History Commons^™

Rebirth Of A Strategic Continent?: Problematizing Africa As A Geostrategic Zone, Abou B. Bamba

History Faculty Publications

At a time when the U.S. Department of Defense is putting the finishing touches to the establishment of a military command for Africa (known as AFRICOM) and the People’s Republic of China’s influence on the continent seems to be on the rise, a detour through the history of America’s past geographical imaginations of Africa appears as a necessity. This is especially crucial since the current constructions of the African continent as a strategic place in both policy and military circles seems to echo the geodiscursive representations of Africa during the Second World War. In fact, it was in the early …

Glatfelter Hall: A Colorful History, Kaitlyn Roman

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

"I had facilities paint over the ugly pink leafy border that went all around my office." With that statement it seemed as though my lead had hit a dead end. But what Professor Ben Bruce, the current head of the Management department, had just told me was just the beginning of a puzzle waiting to be pieced together. Professor Dan DeNicola of the Philosophy department had shared with me a story describing a stenciled artwork located on the fourth floor of Glatfelter Hall with roots stemming in a secret literary society. Immediately this story captivated my interest and that afternoon …

Breidenbaugh To Zinn: The Evolution Of Chemistry At Gettysburg College, Rachel F. Surmick

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

For students at Gettysburg College, there are many departments from which one can chose to make their major course of study. Included among these courses of study is the chemistry department. Though the chemistry department might seem like a stagnant, fixed part of the Gettysburg curriculum, it has not always been that way. For about the past 125 years, the chemistry department has seen a world of change from the time that it finally separated from the physical sciences and became its own department to the changing of omnipresent faculty, the chemistry department has evolved over time to become what …

The Old Tin Cup, Nicholas T. Scerbo

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

The world of college football, always colorful and exciting, is perhaps at its best on chilly October Saturdays, with the stands packed for Homecoming. There is a grand parade, a Homecoming Queen, an exciting game between gridiron rivals prompting the large crowd to roar with delight as the hometown heroes march dramatically down the field to victory, or perhaps dig in to preserve the lead with time running out and their backs to their own goal. Perhaps a coveted trophy will be awarded to the winning team. Ceremonies will follow the game: a trophy presentation at midfield, in full view …

"Under God": The Story Of Gettysburg In India, Daniel J. Willever

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

At Gettysburg College, any student who strolls through Pennsylvania Hall, Musselman Library, and the College Union Building cannot help but notice the colorful retro-style posters highlighting the accomplished alumni of this historical institution. Some students dream and joke of being included among these men and women, a television star, a children’s author, and a Civil Rights activist among them. Sadly, for every pop culture icon and Nobel Prize winner, there are those who go unnoticed. Pictures of founders and theologians such as Samuel Simon Schmucker and Henry Baugher remain, but there could not be more of a general disinterest in …

George Croll Baum: Building A Greater Gettysburg, Abraham M. Apfel

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

On November 16th, 1926 George Croll Baum died. In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania the local newspaper covered his death. The Gettysburgian, the paper for Gettysburg College reported that Henry W.A. Hanson, the college president, was “deeply distressed and further noted that Baum's death 'touched the hearts of all that knew him with deep regret.'" Within a month Dr. Hanson had already ordered three memorial plaques to be placed on the campus. Baum's family tried to help pay for them. Hanson refused the money. In a correspondence with Baum‟s brother about the plaques, Hanson told him, “What I did for your brother …

Original Pennsylvania College Building, Robert S. Kellert

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

At the corner of Washington and High Streets in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania stands a modest old house—an anachronism that somehow seems so fitting in a town of such rich history. In the foreground lies a fairly inconspicuous plaque with condensed text—easy to miss on a leisurely car ride past the antiquated structure. Casually passing by, residents and tourists alike might not give the house a second thought or reflect on its origins. Yet, were they to merely glance over the building‘s historic plaque, they would discover a building whose significance can hardly be overstated. This was the site of the original …

The Legacy Of Charles Henry Huber, Class Of 1892: A Half Century Of Service To Gettysburg College, Alex P. Ferraro

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

In the common room of Huber Hall, there hangs high on the wall a dingy looking portrait of an older gentleman, dressed in a dark suit with round-framed glasses and graying hair. Beneath this portrait framed in faded gold is a small, tarnished, black plaque that gives a name to this curious looking man and briefly describes some of his accomplishments. From this portrait located above a small television, the Reverend Charles Henry Huber looks out over what used to be the lobby of the Gettysburg Academy, which was housed in a building where he spent much of his professional …

Triangulating A Modernization Experiment: The United States, France And The Making Of The Kossou Project In Central Ivory Coast, Abou B. Bamba

History Faculty Publications

Toward the end of the 1960s, authorities in the Ivory Coast decided to build the Kossou Dam, a hydro-electric dam on the Bandama River near the geographic center of the Francophone country. Initially conceived as a technopolitical measure to meet the growing energy demand of the most economically successful country of France's former colonies, the damming experiment soon emerged as a multipurpose regional development project aimed at correcting the regional disparities that tarnished the Ivory Coast's phenomenal economic growth.

This article focuses on the Kossou modernization experience and the sociopolitical transformations that it caused. I argue that the nationalist enthusiasm …

"The Last Full Measure Of Devotion": The Battle Of Gettysburg And The New Museum In Schmucker Hall, Bradley R. Hoch, Gerald Christianson

Adams County History

Schmucker Hall offers an unprecedented opportunity to interpret the role of religion in the Civil War and the American expenment in democracy. In particular it can give palpable expression to major themes in Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address concerning the battle itself, the conflict as a time of testing, the sacrifices of those who fought here, and the hope these sacrifices bring to the young nation for a new birth of freedom.

Built in 1832 and named for an abolitionist and founder of Gettysburg Seminary, Samuel Simon Schmucker, it is the original structure on the oldest continuously-operating Lutheran seminary in the …

March Into Oblivion: A Footnote, Larry C. Bolin

Adams County History

In the above-titled work in 2006, this writer briefly discussed the possibility that President George Washington traversed present Adams County in October 1794, during his return from Bedford to Philadelphia, a belief long and widely held locally. No credible assertion of the President's presence here in 1794 was possible at that time. Recently however, a forgotten narrative was "rediscovered"; its author, Jacob Eyster, gives some substance to the previous mere speculation. After extensive research, this writer was graciously requested to produce a sequel to his prior speculative writing. [excerpt]

Mapping Gettysburg: Baltimore Street In 1910, Danielle C. Hiss, Megan L. Gray

Adams County History

In 1910, the town of Gettysburg was a thriving, bustling place. The Civil War was long over, and the town had begun to profit from tourists who wished to see the site of the famous battle. Business boomed. Merchants moved in and out of buildings and young families set up housekeeping in their own homes, raising their children and getting off to a running start in their chosen professions. There were cars in the streets next to the old horse-drawn buggies and electricity had begun to replace the gas lamps and candles of the Victorian era. For all that the …

Front Matter

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

No abstract provided.

The Ottoman Gunpowder Empire And The Composite Bow, Nathan Lanan

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The Ottoman Empire is known today as a major Gunpowder Empire, famous for its prevalent use of this staple of modern warfare as early as the sixteenth century. However, when Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq visited Constantinople from 1554 to 1562, gunpowder was not used by the Sipahi cavalry who stubbornly, it seems, insisted on continuing to use the composite bow that the Turks had been using for centuries. This continued, despite their fear of European cavalry who used “small muskets” against them on raids. Was this a good idea? Was the composite bow a match or contemporary handheld firearms? Were …

Credibility And Incredulity: A Critique Of Bartolomé De Las Casas‘S A Short Account Of The Destruction Of The Indies, Alexander Allen

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

A fierce advocate for the indigenous people of the New World, Bartolomé de Las Casas sought to promote awareness and enact legal change. Born in 1484, Las Casas grew up as exploration of the New World began. After embarking on several voyages to the New World, he saw firsthand the injustices committed against the natives. Years later, following a religious conversion, he began elucidating the actions of the Christians in an effort to draw awareness to the Indians plagued by the Spanish presence and to compel the Spanish Crown to take action in order to maintain its religious legitimacy in …

Adams County History 2010

Adams County History

No abstract provided.

The First Battle Of Gettysburg: April 22, 1861, Timothy H. Smith

Adams County History

The fears of invasion voiced by the residents of south-central Pennsylvania prior to the Gettysburg Campaign are often the subject of ridicule in books and articles written on the battle. But to appreciate the events that occurred during the summer of 1863, it is necessary to understand how the citizens were affected by the constant rumors of invasion during the first two years of the war. And although there were many such scares prior to the battle, nothing reached the level of anxiety that was felt during the first few days of the war. On Monday morning, April 15, 1861, …

Book Review: The Ordeal Of Thomas Barton: Anglican Missionary In The Pennsylvania Backcountry, 1755-1780, David L. Preston

Adams County History

The Ordeal of Thomas Barton is a highly informative read that I recommend for anyone interested in the history of eighteenth-century Pennsylvania. Scholars will find the book useful for its many connections to the histories of settlement, religion, politics, Indian diplomacy, and warfare on the Pennsylvania frontier. The book's author, Gettysburg College English professor James P. Myers, Jr., has written the most deeply researched account of Barton's importance in eighteenth-century religion and politics, and has contributed some of the finest overall scholarship on early Pennsylvania in recent years. Based in Huntington Township in what is now Adams County, and later …

Farmville, 1963: The Long Hot Summer, Jill Ogline Titus

Civil War Institute Faculty Publications

On July 9, 1963, a reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch informed his readers that black protesters had attempted two sit-ins in the college town of Farmville, the hub of rural Prince Edward County. Obviously shocked by these developments, he termed the events at the College Shoppe restaurant and the State Theater "the first reported Negro movement in this Southside Virginia locality, which has gained prominence in recent years as the focal point of a struggle over the closings of Prince Edward County's schools." In this writer's mind, and perhaps many of his readers' as well, social movements were synonymous with …

Mémoires Épistémiques Et Pouvoir D’Experts Dans Une Postcolonie Africaine: Le Cas De L’Usage Des Savoirs Africanistes Par L’Orstom En Côte D’Ivoire, Abou B. Bamba

History Faculty Publications

Partant du constat que l’Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique Outre-Mer (ORSTOM) s’est impose par son travail de recherche appliquee comme le concepteur primordial de la planification du developpement en Cote d’Ivoire a la fin des annees soixante, cet article montre que la mobilisation du souvenir des discours institues en science (ou memoires epistemiques) par les chercheurs de l’ORSTOM y a joue pour beaucoup. En se reappropriant les savoirs africanistes laisses par leurs predecesseurs que leur acces privilegie a la “bibliotheque coloniale” a rendu possible, les orstomiens en poste dans la postcolonie ivoirienne ont reussi a supplanter non seulement …

“There Was Nothing In Sight But Nature, Nothing...”: Nineteenth-Century Gendered Perceptions Of The Overland Trail, Andrea J. Savadelis

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

One hundred and seventeen years ago, between 1841 and 1867, the Overland Trail saw approximately 350,000 Oregon and California bound North Americans traverse its landscape. This westward migration painted the American frontier with a white sea of wagon covers, spotted the grassy plains with brown patches of oxen herds, and lighted the night sky with open cooking fires. Men and women Overlanders experienced this life-changing event in different ways, which are crucial to understanding the dynamics and interaction between these people and their frontier context. Gender-specific roles and social standards of masculinity and femininity carried from emigrants’ previous lives influenced …

Gettysburg Historical Journal 2010

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

No abstract provided.

“Bloody Outrages Of A Most Barbarous Enemy:” The Cultural Implications Of The Massacre At Fort William Henry, Colin Walfield

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The August 10, 1757 massacre at Fort William Henry contradicted eighteenth-century European standards for warfare. Although British colonial opinion blamed it on Native American depravity, France‘s Native American allies acted within their own cultural parameters. Whereas the French and their British enemies believed in the supremacy of the state as the model for conduct, Native Americans defined their political and military relations on a personal level that emphasized mutual obligations. With the fort‘s surrender, however, the French and British attempted and failed to bring European cultural norms into the American wilderness. While the French triumphed in Fort William Henry‘s capitulation, …

The Struggle To Create Soviet Opera, Miriam Grinberg

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

It is opera, and opera alone that brings you close to the people, that endears your music to the real public and makes your names popular not only with individual small circles but, under favourable conditions, with the whole people. – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, premier composer of symphonies, ballets, and operas in Imperial Russia in the mid- to late 1800s.

Tchaikovsky made this remark while living under a tsarist regime, but the pervasive, democratic, and uniting qualities of opera that he so vividly described appealed to an entirely different party: the Bolsheviks. Rather than discard the “bourgeois” remains of the …

'Not Yet Ready': Australian University Libraries And Carnegie Corporation Philanthropy, 1935-1945, Michael J. Birkner

History Faculty Publications

In recent years the Carnegie Corporation's influence on Australian library development has been fruitfully examined from many angles, among them its role in promoting free-library movements in the various states. One piece of the story, however, remains mostly in the shadows: the Corporation's initiatives pointing towards modernizing and professionalizing Australian university libraries. Although the Corporation's philanthropic enterprise at the university level yielded mixed results at best, it was not inconsequential. It provided a blueprint for future university-library development in Australia. In one instance, at the University of Melbourne, it inspired a vice-chancellor to articulate a vision of a library future …

Front Matter

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

Includes front cover, title page, list of editors, table of contents, and contributor biographies.

“An Altercation Full Of Meaning”: The Duel Between Francis B. Cutting And John C. Breckinridge, Annie Powers

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

“A Duel!” In late March of 1854, the northern press burst with the news. A duel had allegedly taken place between two members of the House of Representatives—Francis B. Cutting of New York and John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Confusion and anticipation reigned, and a flurry of rumors circulated. Had Breckinridge been shot in the neck? Was he killed or wounded? Did Cutting emerge victorious? Or was the entire affair a mere hoax? The situation became so dramatic that it even appeared in a theatrical advertisement, beckoning people to see a play that promised to be just as exciting as …

Women's Leadership And Third-Wave Feminism, Kathleen P. Iannello

Political Science Faculty Publications

Leadership is a term that women strive to claim as their own. Whether in the halls of Congress, the corporate boardroom, or the privacy of the home, women’s leadership challenges traditional notions of the concept. Throughout the ages images of leadership feature men in uniform and men in positions of power, whether it be military, government, or market. The traditional view of leaders is imbued with male images of “heroes,” who issue orders, lead the troops—save the day. But leadership has another face. It is the face of Abigail Adams admonishing her husband to “Remember the Ladies” in the formation …

'A Little Bit Of Love For Me And A Murder For My Old Man': The Queensland Bush Book Club, Robin Wagner

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This paper addresses rural book distribution in an era before free public libraries came to Australia. Well-to-do, city women established clubs, which solicited donations of “proper reading matter” and raised funds for the purchase of books for their “deprived sisters” in the Outback. They took advantage of a well-developed rail system to deliver book parcels to rural families. In New South Wales and Queensland they were known as Bush Book Clubs.

Testimonials found in the Clubs’ annual reports provide a snapshot of the hard scrabble frontier life and the gratitude with which these parcels were received. This paper looks at …

Letter From The Editor, Evan Rothera

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

No abstract provided.