United States History Commons^™

Mary Todd Lincoln: Influence And Impact On The Civil War In The White House, Selena Marie St. Andre

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Long before President Lincoln’s death in 1865, his wife, Mary Lincoln, was regarded as an insane woman with a terrible spending problem and little regard for the Civil War. Mrs. Lincoln, in fact, was essential to Lincoln’s successful presidency and ability to keep the Union together. This thesis seeks to understand Mary in a different light than history has. As a young girl, Mary strongly believed that she was destined for greatness and would have a powerful husband beside her. By further understanding her unbound ambitions, her love of the finer things in life, and the good works that she …

The Land Beyond The Mountains: The Trans-Appalachian Frontier And The Formation Of Appalachian Identity, Joshua Goodall

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The field of Appalachian history often discusses the existence of an identity quintessential to Appalachia. In the opinion of many scholars, this identity, typically characterized as a sense of “otherness” compared to the rest of the nation, dates back to the post-Civil War period when the authors from outside the region began to write about the people of the mountains as inherently different and strange compared to other regions of the United States. However, the sense of otherness in Appalachia dates far before this period and even predates the establishment of the United States as a sovereign nation. Combining present …

Middle-Class Millions: The Creation Of Atlantic City's "Modern" Image, 1890-1910, Trevor Cooper

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

By the end of the nineteenth century, vacationing became more accessible to middle-class Americans than ever before, resulting in the growth of tourist destinations on the New Jersey shore, particularly in Atlantic City. Between 1890 and 1910, government officials, railroad companies, and hotel owners advertised Atlantic City’s technological and cultural modernity to middle-class Americans particularly in Philadelphia, creating an image of Atlantic City as a modern middle-class utopia.

This thesis further examines the relationship between consumerism and American middle-class identity. While we often consider the link between consumerism and identity to have been solidified in American culture following the Second …

The Ku Klux Klan In Early Twentieth Century Virginia, James Lamb

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Over the past one hundred years or so, interest in the Ku Klux Klan has ebbed and flowed. The Klan was founded after the Civil War as a reaction to the imposition of Reconstruction on the former Confederate states. The target of the Klan was primarily African-Americans. The second phase of the Klan took place in the early twentieth century and was a response to immigration which followed World War I. The targets of the early twentieth century Klan expanded beyond just African-Americans to include Catholics, Jews and immigrants. The third phase of the Klan arose in the 1950s and …

The Presbyterian Enlightenment: The Confluence Of Evangelical And Enlightenment Thought In British America, Brandon S. Durbin

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Eighteenth-Century British American Presbyterian ministers incorporated covenantal theology, ideas from the Scottish Enlightenment, and resistance theory in their sermons. The sermons of Presbyterian ministers strongly indicate the intermixing of enlightenment and evangelical ideas. Congregants heard and read these sermons, spreading these ideas to the average colonist. This combination helps explain why American Presbyterians were so apt to resist British rule during the American Revolution. Protestant covenantal theology, derived from Protestant reformers like John Calvin and John Knox, emphasized virtue and duty. This covenant affected both the people and their rulers. When rulers failed to uphold their covenant with God, the …

Between The World And Them, Jeffrey L. Lauck

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

The first time I learned the story of the Bryan family and their Gettysburg farm was when I read Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me. For Coates, there was something poetic about the fact that the climax of the Civil War’s bloodiest and most well-known battle—a moment forever enshrined in Confederate memory thanks to the likes of William Faulknerand Ted Turner—occurred on land owned by a free black man and his family. Pickett’s Charge—the greatest symbol of Confederate martial honor in the Civil War canon—had been repulsed on property that represented so much of what its participants fought …

Nevada Digital Newspaper Project, Carrie Gaxiola, Marina Georgieva, Peter Michel, Yvonne Wilk

Library Faculty Presentations

Chronicling America is a nation-wide project supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress to make historical newspapers available online and full text searchable. Nevada has participated in the project since 2014. Each grant cycle lasts two years and produces 100,000 digitized news pages for online access. Title selection is guided by an Advisory Board to represent each county of Nevada. These newspapers are the first draft of history, show the daily lives, perspectives, and events of the past. Much of the content offers rich research material within the topics of women’s rights and suffrage, …

"Did You Ever Hear Of A Man Having A Child?": An Examination Of The Risk And Benefits Of Being An African American Female Soldier During America's Civil War, Kirsten Chaney

Graduate Theses

The purpose of this paper is to explore the social, economic, and political benefits for African American females who cross-dressed to join both the Confederate and Union Armies during the American Civil War. The benefits gained by the African American women who disguised themselves as males improved their overall quality of life when compared to other African American women of their era. The improved quality of life for these disguised women was made available through the increased number of options granted to African American males in the social, economic, and political spheres that were denied to African American women. The …

The Second Great Awakening And The Making Of Modern America, Kerry Irish

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

In the decades before the Civil War which began in 1861, the Second Great Awakening was the most powerful social movement in America. It inspired the conversion of millions of Americans to faith in Jesus Christ. And that faith motivated many of those people to attempt to transform the moral habits of the nation. Slavery was ended, consumption of alcohol reduced, women’s rights, though often opposed by people of faith, were set on a path that would result in woman’s suffrage in the early Twentieth century. A host of other reforms, too many to list, were instigated. It is not …

Mrs. Venus's Class Exploring Jim Crow, Kiana Reece, Sara Leach, Emily Duggan, Zoe Boals, Tucker Mcclendon

United States Race and Childhood Fiction

Mrs. Venus’s Class Exploring Jim Crow. This story revolves around a classroom on a different planet full of alien children who are learning about American history, specifically the Jim Crow era. The teacher and the students discuss the injustices and oppression experienced by African Americans and other non-white citizens. The next day, American student Jimmy Turner joins them, and he is faced with animosity by some of the alien children in the class. The alien teacher points to the similarities in the children’s prejudice against the human and the prejudice that was prominent during the Jim Crow era.

A Martin Luther King Jr. Amendment To The U.S. Constitution: Toward The Abolition Of Poverty, Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. prescribed that we add an economic bill of rights to the U.S. Constitution. A King-Inspired bill of rights should include a constitutional amendment that enumerates a natural human right to be free from economic poverty, and appropriate enforcement legislation.

For the sake of abolishing slavery, the Thirteenth Amendment says:

(Section 1) Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

(Section 2) Congress shall have power to enforce this article by …

Lg Ms 045 Howard Solomon Collection, Anthony Marvullo

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

The Howard Solomon Collection documents the art, activism, and scholarship of Howard Solomon, spanning the late 1960s to 2017.

Because Howard was the scholar-in-residence from 2002 to 2008, much of the material acts as a survey of the larger LGBTQ+ Collection. See Appendix C for a full list of cross-referenced papers, archives, and collections.

Amjambo Africa! (May 2018), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

Welcome to Amjambo Africa! Welcome to Amjambo Africa! We are Maine’s free newspaper for and about New Mainers from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Amjambo Africa! is here to help New Mainers thrive and to help Maine welcome and benefit from our new neighbors.

Amjambo Africa! will serve as a conduit of information for newcomers as they navigate life in Maine.

Amjambo Africa! will include background articles about Africa so those from Maine can understand why newcomers have arrived here.

Amjambo Africa! will profile successful New Mainers from Sub-Saharan Africa in order to give hope to those newly arrived as well as make …

C.D.G. Club - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Sc 3214), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3214. Minutes of the C.D.G. (Children Desiring God) Club, Bowling Green, Kentucky, composed of women members of the First Baptist Church. Includes meeting minutes, members lists, and financial data.

U.S. Presidential Leadership And Crisis Rhetoric, Robert Mccabe

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

My capstone project seeks to determine what are U.S. presidents attempting to accomplish in (or with) their speeches? This matters because presidential responses to crises can reflect how a president’s leadership abilities are perceived by the people he serves. This perception plays a large role in determining how much political strength the president has to accomplish his agenda. I address this research question by analyzing four different speeches: President Kennedy’s Address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy’s Address on the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Bush’s National Cathedral Speech after the September 11th …

Cowboy Art Song: A Contextual And Musical Analysis Of Libby Larsen's "Cowboy Songs", Ann Gabrielle Richardson

Dissertations

This dissertation sprang from a combination of two personal interests: cowboy culture and classical art song. The union of my cowgirl heritage with my career as a classical vocalist has long fueled an interest in a particular niche of repertoire: soprano art song with thematic connections to the North American cowboy. A conducted state of research reveals no scholarly literature exploring this specific topic. Libby Larsen’s collection, Cowboy Songs, fulfills the aforementioned niche, successfully capturing the spirit, musical idioms, and cultural themes of the North American cowboy.

Chapter I lays a contextual foundation for cowboy song, providing a catalogue …

John Dickinson: The Forgotten Patriot, James Franco

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This research project intends to illuminate the impact of little-known United States founder John Dickinson through the research question lens of whether his military service during the American Revolutionary War affected his policies and philosophies as a government official. This was done through examining letters, speeches, and other primary sources prior to the war to establish a baseline framework of ideology for which to compare to after the war. Primary sources were then also used to describe Dickinson’s military experience and then also to check back upon the framework established prior to the war to see if anything had significantly …

The Unexpected Alliance, Chase Clark, Roman Penney, Olivia Matlock, Jacob Davis, Carter Kilpatrick

United States Race and Childhood Fiction

An Unexpected Alliance, which is set in the United States during WWII. The main character of our book is an adventurous seven-year-old girl named Betty whose father is fighting in the war. To help her father win the war, Betty sets off one day to go ‘scrapping’ for metal. Along the way, she meets an African American boy named Stanley who is also out ‘scrapping’ to help his brother who is away at war. Despite their societal differences, the unlikely duo combines their resources to not only find scrap metal to help their loved ones, they also develop a friendship …

What Are Slaves?, Sarah Yarbrough, Sami Solberg

United States Race and Childhood Fiction

What Are Slaves? is about an eight-year-old, biracial boy named Danny who visits a historical antebellum era plantation with his mother. While observing the now present day museum, a picture of slave children working in a field catches Danny’s eye. Curious and having never learned about slaves, Danny inquires to his mother about what the children his age are doing. Danny’s mother gives him an explanation of what slaves are and how they ended up in their situation. Going from one photo exhibit to another, Danny asks his mother for reasons regarding the slaves’ appearance, workload, and education, all of …

Sky's Limit, Cheyenne Pearson, Caleb Dockery, Kristen Elliot, Lucas Gallon, Houston Nichols

United States Race and Childhood Fiction

Sky’s Limit is about a 5-year-old biracial girl named Sky, growing up during the Civil Rights period. As she reaches the age of understanding, Sky begins to wonder why her mom cannot join her and her dad on their adventures. One day, her dad takes her to the ice cream shop and Sky realizes that no one else looks like her, nor do the other moms look like her mom. She eventually questions her dad about why her mom can never get ice cream with them. Her dad then reaches for her hand and begins to describe the racial tension …

Rouk, Hazel Elouise (Russ), 1917-2011 (Sc 3213), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3213. Correspondence of Hazel Rouk, Stillwater, Oklahoma, related to the publication of her book Pioneer Families of Butler County, Kentucky.

A Hybrid Holistic Thinking Approach For Resetting The Seabrook Chapter Of The Japanese American Citizens League (Jacl), Michael K. Asada

Full-Text Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this capstone is to describe how a Hybrid Holistic Thinking Approach has helped the author analyze the Seabrook Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) review its perceived relevance as a national civil rights organization, address its systemic challenges, and reset the organization.

A quantitative, quasi-experimental research design was implemented to address organization improvement. The study targeted the Seabrook JACL, a non-profit, civil rights organization to review its current state and its challenges and synthesize a compelling argument for organizational change. The capstone implemented a participative style of problem management utilizing a Hybrid Holistic Thinking Approach …

Remembering The Church In The Wildwood: The Archival Processing And Digitization Of The Martinsville Baptist Church Collection, Allison N. Grimes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Martinsville Baptist Church was founded in 1912 in a rural farming community on State Highway 7 in eastern Nacogdoches County. The church was founded during a revival being held in the community of Martinsville and has been in continuous operation ever since. The church grew throughout its lifetime, reaching record attendance and membership numbers between 1950 and 1980. Since the early 2000s, church attendance and membership has been in decline. This thesis outlines the history of Martinsville Baptist Church and explains conservation measures taken during the archival processing and digitization of records in the Martinsville Baptist Church Collection.

Cover Art: Christian Lenape (Delaware) Interpreter, Ada Liu

Of Life and History

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Finding Meaning In Life And History, Michael T. Desantis

Of Life and History

No abstract provided.

Of Life And History, Vol. 1 (May 2018)

Of Life and History

No abstract provided.

Zycie W Ameryce: Life In America—Polish-American Cultural Resilience And Adaptation In The Face Of Americanization, Brynn A. Cotter

Of Life and History

No abstract provided.

Between Piety And Polity: The American Catholic Response To The First Atomic Bombs, Emma Catherine Scally

Of Life and History

No abstract provided.

The Broadway Of War: How Theater Remembers The American Revolution, Campbell Loeber

Of Life and History

No abstract provided.

Manufacturing Progress, Prosperity, And Pride: The Social Construction Of Worcester’S Industrial Identity, 1850-1910, Michael T. Desantis

Of Life and History

No abstract provided.