History Commons^™

I Hope My Black Skin Don't Dirt This White Tuxedo, Luis A. Vasquez La Roche

Theses and Dissertations

I Hope My Black Skin Don't Dirt This White Tuxedo is a series of works--sculpture, installations, and performances--that explore themes of shame, failure, commodity, ephemerality, ritual, resilience, erasure, race, and death. The research and interest in these themes stem from a page of the Trinidad and Tobago Slave Registry. I use the research that surrounds this document to highlight different moments in history, in my personal life, and to imagine near futures.

Against The Eyes Of God And Man: The Suicide And Alcohol Intoxication Deaths Of Enslaved People In Alexandria And Henrico County, Virginia, 1805-1829, Peighton L. Young

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a compressive examination of suicide and self-destructive behaviors within specific enslaved populations in early republic Virginia localities. I use coroners’ inquests as the primary means for identifying notable causes of death and potential behavioral patterns amongst the enslaved people presented in this study. I focused my investigation on two causes of death, demographics, and localities respectively: the drowning suicides committed by enslaved women along the Potomac River waterfront in Alexandria between 1807 and 1824 and the alcohol intoxication-related deaths of enslaved men in Henrico County between 1805 and 1829. Stepping away from …

Recovering Lost Voices: The Rappahannock Tribe And The Jamestown Festival Of 1957, Woodie L. Walker Ii

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis employs the interdisciplinary methodologies of ethnohistory and oral history to examine the legacy of the 1957 Jamestown Festival through the experiences and memories of Rappahannock people. “Recovering Lost Voices: The Rappahannock Tribe and the Jamestown Festival of 1957” adds to the historiography of Virginia Natives by revealing that Rappahannock participation in the Jamestown Festival was the culmination of centuries of cultural preservation, greatly influenced and made immediate by their experiences in “Jim Crow” Virginia during the twentieth century. This research establishes that the enduring legacy of the Festival for the Rappahannock Tribe was political influence, culminating in state …

"Island Of Integration": Desegregation Of The Women's Army Corps At Fort Lee, Virginia, 1948-1954, Meika Downey

Theses and Dissertations

Countless studies exist examining President Harry S. Truman’s Executive Order 9981 mandating racial desegregation of the U.S. armed forces, though all singularly focus on the experiences of male soldiers in the twentieth century. This thesis examines how the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) training center at Fort Lee, Virginia implemented desegregation in 1950 in the midst of the Korean War with relative speed and tolerance. Determined through archival records including official WAC reports, photographs, newspapers, and nine newly conducted racially diverse oral history interviews with WAC veterans, I demonstrate how the Fort Lee training center became a physical and cultural “island …

Jacob A. Riis: The Ideal American Citizen, Flemming Just

The Bridge

At his death in 1914, Jacob A. Riis was one of the US's best-known and most admired citizens, who had been able to effect more social change than most of his peers. President Theodore Roosevelt had earlier declared Riis to be "the most useful citizen of New York," and now called him "the ideal American citizen." In one of many obituaries of Riis we read:

Denmark gave him to us, and if we gave Denmark millions in return, we could not pay her for what Riis did for us and for what Riis inspired us to do. He landed in …

St. Roch Military Marches In Wallonia: Memory, Commemoration, And Identity, 1866-1940, Erik Hadley

Quidditas

Ritualized public processionals known as military saint marches thrive in popular memory and define local identity in Francophone Belgium (Wallonia). The annual processionals involve thousands of marchers dressed in Napoleonic-era military uniforms, carrying authentic muskets and escorting a statue of St. Roch, the patron saint of disease protection. Many of these marchers trace family participation through multiple generations and two St. Roch marches received UNESCO recognition as examples of “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” in 2012. While participants claim there is no historical rupture between the modern marches and the processionals celebrated prior to the French Revolution, there is a …

Full Issue

Quidditas

No abstract provided.

“That Kingdom Is Mine”: On Spain’S Early Modern Polemics Of Possession Over Jerusalem, Circa 1605, Chad Leahy

Quidditas

Spanish claims to the throne of Jerusalem in the early modern period have often been viewed in light either of royal mythologies connecting the Habsburgh monarchy to the biblical kings David and Solomon or to prophetic discourses of imperial Messianism relating to universal monarchy. This paper broadens our understanding of Spanish claims to Jerusalem through close reading of two archival documents produced in 1605. In defending Spanish preeminence and sovereignty in Jerusalem, I argue that these documents participate in a “polemics of possession” that crucially informed cultural production related to the Holy City in the period more broadly. These documents …

Allusive Fontaines, Sicamors, And Pins: Figurative Prophecies Of Grail Piety In The Prose Lancelot, David S. King

Quidditas

At the conclusion of Chrétien de Troyes’s twelfth-century verse Chevalier de la charrete, a spring and sycamore allude to concupiscence and betrayal in Scripture, evoking the hero’s and the queen’s adulterous liaison. The author of the thirteenth-century French Prose Lancelot translates this allusion from a moment of joy for the queen to one of terror, foreshadowing a change in fortune for the hero and his prowess. Every subsequent adventure where the hero encounters a spring and sycamore points to his love for the queen as a source of corruption. Springs shaded by a pine tree hint at the sanctity of …

The Vanishing Lady: Mélusine, Emblems, And Jacques Yver’S Le Printemps D’Yver (1572), Joshua M. Blaylock

Quidditas

In the opening pages of Le Printemps d’Yver (1572), the narrator evokes Mélusine, the cursed half-snake fairy queen, as the architect of the idyllic castle that serves as the locus amoenus of the novella collection. And yet, as suddenly as she appears, Mélusine vanishes from the text with only one other explicit reference to her at the transition point between the third and fourth novellas. While literary scholars have analyzed the two explicit references to Mélusine in Le Printemps as well as Yver’s emblematic prose, none has systematically explored the possibility that her presence pervades the novella collection in ways …

The History Of A Cemetery: An Italian Swiss Cultural Essay, Plinio Martini, Richard Hacken

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Years ago, there was no cemetery in my village. This absence,

which weighed heavily upon the people as a cruel stroke of

fate, was a result of our village having earlier been part of a neighboring

community, whose more favorable location—sunny and protected

from the north winds—had allowed it to prosper while our community

dwindled.3 After long discussions and arguments, the mountain pastures,

valley meadows and forests—formerly communal property—

were divided up into separate realms with precise boundaries: everything

was written down on parchment and sworn to in the name of

God.

Canton Ticino And The Italian Swiss Immigration To California, Tony Quinn

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The southernmost of Switzerland’s twenty-six cantons, the

Ticino, may speak Italian, sing Italian, eat Italian, drink Italian and rival

any Italian region in scenic beauty—but it isn’t Italy,” so writes author

Paul Hofmann1 describing the one Swiss canton where Italian is the

required language and the cultural tie is to Italy to the south, not to the

rest of Switzerland to the north.

Back Cover

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

Role Of Art In International Relations : Analysis Of The Key Operational Patterns On The Example Of French Cultural Cluster, Maria Meshcherskaya

MA Theses

Reflecting on the role of art in the socio-cultural context would be unfair not to notice its unconventional nature of the transformation, definition, and understanding, depending on the time, place, and society, which would start the dispute. Yet, there is still no one answer or guide on how does art work as a singular system, using multiple mediums for translating, spreading, and sharing values from one culture to the another, without destroying origins of the message, but organically adopting it for the new environment. Luckily there is a set of tendencies kept by centuries, analysis of which might bring a …

The Adaptation Of The Kongtek Ritual In Bangkok's China Town, Jincheng Hu

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This thesis examines the Kongtek ritual characteristics in Bangkok's Chinatown through fieldwork conducted at several temples. Kongtek rituals in Bangkok's Chinatown retain the core essence of Chinese Kongtek in terms of filial piety and Confucian kinship conception, while adapted in some respects to be compatible with Thai Buddhist beliefs and practices. Those adapted parts include what kind of coffin they use, where the Kongtek rituals take place, the collaboration with Theravada Buddhist funeral chant, the motif design of paper offerings, and so on. Sino-Thai's Chinese ethnic identity is not how orthodox they live their lives in Chinese ways, but rather …

บทบาทของกรรมการพิจารณาประมวลข่าวในยามฉุกเฉินและกรรมการพิจารณาประมวลข่าวในพฤติการณ์ทางด้านตะวันออกไกล พ.ศ. 2482-2484, กฤษฎา บูรณมานัส

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

การรับรู้ข้อมูลข่าวสารจากแหล่งข่าวตามพื้นที่ต่างๆ บนโลก ถือเป็นสิ่งสำคัญในฐานะแหล่งข้อมูลในการกำหนดแนวทางการดำเนินนโยบายของรัฐบาลในสถานการณ์ต่างๆ ซึ่งรวมไปถึงสถานการณ์สงคราม ภายหลังเกิดสงครามโลกครั้งที่ 2 รัฐบาลไทยตัดสินใจดำเนินนโยบายเป็นกลาง พร้อมกับมีการจัดตั้งคณะกรรมการพิเศษสำหรับประมวลข่าวสงครามได้แก่ กรรมการพิจารณาประมวลข่าวในยามฉุกเฉินและกรรมการพิจารณาประมวลข่าวในพฤติการณ์ทางด้านตะวันออกไกล เพื่อดำเนินการรวบรวมเพื่อได้รับข้อมูลข่าวสารทั้งในประเทศที่เข้าร่วมในสงครามและประเทศที่ประกาศตนเป็นกลางไม่เข้าข้างฝ่ายใด โดยดำเนินการในระหว่างเดือนกันยายน พ.ศ. 2482 ถึงเดือนธันวาคม พ.ศ. 2484 การประมวลข่าวสงครามเป็นสิ่งที่รัฐบาลไทยดำเนินการเพื่อใช้เป็นข้อมูลสำคัญในการรักษาความเป็นกลางของไทยในช่วงต้นของสงครามโลกครั้งที่ 2 จากการรวบรวมข่าวเพื่อติดตามสถานการณ์สงครามในภูมิภาคยุโรปและสถานการณ์ความตึงเครียดในภูมิภาคตะวันออกไกล อาทิ ข่าวการเมืองระหว่างประเทศ ข่าวการรบทางทหาร ข่าวเศรษฐกิจ รวมไปถึงข่าวเกี่ยวกับสถานการณ์ตามชายแดนระหว่างไทยกับดินแดนรอบข้าง จากผลกระทบของไทยที่ได้รับในช่วงดำเนินนโยบายเป็นกลาง ทั้งผลกระทบจากเศรษฐกิจจากการทำสงครามทางเศรษฐกิจในยุโรป และนโยบายการสกัดกั้นทางเศรษฐกิจในตะวันออกไกล ผลกระทบจากความตึงเครียดที่เกิดขึ้นในภูมิภาคตะวันออกไกลก่อนสงครามมหาเอเชียบูรพา อาจกล่าวได้ว่า ไทยมีส่วนเกี่ยวข้องกับสงครามโลกครั้งที่ 2 มาตั้งแต่เริ่มสงคราม ข่าวที่ได้รวบรวมและปรากฎในเอกสารประมวลข่าวสงครามของไทยจึงเป็นข้อมูลสำคัญในการวางแนวทางให้รัฐบาลไทยพยายามรักษาความเป็นกลางไว้อย่างสุดความสามารถ แม้ว่าจะมีเหตุการณ์สำคัญที่สั่นคลอนต่อนโยบายเป็นกลางอย่างกรณีพิพาทอินโดจีน และความสัมพันธ์อันตึงเครียดระหว่างญี่ปุ่นกับชาติสัมพันธมิตรอันเกิดจากผลประโยชน์ภูมิภาคตะวันออกไกล กล่าวได้ว่า การประมวลข่าวสงครามเป็นสิ่งที่ดำรงอยู่พร้อมกับนโยบายเป็นกลางของรัฐบาลไทยในสงครามโลกครั้งที่ 2 คำสำคัญ: การประมวลข่าวสงคราม กรรมการพิจารณาประมวลข่าวในยามฉุกเฉิน กรรมการพิจารณาประมวลข่าวในพฤติการณ์ทางด้านตะวันออกไกล สงครามโลกครั้งที่ 2 นโยบายเป็นกลางของไทย

The Ship Of Aeneas, Jennifer Finn

History Faculty Research and Publications

The ship of Aeneas, the subject of a single literary attestation in Procopius, has received little serious attention from scholars. In a 1997 article, Pier Luigi Tucci made a plausible case for locating the shipshed for the vessel on the banks of the Tiber in the so-called navalia; he went further to propose that Augustus was the architect behind the ship’s placement there. Here I will expand upon Tucci’s argument by suggesting that Augustus dedicated the ship in 2 BC, simultaneous with the performance of his famous naumachia and the dedication of the Augustan Forum. As the culmination of …

Introduction To Franciscan Women: Female Identities And Religious Culture, Medieval And Beyond, Lezlie Knox

History Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Toward A New Appreciation Of Fra Mariano Of Florence, Lezlie Knox

History Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Yankee Continentalism: The Provincial Roots Of John Adams's Vision For American Union, 1755-1776, J. Patrick Mullins

History Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Bulletin: Sidney Kimmel Medical College At Thomas Jefferson University, Volume 69, Issue 1, Winter 2020

The Bulletin (formerly the Jefferson Medical College Alumni Bulletin)

This issue includes:

• Dean's Column - An Acquired Taste
• On Campus - Sidney and Caroline Kimmel Fund New Biomedical Research Building
• A Message from Elizabeth A. Dale - Generosity Goes Both Ways
• Discovery - It Takes a Village
• Solving the Puzzle - Shaping Jefferson's Neuroscience Department
• Faculty Profile - Kristin Rising, MD
• Alumni Profile - Neal Flomenberg, MD
• Student Profile - Hannah Garrigan
• Class Notes - 2019 Alumni Weekend
• Class Agent
• In Memoriam
• By the Numbers - The Vickie and Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience

The Transnational Construction Of National Music (Kugak): Musicking In The Korean Diaspora, 1903-1945, Heeyoung Choi

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the preservation and adaptation of Korean-ness through musical performances in the Korean peninsula and in Hawai‘i during the early twentieth century, when Korea was a Japanese colony. Hawai‘i deserves special attention because the first and largest Korean diasporic communities in America were established in Hawai‘i during this period. More importantly, cultural environments in early twentieth-century Hawai‘i and Korea were similar in that both featured diverse music cultures of different ethnic origins and new cultural infrastructures under the influence of imperialism. This study investigates the reactions of existing Korean performing arts to the influx of foreign culture affecting …

Modern Mandala: A Transnational History Of Southeast Asians From Burma, Malaya, And Thailand, 1950-1970., Joann Losavio

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation documents cultural processes of decolonization and nation-building in the mid-twentieth century between 1950 and 1970 between Southeast Asia and the West, specifically between Burma, Malaya, Thailand, and Great Britain and the United States, as they occurred through transnational connections, migrations, spaces, and exchanges. This study proposes transnational factors were critical in such cultural processes, and proves this point through the examination of three case studies.

The first focuses on Malayan students in Great Britain in the early 1950s and how a group of them expressed anti-colonial ideas and desires for their own independent nation in a student journal, …

Southern Electoral Strategy: The Strategic Integration Of Religious Values Into The Republican Party Platform, Levi Walker Rattliff

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

There has been substantial literature concerning the effect the Republican southern strategy had on the Southern voting realignment following the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This literature has singularly focused on the role of race issues as a wedge disrupting the Southern Democratic majority. During the early stages of this process race did play an integral role, but closer to modernity, the emergence of religious issues serves as a better causal mechanism that has been largely overlooked. Meaning that as racial issues became less salient and palatable in nationwide presidential elections, the Republican Party strategically incorporated social issues …

“That New Africa Is Ready To Fight Its Own Battles": Kwame Nkrumah, The United States, And The Quest For A Modern Ghana, 1957-1966, Godwin Gyimah

Masters Theses

This project examines the United States-Ghana relationship and how the relationship transformed Ghana, 1957-1966. African leaders such as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah had declared: "That new Africa is ready to fight its own battles and show that after all, the black man is capable of managing his affairs." Despite the non-alignment philosophy, Ghana was not neutral regarding the West and East blocs rivalry. The thesis argues that it was through the United States' government and private firms' contributions that Ghana was able to achieve the mark of a modern nation through industrialization, universal education, and the expansion of international trade economy. …

Bent Nose Row, Joe Maslanka

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A young man joins a boxing club and learns some hard lessons about the world.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.

What Was He Thinking, Jack Frazer

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A law enforcement negotiator tries to make sense of the aftermath of a failed negotiation.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.

Discovery, Kathleen Harrison

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A Marine reflects on the cyclic nature of mental health through her experience with depression and recovery.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.

Going Ashore In Thule, David Schlitz

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A Coast Guard member aboard The Westwind recounts his team’s adventures during the summer of 1961 in Thule.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.

Homecoming, Claes Tholand

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A young Navy SK3 experiences his last mission before coming home to a country with very different opinions about his service.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.