History Commons^™

America, The Beautiful: How American Cosmetics Companies Advertised Femininity In The 1950s, Bridget Beavin

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The 1950s were an influential decade for cosmetics in terms of sales and social impact yet have received little consideration from historians. This paper explores how cosmetics companies reflected and directed ideas about American women, femininity, beauty, consumerism, and race in the 1950s. Using cosmetics advertisements in magazines, business newspapers, cosmetics packaging, employee manuals, and secondary literature, this paper analyzes tone and content of messaging published by cosmetics companies and reactions to the sale and use of cosmetics by public commentators. Analysis shows cosmetics were marketed as a necessity for achieving ideal femininity, yet women were largely criticized or belittled …

Bluegrass Backstory: Connecting People To Local History Through Podcasting, David Hunter Hartlage

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Kentucky has a rich cultural identity, built upon a storied local history. Unfortunately, certain aspects of local cultural history, such as the origins of Kentucky vernacular music or how the bourbon industry has promoted growth in Kentucky’s communities, are not readily apparent. The increasing popularity and accessibility of podcasting offers local historians an opportunity to address this problem.

The goal of this project was to create a podcast program which makes information regarding the history, culture, and identity of Kentucky accessible to all in a scholarly—but engaging—way. I researched podcasting equipment and how to use it, then purchased that equipment …

Rosalie Edge And The Modern Environmental Movement, Elizabeth Claire Coleman

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This thesis examines and follows the actions of an understudied activist in the environmentalist movement: Rosalie Edge. This thesis relies and encourages a combination of conservation, environmentalism, and historical women’s history in America. Rosalie Edge’s work as an environmentalist created a new and effective way for environmentalists to advocate for the environment around them. She created a pamphlet medium that invited scientists and other conservationists to publish writings and opinions that went against what the Audubon Society, the Biological Survey, and legislators were doing and publishing. The research for this project combines analysis from other professionals in the field with …

Progress In The Bluegrass: An Analysis Of Grassroots Organizing In Kentucky Post 1970, Brooklyn Lile

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

While historians and other scholars have explored grassroots organizing in Kentucky, most historiography on this topic is limited to the 1930s through 1970s and focused on coal, labor, and the Civil Rights Movement. This paper fills a gap within the historiography by extending the discussion of grassroots organizing in Kentucky past the 1970s. Through the examination of organizational documents, membership newsletters, and oral histories, this paper explores the transformation of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth (KFTC) from 1981 to 2020. KFTC began as a small Eastern Kentucky organization focused predominantly on fair taxing practices in coal companies. Through efforts to diversify …

No-Knock Warrants: Unlawfully Legitimate, Isabel Pergande

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

On March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor was fatally shot when officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) executed a search warrant at her apartment. Breonna Taylor’s case brought national attention to no-knock warrants (NKWs), which allow police to enter private residences unannounced. It is estimated that 20,000-80,000 NKWs are executed by American police each year. This thesis explores the development of NKWs as a common, yet controversial, police tactic. The increase in NKWs is largely attributed to the federal government’s War on Drugs, beginning with Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign. However, the Supreme Court laid the foundation for NKWs …

Servant Leadership And Adult Volunteers In The Boy Scouts Of America, Andrew Koontz

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) features several leadership theories and models in their trainings and programs for youth members and adult volunteers. Servant leadership was an integral model in BSA trainings, in the 2000 to 2021 timeframe, and influenced the attitudes and approaches of youth and adult leaders in the organization and beyond. However, there is only a small body of scholarly work on the relationship between servant leadership and the BSA. Additionally, scholarship on the topic has overlooked the key nature of BSA leadership trainings and the adult volunteer perspective in the overall relationship. Through a primary source …

Does "Good" Mean White?: Understanding The Complexities Of Refugee Resettlement In Bowling Green, Kentucky, Molly Shaddix

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Bowling Green, Kentucky is a relatively small town comparable to its counterparts across the South. However, Bowling Green has a significant population of refugee inhabitants that have resettled in waves since the late 1970s. This paper describes the lived experience of refugees resettling by analyzing community action and troubles faced while working for independence in their new homes. Some factors explored are access to affordable housing, language barriers, and trouble in education. In addition, this paper contextualizes their lived experiences with other resettlement communities across the United States to understand how Bowling Green fits into patterns of societal xenophobia, racism, …

Ladylike: The Necessity And Neglect Of Camp Followers In The Continental Army, Emma Ward

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The contributions of female camp followers to the Continental Army are often overlooked in the study of the American Revolution. The lower-class women who followed the army performed services absolutely necessary for its operation and created a vital support network for the fledgling army that could not care for its own needs. Camp followers were therefore integral to the success of the American Revolution, but they rarely receive due credit for their contributions because they acted outside the bounds of eighteenth-century feminine values.

The intent for this thesis is to pull camp followers out of the footnotes of history and …

Maiden, Martyr, Sinner, And Saint: Performing The Narratives Of Joan Of Arc, Emma Cox

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This Capstone Experience/Thesis Project, made possible through the WKU Mahurin Honors College, is a study of historiography, or the way history is written. Joan of Arc is used to explore historiography because she is a figure that is written in many ways, each version giving us a snippet of the whole picture. The show written based on my research is titled Jehanne. I wanted to tell Joan’s story, but not just one version of it; I wanted to tell the whole story of who she is, not just what she did or what she believed. Not only does Jehanne …

From The Volga To The Mississippi: African Americans And The Soviet Experiment, Daniel Candee

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This thesis investigates the role of African American Communists in the struggle for Black liberation during the interwar period. Making a vital intervention into the field, this work attempts to debunk the harmful Cold-War stereotype of African American Communists as “puppets of Moscow” while simultaneously engaging critically with the relationship between Black liberation and international Communism. Drawing on a vast array of secondary and archival sources, this work charts a course between a vision of the Comintern as an avenging anti-colonial angel, and a cynical force disinterested in Black Liberation.

Tracing the developing relationship between Black intellectuals and the Comintern …

Centralizing The Purse: Why A More Centralized National Government Was Crucial For Managing America's Revolutionary War Debt, Ethan Berg

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Research on the American Revolutionary debt has particularly focused on the leadership of American financial figures: most notably Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris and U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. While scholars affirm their indispensable leadership, they also acknowledge institutional and political conditions that distinguish their tenures. This CE/T seeks to further analyze these conditions. It draws upon scholarly works while evaluating different aspects and time frames of Americas’ public debt, including the initial accumulation of debt, the tenure of Robert Morris, the formation of the U.S. Constitution, and the tenure of Alexander Hamilton. The CE/T also analyzes the papers of …

Factors Contributing To Continuing Democratic Victories In Some Southern House Districts, 1994–2008, Dillon Mccormick

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The American South went through a period of political transition in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. This transition reached its climax after the 1994 elections, after which Democrats ceased to hold the majority of House seats in the South, never to regain that strength. However, Democrats continued to win a decent share of House seats in the South after 1994, with about 40% of Southern House seats being won by Democrats until the 2010 elections, after which Democrats shrunk to a much smaller minority.

This paper analyzes the factors that allowed some Democrats to continue to be elected …

Baudrillard And The Viral Violence Of Cyber Security, Alex Rivera

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This paper explores Jean Baudrillard’s theorization on war and communication, connecting it to recent developments in the field of cyber security. With the important elevation of military forces such as the United States Cyber Command, critical theory needs to interrogate the increasing stature and seriousness of the cyber domain in global military strategies. Baudrillard’s critique shifts the focus from simple military strategies to the globe’s consumption of the information that is offered by the global information complex. This paper explains the nuances of violence surrounding the exchange of media surrounding war, criticizing both pro-war and anti-war stances, to examine the …

A Political Perch: A Historical Analysis And Online Exhibit Of The U.S. Senate Clerk's Desk, Olivia Bowers

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience aims to highlight the importance of the historical object and accurately document the complete history of the former United States Senate Clerk’s Desk, placed in the newly built chamber in 1859 and removed in 1951. The desk’s first and last occupants were Kentucky natives and civil servants, and its current resting place is in Western Kentucky University’s Kentucky Museum. Through research that began in the nation’s capital, and a journey to follow the desk’s paper trail, the object’s massive historical legacy and close ties to the state of Kentucky may live on. Along with …

An Ethnic Cultural Landscape: German Breweries And Social Institutions In Covington, Kentucky, 1860-1920, Andrew Jones

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

A useful marker for recognizing the impact that ethnic groups make to the social and cultural characteristics of a city are the institutions and material landscapes created by those groups. In northern Kentucky, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, German immigrants and their descendants in the city of Covington established institutions such as breweries, saloons, social associations, and churches that became the heart of ethnic neighborhoods and shaped the form of the landscape. This research examines institutional and cultural landscape markers of German cultural identity in the city of Covington, Kentucky, from 1860 to 1920. Demographic and spatial data …

Female Cartographers: Historical Obstacles And Successes, Eva Llamas-Owens

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

For much of history, women have lived in male-dominated societies, which has limited their participation in society. The field of cartography has been largely populated by men, but despite cultural obstacles, there are records of women significantly contributing over the past 1,000 years. Historically, women have faced coverture, stereotypes, lack of opportunities, and lack of recognition for their accomplishments. Their involvement in cartography is often a result of education or valuable experiences, availability of resources, a supportive community or mentor, hard work, and luck regardless of when and where they lived.

This research divides women before and after the turn …

Addicted To Drug Control: The History Of American Drug Prohibition And Its Consequences For Modern Psychedelic Medicine, Seth Mcdowell

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Psychedelics have been used medicinally and as vehicles for spiritual discovery for millennia. They achieved international notoriety in the decades following Albert Hofmann’s accidental discovery of LSD’s psychological effects, which spurred an explosion of psychedelic research. While much of the research showed psychedelics to have tremendous therapeutic potential, some studies declared them to be dangerous. By the end of the 1960s, LSD and other classic psychedelics had become cultural pariahs, linked to the counterculture, chromosome damage, and birth defects. For this reason, Congress outlawed psychedelics in the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Control and Prevention Act of 1970, which consolidated more than …

The Importance Of Clothing In 1960s Protest Movements, Nicole Ziege

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The 1960s became one of the most tumultuous decades in American history because the decade experienced ideological polarization between the younger and older generations, and there was a mass influx of protests by many from the country’s younger generation in support of political and social changes for the country. Protest movements, including the anti-Vietnam War movement, the women’s liberation movement and the Civil Rights movement, became significant to the political and ideological landscape of the 1960s. Clothing became a central visual tactic to create cohesion between the protesters of these movements in order to make their protests more effective and …

The Dynamics Of Higher Education In Countries Experiencing Ethnic Conflict, Lillian Nellans

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

My thesis investigates how higher education institutions influence and interact with students and professors, policymakers, the economy, and the general population following ethnic conflict. I use a mixed-method comparative analysis of universities in Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Turkey and an in-depth case study of Kosovo to analyze the dynamics of higher education in post-conflict environments. The majority of my research is drawn from personal interviews conducted between June 2017 and October 2017. I interviewed students, alumni, faculty, and administrators from Kosovo’s three most prominent universities: the University of Pristina, the University of Mitrovica, and the Rochester Institute of Technology …

The Rock Of Red Power: The 1969-1971 Occupation Of Alcatraz Island, Sarah Spalding

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

When over 90 Native Americans first made the voyage to Alcatraz Island on a November 1969 morning, there was little that could be predicted about what would unfold in the coming years. Alcatraz Island, the infamous prison that held criminals on the forefront of world news in the early twentieth century, would soon become an activist symbol. What followed November 20, 1969 was almost two years of continued Native American occupation of the island and a whirlwind of both media and federal attention. By the end of 1971, the remaining occupiers of Alcatraz were forcibly removed by federal marshals. However, …

Journalism And Human Rights: From The Abolition Of The British Slave Trade, The Aids Crisis, And Injustices Beyond And In-Between, Andrew Henderson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The conception of human rights is one that is enshrined within the shared, collective history of humanity. Encompassing secular traditions, Asian religions and traditions, and monotheistic religions and perspectives as a base for what would come to evolve into universal human rights. Throughout history these traditions and religions have all played a role in shaping where we are at today in terms of human rights. Yet the road which led to a universal declaration of rights was not paved with ease. From the onset of Aristotle, Plato, Hammurabi, other secular authors, and culminating to the end of the French Revolution …

Nineteenth-Century American Religion And Politics In The West: Doctrinal Shifts In Mormonism And The Creation Of Utah, Katherine Manning

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

American religion and politics have always been closely intertwined. Though America was founded on ideals of religious pluralism and tolerance, the actual landscape of American religion often resembled the opposite of these ideas. As a religious majority, Protestants in the nineteenth-century believed in a specific American identity—one which championed the “virtuous” family and a capitalist market system. Yet, some religious organizations challenged these norms, making them the object of intense persecution. One of the most famous of these examples is the Mormons. From their “peculiar” beliefs to their separatist goals, Mormons presented the American people with a religious group which …

Evolution Of The Cello In Music, Joshua Propst

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

With this project, I have studied cello music written throughout many of the major musical eras in an attempt to discover the cello, specifically regarding playing style, technique, and tonal ability. The composers included in this project are Bach, Haydn, Dvořák, Pärt, and Amanti. Most of the major musical styles are represented, with a focus on baroque, classical, romantic, minimalism, and jazz. I performed this wide variety of pieces at my Senior Recital for the Western Kentucky University (WKU) Music Dept. The goal of the recital was to showcase the rich musical history of the cello and how cello composition …

Bethlehem Chapel: How A Place Can Be Reinterpreted By Government, Maya Lemaster

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

An important source of legitimacy for all types of government is the creation of or building up of a sense of nationhood for the citizens of the state. This can be achieved in many ways, including through the use of physical nationalist symbols. In my paper, I address this topic by exploring how the Communist government of Czechoslovakia reinterpreted and changed the traditional meaning of the historical Bethlehem Chapel in Prague in order to fit their own ideology. I found that the Communist government emphasized the communal aspects of the Hussite movement and ignored religious associations. My research is primarily …

Case Study From Inside A Presidential Campaign In The 100th New Hampshire Primary: Analyzing The Hillary For New Hampshire Field Organization, Christopher Mckenna

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

On the 100^th anniversary of the New Hampshire primary, this case study analyzes a high profile political campaign in order to add to the discussion on the extent to which campaigns matter. The New Hampshire Primary is disproportionately important in the nomination process as the nation’s first primary; therefore, it is vital candidates perform well in the Granite State. I use my experience as a fellow on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the Democratic Primary to critically analyze the campaign organization in New Hampshire. This case study will attempt to answer how Secretary Clinton’s field organization …

Western's New Deal: The Shaping Of College Heights During The Great Depression, Sean Jacobson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This thesis addresses the Great Depression's impact on public higher education by analyzing developments at Western Kentucky State Teachers College. It also seeks to understand factors leading to the enshrinement of Henry Hardin Cherry as a larger-than-life figure upon his death in 1937. An investigative study into primary materials found that the New Deal projects on campus provided a boost for Cherry's leadership and charisma in his community. The concurrence of his death with the construction of a classroom building funded by the Public Works Administration determined his memorialization for posterity. The building, Cherry Hall, emerged as an institutional symbol …

Mythological Influences On Southern American Authors, Natalie L. Hayden

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

A major influence upon many parts of society is that of Greek and Roman mythology. While there are several interpretations of what myths are, this study will define them as stories from Greek or Roman origins that seek to explain some natural or social phenomena or to provide moral lessons. Myths were especially influential during the Southern Renaissance, a period of literary reinvention in America during the 1920s and 1930s. Authors used myths to give deeper meanings to their works as they struggled with issues of race, religion, and social changes. Myths appeared in plot lines, as major symbols, and …

Gender And The History Of Philosophy: An Analysis Of Essentialism And Gender Disempowerment, Forrest T. Deacon

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In this project, I examine the philosophical theories of truth, gender, and power, and the parallels between each theory. I argue that both Friedrich Nietzsche and William James advanced theories that deconstructed the idea that human beings, or “man” and “woman,” were bound by an essential nature or innate characteristics that determined their social role. Though this critique was robust, I argue that it enforces gender disempowerment on a number of platforms since the theories did not analyze gender, but rather truth and value. Simone de Beauvoir, I argue, expanded Nietzsche’s and James’ thought, but included a critical analysis of …

From Public Good To Public Disgrace: Eugenics In North Carolina, Meghan M. Mcguirk

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This CE/T project explores the sterilization program in North Carolina in the twentieth century. From 1929 to 1974, over 7,600 men, women, and children were sterilized by the Eugenics Board of North Carolina, a department of the state government of North Carolina. The North Carolina legislature enacted legislation that allowed for the forced sterilization of persons considered “feeble-minded” or a threat to the public good of society. The perceived threat to society changed over the course of the program from patients in mental institutions to low socio-economic women seen as a burden to the public. The mechanism for selection and …

Did French Women Love Their Children? The Contentious Image Of Exotic Maternity In Early Modern French Travel Narratives, Anna Young

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Throughout the period of early French colonization in the New World, travel writers commented extensively on Native American childrearing practices. Early modern French colonialists were particularly fascinated by the fact that native women almost always nursed their own children, unlike their French counterparts, who typically outsourced the labor of reproduction to wet nurses. French writers consistently pointed to the tendency of Native American women to nurse their own children as evidence of a superior sense of maternal duty, vehemently criticizing the custom of wet-nursing in France and the moral deficiencies of European women who participated in it.

Travel writers participated …