Two of our graduate students, Leslie Peck & Lewis Whilden, presented papers at the Barnes Club Conference in Philadelphia this year. Their presentations are described below.
Women and Poverty in the Progressive Era: The Story of Sarah and Nellie Tiffany.
by Leslie Peck
Poverty, and the issues that surround it have long been a part of American political, cultural, and religious discourse. But as theologians, civic leaders, and charity organizers debated about the causes of poverty and what should be done about it women struggled to earn a living, provide for dependent children, and balance culture and gender norms in a society that has often left them unsupported and on the margins. This paper follows the lives of two such women: Sarah and Nellie Tiffany. It follows their stories through newspapers, orphan asylum records, census records, personal correspondence, and family lore. In addition, it places their experiences in the larger context of women’s issues in the early twentieth century. But this is also a family story, and demonstrates that family history can be treated as – history. It also reminds us that old family stories can teach powerful lessons.
“Reimagining Communities in the Image of Righteousness: The “Friends of Education” and the Fight for Public Instruction in New Jersey”
by Lewis Whilden
Inspired by a job imitating a 19th century schoolmaster for children, my Barnes conference presentation explored the early history of the fight for public education in the state of New Jersey. What emerged from the documents was a popular, upper middle class Antebellum activist movement called the “Friends of Education,” who used public meetings and newspapers to compel the New Jersey Assembly to pass a limited law in 1829, “An Act to Establish Common Schools.” Steeped in the language of moral reform and the Second Great Awakening, the Friends sought to remake the world in their own image, showing as much concern for the preponderance of drunken schoolmasters as they did for
the illiteracy of the poor. As Jacksonians swept the statehouse in the 1830s, the Friends 1829 law would be repealed, but their actions established a thriving “common school lobby,” whose efforts eventually led to publicly funded instruction for all children in New Jersey.
The all-volunteer Oral History Program of the Battleship New Jersey video records interviews with former crew members, Navy and other military veterans, who talk about their on-board life, duties and perils. We have done over 300 interviews, including veterans from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Beirut crisis, Iraq and Afghanistan. The collection is available to researchers, historians, writers, educators, students, and the public from the Library of Congress and the NJ State Library, including online access. Users can digitally search a database of keyword lists, abstracts, or transcripts.
We Need Interns
We need help in scheduling, conducting interviews, video and audio recording, video/audio editing, keyword coding of interviews, abstracting, transcribing, indexing, data entry, generation and distribution of recordings, record-keeping, fundraising, etc. If you have experience in any of these areas, great, but it is not necessary, as we provide training.
Contact Us
Ron Gottardi, Volunteer Director, Oral History Program, Battleship New Jersey,
62 Battleship Place, Camden, NJ 08103; email: oralhistory@battleshipnewjersey.org
This is a reminder that our first Lees Seminar this semester will take place on Friday, March 6th at 4pm. Rick Demirjian will present “THE REAL SOURCE OF OUR REVOLUTION”: EARLY NATIONAL COMMERCIAL POLICY AND AMERICA’S SECONDARY PORTS, 1783-1814. Andrew Fagal will serve as commentator.
UPCOMING SEMINARS:
On Friday, April 3rd at 4pm, Nick Kapur will present; Franz Prichard, Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University, will comment.
On Friday May 1 at 3pm, our event, co-sponsored by the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at Penn, will feature David Silverman, Professor of History at George Washington University.
The Washington Township Historic Preservation Commission is charged with the care and maintenance of the Olde Stone House Village, a 6.5 acre site on Egg Harbor Road which centers on the Morgan/Paulin/Atkinson home, built in 1736. The site also houses the Turnersville Post Office, the Old Bunker Hill Church, the Quay home, and the Blackwood Railroad station.
We are looking for a graduate student in history for 2015 to research and develop a preservation plan for the Olde Stone House Village. Primary tasks would involve reviewing and observing each building in regard to its present physical condition and making recommendations as to the needs of each building structurally and aesthetically. These needs would then be prioritized according to the level of deterioration evident.
If interested, please contact: Constance McCart, Ed. D. Commissioner/ grants researcher Washington Twp Historic Preservation Commission856 227 9017
2015 Oral History Summer Institute at Columbia University
Greetings from the Columbia Center for Oral History Research! We are thrilled to announce our 2015 Summer Institute, “Narrating Population Health: Oral History, Disparity, and Social Change,” to be held June 15-26, 2015 at Columbia University in New York City.
The program will focus on ways that scholars and advocates have used oral history to illuminate the impact of inequitable distribution of health resources in local and global communities. Through workshops and presentations, participants will develop skills in interviewing, analysis, interdisciplinary research methods, and digital oral history application; presenters include medical researchers, historians, population health experts and sociologists. Areas of focus include: mass incarceration, reproductive rights, harm reduction, HIV/AIDS, addiction, stigma and discrimination and the impact of the built environment on health.
Information: http://incite.columbia.edu/summer-institute-ccohr/
