football soon dominated, with attention focused on collegiate teams. The first intercollegiate games in Kansas were played in the …