Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Fighting For The Franchise: African American Disfranchisement In Charlottesville, Virginia, Thomas R. Seabrook

Madison Historical Review

Around the turn of the twentieth century, white Southerners crossed the political aisle to disfranchise African American voters through a series of legislation at the state level. Though African Americans resisted these efforts to strip them of their citizenship rights, many historians believe that African Americans had been practically shut out of politics by 1900. Disfranchisement did not mean that African Americans stopped asserting their constitutional rights, however, as historians who trace African American organization and resistance have shown. In this article, I examine the response of African Americans in Charlottesville, Virginia, to disfranchisement and I consider the effect disfranchisement …

Is Humanitarian Aid Neutral? The American Ambulance Field Service And The American Red Cross, Laura Neis

Madison Historical Review

The United States did not outwardly join WWI until April of 1917. However, in the nearly three years in which the U.S. was neutral, they provided medical support to the suffering. This act has been dismissed as humanitarian charity work, and therefore not breaking with neutrality agreements, but it was actually a hotly contested act of foreign policy, and different propaganda campaigns were used to change the minds of American citizens.

Two different groups of medical volunteers show how humanitarian aid shapes perspectives on war. The American Ambulance Field Service drove ambulances for the French army on the front line, …

The Necessary Bargain: How Texas Education Utilized President Johnson’S Elementary And Secondary Education Act, 1965-1970, Kade L. Kahanek

Madison Historical Review

President Lyndon Johnson announced his “War on Poverty” campaign at the State of the Union Address in January 1964. Johnson’s address acknowledged that United States citizens suffered from poverty in many regions and enclosed a plan to relieve poverty in America. President Johnson’s administration administered “Great Society” programs under education, healthcare, and the job corps to help ease the burdening symptoms of poverty. It has been long debated whether Johnson’s policies to improve America’s society have succeeded, but many fail to recognize that his education plan was the centerpiece and perhaps not an instant cure to poverty; instead, something concrete …

Republican Manhood And The Disabled Revolutionary War Veteran In The Early American Republic, 1789 – 1797, Virgil Clark

Madison Historical Review

In the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War, several Disabled Continental Army soldiers scattered across the burgeoning Republic were driven by desperation to write letters, pleading with General George Washington for his support. The soldiers’ decision to draft these letters stemmed from their profound frustration and disillusionment with the post-Revolution American state. The soldiers' discontent resulted from the sense of neglect they experienced after the state rejected their petitions for a Disabled Veteran’s pension. As time passed and rent went unpaid, medical bills piled up, and the threat of vagrancy loomed over these men like a malevolent specter. Unable to …

Letter From The Editor, Kevin Johnson

Madison Historical Review

No abstract provided.

Mhr Volume 21 Full Issue

Madison Historical Review

No abstract provided.

A Most Despicable Hoax: Women, Crime, And Newspapers In Depression-Era St. Louis, Nancy Stiles

Theses

This paper delves into the captivating saga of Nellie Muench, a St. Louis housewife whose life intersected with the burgeoning celebrity culture, evolving media landscape, and shifting gender dynamics of the early 20th century. Muench's involvement as a co-conspirator in the 1931 kidnapping for ransom of a wealthy doctor propelled her into the spotlight, where she navigated media manipulation to attempt to craft her own narrative. Secretly obtaining a baby and passing it off as her own child to gain jury sympathy and blackmail a rich paramour took interest in her case to sensational tabloid (and legal) heights. Drawing from …

The Viking Warrior Woman? Birka Chamber Grave Bj 581, Emily A. Stolp

ATU Scholars Symposium

On a very small island called Björkö in the middle of Lake Mälaren, in southern Sweden, was a Viking settlement called Birka that was occupied for about 200 years. This town was the perfect trading area where merchants and tradesmen came with goods from all over Europe, and other parts of the world. Beginning in the late nineteenth century some 1,100 graves were excavated by Swedish antiquarian Hjalmar Stolpe. One of these graves in particular, labeled Bj 581, seen as remarkable at the time of excavation would later become a significantly controversial grave. The individual in grave Bj 581 was …

Women And Food In World War I Era Arkansas, Emily A. Stolp

ATU Scholars Symposium

On July 1st, 1917, in the midst of The Great War, Arkansas’s Governor Charles Brough appointed Ida Frauenthal as chairwoman to the state’s new Woman’s Committee of the Council of Defense for Arkansas. The report created by the Woman's Committee allowed the committee to first: organize the results of the efforts of many civil groups and second: immortalize the women’s wartime efforts. Women’s war efforts in this era naturally focused on the home front. The need to conserve food, a national and local concern, occupied much of women’s wartime efforts. Fear mongering and propaganda used to push the food conservation …

Communication Branches Out: Developing Interpersonal Skills Through Genealogical Research, Julian Costa, Gary Snyder

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

Communication students of the twenty-first century must not only be able to interact in multiple formats but be able to express their ideas across varied platforms. A common deterrent faced by students conducting research is the lack of applicability of the subject matter to their lives. The integration of genealogical research can address this issue because it allows students to learn about, and celebrate, their family history. While engaged in such a pursuit, students will develop core communication skills, such as speaking and listening, online research, and message design.

Silent Cycles: Unveiling 19th-Century Perspectives On Menstruation, Women's Agency, And Societal Transformations, Anna Bennethum

Campus Research Month

In the 19th century, menstruation was a topic often vieled in silence and misinformation. Nonetheless, it is pivotal in discussions on women's agency and societal shifts. This paper explores 19th-century medical perceptions, the dissemination of reproductive knowledge through women's publications, and a case study of Adventist health publications. Through primary source analysis, this paper reveals how access to medical knowledge empowered women, especially in pursuing higher education. Additionally, examination of Adventist health publications showcases alternative remedies to menstrual disorders, granting women control over their reproductive health. This study illuminates the intersection of menstruation, women's agency, and societal change, emphasizing the …

Genderless And Sexualized: Caribbean Enslaved Women In The 18th Century, Amy Van Arsdell

Campus Research Month

This study focuses on the uniquely-gendered experiences of enslaved women in the Caribbean in the 18^th century. First, I examine the racialized views of femininity and how enslaved women were denied the privileges of white femininity and forced to do the same work as men, yet were still valued less than their male counterparts because of their gender. The study goes on to highlight the sexual oppression enslaved women experienced, and its adverse effects on their health. The study concludes that despite the intersectional racism and sexism they faced, enslaved women were able to use their gender to resist …

Different Fabrics, Same Threads: How Fashion Reflects Cultural History And Gendered Perceptions, Emma Walston

Whittier Scholars Program

Fashion acts as both a reflection of, and as a lens through which to view history, culture, and perceptions of gender over time and across the world. To explore this observation, this essay will examine in detail the historical, cultural, and gendered contexts of 19th-century fashion in three different cultures: Northern Wales, the Fante people in Southern Ghana, and Jewish people living in the western sections of what was called the Pale of Settlement, and what is now Poland. These cultures were chosen due to the drastically different parts of the world that they represent and because they all have …

The Mazdakites, The ʿAyyārs And The Mithraists, Parvaneh Pourshariati

Publications and Research

No revolutionary movement in Iranian Late Antiquity has attracted as much attention as the fascinating and enigmatic Mazdakite uprising of the late fifth century. The scholarly consensus about these has it that 1) they engaged in ibāḥat al-nisā, sharing of wives; 2) advocated the sharing of property and 3) that their past time was wine imbibing and merrymaking. I shall argue here that, as Shaki correctly suspected but did not pursue the topic, the description of the Mazdakite in our primary sources (the Letter of Tansar, Ibn Qutayba, Ṭabarī, Dīnkard, Shahrestānī), actually follows the praxis of the ʿayyārs, chivalrous men …

The Grizzly, April 18, 2024, Marie Sykes, Nicolas Ungurean, Andrew J. Perez, Ellie Burns, Kathy Logan, Kate Horan, Sidney Belleroche, Renee Washart, James Rapp

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Tensions High at Congressional Town Hall • Tree Planting Ceremony to Honor Damiano Rotolo • Ursinus Hosting "Out of Darkness" Walk • Phi Kap's LLS Fundraiser • Expert Tips on Graduate School Planning: What You Need to Know • First Year Review on First-Year Housing • Every REP Matters • ReLAXing is Not an Option

Recognizing Traps And Frightening Wolves: Foxes And Lions As A Representative Of Machiavellian Political Ideology In Shakespeare’S Comedies, Grace A. Powell

Student Scholar Showcase

While William Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets have been discussed time and time again over the past few centuries, one topic that has been less traversed is the connection between his Comedies and Niccolò Machiavelli’s political ideologies. This project will explore references of lions and foxes in Shakespeare’s Comedies and the leaders and monarchs within them to determine how beliefs about Machiavelli’s political ideology influenced Shakespeare’s literature and became symbols for leadership and power. This project will be important for gaining historical context on Machiavellian political discourse and how it was represented in the contemporary dramatic literature of William Shakespeare. I …

Michigan's Upper Peninsula Is The Cradle Of Paul Bunyan's Beehives, Thomas J. Straka

Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region

One of the Michigan Upper Peninsula’s earliest industries was iron production. Iron furnaces (smelters) were part of that industry; these were primarily fueled by charcoal, produced in hundreds of charcoal kilns scattered across the Upper Peninsula. The four basic kiln designs (rectangular, round, conical, and beehive) were all used in the region, with the beehive design becoming the predominant form. James C. Cameron, Jr. is credited with developing the beehive charcoal kiln design while employed by Upper Peninsula iron furnaces. This design was first introduced to the Upper Peninsula, and then to Northeastern Wisconsin, Northern New York, and the Far …

High And Dry - Contextualizing Domestic Root Cellar Drains In Southern Ontario, Anatolijs Venovcevs

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The subterranean root cellar is the quintessential feature of rural nineteenth-century archaeological sites in Ontario and much archaeological, historical, and architectural research on rural farmsteads has focused on defining and understanding these structures. However, this work has neglected an important component of this feature – the root cellar drain. This paper contextualizes these features within their broader nineteenth-century ideals of drainage and goes on to tackle the topic with the use of statistical analysis on the associated geographical, social, and economic attributes. The discussion presents opportunities that are present from the vast quantities of historical sites that have been excavated …

Transatlantic Traditions: The History Of Welsh Quarrying And Its Connections To Newfoundland Slate, Alexa D. Spiwak, Johanna Cole

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Previous archaeological investigations have conclusively shown that the presence of Welshmen has co-occurred with the practice of local slate quarrying in Newfoundland since the early colonial ventures of the 17th century. The island experienced a resurgence in Welsh culture in the 19th century when a number of small slate quarries were established overlooking both the Bay of Islands on the west coast and Smith Sound in Trinity Bay. The following article outlines the history of these 19th-century Newfoundland quarries, as well as the social, political and economic factors which encouraged the migration of Welsh quarrymen across the Atlantic to remote …

“Alas Poor Ireland!”: British Prejudice, “The Irish Precedent, ” And The Origins Of The American Revolution, David Arthur Salzillo, Jr.

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

Of all the claims in the Declaration of Independence, its surety about the existence of an intentional British “design to reduce” the colonists “under absolute Despotism” is perhaps the most questionable one to modern ears. Contemporary historians have largely dismissed such language, and the accompanying concerns about an alleged British plot to “enslave” its Atlantic possessions. However, this paper argues that such a view fails to properly consider the role of “the Irish precedent” of English imperial exploitation in sparking American resistance and rebellion. Namely, through a careful study of what American colonists read and wrote about in the …

Gaijin Shogun: The Effectiveness Of Macarthur In The Early Stages Of The Military Occupation Of Japan, Jack Cashion

Senior Honors Theses

In the aftermath of World War II, the Allied powers occupied Germany and Japan to ensure a peaceful transition at the end of the war. While the Allies had conquered Germany in its entirety, Japan’s surrender in the wake of the atomic bombs forestalled a costly invasion of the Japanese mainland. President Harry Truman granted General Douglas MacArthur the title of Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) when he appointed the general as the leader of America’s occupation force in Japan. As SCAP, MacArthur oversaw the initial years of the reconstruction of Japan and its transition from a war-torn …

The Official Pow’S Rights Beginning In The Civil War Forward: Co-Authored By Francis Lieber, Delynn Antoinette Burrell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Historians have written many volumes on the Civil War, but few have examined the plight of prisoners of war. Although a few prominent historians wrote on the subject in the mid-nineteenth century, the topic quickly faded into obscurity until the mid to late twentieth century. Most historical works regarding prisoners of war focus more on individual prison camps rather than the system as a whole. This research seeks to fill the gap in the historiography of prisoners of war by examining the development of an official policy on their care and treatment. Through the examination of the War of the …

Our Enemy, The State: Liberty Versus Power On The American Home Front During The First World War, Michael Schearer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

World War I marked a significant shift in the structure and practice of the federal government. The key feature of this shift was the centralization of national power in the federal government and a burgeoning bureaucracy. This increase in the centralization of power led to an escalation of conflicts between the expanded assertions of national power and the civil liberties of American citizens. While this relationship between state power and civil liberties has been the focus of extensive scholarly research, much less has been written about a mostly forgotten perspective that viewed war as destructive to human flourishing beyond the …

Just What They Have Been Looking For: The Significance, Importance, And Journey Of The Negro Motorist Green Book In The State Of South Carolina And The City Of Columbia In The Twentieth Century, Justice Iyana Briscoe

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Travel and tourism in the United States had become an essential pastime for all social classes by the end of the nineteenth century going into the twentieth century. Due to segregation, however, only whites were able to thoroughly enjoy this glorious luxury openly. African Americans during this time had to find ways to enjoy this pastime while avoiding the constant discrimination, humiliation, and embarrassment that came with traveling. From this need were created black travel guides such as the highly successful Negro Motorist Green Book produced by African American businessman and entrepreneur Victor Hugo Green. From 1936 to 1966, Green’s …

We Clear The Way: United States Army Combat Engineers In The Second World War's Southwest Pacific Theater, 1942-1945, Marc C. Jeter

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The immense scope and scale of World War II required its combatants to conduct operations in every conceivable climatic condition and topographical setting. This fact has continued to represent a double-edged sword for the historiography of this conflict. The researcher may pursue any number of elements of this war to pursue and have done so. That said, aspects remain not yet mined from the cavernous topographical lode eight decades after this war. One such angle of this war not yet fully researched and analyzed by historians is that of General Douglas MacArthur and the US Army’s operational record and experiences …

Catalysts For Change: The Sacralizing Impulse Of The Second Great Awakening And Its Transformative Impact On American Higher Education, Blake S. Hart

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation delves into the profound impact of the Second Great Awakening on American higher education and its enduring social consequences. Examining the period from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, the research uncovers the core belief that drove the Awakening—that America and its citizens were chosen for a divine purpose, endeavoring to manifest the kingdom of heaven on Earth. It explores how Protestant-led revivalism and social reform movements fueled by this core belief influenced the establishment and evolution of American higher education. Through in-depth case studies of Andover Theological Seminary, Lane Seminary, and Oberlin College, the research …

"There Is Power In Being Out": A Three Article Approach Celebrating The Experiences Of Queer University Leaders, Andrew R. E. Lorenzana

Dissertations

Institutions of higher education were historically built to serve a wealthy, White, straight male student population and the leaders of these institutions still largely reflect these demographics. This project specifically aims to celebrate and amplify the life and career of university administrators who identify within the LGBTQ community. Mainly through the use of a portraiture methodology, this three-article study attempts to examine the ways in which LGBTQ identity and career influence one another.

Worldmaking and narrative will be used as a theoretical frame to help analyze the ways in which the telling of a queer individual’s story makes the world …

Student Senate Meeting Minutes April 16, 2024, Student Senate-Winona State University

Student Senate Meeting Minutes

This document is the official Winona State University Student Senate Minutes for April 16, 2024.

Raiders, Ransoms, And Religion: Captivity And The Road To Freedom For Christians And Muslims In The Early Modern Mediterranean, Philly Brainin, Philip Edward Brainin

History Honors Papers

The Barbary Pirates are a fascinating historical phenomenon, but they were also a part of the larger system of early modern Mediterranean captivity. This system, which thrived from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century, saw Christians and Muslims enslaving and ransoming one another on both sides of the Mediterranean. These ransoms made up the base of the North African ransom economy at the heart of the entire system, and this economic motivator was joined by religious conviction in driving the actors within the captivity complex. This thesis argues for an updated historiography of this system, which has often separated …

Bureaus Of Ungentlemanly Warfare: Comparing The Roles Of Women In The Special Operations Executive And The Office Of Strategic Services During World War Ii, Adaline Nolley

Senior Honors Theses

In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill created the Special Operations Executive. The SOE was one of the first government agencies to recruit female spies. In 1941, United States President Franklin Roosevelt commissioned the Office of Strategic Services, which also employed women. The organizations approached the concept of female agents differently. The OSS maintained female staff in domestic offices, but employed foreign women as agents. The SOE recruited women to go abroad, as they were less suspicious than men in occupied territories. The study of female staff in the OSS and the SOE allow historians to understand roles of women …