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Full-Text Articles in History

Death Became Them: The Defeminization Of The American Death Culture, 1609-1899, Briony D. Zlomke Apr 2013

Death Became Them: The Defeminization Of The American Death Culture, 1609-1899, Briony D. Zlomke

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Focusing specifically on the years 1609 to 1899 in the United States, this thesis examines how middle-class women initially controlled the economy of preparing the dead in pre-industrialized America and lost their positions as death transitioned from a community-based event to an occurrence from which one could profit. In this new economy, men dominated the capitalist-driven funeral parlors and undertaker services. The changing ideology about white middle-class women’s proper places in society and the displacement of women in the “death trade” with the advent of the funeral director exacerbated this decline of a once female-defined practice. These changes dramatically altered …


Chintz Appliqué Albums: Memory And Meaning In Nineteenth Century Quilts Of The Delaware River Valley, Carolyn K. Ducey Jan 2010

Chintz Appliqué Albums: Memory And Meaning In Nineteenth Century Quilts Of The Delaware River Valley, Carolyn K. Ducey

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examined two sub-sets of a unique style of chintz appliqué album quilt that developed in the 1840s in Delaware River Valley, specifically Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Trenton, New Jersey. The two groups provide examples of two distinct roles that the album quilts played in the lives of their makers: one acting as a literal record of familial ties, serving to preserve memory and reinforce family structure and the other representing the work of the members of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, providing a vehicle to recognize and appreciate dedicated service and playing a role in encouraging interest and …