Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Federal Elections Bill And The End Of Reconstruction In 1890, Elisa Hink

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

The Reconstruction Era within U.S. History is (generally) defined as commencing in 1865 and ending in 1877; however, the social, cultural, and political impact of this time in the nation’s history suggests that its ending is less tidy. Those who worked both for and against the progressive goals of Reconstruction continued their efforts beyond 1877. The Federal Elections Bill of 1890 was written with intent by the remaining Reconstruction Republicans to provide federal oversight to elections, which had become a primary target of Democrats in the former Confederate states as they regained their power. Efforts within these states to prevent …

Review: The Hanford Plaintiffs: Voices From The Fight For Atomic Justice, By Trisha T. Pritikin, Andy Kirk

History Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

Andrew Dickson White And America’S Unfinished (French) Revolution, Gregory S. Brown

History Faculty Research

Andrew Dickson White is not considered a canonical author in the French Revolution's historiography, but rather is known as the founding president of both Cornell University and the American Historical Association (AHA). His best-known published historical writings, when referenced at all, are often derided. Yet in his intellectually formative years, as an earnest abolitionist and amibtious Republican, eager to enter the arena of American political life and anticipating what he would later call "the great revolution" of the Civil War, White made the topic his central academic pursuit - and effectively invented a distinctly American tradition of historiography.

Mining The Borderlands: Industry, Capital, And The Emergence Of Engineers In The Southwest Territories, 1855-1910. Grossman, Sarah E.M. University Of Nevada Press, 2018, James Altman

Executive Vice President & Provost Faculty Publications

In Mining the Borderlands: Industry, Capital, and the Emergence of Engineers in the Southwest Territories, 1855‐1910, distinguished scholar Sarah E.M. Grossman examines the early history of commercial mining along the US‐Mexico border. She brings to the task her extensive knowledge of the region, and a forensic detective's thirst for the truth. Her mission is to understand precisely how much, and in what specific ways, various commercial mining ventures in the desert Southwest contributed not only to the economic development of the region, but also to improvements in mining techniques, engineering methods, equipment, efficiency, working conditions, mining education, and most importantly, …

Intimate Nevada: Artists Respond, Lauren Paljusaj, Anne Savage

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Creative Works Winner

Most of us know Nevada beyond the Strip. It’s a place of houses, of shopping plazas, of movie theaters, and grocery stores. A place of hotels that are also places of work. A place of basins, ranges, vistas, and nature. A place of personal history. For Intimate Nevada: Artists Respond, curators Lauren Paljusaj (ENG BA ‘20) and Anne Savage (CFA BA ‘22), draw on photographs found in UNLV Special Collections to uncover the intimate visuality of a Nevada of past centuries. The exhibition focuses on how the imaged built landscape of early 20th century Southern Nevada …

Sex And Death On The Western Emigrant Trail: The Biology Of Three American Tragedies, Debra E. L. Martin

Anthropology Faculty Research

This book offers a different look at how to think about the starvation and death that hounded emigrants attempting to get to California and Oregon in the early years of nineteenth-century US expansion. Specifically, the Donner party and two lesser-known Mormon handcart groups are scrutinized for what the patterns of age at death by sex can reveal. In the subtitle The Biology of Three American Tragedies, “biology” here means solely demographic data on sex and age at death. These are really the only biological variables examined, so the title Sex and Death on the Western Emigrant Trail is more accurate …

Charleston And The Emergence Of Middle-Class Culture In The Revolutionary Era. By Jennifer L. Goloboy, Elizabeth White Nelson

History Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

Nevada Digital Newspaper Project, Carrie Gaxiola, Yvonne Wilk

Library Faculty Presentations

Chronicling America is a nation-wide project supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress to make historical newspapers available online and full text searchable. Nevada has participated in the project since 2014. Each grant cycle lasts two years and produces 100,000 digitized news pages for online access. Title selection is guided by an Advisory Board to represent each county of Nevada. These newspapers are the first draft of history, show the daily lives, perspectives, and events of the past. Much of the content offers rich research material within the topics of women’s rights and suffrage, …

Stormy Present: Conservatism And The Problem Of Slavery In Northern Politics, 1846-1865, Michael Green

History Faculty Research

Historians have been fighting about the causes and effects of the Civil War since they were using quill pens, and they figure to keep doing so until long after the laptop computer on which this is written has become an antique. Now Adam I. P. Smith, a scholar of mid-19th-century America and especially its political culture, has joined the battle to argue that one of the dominant impulses and attitudes associated with the years leading up and including the American Civil War was conservatism. As the conflicting interpretations of the era suggest, that may be the case, but the reforms …

Nevada Digital Newspaper Project, Carrie Gaxiola, Marina Georgieva, Peter Michel, Yvonne Wilk

Library Faculty Presentations

Chronicling America is a nation-wide project supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress to make historical newspapers available online and full text searchable. Nevada has participated in the project since 2014. Each grant cycle lasts two years and produces 100,000 digitized news pages for online access. Title selection is guided by an Advisory Board to represent each county of Nevada. These newspapers are the first draft of history, show the daily lives, perspectives, and events of the past. Much of the content offers rich research material within the topics of women’s rights and suffrage, …

Nevada Digital Newspaper Project, Carrie Gaxiola, Marina Georgieva, Yvonne Wilk

Library Faculty Presentations

Chronicling America is a nation-wide project supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress to make historical newspapers available online and full text searchable. Nevada has participated in the project since 2014. Each grant cycle lasts two years and produces 100,000 digitized news pages for online access. Title selection is guided by an Advisory Board to represent each county of Nevada. These newspapers are the first draft of history, show the daily lives, perspectives, and events of the past. Much of the content offers rich research material within the topics of women’s rights and suffrage, …

From Bison To Cattle: The Ecology Of The Southern Plains 1500-1750, Jenni Tifft-Ochoa

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Bison made their home on the Southern Plains for millennia. However, their migratory patterns began to shift in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. My research investigated what caused this drastic shift and how it had far reaching effects on the ecology of the Southern Plains. Using archives from two prominent Catholic priests, I began to piece together why the bison left the Southern Plains. Rather than focus on the Europeans as the main players, I instead focused on the Indigenous peoples, the animals, and the land as the centralized actors in this project. I discovered that the introduction …

New York Oneida: Land Claims, Federal Policies, State Intervention, And Casino Development, Lee M. Hanover

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

This paper examined the relationship between Oneida land sovereignty and their self-determination in establishing the Turning Stone Casino. The paper reviewed general trends in Oneida history with the state of New York, focusing on federal policies aimed at American Indian communities, and the legal cases that the Oneida have brought against New York and the federal government. The study extrapolated that historic cases involving political, legal, and land sovereignty issues prepared them for the fight over their casino’s admittance on Oneida land. The paper then addressed the reoccurring battles with the state of New York over the legality and jurisdiction …

Keeping House On The Comstock: Irish Immigrant Women In Nevada, 1850-1880, Christina M. Thompson

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

The lives of Irish immigrant women in Nevada during the mid-nineteenth century have not been studied at great length to date. This project attempts to explore the relationship that these women had with their communities, their families, and themselves while comparing their experiences to the lives of Irish immigrant women living in the larger Irish communities located on the east coast of the United States.

Christine Jorgensen And The Media: Identity Politics In The Early 1950s Press, Emylia N. Terry

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

“Christine Jorgensen and the Media: Identity Politics in the Early 1950s Press” analyzes America’s first transgender celebrity and the interpretations of her identity by a seemingly celebratory press. Jorgensen, who rose to fame in December 1952, was propelled to stardom partly because of the cultural climate of the 1950s. The first portion of my essay begins by setting the historical context of how gender nonconforming individuals were treated in the press before Jorgensen, and then analyzes Jorgensen’s personal characteristics that also helped make her a media fixture. However, the veracity of Jorgensen’s female identity was doubted by the time she …

Walking Box Ranch Planning And Design Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending October 10, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• UNLV participated in two meetings with BLM regarding updating the current Task Order, obtaining a two-year no-cost extension for the two Assistance Agreements, and to develop the future WBR operating agreement between BLM and UNLV.
• Weather station progress included: 1) A study to review the recent developments in various building envelope components and their effects on the energy sustainability of a building has been completed and published, 2) Ground-source heat pump (GSHP) Vs Photovoltaic (PV) technology: A detailed comparison of ground source heat pumps and photo voltaics has been initiated, 3) A study to identify the most suitable and economically …

American Hypocrisy In Foreign Policy: Operation Fubelt And The Overthrow Of Salvador Allende, David G. Huggins

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

There are many examples of United States hypocrisy in foreign policy, in numerous countries in virtually every region of the world. This paper will look at just one of those examples, the United States involvement in the overthrow of President Salvador Allende of Chile. Declassified government documents related to the CIA operation, codenamed FUBELT, are used to show key personnel involved and major aspects of the operation. These documents show a blatant disregard of the United States government's own ideology and policies regarding democracy, as well as its disregard of the United Nations documents that it signed to guarantee the …

The Powerful Mythology Surrounding Bugsy Siegel, Larry Gragg Ph.D.

Occasional Papers

Journalists, authors, filmmakers, and historians have been interested in Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel for over six decades. Collectively, they have crafted a cohesive mythological narrative of Siegel’s life one focused upon “rags to riches” success and his contributions to the development of Las Vegas, Nevada. Most attribute to Siegel the inspiration for not only the Flamingo Hotel‐Casino, but also for the glamorous, classy, flashy resort city Las Vegas became after World War II. This paper describes the development of the myth since Siegel’s murder in 1947 as well as how it has been sustained.

The Hall Of Fame For Great Americans: Organizational Comatosis Or Hibernation, William N. Thompson, M. Ernita Joaquin

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

The world’s first organization that has been specifically designated as a “Hall of Fame” was established in New York City in 1900. The Hall of Fame for Great Americans honors 102 Americans. It has served as a model for hundreds of other “halls of fame,” the most prominent being baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, established in 1939. While the Hall of Fame for Great Americans remains the original icon in a history of popular culture museums visited by millions each year, the Hall today is little known, visited by scant few, and in a state of both …

It Hastened What We All Fought For, The End Of The War: General Sherman's Campaigns Through Atlanta, Georgia, And The Carolinas And How They Impacted The Civil War, Thomas J. Birmingham

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

“It hastened what we all fought for, the end of the war: General Sherman’s campaigns through Atlanta, Georgia, and the Carolinas and how they impacted the Civil War” is my collection of research of the importance of Sherman’s campaigns through Atlanta, Georgia, and the Carolinas to bring the end of the war. My project is in fulfillment of the History 451: Proseminar within the requirements of a Bachelor’s Degree in history. My thesis paper covers those three campaigns and their importance in bringing the Civil War to an end. I have used primary and secondary evidence to provide facts and …

Walking Box Ranch Planning And Design Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending July 10, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• UNLV participated in the 100% Design Concept Plan meeting, June 10-12, 2009 at the BLM Las Vegas Field Office and Walking Box Ranch (WBR), and provided comments toward proposed concepts for the museum and field, research, and training center at Walking Box Ranch.
• A request for funding for road construction and repair at WBR was submitted to NDOT (6/24/09).
• UNLV participated in the following meetings related to the search for renewable energy funding for the ranch: ARRA Implementation Workshop sponsored by Senator Reid (4/16); UNLV Stimulus Funding Workshop (4/17), Renewable energy meeting with UNLV engineering faculty (4/21), Harry Reid Center …

Documenting The American South, Tom D. Sommer

Library Faculty Publications

If you’re interested in researching the American South, then the University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill has an extensive digital collection for you. Documenting the American South is a fascinating digital collection that is geared towards K–12 and college-level students and teachers. The collection provides its users a variety of sources ranging from texts, images, and other materials that originate from various libraries of the UNC. These materials provide a springboard into several aspects of the American South and the Tar Heel State.

Memorial Hall Museum Online: American Centuries., Tom D. Sommer

Library Faculty Publications

If you are researching the history of New England online, the Memorial Hall Museum’s American Centuries site is a valuable place to start. It is geared toward educators and elementary through high school students, providing users access to primary sources and interactive activities from the Memorial Hall Museum in Old Deerfield, Massachusetts.

American Speeches: Political Oratory From The Revolution To The Civil War And Political Oratory From Abraham Lincoln To Bill Clinton, Priscilla Finley

Library Faculty Publications

Ted Widmer (director, John Carter Brown Library; speechwriter, Clinton administration) has selected significant familiar examples of political oratory for this two-volume set. The first volume covers the Revolution to the Civil War, and includes selections from the expected Founding Fathers as well as leaders in the antislavery, women's rights, and labor movements.

Unlv Magazine, Erin O'Donnell, Gillian Silver, Lori Bachand, Regina Barcolas, Tony Allen, Gian Galassi, Suzan Dibella, Diane Russell, Doug Mcinnis, Cate Weeks, Jennifer Robison, Holly Ivy De Vore

UNLV Magazine

No abstract provided.

Inside Unlv, Erin O'Donnell

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Tracing The Las Vegas Landscape Through Maps: A Cartographic Journey Through Las Vegas History, Katherine Rankin

Library Faculty Presentations

Starting with the 1844 Fremont Map, and going through the present day, each era of Las Vegas history is described.

Inside Unlv, Diane Russell, Richard Jensen, Andy Grossman, Kevin Force

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

The Practice Of Leadership: The Life And Times Of Joshua L. Chamberlain, Patrick W. Carlton

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Explores the life and achievements of Brevet Major General J.L. Chamberlain, the "hero of Little Round Top," describing his activities as pre-war professor, Civil War leader, and post-war governor, college president and federal official. Chamberlain, a military novice at the beginning of the war, was appointed second-in command of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, in August, 1862. Quickly learning the soldier's craft, Chamberlain was promoted to Colonel and regimental commander in June, 1863, just prior to the battle of Gettysburg. There the unit, profiting from Chamberlain's inspired and creative leadership, is credited with preventing the extreme left flank of …

Bigger Than A Ballot Box, Joanne Goodwin

History Faculty Research

The relationship between the histories of woman suffrage and U.S. politics suffered from a reluctance on the part of both fields to include the other until recently. Political historians refrained from in-depth discussions of the eighty-year movement to gain the vote for women until the new political history expanded the definition of political actors and activities. Women's historians (with a few notable exceptions) discussed the suffrage movement as a type of voluntarist reform activity, rather than contextualizing it within political institutions and systems. Ellen Carol DuBois's study of suffrage through the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments departed significantly …