United States History Commons^™

Two More Proclamations For A Special New Years Eve, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

'In accordance, as I believe, with the will of our Heavenly Father, and by direction of your great and good friend, whose name you are all familiar with, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, on the 1st day of January, 1863, you will be declared "for ever free."' [excerpt]

Resolute On The Eve Of Emancipation, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

In the eyes of William Lloyd Garrison, Abraham Lincoln stood waffling on the issue of slavery in the early days of December 1862. To be quite fair, in Garrison's eyes nearly anyone aside from William Lloyd Garrison stood waffling on the issue of slavery most of the time. [excerpt]

Kings And Princes: Christmas In Gettysburg, 1862, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

In a house along the first block of the north side of Chambersburg Street, a small metallic ticking noise signaled change. The calendar read December 24th, 1862. The rhythmic tapping was a voice, reaching out in code along thin strips of metal dangling from poles running to the east out of town. Soon, "Hanover, York, Harrisburg, and Baltimore," were sending their glad tidings to Gettysburg's citizens. Then soon, Gettysburg found herself on that Christmas Eve connected, "with all the world and the rest of mankind," the Adams Sentinel reported. In the home of John Scott along Chambersburg Street, the telegraph …

"Go, Going, Gone": Anti-Chinese Sentiment In Washington Territory, 1885-1886, Naomi Eide

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

Unwilling to conform to the pressure set forth by the national government, the citizens of Washington Territory, during 1885 and 1886, united to purge the region of the Chinese through a systematic ethnic cleansing of two major territorial cities. Motivated by the desire to become active members of the federal government, Territorial leaders ignored the negative effects of population exclusion and led an active movement rallying around the cry that “the Chinese must go.” Not until the lawlessness of the rioters shut down the territorial government, did the political agitators acknowledge how outsiders perceived their drastic actions, realizing that the …

“'They Was Things Past The Tellin’: A Reconsideration Of Sexuality And Memory In The Ex-Slave Narratives Of The Federal Writers’ Project", Lynn Cowles Wartberg

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In 1936, Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) employees began interviewing formerly enslaved men and women, allowing them to speak publicly of their experiences under slavery. Defying racism and the repressions of Jim Crow, ex-slaves discussed intimate details of their lives. Many researchers considered these interviews unreliable, but if viewed through the lens of gender and analyzed using recent scholarship on slavery and sexuality, FWP interviews offer new insights into the lives of enslaved men and women. Using a small number of ex-slave interviews, most of them drawn from Louisiana, this thesis demonstrates the value of these oral histories for understanding the …

Firing Point: Patrol Torpedo Boats During World War Ii, Joshua J. Schick

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

At the beginning of American involvement in the Second World War the United States Navy developed a new class of vessel that had a tremendous impact during World War II. This vessel was the Patrol Torpedo boat. Originally designed to conduct torpedo attacks on enemy surface vessels, the PT boat successfully adapted multiple roles in addition to being a torpedo attack craft. The versatility of the Patrol Torpedo boat during World War II serving in these various roles and as an element of the US Navy has not been recognized by recent scholarship. Using primary sources from the National Archives …

Rodes Collection (Mss 427), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 427. Correspondence, photographs, and business and personal papers, primarily of Robert Rodes, Sr. of Danville, Kentucky, and John Barret Rodes of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Robert Rodes's correspondence includes letters outlining his fear of an invasion of Bowling Green by Confederate forces, 1861 (Click on "Additional Files" below for typescripts). Also includes material related to Rodes ancestors and descendants, as well as to members of the Grider, Hines, Helm, Loving and associated families.

Strahm, Victor Herbert, 1897-1957 (Sc 2651), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2651. Diary kept by Brigadier General Victor H. Strahm while serving with the Ninth Air Force during World War II. Brief daily entries for 1944 cover his work and the progress of the war, particularly the air war against the Germans. Includes loose items from diary and four photos of Strahm.

Farmers Bank - Smiths Grove, Kentucky (Mss 441), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 441. Letter press book of Farmers Bank, Smiths Grove, Kentucky, recording certificates of protest. Includes loose certificates found in the letter book.

Adventus: The Great Coming Of 1862, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

A couple of weeks ago, I spent a weekend in Harpers Ferry helping to interpret that amazing place for the National Historical Park's annual Christmas 1864 event. One of the greatest joys of my desk job in interpretive training is getting back out into a parkscape to test out new ideas and practices. This time it gave me the chance to experiment out in the field, wearing the olde-timey clothes of the 1860s and discussing how hammers, anvils and black labor won the war through the U.S. Quartermasters Depot at Harpers Ferry. The event is amazingly fun and infinitely powerful …

Beard, Thomas Houston, 1872-1956 (Sc 2650), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2650. Letter of Thomas H. Beard, Bowling Green, Kentucky, to his nephew William T. Beard, at school in Lexington,Virginia. He stresses the importance of education in the successful pursuit of a profession, and points to examples among some of his nephew’s contemporaries from Bowling Green.

Cummings, F. G. (Sc 2648), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2648. Letter, 25 September 1851, of F. G. Cummings, Rochester, New York, to J. D. McGill, chairman of the board of trustees of Covington Theological Institute, Covington, Kentucky, inquiring about admission. He describes his background and his decision, made in Texas, to enter the ministry. He also inquires about teaching in the school’s preparatory department.

Smiths Grove College - Smiths Grove, Kentucky (Sc 2649), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Small Collection 2649. Subscription lists, receipts and other financial records related to the operation of Smiths Grove College in Smiths Grove, Kentucky. Includes a debate outline demanding equal rights for women (Click on "Additional Files" below for scan).

Crabb, Alfred Leland, Jr., 1919-2020 (Sc 2647), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2647. Reminiscence of Alfred Leland Crabb, Jr. of a visit to the Warren County, Kentucky farm of his grandfather, James Wade Crabb, in the mid-1920s.

The Legal Career Of Abraham Lincoln [Annotated Bibliography], Steven Fioretti

Undergraduate Research Award

No abstract provided.

Chinaman Go Home!: A Socioeconomic And Gendered Examination Of The Anti-Chinese Movements Of Portland, Oregon And San Francisco, California, Kali Ingerson

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the Anti-Chinese Movement in Portland, Oregon in relation to that of San Francisco. Contemporary sources indicated a correlation between labor and racism. This correlation is explored in both San Francisco and Portland along with contemporary notions of gender identity in an effort to examine the Anti-Chinese movement using modern social historic theory.

Ohlenmacher, Carl Frederick, 1859-1932 (Sc 67), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 67. A sentimental essay entitled “Memories of School Days,” written by Carl Frederick Ohlenmacher, Scottsville, Kentucky.

Stansbury, Edgar Bryant, 1906-2009 (Mss 438), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 438. World War II diary kept by Edgar Bryant Stansbury, 1942, as well as articles by Stansbury, his thesis about industrial arts in Kentucky high schools, a scrapbook about his sports participation at Western Kentucky University, and several other items related to his experiences in World War II.

Socialist Utopian Communities In The U.S. And Reasons For Their Failures, Elizabeth Nako

History & Classics Student Scholarship

Near mid-nineteenth century, dozens of groups of men and women in both North America and Europe at this time saw “forming communities as the best opportunity for social progress.” While a small number of men enjoyed the luxuries and riches with the benefits of the Industrial Revolution, the majority of people comprised of the working class found themselves in suffering and misery from this new system. The unhappiness amongst civilization at this time period led to social philosophers and reformers to find new systems to cope with these social problems of the working class. One of these reform ideas and …

“The Chinese Question”, Bianca Palacios

History First-Year Seminar Research

Published in Harper's Weekly on February 18, 1871, The Chinese Question defends Chinese immigrants against the brutal prejudice and discrimination that they faced in America. In this cartoon by Thomas Nast, Columbia, the feminine symbol of the United States, shields the despondent Chinese man against a gang of thugs, whom she emphatically reminds that "America means fair play for all men." This armed mob whom were also immigrants consisting of Irish Americans and perhaps German Americans as well. They were very angry about the Chinese coming to America to work and they protested against the Union Draft and Lincoln's Emancipation …

“Looking Backward”, Flor De Liz Regalado

History First-Year Seminar Research

“Looking Backwards”, the controversial cartoon from Puck Magazine, was published on January 11, 1893. Composed by the founder of Puck Magazine himself, Joseph Keppler, created the cartoon that portrays the arguable rights of foreign visitors, also referred to as immigrants. The image represents an immigrant who has stepped off of a ship and entered into a foreign land and greeted with a generous “goodbye”, by those whom once were in his position and are now successful. Behind the figures that rejected the newcomer, are shadows of themselves being casted as they were once immigrants, too.

“The Propagation Society—More Free Than Welcome”, Arneisha Swanson

History First-Year Seminar Research

This cartoon was published independently by Nathanial Currier circa 1855. “The Propagation Society- More Free than Welcome” reflects the Americans point of view on the Irish Catholic immigrants in 1855. In the cartoon the priest is bombarding the Americans to step aside so that they can take over all spiritual welfare. Embedded into the cartoon is a message of an anti-Catholic group the “Know Nothings” and their attempt to get rid of the Irish Catholics.

Hendricks Collection (Sc 65), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 65. Warren County, Kentucky, tax receipt of Fred Hespian [Hespen], 1868, and undated ticket issued by the Evansville, Cairo and Memphis Packet Company's steamer "Quickstep."

Magee, J. Harry (Sc 66), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 66. Letter, 23 December 1868, written by J. Harry Magee, Washington, D.C., to Dr. Albert Covington, Bowling Green, Kentucky, regarding the record of the U. S. Senate impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson.

Fortnightly Club - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Mss 432), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 432. Minutes, membership lists, yearbooks, correspondence, photographs, and miscellaneous records of the Fortnightly Club, a men’s literary club in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Socialism In The Mines: How Labor Organizations Led To The Spread Of Socialism In Southeast Kansas, Mark Hoffhines

Theory and Practice: HIST430

In the first 30 years of the twentieth century, southeast Kansas stood out from the rest of the state. People commonly look at the immigration to the area during this time, and the idea that Kansas is the "Little Balkans" of the state. This is a reference to the Balkans area of central, Europe where many immigrants to the area came from, and is used to show how much ethnic diversity is present in this area. What really brought all of these immigrants to the area was the opportunity for employment in the coal mines in Cherokee and Crawford counties. …

In The Name Of The King: Alexander Howat And His Loyal Followers, Ryan Yanez

Theory and Practice: HIST430

Coal operators and the union leaders that attempted to resist them were in a constant struggle during the early 20th century. This iconic struggle between workers and company would come to illustrate the perfect example of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Trapped between these battling titans stood the United Mine Workers of America, and the fearless leader of Local District 14, Alexander Howat, ready to do battle with both of the giants if deemed necessary, all for the sake of gaining what little ground they could at the time. Despite the almost non-existent fiscal reward for their effort, …

The Grizzly, December 6, 2012, Jessica Orbon, Sara Sherr, Larissa Coyne, Keith Miles, John Parry, Olivia Z. Schultz, Rayleen Rivera-Harbach, Jordan Demcher, Michael D'Amico, Alexa Lamontagne, Austin Fox, Andrew Feick, Lea Marano, Allen Weaver, Joey Brodsky

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Dean Addresses New Faculty Rumors • Main Street Accident Raises Crosswalk Safety Concerns • Infonet's Future Still Uncertain • New Director Plans Art Exhibits • UCARE Grants Kids' Wishes • The Ruby Tradition Continues • Best Buddies Gives Back to the Community • 75th Anniversary of the "Messiah" at Ursinus • Huang Wins a Prestigious Environmental Award • Opinion: Consider Others When Considering Vandalism; Recent Events an Opportunity to Grow • Behind the Scenes: Nienius and Peck • Basketball Teams Strong Start • Men's Basketball Falls to No. 9 F&M

In Response To Kevin: Truncated And Sliced, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

There is not one program given on any Civil War battle landscape that cannot, somewhere in it's natural flow and using resource-specific elements and tangibles, discuss the cause and context of the war in a meaningful and thematically-integrated way. Period. Full Stop.

Furthermore and because of this, there is no reason or excuse not to cover the cause and context of the war in a meaningful, thematically-integrated and site-specific way in every personal services program in some manner or fashion. Period. Full Stop. [excerpt]

Supporting Caste: The Origins Of Racism In Colonial Virginia, Patrick D. Anderson

Grand Valley Journal of History

In 17th century Virginia, lower class whites and blacks coordinated on multiple occasions to resist the power of the ruling class elites. By the late 19th century, white laborers viewed the newly freed slaves through racist precepts and the two groups clashed on a regular basis. The aim of this essay is to explain how the shift from racial solidarity to racial antagonism occurred. Racist ideology originated in the minds of the elites and they attempted to separate the restless lower class along racial lines, first, by legal reforms, second, by creating a separate class of enslaved blacks. Anti-black racism …