History Commons^™

Afrofantastic Presents: The Many Deaths Of Oscar Mack, Julian Chambliss

Third Stone

Oscar Mack's story deserves the dedication that has culminated in the creation of this defining documentary. Mack's struggle to survive is ripe for the Afrofuturist re‐telling, not because it is fantastic but because the comic story has the potential to capture the transformative thinking black people must employ to survive.

Learning By Doing In The Segregated South: The Robert Hungerford Normal And Industrial School For African Americans In Central Florida, Wenxian Zhang

Faculty Publications

The development of the Robert Hungerford Normal and Industrial School is an important chapter in the history of African American education in Florida. Through careful examinations of the school publications, records, archival correspondence, and newspaper clippings, the article seeks to document the history of the Hungerford School from its founding in the late nineteenth century until it became a public school in the Orange County, Florida in the early 1950s. Following Booker T. Washington’s ideals, the school was established with a great emphasis on economic self-help and individual advancement for African Americans. Its mission was to teach vocational skills to …

"The Spirit Of The Old South Can Never Die": Postbellum Middle Florida And The Elite Struggle For Social Hegemony, 1850-1942, Alexander J. Bowen

All Theses

The Lost Cause is an ideology that falsely portrays the antebellum South as an idyllic, agrarian society, the Confederacy’s cause as a just defense of states’ rights, and slavery as a benevolent institution. Historians of the U.S. South rightly attribute much of the Lost Cause’s creation to the South's prewar elite, particularly women from the planter class who led Confederate memorialization efforts. As the Lost Cause celebrates an antebellum slave society and Confederacy controlled by elites, it is clear the ideology also celebrated the South's prewar elite. However, previous studies of the Lost Cause fail to seriously question what benefit …

Jackson, Harry Lucellus, 1907-1985 (Mss 171), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 171. Correspondence and papers of Harry L. Jackson, a Warren County, Kentucky native and Cleveland, Ohio executive. Includes his World War II correspondence, genealogical research, and papers of his wife Evelyn’s family, the Minshalls of Ohio. A sampling of Jackson's World War II letters to sisters Sallie and Bernice can be viewed under "Additional Files" below.

On The Other Side Of The Tracks: Hannibal Square And Eatonville In The Interwar Years, Margaret Stewart

Honors Program Theses

The purpose of this study is to add nuance to the understanding of the Great Migration period, not only as a period of migration of North to South. The lives and migration of African Americans living in Hannibal Square and Eatonville highlight that African Americans were not just moving North. The Great Migration became more than a simple movement; it was a complex tapestry of African Americans moving where they felt the best opportunities were. This examination will stand within the bound of the early Great Migration period, from 1920 to 1940. The growth of each community will be analyzed …

Beyond The Big Top: The Legacy Of John Ringling And The American Circus, Casey L. Nemec

Graduate Masters Theses

Beyond the Big Top: The Legacy of John Ringling and the American Circus is a focused interpretation of the impact of the American circus post-Civil War through present day, most particularly that of circus impresario, corporate magnate, and philanthropist John Ringling, in what was once a quiet Florida fishing village named Sarasota. It is my observation that John Ringling, through moving the winter quarters of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey to Sarasota, investing in a sizable amount of real estate, and spearheading a campaign to bring a world-class art museum and school to the area, played a key …

Covington-Reynolds Family Papers (Mss 677), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 677. Chiefly courtship letters written by Edward Daniel Covington while teaching high school industrial arts classes at St. Petersburg High School in Florida to his girlfriend and future wife, Evelyn Reynolds, Cave City, Kentucky. The 1933 letters mention the financial effects of the Great Depression and the difficulty of paying teachers.

Rollins After Dark: The Hamilton Holt School's Nontraditional Journeys, Randy Noles

Books about Rollins College and Winter Park

Rollins After Dark is a fascinating history of the eclectic program (and larger-than-life characters) that provided the underpinning of what would become today's Hamilton Holt School - the Rollins College evening program. Although 2019 is the Holt School's 60th anniversary, so-called "adult education" has been offered by the College for more than 80 years. In Rollins After Dark, Randy Noles presents an engaging and entertaining account of the development of the Hamilton Holt School at Rollins College. From a series of popular public spectacles focusing on diverse topics, to a serious academic program for degree-seeking, nontraditional students, the evolution …

The General And The Diplomat: Comparing Andrew Jackson And John Quincy Adams On The Issue Of Florida And The Transcontinental Treaty Of 1821, Samuel Aly

Tenor of Our Times

John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson both played critical, contradictory roles in the long, arduous saga of the accession of Florida which culminated in 1821 with the Adams-Onís treaty, a story which examines the development of republican sentiment on issues such as slavery, Indian relations, and foreign policy.

We’Ve Come A Long Way (Baby)! Or Have We? Evolving Intellectual Freedom Issues In The Us And Florida, L. Bryan Cooper, A.D. Beman-Cavallaro

Works of the FIU Libraries

This paper analyzes a shifting landscape of intellectual freedom (IF) in and outside Florida for children, adolescents, teens and adults. National ideals stand in tension with local and state developments, as new threats are visible in historical, legal, and technological context. Examples include doctrinal shifts, legislative bills, electronic surveillance and recent attempts to censor books, classroom texts, and reading lists.

Privacy rights for minors in Florida are increasingly unstable. New assertions of parental rights are part of a larger conservative animus. Proponents of IF can identify a lessening of ideals and standards that began after doctrinal fruition in the 1960s …

Scott, James Mcmillian, 1870-1907 (Mss 628), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 628. Letters of James McMillian Scott, a native of Cumberland County, Kentucky, to Sarah Elizabeth “Ellie” Garnett of Adair County, Kentucky, written before and after their marriage. Frequently separated from his wife because of his work on his family’s Texas farm and his editorial positions on newspapers in Texas, Kentucky and Arkansas, Scott writes of his family, his social and religious activities, his Spanish-American War service, and his newspaper work. He is frequently resentful of local attacks on his reputation arising from unspecified indiscretions committed while living in Kentucky. Full-text scans of several Spanish-American War …

"Let The Castillo Be His Monument!": Imperialism, Nationalism, And Indian Commemoration At The Castillo De San Marcos National Monument In St. Augustine, Florida, Claire M. Barnewolt

Theses and Dissertations

The Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest stone fortification on the North American mainland, a unique site that integrates Florida’s Spanish colonial past with American Indian narratives. A complete history of this fortification from its origins to its management under the National Park Service has not yet been written. During the Spanish colonial era, the Indian mission system complemented the defensive work of the fort until imperial skirmishes led to the demise of the Florida Indian. During the nineteenth century, Indian prisoners put a new American Empire on display while the fort transformed into a tourist destination. The Castillo …

Faust, Burton Sherwood, 1898-1967 (Mss 620), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 620. Correspondence, research notes, drafts, photographs, reference works and bibliographic material of Burton S. Faust relating to his studies of the chemical, historical and cultural aspects of saltpetre and of spelean saltpetre mining in the United States.

Texas, War, And Empire: The American Empire In The Conquest And Annexation Of The Floridas And The American Southwest, Jon A. Welk

The Purdue Historian

Arguments surrounding American Imperialism focus heavily on the 1890s and after, but preceding actions by the United States in the process of continental expansion present an image of imperialism in the first half of the nineteenth century. This paper examines the annexation of Florida, Texas, and the rest of the American Southwest through the lens of Mexican-American relations and international imperial competition to determine whether the United States was exercising an imperial agenda between 1803 and 1848. It then reapplies pre-existing arguments on American imperialism by Frank Ninkovich, Thomas McCormick, Dane Kennedy, and others to the same 1803-1848 timeline as …

Mcguirk, Martha (Stiles), 1937-2023 - Collector (Mss 618), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 618. Chiefly correspondence, speeches, and ephemera related to William Thomas Beard of Smiths Grove, Kentucky; prescriptions, remedies, and recipes collected by Mabel Kirby; and a baby book and cheerleading letters that belonged to Martha (Stiles) McGuirk.

Woodcock, Greene B., 1814-1889 (Sc 3120), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3120. Legal and financial records, chiefly related to land holdings, of Greene B. Woodcock, of Allen County and later Warren County, Kentucky. Also includes information about the marriage of his daughter Sarah E. Woodcock to Fountain G. Mitchell of Allen County and their son William H. Mitchell.

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

MSS 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.

Yancey, Clara Louise (Robertson) Keech), 1908-2004 (Mss 579), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 579. Correspondence, photographs, interviews and papers of Louisville, Kentucky native Clara Louise (Robertson) Keech Yancey. Includes papers and correspondence of her parents, Eugene and Clara Mae Robertson, brother James Thomas Robertson, husband William J. Keech, son William Robertson Keech, and family data.

Durston, James Marion, 1920-2011 (Mss 571), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 571. Letters of James M. “Brandy” Durston, a Bowling Green, Kentucky chiropractor and later a resident of Southaven, Mississippi, with copious reminiscences of people and places in Bowling Green. Includes material relating primarily to Durston’s church in Memphis, Tennessee.

Mills Family Letters (Sc 2952), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2952. Letters to Edgar L. Mills, his wife Thelma Rose Mills and daughter Diana, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Thelma’s mother and sister write of general news and health problems, and Thelma’s brother Ray D. Brown writes of his work in Florida. Includes a postcard from Ray’s brother to his parents in Brandenburg, Kentucky.

Hines, Clara Ursula (Wright) Nahm, 1904-1983 (Mss 561), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 561. Personal diaries of Clara (Wright) Hines, Bowling Green, Kentucky, kept during her marriage to food critic Duncan Hines and after his death. Includes some correspondence, travel itineraries, and miscellaneous papers.

Christie, Gabriel (Lg 340), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Land Grant 340. Original land grant, 1777 November 19, by which Peter Chester, Governor of His Majesty’s Province of West Florida, granted to Gabriel Christie 1412 acres in West Florida.

Browning, James Clarence, 1914-1942 (Mss 556), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 556. Letters of U.S. Army officer J.C. Browning to his wife Lila (Hardcastle) Browning, written during his World War II military service. Browning was killed in North Africa on 8 November 1942. Includes letters of condolence to his wife, papers relating to his military service, and miscellaneous family cards and letters.

Self-Realization In A Restricted World: Janie's Early Discovery In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Delisa D. Hawkes

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Efficacy Of "Crooked Sticks" : Diasporan Resistance And Discursive Ambivalence In Zora Neale Hurston's Jonah's Gourd Vine, Amy Schmidt

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Regennia N. Williams

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

Zora Neale Hurston And Then Ishmael Reed: Syncretizing Moses With "Sympathetic" Comic Rhetoric, Gillian Johns

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

One School Year With Zora Neale Hurston: A September - June Timeline Unit For K - 8 Schools, Lana J. Miller

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

From The Editor-In-Chief: A Celebration Of American Arts And Letters, Regennia N. Williams

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

Clagett, Marjorie Elizabeth, 1900-2000 (Mss 513), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 513. Correspondence and papers of Marjorie E. Clagett, a WKU faculty member who taught French from 1928-1964. Includes field notes and slides relating to her studies of flora in south central Kentucky, Great Britain and other habitats in the United States, and research materials relating to the history of the French in Kentucky. Includes correspondence, photographs and genealogical data of the Clagett, Northcott, Strange and associated families. Also includes notes (Click on "Additional Files" below) of a Northcott ancestor's encounter with Lost River Cave in Warren County during the Civil War.