History Commons^™

Magic In Medicine, Jacob Mudd

Cohort 2024-2025

Jacob Mudd is a sophomore Creative Writing and Visual and Sound Media double major with a minor in English. His project is inspired by Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, looking at the role magic played in medicine in the late medieval early Renaissance periods. It includes a creative grimoire that contains a variety of medieval illnesses and their magical cures and is accompanied by a paper that looks at answering the question of whether it would be moral to use magic in medicine from the perspective of someone living during that time.

Archival Collection Used: MSS 0029 Herbert Kraft manuscript …

Full Issue

Quidditas

No abstract provided.

Centering Maternal Breastfeeding In The Old English Metrical Charm 6, Kierra E. Burns

Quidditas

This article examines female authority and self-determination in relation to maternal lactation during early medieval England. While breastfeeding has always been essential to infant survival, its cultural significance extends beyond nourishment alone, reflecting broader social values and assumptions about gender and motherhood. Within this context, early English texts reveal that lactating mothers were regarded as natural authorities in the processes of childbearing and nourishing their infants. Through analysis of historical and literary evidence, this article argues that maternal breastfeeding was viewed in inherently positive and empowering terms with maternal self-determination and authority at the heart of that positivity. The article …

Review: Balthazar: A Black African King In Medieval And Renaissance Art, Karli R. Snyder

Quidditas

Western European medieval and Early Modem art history is full of representations of ethnically diverse peoples. However, there are relatively few examples of scholarly publications that coherently organize these visual representations into a complete analysis of the topic. One recent publication that aims to do just that is Balthazar: A Black African King in Medieval and Renaissance Art. The slim paperback boasts 121 full-color illustrations and features a collection of essays and narratives edited by museum curator Kristen Collins and art historian Bryan C. Keene. The book was published as a companion to the 2019 exhibition of the same …

A Franciscan Friar’S Defiant Journey: The Extent Of Individual Power In Colonial Mexico, 1782, Genesis Pena-Lozada

Lewis Honors College Thesis Collection

During Spanish occupation of Mexico from 1521 to 1821, religion was used as an extension of the Spanish crown as Mexico’s native populations were forcibly converted to Catholicism. Religious orders, including Franciscan friars, a group of men who wandered and preached to help the poor and sick, were used in the systematic conversion of native populations. Because of the sheer scale of religious conversion of these native populations, the Spanish crown’s efforts in New Spain are sometimes described as a “spiritual conquest” rather than a military conquest. However, like military conquest, this evangelization was still enacted through power and domination. …

Operation Airlift Africa: American Education And The Development Of Future Leaders From British Colonies In East And Central Africa, David N. Gachigo

Theses and Dissertations

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, over 800 students from British East and Central Africa gained access to American education through Operation Airlift Africa (OAA), a visionary initiative led by Kenyan trade unionist and politician Tom Mboya. Funded by private American donors, including Senator John F. Kennedy, and supported by scholarships from U.S. institutions, the program enabled African students to attend high schools, colleges, and universities in North America, mostly in the United States. This dissertation explores the impact of OAA on educational access for colonial subjects and its role in shaping future African leadership. The study argues that …

Issue No. 123: Fall 2025

La Crónica de Nuevo México

Table of Contents

2 A Letter from the President

3 La Bajada: A nightmare for Model Ts and trepid tourists by Richard Melzer

10 Naming Las Cruces and Mesilla: First recorded European presence in the Mesilla Valley by C. W. “Buddy” Ritter

15 Love it or Lea it: A county named for the father of Roswell by Jim Harris

18 Corona just keeps on booming by Sherry Robinson

23 New Mexico History Museum: Active partner in education by Neil Dodge

27 New Books

Decolonizing Health In Madagascar: A Francophone Perspective, Delaney K. Brenner

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

More Bookman Than Bookerite: William Stanley Braithwaite And Poetic Stereotypes, Susanna Ashton

Publications

William Stanley Braithwaite (1878–1962) began his life with printed words as a printer’s apprentice with Ginn and Company in Massachusetts. Unlike Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, William Dean Howells, and Mark Twain, all of whom began their meteoric literary careers by typesetting, Braithwaite’s rise was thwarted by the cultural stereotyping around race. It isn’t surprising, therefore, that throughout his career as anthologizer, publisher, poet, critic, and Boston Evening Transcript columnist, William Stanley Braithwaite used his facility with type to inform valuations of narrative and language with an eye not to race-blind aspects of literature, but to ways race might be recognized …

George William Castone: An Integrated Baseball Life At The Close Of The Nineteenth Century, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

George William Castone was a Black baseball player during the 1880s and 1890s. He pitched for integrated town teams and minor league teams, as well as Black clubs, such as the Lincoln Giants in Nebraska and the Cuban Giants in the northeastern United States. Most of his time on the diamond was spent in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska, but Castone also played on an otherwise white barnstorming team organized in Salt Lake City that traveled through Montana, Oregon, and California. He was among the few Black players on minor league teams in the Colorado State League in 1889 and the …

The Stained & Bloody Cloths Of Ireland: A Material Culture View Of Irish Shame, Oppression, Morality And Repression., Catherine Harper Ph.D

Arts and Design

The Stained and Bloody Cloths of Ireland presents a textiles and material culture view of Irish shame, oppression, morality and repression.

Ireland – north and south – has sustained significant change in the last 100 years, since partial independence from Britain, accelerating at the end of the twentieth century with legalisation of contraception, divorce, gay marriage, the end – or at least reduction – of the ‘Troubles’ in the North, and freedom to choose abortion and reproductive autonomy.

In parallel to this, many instances of societal and ecclesiastical abuse, sexual repression, superstition and cruelty, have come to light through a …

Guide To The Warrick L. Carter Collection, Columbia College Chicago

CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids

Contains the original scores, arrangements, and teaching materials created by Dr. Warrick L. Carter, an educator, musician, performer, administrator, drummer, and composer, who served in leadership roles at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, Walt Disney Entertainment, and as the first African American president of Columbia College Chicago in Illinois. The collection holds his jazz compositions and arrangements for small and large ensembles.

Guide To The Talib Rasul Hakim Collection, Columbia College Chicago

CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids

Talib Rasul Hakim, born Stephen Alexander Chambers, was an educator, musician, and composer. The collection contains his early scores and performance notes about his compositions, as well as recordings and research notes.

Black Pioneers Of Integrated Baseball In California, Revised, Mark E. Eberle

Monographs

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Black athletes were barred from playing baseball in the major and minor leagues, as well as other teams of white players, with relatively few exceptions. Research on baseball’s color line has primarily focused on organized baseball (the major and minor leagues). The nine essays in this monograph are an introductory exploration of integrated baseball in California at various levels, from amateur to professional teams. The first six essays are biographies of seven Black ballplayers who played on predominantly white teams engaged in intercity competition for multiple years from 1886 to 1909. The seventh …

Bridging Generations: Shou-Yi Ch’En, Yanshuo Zhang, And Their Contribution To Asian Studies In American Higher Education, Zhen Zhou

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the lives and academic legacies of Dr. Shou-yi Ch’en (1899–1987) and Dr. Yanshuo Zhang (b. 1988), two Chinese scholars whose contributions have shaped Asian Studies in American higher education across nearly a century. Dr. Ch’en, educated in both China and the United States, played a foundational role in establishing Pomona College’s early Asian Studies program, fostering East–West intellectual exchange through extensive correspondence, and mentoring a generation of scholars. Dr. Zhang, also educated in China and the U.S., represents a new generation of interdisciplinary scholarship, focusing on China’s Qiang ethnic minority through oral history and a multicultural lens. …

Queen Nefertiti: Power And Intrigue Amidst Gender Inequality, Riyad Girgis

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Queen Nefertiti, one of ancient Egypt's most enigmatic & striking figures, rose to prominence during a time of radical political and religious transformation. Known for her striking beauty and influential role, her legacy transcends mere aesthetics, positioning her as a powerful force in a male-dominated society. Despite the constraints of gender inequality in ancient Egypt, Nefertiti played a pivotal role as co-regent with her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten, and perhaps even ruled in her own right after his death. This thesis explores the complex interplay of power, gender, and political intrigue in the reign of Nefertiti. Through an examination of her …

“Sé Exactamente De Donde Vine”: The Rivera Sisters And The Development Of A Lamanite Religio-Racial Identity In Salt Lake City’S Rama Mexicana, Kelsee Walker

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the religious participation of three immigrant sisters, Agustina Rivera de Torres, Dolores Rivera de Torres, and Domitila Rivera de Martínez, who were long-term members of Rama Mexicana, the first known Spanish-speaking congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah. During Rama Mexicana’s existence from the 1920s through 1960 (when it was converted from a branch into a ward), many of its members believed themselves to be descendants of Book of Mormon Lamanites through their indigenous heritage. This belief in a sacred Lamanite lineage, in part, allowed Rama Mexicana to become a place of …

The Price Tag Of A 5-Star Culture: Cultural Performance And The Politics Of Luxury In OʻAhu’S Hotel Industry, Kendall Hutchison Acker

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the intersection of cultural tourism and luxury branding with settler colonial dynamics in Oʻahu’s high-end hospitality industry. Focusing on Disney’s Aulani Resort, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani, and the Moana Surf Rider, the study investigates how Hawaiian culture is performed, curated, and commodified as part of a five-star guest experience. Through ethnographic research and interviews with Native Hawaiian performers, artists, and cultural advisors, it traces how Indigenous identity is shaped by the demands of the tourism economy and the aesthetics of authenticity. These hotels function not only as sites of leisure but also as …

Augustine Of Hippo: On Justification By Faith, John Mauger

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This study aims to retrieve Augustine of Hippo’s view of ‘justification by faith’ from his theological writings from the 390s to the end of his career. Significant sources are his early, unfinished commentaries on Paul’s letters to the Romans and his completed commentary on Galatians. In these, Augustine provides essential groundwork for his understanding of the Apostle Paul’s view of ‘justification by faith’ and other related doctrines such as the work of Christ, the law, and God’s grace. I also examine both continuity and development across other relevant early-, mid-, and later-career writings. By asserting both comprehensiveness and consistency of …

What We Talk About When We Talk About Race: Racial Discourses, Nationalism And Identity In Nineteenth Century Ireland, Timothy Werlinger

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The 19th century witnessed the rise of race and racism as a dominant framework of worldwide identity politics. These politics shaped the various social hierarchies and nationalist contexts across Europe and the world. Racial constructs adopted cultural, economic, and political components and did not rely exclusively on biological determinism. This had the effect of reinforcing or hardening boundaries between groups. This dissertation examines how racial identity was negotiated within an Irish context. It does this by considering social, scientific and nationalist discourses that engaged race as a device of inclusion and exclusion. By examining how racialized language permeated the Irish …

Paul Revere-Founding Father And America’S First Forensic Dentist, William J. Maloney

Bulletin of the Ninth District Dental Association

Paul Revere is remembered today for his many contributions to the independence efforts of the American colonies. It is also well-known that he was a skilled goldsmith and silversmith. Revere put these skills to use in providing dental care to the people of Boston. Revere had acquired his dental knowledge from John Baker- a dentist who emigrated from Europe to America in 1760 and is considered to be the first dentist to practice in North America. In his dental practice, Revere cleaned teeth and replaced missing teeth by wiring in replacement teeth usually utilizing various metals and animal bone.

Collective Memory For The African Motherland In Interwar Black Chicago And The Limits Of The Environmental Justice Model, Colin Fisher

History: Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Frances E. W. Harper, “We Are All Bound Up Together” (10 May 1866), Garth Pauley

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Frances Harper’s address at the 1866 National Woman’s Rights Convention was a visionary speech on civil rights, citizenship, and civic identity. In it, Harper skillfully negotiated the context of nineteenth-century reform politics while remaining true to her vision. The message of her speech was grounded in both her experience as a Black woman and her theological convictions. A close reading of the speech shows that key elements—including its signature line—have been misunderstood and unappreciated.

Trust On Trial: How U.S. Foreign Policy Eroded Public Trust, Rawan Al-Samarrie

UROP Posters

Public trust in the U.S. government has declined sharply over the past several decades, falling from roughly 75% in the late 1950s to almost 15% today. This project examines how major U.S. foreign policy decisions, specifically during the Vietnam War, the post-9/11 Global War on Terror, and the ongoing conflict in Palestine, have contributed to this erosion of trust. Through qualitative analysis of historical records, public opinion data, and scholarly assessments of U.S. military actions and their global consequences, the research identifies recurring patterns in how government narratives, media framing, and revelations of human rights violations shape public perception. Findings …

Front Matter

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Front Matter of the Gettysburg Historical Journal 2025

Letter From The Editors, Emily B. Suter, Madeleine G. Ulman

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

We are proud to present the twenty-fourth edition of The Gettysburg Historical Journal. The journal embodies the History Department's dedication to diverse learning and excellence in academics. Each year, the journal publishes the top student work in a range of topics across the spectrum of academic disciplines with different methodological approaches to the study of history. The Gettysburg Historical Journal received a plethora of submissions from both Gettysburg College students and other students around the country. The works accepted this semester focus on the diverse experiences of American throughout history, spanning from living on the western frontier in the …

At The Bottom Of The Barrel: Rum’S Influence On Those Who Made It, Camryn Counsil

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This paper examines the British Empire’s increasing rum production across their colonies in the West Indies during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Governmental officials, advertisers, and other influential citizens sought to establish rum as the beverage of choice among British society because of its economic, political, and social sensibilities. This growing enthusiasm established negative consequences, affecting the standards of living and social dynamics within communities of enslaved laborers on Caribbean plantations.

Perpetuating A “Frontier Myth:” The Long Winter And A “Weather Frontier”, Olivia N. Taylor

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series has long been the subject of scholarly debate regarding its role in shaping perceptions of the American frontier. The Long Winter (1940) is a key text within these discussions, particularly when focusing on how the environment serves as a historical actor in shaping frontier experiences. Traditional frontier narratives, such as those proposed by Frederick Jackson Turner, emphasize individualism and perseverance in the face of adversity. While Wilder’s work reflects these ideals, it also reveals the harsh realities of environmental challenges on the frontier, particularly through its depiction of the winter of 1880-81 in the …

Featured Piece: Be A Sankofa People, Scott Hancock

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This year's featured piece was written by Scott Hancock, an associate professor in the History department. Professor Hancock teaches classes on African American history, law and society, and how the two interact with each other. His research focuses on African American experience from the mid-seventeenth century through the Civil War.

Defying Space: Enslaved Social Lives In A Low-Density Slave Society, New England, 1700-1776, Alex Meagher

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This article examines how the enslaved constructed their social lives in the low density slave society of colonial New England, with a particular view towards whether those social lives can be classed as resistance. Using Barbados as a comparison point, the article establishes how New England was unique as a New World slave society and examines the impact of those differences on the social lives of the enslaved, including their courtship, marriage, and family formation, their fraternization, and their communal and ritual lives. It takes the view that through selective compliance, the enslaved were able to earn limited respect within …