Notes from a Summer Internship by History Major Leah Brownstein

Western New York is gifted with tremendous historical importance exposed through the many societies, museums, and public exhibits. Although there are many educational opportunities available to examine these various historical events, the rich history of Buffalo, New York is often overlooked by the public. Society’s lack of historical knowledge became discouragingly obvious to me as I began volunteering my time at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site.

I spent the first three weeks of my internship expanding my knowledge of Theodore Roosevelt as well as of the early 1900’s. I then devoted the following two weeks to understanding, memorizing, and learning how to properly convey an enormous amount of information. After doing so and becoming familiar with the structure of the site itself, I began giving guiding tours as an official docent. My first day as a docent I nervously sat behind the circulation desk along with two other very experienced volunteers. We alternated leading tour groups through the exhibits.

Notes from a Summer Internship by History Major Kevin Yehl

When I decided to take part in a summer internship this year, I considered several different local organizations where I felt I could gain experience and further my understanding of history. Initially, I planned on looking for an internship where I could learn about the local history of Olean, New York. I felt this would be interesting because, for such a small town, Olean has an incredibly diverse past. While that would have been interesting, I ended up taking an internship at the Eldred World War II Museum in Eldred, Pennsylvania instead. I had been to the museum as a child and remembered how impressed I had been even at a young age.

I was surprised to find that there was an interesting story about how the museum had come to be, which started over sixty years ago. Initially, the museum opened in recognition of the men and women who worked at or had a part in creating the National Munitions Plant #1. The man who opened the museum and continues to fund it, Tim Roudebush, had a particular interest in its creation because it was his father, George M. Roudebush, who was the lawyer that secured the land and contract for the munitions plant to be built at the onset of World War II.

Prior to America’s entry into the war, Great Britain hired George M. Roudebush to find a suitable place for a munitions plant to help further their war effort. After looking at many different places, Roudebush settled on Eldred, Pennsylvania for several reasons. Due to Eldred’s geographic position, it was far enough inland that it would be untouchable by the Germans. Also, there were already railroads in place at the time, making it easy to transfer finished munitions to the coast and on to Great Britain. Finally, Eldred was already the home of a factory in which explosives were produced for use in civilian oil fields, which made for an easy conversion into military munitions.

Dr. Schaeper Addresses American Revolution Roundtable

Recently Dr. Thomas J. Schaeper, Professor of History, spoke at a general meeting of the American Revolution Round Table in New York City. His topic was "Edward Bancroft: Master Spy of the American Revolution." The Round Table's members meet five times per year at a dinner banquet. Previous speakers before the group have included Pulitzer Prize winners David McCullough, Gordon Wood, and David Hackett Fischer. Schaeper's talk was an outgrowth of his book "Edward Bancroft: Scientist, Author, Spy," which was published in 2011 by Yale University Press. The book will appear in paperback later this summer.

Notes from the Annual Meeting of the Latin American Studies Association (Dr. Horowitz)

Between Thursday May 24 and Saturday May 26, I attended the XXX International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association in San Francisco.  This is a giant inter-disciplinary conference with thousands of attendees coming from around the world.  I spoke with participants who teach on three continents. Among the other attendees was Dr. Mary Rose Kubal from our Political Science Department, whom I did not see. She was not the most famous person to go to the conference.  The granting of a visa to attend the conference to Raúl Castro’s daughter, who is a vigorous supporter of gay rights, produced strong protests from elements in the Cuban-American community. While I did not see her either, her presence may help explain the armed guards that were scattered around the hotel where the conference was held.

The principal activity at these conferences is the many panels; the program lists 999.  The panels usually have presentations by three to five scholars on a specific subject with a commentary by another scholar.  This is usually followed by questions from the audience.  This allows attendees to hear some of the latest scholarship.  Some of the panels were excellent and several were, as they say, not ready for prime time.

History Seniors Win Awards

Our history seniors received important recognition for their hard work and excellence during their studies at St. Bonaventure!

1. Wheeler Award: Amber Cheladyn; Lauren Perkins and Diana Phalon, Co-Honorable Mention

2. Political Science Award: Paul R. Bremmer

Amber Cheladyn also won the "General Excellence Award for a Transfer Student"

New History Club Officers!

The History Club has elected new officers for the 2012-2013 academic year:
President: Max Schneller
Vice President: Mariah Wolford
Secretary: Chelsea O' Connor- Rosiek

The club also added the position of historian whose job is to take photos of events and create a Facebook group. Sarah Southwell will be the first person in this position. She will also be in charge of posters and flyers to bring awareness to the Bona community about the activities of the club.

The History Club is open to anyone with an interest in history. Contact any of the officers for more information!

History is Everywhere!

Recently my husband and I took our son to look at Vanderbilt University, where he was considering going to graduate school. It is located in Nashville, TN, and although he has chosen instead to attend Syracuse University, his Dad and I played while he toured the school.

First we went to Andrew Jackson’s plantation, the Hermitage, just about 15-20 minutes east of downtown Nashville. It was very interesting to see, and impressive to me since they actually do incorporate slaves into the experience. Slave cabins survive and you can go inside. They are part of the museum exhibit and of the audio tour. Some of the cabins still had furniture, which was acquired quite late, sometimes after the Civil War when some of the freemen elected to stay.

In this sense it was far more impressive than George Washington’s Mount Vernon. The last time I went to Mt. Vernon they had not been so successful in including slaves into the picture. I will be going there again in the next few years, and I hope this aspect has improved. Someone else I spoke to who had just been to Mt. Vernon last year said that they had not seen much regarding the slaves at all. So the historians at the Hermitage are more sensitive in this regard. The film about Jackson involved some mild whitewashing of the man, but the speaker at the end made a point of saying that Jackson did a good job of representing the people he cared about – the “common man” of the era, whom we know was white and, of course, male. Andrew Jackson and his wife Rachel actually built their big house in their middle-age, and prior to that had lived in a much more modest two floor log cabin. It survives in a one-story incarnation. It was interesting to stand on the ground, look at the cabins in which Jackson and his slaves lived, and try to imagine life as it was then, still frontier when he arrived as a young man.