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Germs, Pigs And Silver: King Philip's War And The Deconstruction Of The Middle Ground In New England, Benjamin M. Roine

Graduate Masters Theses

Early in the seventeenth century Algonquians peoples of southern New England and English colonists built a middle ground which benefitted both groups. Trade, the existence of competition from Dutch and French colonies and powerful Algonquian tribes maintained this middle ground. However, as trade items, such as beaver pelts and wampum became rare or lost value and continued English immigration to New England weakened Dutch claims to the area, the middle ground began to crumble. As English-style farms and livestock changed the ecology of New England and the colonists sought to assert their will, Algonquians lost the ability to live as …

Halfway Out Of The Dark: Christmas 1863, John M. Rudy

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

A note received any day letting you know a son is gravely wounded is horrible. Receiving it on the first day of December is particularly horrible. In this month of gathering together, hearing your son is suffering can't be cheering. [excerpt]

Tarnish'd With Ashes And Soot: A Classic Poem’S Dank Corners, John M. Rudy

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

The legend is striking: Clement Clarke Moore, sitting with his children on a Christmas Eve in 1822, reading them a poem he has scrawled out that day, inspired by a winter shopping trip. Little Charity and Mary were likely entranced at six and three. Clement, a one-year-old, and Emily, a newborn, likely weren’t as enrapt by the lilting rhymes.

The poem for Moore’s children found new life a year later, published in a Troy, New York newspaper. And since then, A Visit From Saint Nicholas has been embedded in our culture. [excerpt]

Realization: Reflections On The 150th, Bryan G. Caswell

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Though my own musings have led me to doubt the traditional interpretation of the Battle of Gettysburg’s military importance, I still hold Gettysburg to be the greatest battle of the American Civil War, without question worthy and deserving of continued study. In order to reconcile these two points of view I pondered further, attempting to unearth other, less-thought-of reasons for the importance of the Battle of Gettysburg to the course of the American Civil War. [excerpt]

Bacteria And Politics: The Application Of Science To The Yellow Fever Crisis In Reconstruction New Orleans, Polly M. Rolman-Smith

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of germ theory during the nineteenth century transformed Western medicine. By the 1870s, public health officials in the American South used germ theory to promote sanitation efforts to control public health crises, such as yellow fever epidemics. Before the discovery of mosquito transmission of yellow fever, physicians of the late nineteenth century believed the disease was spread by a highly contagious germ. Prominent medical practitioners of New Orleans, such as Confederate Army veteran Dr. Joseph Jones, used available scientific knowledge and investigation to attempt to control yellow fever during the Reconstruction period, a period rife with political and …

And With The Sound The Carols Drowned: Captives In Bleak December, John M. Rudy

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

Christmas was coming, and a knot of officers of the 87th Pennsylvania suddenly found their December a bit brighter. Nine boxes had been sent along to the officers, packed to the brim with, "all kinds of necessaries and delicacies, such as will be conducive to our comfort and health while in our present condition." And the soldiers were pleased.

Any soldier would be pleased to have a pair of warm socks, a stack of stationary or a can of preserved vegetables from home. But these men were doubly pleased.

The letter of gratitude they wrote to the Gettysburg Compiler was …

Examination: Reflections On The 150th, Bryan G. Caswell

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Gettysburg, the first three days of July, 1863. An epic clash of titans sways back and forth across the fields and hills of this small Pennsylvania town. The two armies who fought here left in their wake over fifty thousand men broken in three days of combat, and the significance of their actions to the course of the American Civil War has rarely been doubted. The Union’s victory at Gettysburg put a halt to Robert E. Lee’s second invasion of the North, an invasion that could have broken the Northern civilians’ will to continue prosecuting the war. The crushing repulse …

Commemoration: Reflections On The 150th, Bryan G. Caswell

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

There is nothing quite like residing in the town of Gettysburg during the years leading up to the sesquicentennial of the great battle fought here in 1863. As a devoted student of that great internecine conflict known as the American Civil War, I had applied to Gettysburg College in 2011 with the full knowledge of what was to come only two short years in the future, and could not have been more excited for it. [excerpt]

The Legacy Of 1940: The Election Of Franklin D. Roosevelt To A Third Term, Kyle Lindsay

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

For my honors history thesis, I examined the decision of Franklin D. Roosevelt to run for a third presidential term in 1940. This decision was an important one, for no other President in American history had been elected to a third term. My research indicated that despite his personal wishes, Roosevelt believed that he had to run again in 1940 to guide the United States during the uncertain period leading up to World War II.

Houchin, W. M. (Lg 39), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and full scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Land Grant 39. Original land grant, 15 November 1871, by which Preston H. Leslie, Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, granted to W.M. Houchin, W.B. Thompson, H.F. Curd, D.B. Curd, assignees of A.M. Houchin, 200 acres in Edmonson County, Kentucky.

Who Owns This Body? Enslaved Women's Claim On Themselves, Loucynda Elayne Sandeen

Dissertations and Theses

During the antebellum period of U.S. slavery (1830-1861), many people claimed ownership of the enslaved woman's body, both legally and figuratively. The assumption that they were merely property, however, belies the unstable, shifting truths about bodily ownership. This thesis inquires into the gendered specifics and ambiguities of the law, the body, and women under slavery. By examining the particular bodily regulation and exploitation of enslaved women, especially around their reproductive labor, I suggest that new operations of oppression and also of resistance come into focus.

The legal structure recognized enslaved women in the interest of owners, and this limitation was …

“Home Again”: The Contrasting Experiences Of Richard D. Dunphy And Lewis A. Horton, S. Marianne Johnson, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Union veterans returning home from the war in 1865 faced a myriad of experiences and reacted to the return to civilian life in a variety of ways. Richard D. Dunphy and Lewis A. Horton, both double-arm amputee veterans of the Navy, ably demonstrate the differences in experience and reaction to the war and life afterwards. [excerpt]

Bryant, David Lee, 1923-2000 (Sc 2799), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan for Manuscripts Small Collection 2799. Typescripted personal history of David Lee Bryant (1923-2000) describing his upbringing in Todd County, Kentucky, his World War II military service, his capture by the Germans and liberation by the Russian Army, his subsequent work for a wholesale grocery firm, and his wife and three sons. Includes article about Bryant published 5 February 1986 in the (Greenville, Kentucky) Leader-News, and explanatory letter of his son Gary L. Bryant, 21 November 2013.

Keen, Douglas, 1904-1978 (Sc 2798), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2798. Letter of Scottsville, Allen County, Kentucky attorney Douglas Keen, 28 October 1929, setting out his qualifications, deploring political “mud-slinging” against him, and seeking support in his electoral campaign as the Republican nominee for County Attorney.

Totty Family (Sc 2793), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2793. Correspondence and research materials relating to the genealogy of the Totty family of Kentucky, and related families Carter and Cosby. Includes military records, birth, marriage, will and deed records, and pedigree charts.

Promissory Note - Allegany County, Maryland (Sc 2797), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2797. Promissory note and bond from an unknown obligant (bottom half torn), given to John Sigler for 30 pounds, payable in grain.

Allen, John G., 1837?-1863 (Sc 2795), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2795. Pocket diary of John G. Allen, containing a few brief notations made while Allen was serving in the Union Army in 1862 and was encamped near Nashville; letter to his sister from camp, 24 November 1862, assuring her that he has had enough to eat; two promissory notes of Allen’s; and a summons to Allen to appear in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky Court to answer a claim for debt.

Account Book - Paducah, Kentucky (Sc 2796), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2796. Merchant's book of accounts for foodstuffs, animal feed, wood and drayage in the Paducah, Kentucky area.

An Evening With David Blight, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Monday evening, November 18, students from Gettysburg College got to sit down and discuss memory with Dr. David Blight from Yale University, author of the renowned work Race and Reunion. The session was conducted as an informal panel with Dr. Blight and Gettysburg College’s own Dr. Isherwood and Dr. Jordan. Dr. Blight spoke about beginning his work when memory studies was not an official field and stumbling his way headlong into working with the memory of the American Civil War. When discussing whether or not memory studies were a fad that would pass away, Blight reassured the audience that people …

Spicker, Maxwell Pryse, Jr., 1920-1985 (Sc 2794), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2794. Letters of Maxwell P. Spicker, Jr., to his parents in Louisville, Kentucky, written during his U.S. Army service in World War II. He writes of his training and leisure activities at Fort Riley, Kansas, Seattle, Washington and Gainesville, Texas, and confidentially to his father of his request for an overseas assignment. Includes photographs of Spicker and fellow soldiers.

Warren County, Kentucky - Documents (Sc 1276), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1276. Certificate of receipt, 6 May 1873, issued to B. Young for payment of special tax on business as a dealer in leaf tobacco in Woodburn, Kentucky; also copy of contract, 1 October 1900, between R. A. Taylor and T. H. Stamps authorizing Stamps to receive pay as a postal carrier subcontractor, with attached certificate of Postmaster General.

Johnston, Ira J. (Sc 2792), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2792. “Memories of a WWII Veteran,” by Ira J. Johnston. Johnston recalls the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, entering the U.S. Army, basic training, his service in France and Belgium, combat on the advance through Germany, the food he ate, interacting with German civilians, a surprise meeting with his brother-in-law, his return home, the Japanese surrender, and his discharge.

Richard D. Dunphy: To Him, A War Goes On, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Although I have so far treated Richard Dunphy as a man who achieved heroism through valor and suffered greatly for it, there is another side to his character that I have not yet explored. In 1899, his wife, Catherine, accused Richard of being too irresponsible to handle his own pension money. Furthermore, she accused him of abusing his family and failing to pay his bills. To resolve this conflict, the Bureau of Pensions sent Special Examiner E. G. Hursh to Vallejo to investigate. He collected about a dozen depositions in order to evaluate the validity of these claims. Richard Dunphy …

Haile, Hascal B., 1907?-1986 (Sc 1275), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1275. Incoming business letters and checks, visitor’s log and address book, and photos of furniture and guitar made by Hascal Haile, Tompkinsville, Kentucky. Haile made guitars for several well-known country music artists.

Richard D. Dunphy: Under The Knife, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Within four hours of Richard Dunphy’s grievous wounding at the Battle of Mobile Bay, both of his arms had been amputated. In a medical survey, he described the “extraordinary pain” that lasted “for about three weeks.” There was “a great quantity of pus, and twelve pieces of bone or splinters came out” from the wound for months after the surgery. Though the pain was great, it faded in time. The psychological and social effects of the operation, however, never went away. [excerpt]

Lee, Robert Edward, 1807-1870 - Relating To (Sc 1273), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1273. Insurance application, dated 17 October 1859, for the home and barn of General Robert E. Lee in Arlington, Virginia. Includes a detailed description of the structures.

Artus, James (Sc 1274), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1274. Letter, 18 January 1861, written by James Artus, a veteran of the War of 1812, to G.L Forman and H. Taylor, concerning procurement of medals from the state for himself and three other surviving Kentucky volunteers. He also expresses his hope that Kentucky supports the Union.

Obsessive Digging In Carolina Sand And Baltimore Asphalt, John M. Rudy

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

My parents moved to Wilmington, North Carolina a couple years ago. I have to admit, I am fascinated when I visit the South, for the sheer fact that it is such a vastly different environment than I'm used to. For one thing, the war happened there. For another, the war got very complex and interesting there. [excerpt]

Stringfield, James (Lg 26), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and full scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Land Grant 26. Copy of land grant, 31 January 1812, by which Charles Scott, Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, granted to James Stringfield 200 acres in Warren County.

Morris, Betty (Sc 1226), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1226. Letter, 19 August 1990, written by Betty Morris, Hardinsburg, to Lisa Day, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Morris discusses the confusion surrounding two early Kentucky settlers named Willis Green.