American Studies Commons^™

Parker, Dickey (Wilkinson), 1905-1998 (Sc 3146), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3146. Letter, 12 February 1985, of Dickey Parker, Bowling Green, Kentucky, to “Miss Ruby,” enclosing a poem by Callie Beals titled “A Day in My Garden.” Mrs. Parker notes that Callie Beals was her Sunday School teacher in her early teen years and praises the impact she had on her life.

Mybarrio: Emigdio Vasquez And Chicana/O Identity In Orange County, Natalie Lawler, Denise Johnson, Marcus Herse, Jessica Bocinski, Manon Wogahn

Exhibition Catalogs

"Emigdio Vasquez created artwork that challenged Orange County’s more prominent narrative of wealthy beachside neighborhoods. He painted the brown bodies and brown histories that defined our earliest communities and economy... Vasquez produced much of the local art history that Orange County should be known for and should protect. It is with this perspective that Chapman University is proud to present the exhibition, My Barrio: Emigdio Vasquez and Chicana/o Identity in Orange County, in conjunction with the Getty Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative. We hope to initiate discourse not only about Vasquez’s prolific career, but also about the larger political …

Lg Ms 044 Lewiston-Auburn Gay Youth Collection, Naomi Hawkes

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Provenance: The Lewiston/Auburn Gay Youth Collection was donated in August, 2008 by Heidi Conn, a former Guidance Counselor at Edward Little High School. Additional materials were donated by Ryan Conrad, the Edward Little Gay Straight Alliance, Penny Sargent, and Sarah Holmes. The Lewiston Auburn Gay Youth Collection contains print material and photographs of activities of Outright Lewiston/ Auburn and the Edward Little High School Gay Straight Alliance between the years 2008 and 2011.

Ownership and Literary Rights: The Lewiston/ Auburn Gay Youth Collection are the physical property of the University of Southern Maine Libraries. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to …

Zycie W Ameryce: Life In America, Brynn A. Cotter

Summer Research Program

My project explores the history of the Polish-American community of Worcester, Massachusetts centered on the parish of Our Lady of Czestochowa and how its members responded to the forces of Americanization. Like many ethnic groups new to America, Polish-Americans and Polish immigrants in the twentieth century had to adapt in a world that demanded conformity in exchange for social mobility and departure from tradition and community. Over eight weeks, I conducted research in area archives such as the Worcester Historical Museum, the Worcester Public Library, and at Our Lady of Czestochowa’s rectory and its parish school of Saint Mary’s, as …

The Politics Of Shorter Hours And Corporate-Centered Society: A History Of Work-Time Regulation In The United States And Japan, Keisuke Jinno

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Shorter working hours drew much attention as a means of fighting unemployment and crisis in capitalism during the first half of the twentieth century. Nowadays, shorter work-time is rarely considered a policy option to fix economic or social issues in the United States and Japan. This dissertation presents a history of work-time regulation in the United States and Japan to examine how and why its developments and stalemate took place.

In the big picture, developments of work-time regulation during the first half of the twentieth century were a part of concessional modifications of class relations, a common phenomenon in many …

Taylor, Richard, B. 1941 (Sc 3139), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3139. Handwritten note card from Richard Taylor, Frankfort, Kentucky, to James Baker Hall thanking him for arranging a recent event honoring Larkspur Press of Monterey, Kentucky. He also refers to the work of the operator of the Press, Gray Zeitz.

Lg Ms 042 Am Chofshi Archives, Anthony Marvullo

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Administrative Information

Provenance:

The Am Chofshi Archives were donated by Gail Kass and Susan Horowitz in 2004. Kass was Am Chofshi’s treasurer and as such these archives contain financial documents and fundraising materials, some of which are restricted.

Total Boxes: 3

Linear Feet: 4.25

Lg Ms 043 Aids Lodging House Archives, Anthony Marvullo

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Provenance: The AIDS Lodging House Archives were donated by Shawn LeGrega on September 3, 2014.

Restrictions on Access: Some materials are restricted until 2081 to protect privacy rights.

The Anti-Black Hero: Black Masculinity Media Representation As Seen In Netflix Series Luke Cage And Fox Series Empire, Meya Joyell Hemphill

Master of Arts in American Studies Capstones

The reoccurrence of the Black Brute, the Thug, and the modern day Coon stereotypical images on current television narrowly defines Black masculinity as a monolithic experience. Young Black boys, are often unable to see themselves as those who are portrayed on television. The images they see on screen are sometimes not realistic. Unfortunately, for some young Black boys, these stereotypical images may heavily influence their own behavior. Society often criminalizes and demonizes young Black men as angry, violent, and dangerous. They pose as a supposed threat to society and are thought to be even more problematic as they age. Currently, …

Design Plan For The Sawmill Town History Wing At The Texas Forestry Museum, Kendall D. Gay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Texas Forestry Museum in Lufkin, Texas is the only forestry museum in the state. It preserves artifacts and educates visitors about Texas’ forest industry history. The museum has a Sawmill Town History Wing that is outdated and in need of a refreshing exhibit design based on current best practices. Using a previous museum audit as a guide, the new exhibit will have better flow, panel aesthetics, content, and interactive elements. By creating a new exhibit, the museum is better able to educate and entertain the visitors about Texas’ forest industry history.

Music And Race In The American West, William Steven Schneider

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the complexities of race relations in the nineteenth century American West. The groups considered here are African Americans, Anglo Americans, Chinese, Mexican Americans, and Native Americans. In recent decades historians of the West have begun to tell the narratives of racial minorities. This study adopts the aims of these scholars through a new lens--music. Ultimately, this thesis argues that historians can use music, both individual songs and broader conceptions about music, to understand the complex and contradictory race relations of the nineteenth century west.

Proceeding thematically, the first chapter explores the ways Anglo Americans used music to …

Beninger, John, 1850-1922 (Sc 3133), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3133. Notebook containing original and copied poetry by John Beninger, a native of Ohio County, Kentucky. Beninger resided in Versailles, Kentucky, for a number of years, and several of the poems refer to people or places in that community. Beninger often mentions the source of his poem’s inspiration and the date he penned it. Mr. Beninger is buried in the McCord Cemetery in Ohio County, Kentucky.

Woman Energy: How Our Lesbian Past Informs Our Lesbian Future, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

Sinister Wisdom Issue 3, published the year 1977 holds an essay by poet Adrienne Rich, titled, “It is the lesbian in us...”; The cover of the same issue has art by photographer Tee Corinne. Sinister Wisdom is a multicultural lesbian literary and art journal. This non-fiction creative essay written by Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz reflects on the first year of Sinister Wisdom's publication as a celebration of 40 years through this special edition anniversary print for which only 1000 have been printed. The essay remarks on the shift in lesbian identity and community and the potential impact of the Sinister Wisdom journal …

Green, Frank Henry (Sc 3125), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan (click on "Additional Files" below) of Manuscripts Small Collection 3125. “Glacier National Park, Montana, United States of America (Part of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park): A Few Stories as Told by Frank Henry Green, Season Park Ranger at Avalanche Creek Campground.” The text is liberally illustrated with photos.

Mcdonald, Nancy D. (Sc 3122), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3122. Note from Nancy D. McDonald accompanying a copy of "I'll Take My Stand" acknowledging that Dr. Lowell H. Harrison, a Western Kentucky University (WKU) history professor, had loaned her the book around 1970. She had failed to return it, and decided, after the deaths of Dr. Harrison and his wife, to donate it in their memory to the Kentucky Library at WKU.

Bricolage Propriety: The Queer Practice Of Black Uplift, 1890–1905, Timothy M. Griffiths

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Bricolage Propriety: The Queer Practice of Black Uplift, 1890-1905 situates the queer-of-color cultural imaginary in a relatively small nodal point: the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. Through literary analysis and archival research on leading and marginal figures of Post-Reconstruction African American culture, this dissertation considers the progenitorial relationship of late-nineteenth century black uplift novels to modern-day queer theory. Bricolage Propriety builds on work about the sexual politics of early African American literature begun by women-of-color feminists of the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Hazel V. Carby, Ann duCille, and Claudia Tate. A new wave of …

Lg Ms 010 Rochow Papers Finding Aid, Bjorn Swenson, Susannah Clark, Anthony Marvullo

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Description:

Eugene Rochow was an early member and served on the board of the Matlovich Society, a Portland-based organization that provided an educational and cultural forum for the local gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning community during the 1990s. The Papers document the Matlovich Society between 1991 and 1996 and other organizations and events in the LGBT community. The majority of the papers in this collection are records of the Matlovich Society which Rochow retained after the organization ceased in 1999. The collection also includes documents related to Equal Protection Portland, an initiative in 1992 to pass and protect a …

"The Engine Of Free Expression": The Political Economy Of Copyright In The Colonial British Atlantic And Early National United States, Nora Slonimsky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 1985, the Supreme Court of the United States concluded that copyright was included in the Constitution in order to serve as the “engine of free expression.” By providing economic incentive to drive artistic and scientific innovation, the nation received essential information and other tools of learning necessary to make sound political decisions. However, transnational copyright disputes, then and now, frequently resulted in complex and often contradictory understandings of free expression. The formation of copyright in America was thus a far more complex story, and it is that story that forms the basis of this project.

Amidst the many moving …

I. M. Pei, William Zeckendorf, And The Architecture Of Urban Renewal, Marci M. Clark

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation reevaluates the practice of design and real estate in the United States through an insufficiently understood case study of the architect-developer team of I. M. Pei and William Zeckendorf and their twelve-year partnership in urban renewal. William Zeckendorf (1905-1976) was the most ambitious real estate developer in the United States in the 1950s, with an outsize personality and larger-than-life plans. Unlike most developers of the era, Zeckendorf believed that quality design and visionary planning were critical to remaking city cores through urban renewal. To accomplish this, he hired I. M. Pei (b. 1917), a talented, young designer out …

Secrets On Morgan Hill: A Story Of An Unlikely Friendship Amid An Apartheid South, Camille Kleidysz-Ferreira

Master of Arts in American Studies Capstones

Introduction

The Burden of History and Fiction

“How much of the burden of history can fiction bear?” – Margaret Walker

Comprehensive historical research can often become the inspiration for art. The greatest pieces of historical fiction, are a result of years of historic scholarship before the creation of a compelling historical narrative or fiction piece. Through my two-year ethnographic study and collection of oral histories of the black community, surrounding the historic Bethel A.M.E. church in Acworth, Georgia, I was told a story about a friendship between two little girls who remained friends until the end of their lives. What …

Reacting To The Past Handout: The Liberator, Issue 1, Isabel Alberto

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

No abstract provided.

The Founding Farce, Or, The Lost Debates Of The Constitutional Convention: Being An Account Of The Discovery Of An Overlooked Document, And The Loss Again, And Rediscovery Of Said Document, Wherein Is Written Unheard Proceedings In The Crafting Of The Glorious Constitution Of These 13 Colonies (Which Has Lately Been Misplaced), Alexander W. Pickens

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The Constitutional Convention was shrouded in mystery, yet America has been confidently given a narrative of what went on behind closed doors in Philadelphia. Though most of our authentic records of what went on were written by men assumed to be reliable, the deeper one reads into history the more unreliable they become, recent evidence even suggesting that James Madison altered his notes on the Convention years after it was concluded. What if our perception of history is flawed and the Convention was not the glorious meeting of intellectual giants but instead a town hall full of immature behemoths who …

“Ain’T It A Pretty Night?”: An Analysis Of Carlisle Floyd’S Susannah As An Allegory For The Socio-Political Culture Of The United States In The 1950s, Melissa L. Allen

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This capstone thesis discusses the applicability of Carlisle Floyd’s 1955 opera, Susannah, as an allegory for the socio-political climate of the United States in the 1950s. In order to do so, a musical analysis of the opera’s score was then performed for its use of folk song conventions and verismo operatic conventions. The libretto was analyzed for the use of social conventions of Southern Appalachia. Characters actions and musical content were then judged on whether (1) their actions were in line with the social conventions of traditional Appalachian culture and (2) if their musical content used/reflected conventions of traditional Appalachian …

“That Dark Parade”: Emily Dickinson And The Victorian "Cult Of Death”, Carol M. Degrasse

English Department Theses

The elegiac poems of Emily Dickinson provide what is perhaps the clearest depiction of the conflicting emotions inherent to the death-conscious nineteenth century. In one such poem, Dickinson’s oxymoronic phrase, “Dark Parade,” encapsulates the spirit of a social movement that was born of a desire to comfort the grief-stricken and to beautify the horrific. Throughout Dickinson’s corpus of elegiac poetry, the speaker echoes these sentiments and crafts an insightful portrait, juxtaposing the stark horror of death with the ethereal beauty of ceremony. As Dickinson’s elegies are traced over time, the poems develop as microcosmic representations of a grieving nation, as …

Lg Ms 007 Sturgis Haskins Papers Finding Aid, Siobain C. Monahan, Dani Y. Fazio, Anthony Marvullo

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Description:

Sturgis Haskins was a long-time activist in Gay and Lesbian communities, and was one of the organizers of the annual Maine Gay Symposium started in 1974 at University of Maine, Orono. Haskins was a co- founder in 1973 of the Wilde-Stein Club, the first openly Gay student organization at the University of Maine in Orono. The Papers contain material documenting Haskins’ personal life, pamphlets, correspondence, memorabilia, and information on organizations in which Haskins was interested, and clippings covering topics relating to the Gay and Lesbian communities and homosexuality.

Date Range:

1966-1999

Size of Collection:

24 ft.

American Immigration: Differing Views On The Threat From Immigrants, Carl Karpinski

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Immigration has been a hot button issue in politics across the world, especially in recent years in the United States. People’s views on immigration vary broadly among political parties and from every corner of the country. Why do people believe the things they do about immigrants? I researched this question to determine why immigration is at the forefront of American politics and how different aspects of one’s life affect his or her sentiments. Using General Social Survey data, I explored why some people feel threatened by immigrants coming to their country and others do not. Variables analyzed include income, church …

Beyond Coattails: Explaining John Paul Hammerschmidt's Victory In 1966, Jesse Ray Sims

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the campaign issues, demographic factors, and voting trends that helped Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt defeat incumbent Democratic congressman James W. Trimble in Arkansas’s third congressional district in 1966. Much of the historiography addressing this election largely neglects the historic significance of Hammerschmidt’s successful campaign and the factors contributing to his victory. Instead, historians primarily write about the election of Republican Winthrop Rockefeller to the governor’s office that year.

This thesis pieces together several theories on how Hammerschmidt defeated Trimble, including the effect of Winthrop Rockefeller’s coattails, the demographic changes taking place in the Ozarks beginning in the …

Breaking The Cycle Of Silence : The Significance Of Anya Seton's Historical Fiction., Lindsey Marie Okoroafo (Jesnek)

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the feminist significance of Anya Seton’s historical novels, My Theodosia (1941), Katherine (1954), and The Winthrop Woman (1958). The two main goals of this project are to 1.) identify and explain the reasons why Seton’s historical novels have not received the scholarly attention they are due, and 2.) to call attention to the ways in which My Theodosia, Katherine, and The Winthrop Woman offer important feminist interventions to patriarchal social order. Ultimately, I argue that My Theodosia, Katherine, and The Winthrop Woman deserve more scholarly attention because they are significant contributions to women’s …

Sonic Intolerance : Aural Yellowface During The Golden Age Of American Radio., Greyson Perry Neff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The position of the Asian in the American popular imagination has a long history, stretching back to nineteenth century vaudeville theatrical performances and remaining largely unchanged throughout the twentieth and into the twenty-first century. Portrayed as simultaneously cunning and ignorant, spiritual and corrupt, or submissive and sexualized, Oriental stereotypes have remained firmly entrenched in popular culture. While perceptions of race exist largely in a visual sense, a closer look at how people heard racial differences opens up new avenues for scholarly interpretation of the social construction of race and the shifting notions of citizenship. This thesis will investigate how listeners …

Rice, Laban Lacy, 1870-1973 (Mss 605), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 605. Correspondence, writings, photographs, clippings, and papers of Laban Lacy Rice, a Webster, County, Kentucky native, educator, author, lecturer, poet, and president of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee. Includes his scientific writing, principally on astronomy, relativity and cosmology, as well as fiction, poetry, and autobiographical writing. Also includes some correspondence and papers relating to his brother, poet and dramatist Cale Young Rice, and sister-in-law, author Alice Hegan Rice.