Coming of Age in the Twentieth Century, Stories from Minnesota and Beyond

Image
Photo, Donna, Age 13, c. 1966, Twentieth-Century Girls
Annotation

This website explores "girls' history" with 40 oral history interviews conducted by women's studies students at Minnesota State University-Mankato. Each interviewee was asked extensively about her girlhood. Questions focused on adolescence and growing up as well as the social, cultural, and physical implications of girlhood and personal experiences. Topics include family, race, sexuality, education, and women's issues. The archive includes brief biographies, video clips, and transcripts of interviews (arranged thematically), photographs, and reflections of the interview process. Most of the women interviewed were born and raised in Minnesota, although a few came from other states with a smaller number immigrating from other countries. The site is not searchable, and the video clips are not high quality.

St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records Project

Image
Case, State of Missouri v. Walker, John K. (jailor of St Louis)...
Annotation

Part of a larger project involving 4 million pages of St. Louis court records dating between 1804 and 1875, this website was designed to preserve and make accessible the freedom lawsuits filed in the St. Louis Circuit Court. In January 2001, the freedom suits brought by Dred Scott and his wife Harriet in 1846 became the first cases to go online. There are now more than 280 freedom suits are available. These case files consist of legal petitions for freedom by people of color originally filed in St. Louis courts between 1814 and 1860. They make up the largest corpus of freedom suits currently available to researchers in the United States. The images of original handwritten documents in which black men, women, and children petitioned the courts for freedom offers a glimpse at what some argue was the beginning of America's civil rights movement.

The short Macromedia Flash film "Freedom Suits" offers a glimpse into the pursuit of freedom by African Americans in St. Louis during the 19th century. This online archive will help researchers understand the length of enslaved African American's struggles and the historical significance of the lawsuits.

The Policy of Polygamy

field_image
Nauvoo, Illinois, house of Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, Library of Congress
Question

When did Joseph Smith abandon the policy of polygamy? How did he rationalize this shift in church policy?

Answer

Joseph Smith never abandoned the practice of polygamy; however, in the February 1, 1844 issue of the Latter-day Saints newspaper Times and Seasons, Smith and his brother Hyrum, co-presidents of the church, did publish a notice stipulating that Hiram Brown, a church elder in Michigan, had been cut off from the church for "preaching Polygamy, and other false and corrupt doctrines."

The renowned scholar Richard L. Bushman, who identifies himself as a "believing historian," asserts that rather than indicating a shift in church policy, the February 1844 edict comported with Smith's sermons and public statements of the period. On the pulpit, Smith vigorously denounced "adultery fornication" and polygamy, while in private, he revealed to trustworthy individuals and small groups within the church a revelation he had experienced that served to encourage and sanctify plural marriages that had been commanded by God, drawing on Old Testament practices as precedents. Smith ritualized the practice of polygamy through the institution of "sealing" couples together by priests of the church for eternity, thus allowing them to procreate eternally and achieve celestial glory. Smith denounced as adulterous polygamous practices that had not been sanctified by the church. Bushman concedes, "The distinction between priesthood calls to take additional wives and unlicensed indulgence was clear to him [Smith] if not always to others."

John C. Bennett, the co-founder with Smith of the Latter-day Saint town of Nauvoo, Illinois, and its first mayor, had been excommunicated two years earlier after telling numerous women in the community "that illicit sexual intercourse was acceptable if kept secret," according to Bushman. The February 1844 edict implied an attempt to disassociate the church from such rogue missionaries as Bennett and Brown, especially during a period in which Smith had become a candidate for the presidency of the United States. The church doctrine of sanctified plural marriages was not acknowledged publicly until 1852, eight years after Smith's assassination. In 1890, due to pressure from the federal government, the church issued a manifesto announcing that it no longer sanctioned plural marriages. Subsequent edicts in 1904 and 1910 threatened excommunication to church members and priests who entered into or performed new plural marriages.

Bibliography

Richard L. Bushman, with the assistance of Jed Woodworth, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. New York: Knopf, 2005.

Donna Hill, Joseph Smith, The First Mormon. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1977.

Kathryn M. Daynes, More Wives Than One: Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840–1910. Urbana, Ill. and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001.

Aitkin County Historical Society, Depot Museum, and Log Museum

Description

The Society operates a museum complex, complete with research resources, special exhibits, and a museum gift shop. The Depot Museum is housed in the historic 1916 Northern Pacific Depot. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum features a rotating schedule of exhibits regarding the heritage of Aitkin County. Riverboating on the upper Mississippi, native culture, and unique artifacts are explored and displayed in the exhibit halls. The Log Museum was the first home of the Society and was constructed in 1950 with native cedar logs. It was originally located on the court house lawn and moved to its present location in the mid-70s. Exhibits relate to the county's logging heritage, agricultural implements, and tools from the building trades.

The society offers occasional living history events, research library access, and educational and recreational events; the museums offer exhibits and tours.

Turning Students into Historians

Date Published
Image
Photo, Student opening night, Jasmine Alinder
Article Body

Milwaukee, WI, has an important civil rights history that not many people know about. In the 1960s, battles raged here over open housing and school desegregation, and teens led much of the movement. Decades later, we still suffer from racial and economic segregation, but how many of our students can explain why? And what would it mean to them to find out that in 1960s Milwaukee, youth protested such inequality?

How could we use this resource to help youth learn about their city’s past and feel invested in their communities?

In 2010, a project team of archivists, digital librarians, students, and historians launched the March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project, an archive of primary sources and contextual materials. But how could we use this resource to help youth learn about their city’s past and feel invested in their communities? This question led to an unlikely partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee History and Archives Departments; an arts education nonprofit, Arts@Large; and a class of high school students with one very dedicated teacher. I say unlikely for two reasons. First, not everyone would combine social studies curriculum with the arts. Second, digital archives are valued for their accessibility, and instead of scaling our efforts up to reach the widest audience, we went the other way and decided to work closely with a dozen students from a school for at risk youth.

The goal of the project was for students to research, design, and build an exhibition on Milwaukee civil rights history. The students had little background in primary source materials, were not terribly fond of history, and knew nothing about museum studies. We started by bringing the students to the university campus and teaching them how to use primary sources. We directed them to certain sources but we also gave them time to explore the text documents, oral history interviews, film footage, and photographs in the collection. Over time it became clear to the students that the research was necessary for the more personally meaningful parts of the project to occur.

By the time some of the local activists visited the classroom, the students thought of them more as rock stars than relics.

The students then worked very closely with museum educator Linda D’Acquisto, author of Learning on Display. She taught them to think in terms of big questions and ideas that could translate into visual displays. Their teacher, Kelly DiGiacinto, pulled in other resources, including local museums, and the students began to ask if they could interview some of the former activists themselves. It was at this point that the students started taking ownership of the project. Listening to recorded oral history was no longer enough; they wanted to take on the role of historian and start asking their own questions. By the time some of the local activists visited the classroom, the students thought of them more as rock stars than relics.

The students titled their exhibition "March to Equality." In addition to the humanities-based research and the construction of the exhibits, they also wrote poetry, created collage, and gave performances that included freedom songs, marching, and skits. The students wanted to make sure that their research showed, so they created QR codes leading viewers back to the primary sources on the archive website. During the exhibition opening, the kids stationed themselves at each of the displays and acted as docents for visitors.

Because the students became so deeply invested in the project, they now see their city in a different way.

Because the students became so deeply invested in the project, they now see their city in a different way. A social studies teacher who visited the exhibit said, "The passion and knowledge that the students . . . showed was truly amazing. I was also impressed by their poise and delivery of the information which connects to language arts standards.” The teacher goes on, “The student who was my tour guide said that this experience ‘gave her pride for the city she lived in and showed her that there are people fighting for what is right instead of just the horrible, negative things you see on the news.’ I thought she captured the success of the project in those words . . ."

To watch the students grow over the course of the project has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my career. They not only learned about local civil rights history through primary sources and oral histories, they have taken ownership of that history. They now see themselves as Milwaukee's new leaders. And they have not stopped. In December, they just finished leading a series of Milwaukee civil rights bus tours.

For more information

Explore the March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project's resources for yourself in Website Reviews.

How did segregation affect your local area? Professor Anthony Pellegrino dug deep into the history of a segregated school he passed every day. Turn to your local museums and historical societies to make your own discoveries!

Don't have the time or resources to help your students create a physical exhibit? Try online tools like Museum Box, and guide students through curating digital exhibits.

Missouri Digital Heritage

Image
Painting, Portrait of a Musician, Thomas Hart Benton, 1949
Annotation

This massive mega-website presents thousands of documents and images related to Missouri's social, political, and economic history, linking to collections housed at universities, libraries, and heritage sites across the state. These resources are organized both into archival collections (by topic and source type) and virtual exhibits.

Archival collections include maps, municipal records, government and political records, newspapers, photographs and images, books and diaries, as well as topical collections on agriculture, medicine, women, business, exploration and settlement, art and popular culture, and family, rendering the website's resources as useful for genealogists as for those interested in history.

Exhibits encompass a diverse range of subjects, and include topics of relevance to Missouri history (Miss Carrie Watkins's cookbook from the mid-19th century, several exhibits on life at the University of Missouri and Washington University, Truman's Whistle Stop campaign), and topics outside of Missouri (the body in Medieval manuscripts, Roman imperial coins, propaganda posters from World War II, and drawings documenting dinosaur discovery before the mid-20th century).

Teachers will be especially interested in the large Education section, which includes curricular resources on topics such as African Americans in Missouri, Lewis and Clark's Expedition, Missouri State Fairs, and the history of dueling.

Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930

Image
Photo, Police Captain Max Nootbaar, Jul. 21, 1914, Chicago Daily News
Annotation

Post-Civil-War industrialization and urbanization put new stresses on American law and society. Criminal records reveal the circumstances where social strain boiled over into violence and unrest. Using this website, visitors can search the complete Chicago Police Department Homicide Record Index from 1870 to 1930, detailing more than 11,000 homicides, and read and watch accompanying contextual material that explores tensions between laborers, industry leaders, political ideologies, social reformers, organized crime, and more.

The core of the site is the "Interactive Database." Here, visitors can search cases using keyword, case number, date, circumstances (accident, manslaughter, homicide, number of victims, number of defendants, method of killing, involvement of alcohol), details about the victim and defendant (age, gender, race, occupation), victim/defendant relationship, and legal outcome. Searches return one-line case summaries including the date, names of people involved, case number, a description of the crime, and legal outcome. Clicking on a result brings up details on the particular crime: time, location, type of death/homicide and details of homicide, details on the victim(s) and defendant(s), police involvement, and legal outcome.

Contextualizing primary and secondary sources frame this bare-bones information. A timeline features a summary of one major event and up to five photographs for every year. "Historical Context" currently offers a second timeline highlighting links to up to 17 notable cases for each year and a section on children's lives in the city, with nine newspaper articles on child labor and obituaries for activist Florence Kelley and lawyer Levy Mayer. (Sections on labor and reform movements and people and events did not work at the time of this review.) In "Legal Content," visitors can read short essays on topics related to Chicago criminal and social history, including capital punishment, anti-corruption campaigns, the Chicago Police Department, judges, lawyers, criminology, prostitution, gambling, murder-suicides, and accidents. Each essay links to related cases and onsite and off-site documents. "Legal Content" also hosts 16 downloadable acts and statutes under "The Laws."

"Crimes of the Century" organizes links to related cases under 23 topics, including the 1919 Chicago race riot and the Haymarket Affair. "Publications," the most valuable part of the site for teachers looking for primary sources, archives the full text of 15 primary and secondary documents related to Chicago crime and social change. Here users can download in PDF form modern studies on the death penalty, crime and policing in Chicago, and the Haymarket Affair, or download primary sources such as law codes and crime reports, the Hull House Maps and Papers, Chicago Daily News articles exposing graft and corruption, 19th-century studies of Chicago's homeless, and contemporary commentary on the Haymarket Affair. Finally, visitors can watch 18 interviews with present-day professors, judges, and lawyers in "Videos."

Though difficult to navigate, this site has rich resources to help students and teachers explore the challenges of change at the turn of the century.

Duluth Lynchings Online Resource: The Tragic Events of June 15, 1920

Image
Photo, Interior of cellhouse, Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater
Annotation

On June 15, 1920, a white mob broke into a jail in Duluth, Minnesota, and lynched three black men—Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie—accused of raping a white woman. This website tells the story of that attack and its aftermath through more than 700 primary source documents and photographs relating to the lynchings, legal proceedings against members of the lynch mob and several other black men accused of rape, and the incarceration of three white mob members for rioting and one black man for rape. It ends with the aftermath of the incident, including a drop in the black population of Duluth by 16 percent, the formation of an active NAACP chapter in the city, and a campaign for anti-lynching legislation. A Background section sets the scene in 1920s Duluth alongside information on rising racial tensions across the country and lynchings in northern states. An interactive timeline of events surrounding the lynchings, accompanied by an audio narrative, is a good place to begin. All documents are keyword searchable and browseable by document type (government document, newspaper, correspondence) and by date.

Civil War Letters of the Christie Family

Image
Introductory graphic, Civil War Letters of the Christie Family
Annotation

This site offers a remarkable collection of letters written by Minnesotans William, Thomas, and Alexander Christie during their tours of service in the Union Army from 1861 to 1865. These letters, selected from the Minnesota Historical Society's James C. Christie and Family Papers, contain observations on life in army camps, the war, society, and contemporary politics. The letters are arranged for browsing by author, location, and month (from July 1861 to June 1865.) Each letter is accompanied by notes on the date, location, addressee, and a brief (15-20 word) description of the contents.

Though the site authors promise typed transcriptions at an undesignated future time, the Christie brothers' handwriting is very readable and the letters provide an excellent introduction to examining handwritten documents. The site is a must for students interested in army life among the Union troops in the Civil War.

Brown v. Board of Education

Image
Photo, Protester, 1961, Brown v. Board of Education
Annotation

Created in anticipation of the 50-year anniversary of the monumental Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, this website covers four general areas. These include Supreme Court cases, busing and school integration, school integration in Ann Arbor (home of the University of Michigan), and recent resegregation trends in America. The site contains a case summary and the court's opinion for each of 34 landmark court cases, from Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

Brown includes transcripts of oral arguments, as well. Visitors can also read the oral histories of five members of the University of Michigan community who remember the Brown decision and its impact. There are more than 30 photographs of participants in the Brown case and other civil rights activists, as well as a collection of documents pertaining to desegregation in the Ann Arbor Public School District. A statistical section details the growing number of African Americans in Michigan and Ann Arbor schools from 1950 to 1960.