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I set out on this annotated bibliography with two ideas of a final project in mind.  First, I want to examine the United States Postal Service in the 19^th Century and early 20^th Century because I have two Postmaster Generals in my designated Dickinson College class of 1848.  They are John Andrew Jackson Creswell and James William Marshall, and served consecutively in President Grant’s Cabinet.  Second, I want to research James Bernard Hank, another graduate from 1848 who was a surgeon for the Russian Army during the Crimean War.  Hank died in 1859, three years after the war ended, and it was possible that he died of one of the many illnesses that plagued the armies involved in that war.  Unfortunately, it is too early to finalize my decision as to which topic I will write about for my final project, so this annotated bibliography has sources for both sources.

Articles:

Dvoichenko-Markov, Eufrosina. “Americans in the Crimean War” The Russian Review. 13, 2 (1954): 137-145. [JSTOR]

This article examined the antebellum amicability between Russia and the United States, and the possibility of an alliance during the Crimean War had the United States revoked its neutrality.  However, the article also analyzed the American surgeons who served in the Russian Army, most of whom eventually died from diseases like cholera and smallpox.  The author, was a scholar of American-Russian relations.  Her bias, as a Russian living in the United States during the Cold War might have been to show that various Americans, alluding to the surgeons in the Crimean War, have supported Russia even when the US government unofficially supports Russia’s adversary, or remains neutral.

House, Albert V. Jr. “President Hayes’ Selection of David M. Key for Postmaster General” The Journal of Southern History. 4, 1 (1938): 87-93. [JSTOR]

This article examined the process surrounding Rutherford B. Hayes’ nomination of David Key to Postmaster General.  The article dug deeper into the reasons why having a Southern Democrat, from Tennessee, would be fruitful to show unity between the North and South after the Civil War.  This source might be very bias towards the South.  I had the impression, after reading, that this celebrated the fact that a Southern Democrat was nominated to the cabinet of a Republican President.

Miller, Byron S. “Parties. Judicial Control over Executive. Postmaster General as Indispensable Party in Suit Against Local Postmaster” The University of Chicago Law Review. 4, 2 (1937): 342-343. [JSTOR]

This article reviewed the legal aspect of postal fraud.  Specifically, it examined the inconsistencies and lack of communication between the Postmaster General and local regional postmasters.  Byron S. Miller was the editor in chief for the law review from 1936-1937, so I put him as the author, because I could not determine who out of the other authors of the law review wrote this specific article.  The University of Chicago Law School was a prestigious law school (and still is), so I trust this law review’s interpretation of such high profile cases involving federal government employees and institutions.  I could not see any bias in the article.

Osborne, John M., and Christine Bombaro. “Forgotten Abolitionist: John A.J. Creswell of Maryland” House Divided Project at Dickinson College. (2015): 1-69. [United States History Commons]

This article was an examination of John Creswell’s life.  The portion of the article I was most concerned with was his time serving as Postmaster General, where the authors discussed his abolition of inefficiency in the United States Postal Service.  Osborne and Bombaro were employees at Dickinson College, with Osborne being an associate professor and co-founder of the House Divided Project and Bombaro serving as a librarian.  Their bias might be over-praise for John Creswell and his achievements, since he graduated from the authors’ institution of employment.

Pearce, Robert L. “War and Medicine in the Nineteenth Century” Australian Defense Force Health. 3, (2002), 88-92. [Department of Defense]

The Crimean War section of this article examined the British and French disregard towards that war, as well as health issues for soldiers and personnel in those armies.  Lieutenant Colonel Robert Pearce appeared to be very educated in the field of battlefield medicine and battle tactics.  In addition to his military rank, he was a plastic surgeon.  It would be easy to assume his bias towards the British army, especially since Australia was a former colony of Great Britain, but after reading the article, Lt. Colonel Pearce attacked the British and French armies for their unpreparedness and inability to avoid illnesses during the Crimean War.

 

Books:

Gallagher, Winifred. How the Post Office Created America: A History. New York: Penguin Press, 2016. [Google Books]

This book explained the importance of the Post Office in the United States’ national identity.  The book chronologically examined the evolution of the Post Office and how it became the largest bureaucratic organization during the 19^th century.  This book did not have any bias, instead it was a level-headed analysis of the United States Postal Service.

John, Richard R. Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. [Harvard University Press]

This book also showed the evolution of the Post Office and its importance as a bureaucratic agency.  However, in addition, John explained how the Post Office was a unifying force in such a diverse country.  I did not notice any bias in this book.

McCallum, Jack E. Military Medicine from Ancient Times to 21^st Century. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2008. [Google Books]

This book examined the evolution of battlefield medical practices up to the present day.  Where the book discussed about the Crimean War, McCallum analyzed the deadliness of the infections endured by soldiers and the lack of communication within the armies to properly treat those infections.  I did not notice any bias in the book, rather a detailed overview of every era of history to examine its usefulness of military medicine.

Nightingale, Florence “I Have Done My Duty” Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War 1854-1856. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987. [Google Books]

This book examined Nightingale’s service in the Crimean War.  It gave some insight of battlefield medical practices in the Crimean War from one of the most well-known nurses from the war.  I did notice a little positive bias in this book directed at the British and French alliance.

Greg Parker

Preface

This research journal is centered on two topics: Civil War medicine and American and Western involvement in China and the Far East during the 19th century, with a focus on the role of missionaries. These topics are connected to my class through Thomas McFadden, a surgeon during the Civil War, and Robert Maclay, a prominent Methodist missionary in China, Japan, and Korea in the mid 1800s. For both topics I tried to find both recent and older sources in order to see whether or not historians’ view of the topic has changed with time. For the former I had some difficulty finding books specific to missionaries so I searched more broadly for books dealing with Western imperialism in China and the Far East. Although these don’t provide much (if any) information about missionaries they do provide information about the larger political context in the region during the 19th century.

Journals

Flannery, Michael A. “Civil War Medicine: Approaches for Teaching.” OAH Magazine of History 19.5 (2005): 41-43. [JSTOR]

Michael Flannery is a professor of history at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and a member of the Academie internationale d’histoire de la pharmacie who has written extensively about medical history. This short article offers teachers advice on how to teach Civil War medicine to their students. The emphasis of the article in on the effects of illness and disease on the armies. Flannery also lists sources teachers should look at to find more information.

Hamilton, Marsha J. “MERCURY AND WATER: TWO CIVIL WAR SURGEONS OF THE 148TH PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 75.4 (2008): 467-504. [JSTOR]

Marsha J. Hamilton is Professor Emeritus (retired) at The Ohio State University. She worked in the University Libraries. The article focuses on how the Union army went about recruiting surgeons to serve. There is also some discussion of the two schools of medicine prominent during this time period. The article is structured around the stories of two surgeons in the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Dr. Uriah Davis and Dr. Alfred Hamilton, which provides a personal viewpoint to the topic. Hamilton uses a mixture of both primary and secondary sources for the article, including some of the letters and personal papers of Dr. Hamilton.

Lazich, Michael C. “American Missionaries and the Opium Trade in Nineteenth-Century China.” Journal of World History 17.2 (2006): 197-223. [JSTOR]

Michael Lazich is a professor of history at SUNY Buffalo specializing in East and Southeast Asian history. The article focuses on how American Missionaries responded to the opium trade in China and the role they played in shaping US policy around it. Lazich also discusses how the views of both the missionaries and the American government towards opium changed over time. Lazich relies on both primary and secondary sources for his information.

Shryock, Richard H. “A Medical Perspective on the Civil War.” American Quarterly 14.2 (1962): 161-73. [JSTOR]

Richard Shryock was a professor of history at Penn. He specialized in medical history and played a large role in professionalizing the field. This article, written before the medical history had become a widely studied field, explores the medical side of the Civil War. The article provides a good overview of the medical aspect of the conflict and discusses how the wounds of soldiers on both sides of the conflict were treated. Shryock almost exclusively uses secondary sources for his information.

Books

Bickers, Robert A. The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914. London: Allen Lane, 2011. [Google Books]

Robert Bickers is a professor at the University of Bristol specializing in modern Chinese history and the history of colonialism. He has written multiple books on Western imperialism in China. This book describes how the Western powers went about imperializing China and shows what it was like to be in China during this period. Bickers also discusses the effects Western imperialism had on both the Chinese and the Westerners. Although the focuses moreso on European rather than American imperialism, the book does a good job of providing context about what was happening on a larger scale while the missionaries were working on a more personal level with the Chinese. Google Books does not have the full text.

Bollet, Alfred J. Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs. Tucson, AZ: Galen, 2002. [Library Catalog]

Dr. Alfred Bollet is a professor of medicine at Yale who has written extensively about medicine during the Civil War. This book reexamines the beliefs held by scholars and the general public alike and uses both primary and secondary sources to explain why the majority of these beliefs are false and show that medicine and health care during the Civil War was in fact quite good. Through the use of anecdotes Bollet also helps his readers understand what day to day life was like for both the doctors and their patients during the conflict.

Flynt, Wayne, and Gerald W. Berkley. Taking Christianity to China: Alabama Missionaries in the Middle Kingdom, 1850-1950. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama, 1997. [Google Books]

Wayne Flynt is a professor emeritus of history at Auburn University who specializes in Southern culture and religion. He has written numerous books and one is one of the most prominent and widely recognized scholar of the South. Gerald Berkley is a former professor of history and director of the East Asian studies department at the University of Guam. He has published multiple articles as well as book concerning East Asia. This book describes focuses on the experiences of Alabama missionaries in China during the mid 19th century and discusses the views and attitudes of the missionaries and how these changed over time. Although the scope of the work is a little limited it still provides valuable information about the missionary experience in China.

McOmie, William. “The Opening Of Japan, 1853-1855: A Comparative Study Of The American, British, Dutch And Russian Naval Expeditions To Compel The Tokugawa Shogunate To Conclude Treaties And Open Ports To Their Ships.” n.p.: Global Oriental, 2006. Africa-Wide Information. [Library Catalog]

William McOmie is an associate professor of foreign languages at Kanagawa University in Japan. While working on this book he was a visiting professor at the Center for Japanese studies at UC Berkley. This book provides an in depth overview of the Western attempts to “open up” Japan to western ships and business. While McOmie does not focus on missionaries the book is useful for understanding the context and political climate in Japan during the time period.

The focus for this assignment is the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. The following list is a collection of academic sources both centering specifically on the school itself as well as broader sources that provide contextual information about Native American off-reservation boarding schools in general. In finding these sources, I had the following goals: 1) to gain a broad understanding of the nature, purpose, and scope of these schools in America; 2) to gain an in-depth understanding of the methods and processes used by the administration of the schools and Carlisle’s school in particular; 3) to understand the experience of the Native students in the Carlisle Indian School; and 4) to learn of the legacy these schools (and the Carlisle school in particular) and the different perspectives that historians have on them today.

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Books:

Adams, David W. Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995.

This text, written by David Adams, a professor of education at Cleveland State University, is a survey of the history of off-reservation boarding schools for Native Americans and an analysis of their purpose of Native assimilation to white American society. While this text does spend time discussing the Carlisle Indian School, it also provides information on other similar schools, thus providing the ability to compare the similarities and differences of these schools all across the country. As can be seen from the title, Adams takes a strong stance in his writing that these schools and those in charge of them ultimately performed cultural genocide against Native Americans through specific methods of forced assimilation of their students. However, Adams also presents various modes of resistance among the students, both while in school and after graduation, showing that they were not passive victims in the assimilation. To prove his argument and present his analysis, Adams utilizes autobiographies of both teachers and students of the schools, as well as school and county newspapers.

Churchill, Ward. Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools. San Francisco: City Lights Publishers, 2004.

Churchill, a renowned scholar of Native American history and professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Colorado, explores the impact that Native American boarding schools had on Native Americans. In this book, Churchill argues that these schools should be examined within the larger context of the genocide waged against Native Americans by the US government and that they should not be viewed as merely an effort to force assimilation but to attack the culture and population of Indigenous groups. He examines the magnitude of negative effects of the schools such as alcoholism, suicides, and tribal dissolution. While Churchill does wholly devote his book to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, his text provides an opportunity to compare the impact that the school in Carlisle had on its students to the effects that are described in the book, and possibly provide new evidence to either support or counter his argument.

Fear-Segal, Jacqueline and Susan D. Rose, eds. Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Indigenous Histories, Memories, & Reclamations. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016.

This brand new book approaches the discussion of off-reservation Native American boarding schools in an entirely unique way. Specifically examining the Carlisle Indian School, the editors combine a collection of brand new research on the school with speeches, pictures, and poetry about the school from descendants of students and Native activists. This unique collaboration between scholars and non-academic Natives provides new perspectives and insight into what the experience at the Carlisle Indian School was like for the students as well as its legacy today.

Mauro, Hayes P. The Art of Americanization at the Carlisle Indian School. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2011.

This text focuses on the process of assimilating the Native students, described by Mauro as “Americanization,” at the Carlisle Indian School through an analysis of visual evidence left behind from the school. Mauro argues that the use of pseudo scientific ideas and social Darwinism was extremely important in the justification of the school’s existence as well as the development of the methods of “Americanization.” Mauro provides an interesting and unique argument in this text, presenting ideas that most other scholars of Native American off-reservation boarding schools do not focus on or even mention at all. Through the use of pictures and imagery, uncommon but extremely useful sources, he creates a connection with the students and sheds new insight on their experiences.

Walker-McNeil, Pearl L. The Carlisle Indian School: A Study of Acculturation. Washington, D.C.: The American University Press, 1979.

This dissertation by Pearl Lee Walker-McNeil, a PhD student in Anthropology at American University, provides a unique argument on the Carlisle Indian School’s “Outing System” and its effect on the strength of the assimilation of the students. Although the text is dated, its focus on primary sources from the school and Richard Henry Pratt, the school’s founder, as well as its unique argument and perspective give it some reliability and possibly value for research on the school.

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 Articles:

Bess, Jennifer Caroline. “Casting a Spell: Acts of Cultural Continuity in Carlisle Indian Industrial School’s the Red Man and Helper.” Wicazo Sa Review 2 (2011): 13-38. Accessed October 5, 2016. [Project MUSE, EBSCOhost]

In this article, Jennifer Bass analyzes the Carlisle Indian Industrial School’s student run newspapers, The Red Man and The Helper. In her analysis, she makes the argument that although the students were forced to assimilate to White American culture and ways of life, they were not passive participants in the process. Bess points out various modes of resistance that can be seen in their writings in the newspapers, showing that despite their limitations, the students still fought to have agency over their own identity and to share their own perspectives on their situations.

Enoch, Jessica. “Resisting the Script of Indian Education: Zitkala Ša and the Carlisle Indian School.” College English 65 (2002): 117-141. Accessed October 5, 2016. [EBSCOhost]

Jessica Enoch analyzes the a more transparent mode of resistance in the writings of Zitkala Ša, a former student and teacher at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. In her autobiography and essays, Zitkala Ša openly condemns the administrators at the school, specifically the founder Richard Henry Pratt, as well as the humiliating and damaging methods of assimilation that the school adopted for its students. This analysis of Zitkala Ša’s writing provides an unprecedented level of insight into the perspective of students in the Carlisle Indian School as well as Natives who opposed the school.

Gamache, Ray. “Sport as Cultural Assimilation: Representations of American Indian Athletes in the Carlisle School Newspaper.” American Journalism 26 (2009): 7-37. Accessed October 3, 2016. [Communications & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost]

In this journal article, Ray Gamache specifically analyzes how the Carlisle Indian School used sport as a method of assimilation for its Native students. Gamache uses newspaper articles about sporting events and the school’s sports teams to argue that in these articles, the school attempted to portray its students as active participants in White American Male culture and lifestyle, thus forcing them to assimilate.

Zinc, Amanda J. “Carlisle’s Writing Circle: Boarding School Texts and the Decolonization of Domesticity.” Studies in American Indian Literatures 27 (2015): 37-65. Accessed October 4, 2016. [Project MUSE, EBSCOhost]

Amanda Zinc analyzes the specific pressures put on female students in the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through administrative writings as well as writings by the female students themselves. She argues that the school’s methods of assimilation were gendered and strongly enforced values of domesticity and White/European ideals of femininity onto its female students; however, many of these students resisted those ideas and, after graduation, went on to develop their own ideas of the home and womanhood that nuanced White/European standard for women.

 

Perhaps the most challenging and overwhelming aspect of studying historical methodology thus far has been the task of making connections or inferences from what appears to be very little substantial information. This week I wanted to take the opportunity to explore the life of a member of the class that I had yet to really address in my research.  Although none of these men are necessarily remembered in textbooks for their grandiose contributions to the human narrative, it does not mean they have nothing to say or that their stories are not wholly uninteresting. Much of our course work thus far has proved that to be true, but this week’s work with newspapers in particular provided me with great insight on how small connections, and a bit of patience, can lead to rich and satisfying results. This week I evaluated my table of students in the Dickinson Class of 1861 and decided that there was one in particular that perhaps had interesting stories, but had yet to be sufficiently explored.

I decided to take a look at a man who, on my data table, seemed to have a rather large list of credentials including a major in the Union Army during the Civil War and Military Secretary to the Pennsylvania governor. Henry Harrison Gregg, a man who I’d yet properly research, would deliver a rather captivating story that gave me substantial experience in how to use newspaper articles effectively. I thought, much to my detriment, that gathering information would be rather easy as the databases’ search engines would complete most of the work. I thus attempted to do a sweep of a variety of newspaper databases with just his name including “19^th Century Newspapers,” “Accessible Archives,” and “Chronicling America.” Little proved to be fruitful and I found this to be odd considering the man’s long list of accomplishments.  After an hour or so of this, the method had proven to be sloppy in that it was too broad and did not focus on the man’s achievements, rather his name alone, and often the programs would not even detect his name despite it blatantly being visible in an article. I surmised that if I were to uncover the specifics of his life and perhaps an engaging story through newspapers, I needed to search for the specific and significant event in his life that might appear newsworthy, rather than his name alone. In addition, I looked at the list of accomplishments and compared it to the databases I had chosen to use; I realized I was using those that focused on too broad of topics. It was likely I would not find a small anecdote about events in a specific area efficiently in a database that spanned large topics and widespread geography.  The “Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspapers” database that was suggested on the blog ultimately gave me the more focused set of newspapers that I needed. I chose the credential of Gregg’s that I believed would most likely be documented in a Pennsylvania newspaper, that of his promotion to Military Secretary, and used that to begin more effective research.  Using the keywords “Gregg” and “Military Secretary,” a brief, but significant article appeared that would be the springboard for the rest of the week’s research.

A brief three paragraphs on page three of an 1865 issue of the Huntingdon Globe entitled “A Good Appointment” gave me enough information to begin discovering Gregg’s story. It described a man by the name of Harry H. Gregg to the position of Military Secretary to the governor of Pennsylvania.

This slight name difference would prove to be useful as Gregg would appear almost exclusively as Harry in all the articles I would find thereafter, and thus warned me not to rely too heavily on the accuracy of spelling and word choice when using databases. The article also proved useful in that it mentioned his time as a Major in the 13^th Pennsylvania Cavalry, and that during his military career, he was captured twice by the enemy and held in prison.  This brief article was already beginning to reveal that this man had an engaging and potentially teachable story.

I first searched the “Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspapers” again, but this time with the phrase “13^th Pennsylvania Cavalry” assuming that an article might detail the location of their capture and perhaps some specifics about the engagement. Another brief article of value dated October 5th, 1864 appeared toward the bottom of the list of results. It merely reported the death of Private  Alfred Kenyan, a member of the 13^th Cavalry and Gregg’s company who was “shot thro’ the neck” at the James River when the unit was captured. This informed me of one of the locations where Gregg was captured and a rough estimate of a date. With little more concrete results, I adjusted the search term to “Harry Gregg” and another article appeared dated November 4th, 1863. It provided a rather detailed account of a soldier who described fleeting glimpses of Gregg before he was captured by the enemy several days before the Battle of Rappahannock Station.

Using this information, I then searched several databases with the phrases “Gregg and James River” and “Gregg and Rappahannock”  Although several articles gave me some more detailed information about Gregg’s capture, I still felt as if this didn’t give me a truly riveting story. I decided I was perhaps approaching this chapter in Gregg’s life in a too narrow-minded manner. I backtracked and reread “A Good Appointment.” I immediately  noticed I had overlooked a potential useful keyword and subsequently half of this tale. The original article mentioned that Gregg was sent to “Libby Prison,” a prisoner of war camp in Richmond, Virginia.  I then adjusted my search terms to “Gregg” and “Libby Prison.” The articles I found proved to be the most interesting yet.

The results for “Libby Prison” in the databases were abundant and varied. Many had vastly different claims about the conditions in the prison. Some claimed men were relatively well fed while others stated that they were being starved to death. In particular, an article that peaked my interest the most described a mine of gunpowder that Confederates had constructed underneath the prison to scare prisoners and prevent riot.  The most difficult anecdote to find however was an article that described a personal statement from Gregg himself or those he stayed with during his time at the prison. The terms “Gregg” and “Libby Prison” did not yield anything of value in any of the databases until I noticed one article at the bottom of the results from the “Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspapers.” A

seemingly negligible piece from  Evening Telegraph dated October 30, 1863 gave a very brief description of a correspondence between General S. Greene and his son Joseph who was being held at Libby Prison. In it, Joseph had claimed that he and Harry Gregg were, “well, but dirty,

naked, and hungry.” Although not the detailed recollection of the event I’d hoped for, it made his experience seem at least partially more real and human, a notion that is essential to a teachable story.

I still feel as if there is more to be discovered about Gregg’s time in Libby Prison. I attempted to information in Confederate newspapers , but found little more than a release notice from his first time in prison in The Daily Dispatch. In the future, I hope to gather some primary sources that contain reflections from Gregg himself that may give a more complete and personal account of the incident that these sources lacked.

Research this week with newspapers has proven to be of the most exciting and rewarding processes of the course thus far. The ability to search through thousands of newspapers in seconds made research efficient and gathering specific details rather easy. Essentially, newspapers served as both an accessible historical narrative and an easily assembled timeline of events. However, the databases themselves were not wholly easy to navigate. In many ways they could be unreliable and unwieldy, yielding thousands of results or none at all. This presented the challenge of  learning how the database functions and what its purpose was before I could even begin effective research. Understanding a database thoroughly and learning its limitations takes time itself and I’ve learned one should be both diligent and patient when embarking on this form of research.

 

Process  

Pre-Research Thoughts:

Before I started this research journal, I assumed that it was going to be similar to other database research. Specifically, I thought it was going to be similar to the first research journal on reference sources. I knew that I needed to be aware of partisan affiliations of newspapers during the 19th century. During the 19th century, many newspapers also blatantly plagiarized from one another.

The Research Itself:

I decided that I would begin my newspaper research by first examining four members of the class of 1862 I found most interesting and I feel I might pursue for my historical thinking project, Benjamin Lamberton, Clay McCauley, Martin C. Herman, and William P. Willey. If the search for worthwhile newspaper articles about these men proves to be unfruitful, then I will start searching other members of the class of 1862.

Databases 

• The first database I used was 19th Century U.S. Newspapers. I recommend this database highly. It is very easy to use. The database makes it very easy to download a pdf of any particular newspaper article.
• The next database I used was the Chronicling America database created by the Library of Congress. I did not find this database as easy to use at the 19th Century U.S. Newspapers database, but it was still relatively user-friendly. I found some good articles on here.
• The Accessible Archives database in my opinion was not that easy to use. However, I think some valuable articles can be found on this database.
• The Historical Newspapers database was another database that I found useful.
• I also took a look at PA Civil War Era Newspapers Collection and the Civil War Era database but I did not find articles that I used in my research.

Definitely try using a variety of search terms when looking for relevant newspaper articles. Also, using the date limitation option on databases is a good way to weed out irrelevant newspaper articles.

Findings 

Clay McCauley

Clay McCauley is the member of the class of 1862 that I personally  find to be the most interesting so I decided to research him first. I began my newspaper research on Clay McCauley on a database called 19th Century U.S. Newspapers. I began by simply typing in “McCauley, Clay” into the search bar. I also used the date limitations for my search. I limited it to the earliest articles being from 1843 (the year McCauley was born) until 1899 (the latest year offered on the database). This database will not help me find articles about McCauley later in life, since the database strictly covers the 19th century only and McCualey died in 1925.

The first result that proved to be of interest was an article from a newspaper called The Congregationalist and the Boston Recorder and was published on August, 20, 1868. It describes when Clay McCauley was denied ordination as a Presbyterian minister because of his views on the ordination. He then turned to Unitarianism. This article was negative towards Clay McCauley because of this. I tried researching the partisan affiliation of The Congregationalist and the Boston Recorder but I did not find any affiliation.

The next interesting thing I found on the 19th Century U.S. Newspapers database was what appeared to be an article written by Clay McCauley himself, entitled Isolation on the Battlefield. I found this article by searching “MacCauley, Clay” instead of “McCauley, Clay”, due to the discrepancy in regards to the spelling of his surname. It was published in The Atchison Daily Globe on July, 11, 1888. I have interpreted this article to be a description of McCauley’s experience in the civil war.

I was very happy to find this article because I think it can prove to be very valuable if I decide to use Clay McCauley for my project.I knew from previous research that McCauley served in the civil war and was taken prisoner by the confederate army but I did not have much further information on his experience in the war. This article gives a firsthand account of how Clay McCauley felt while fighting in the civil war.

By far the best article I found on Clay McCauley was entitled “Progress in Japan” and was published in the Morning Oregonian on August, 1, 1895. I also found this article on the 19th Century U.S Newspapers database by adding Japan as one of my search terms, since I knew from previous research that Clay McCauley did missionary work in Japan. It thoroughly details Clay McCauley’s missionary work in Japan. It describes his work at the Senshin Sakuin school, which he was the head of. The school focused on religion, ethics, and the social sciences. The article contains quotes from Clay McCauley himself and a synopsis of his life story. I learned things about Clay McCauley that I did not know before, such as that he ministered to many congressmen, politicians, and even Spencer Fullerton Baird. I think this newspaper will prove to be very helpful if I choose to focus on Clay McCauley during my research project.

Although I found 19th Century Newspapers to be a useful and user-friendly database, I also wanted to use a database that had a more extensive date range. The next database I looked at in regards to Clay McCauley was the Chronicling America database created by the Library of Congress.

I found an 1899 article from  the Vermont Watchman entitled “McCauley Refuted”. The article recounts how McCauley made statements regarding General Otis and  Admiral Dewey’s views on the war in the Philippines. Apparently, McCauley said that General Otis and his subservient officers opposed the war and that Admiral Dewey intended to leave Manila. These statements were immediately controversial and quickly recounted. The article describes McCauley as a man who talks too much. What I found the most interesting about this article is that McCauley knew Admiral Dewey personally, someone who fellow member of the class of 1862, Benjamin Lamberton, worked with in the navy. This article makes me wonder if there is some kind of connection between Clay McCauley and Benjamin Lamberton outside of Dickinson College.

Benjamin Lamberton

I began my newspaper research on Benjamin Lamberton by using a database called Historical Archives. I did a simple search of his name. I found an obituary from the Washington Post entitled, “B.P. Lamberton Dies of Heart Disease in D.C.: Spanish American War Veteran, 60, Had Been Ill Two Week”, and I assumed this was about the same Benjamin P. Lamberton  I have been researching. However, once I read the article it turned out it was about a Benjamin Paulding Lamberton from Maine who took part in the Spanish American War. This goes to show that multiple people can have the same name and to always be cognizant of this.

I began to wonder if this other Benjamin P. Lamberton was a relative of the Benjamin P. Lamberton. I went to ancestry.com and searched for Benjamin Lamberton. I found some information regarding his parents and wife but I was not able to get concrete information on his children. It could be possible that this other Benjamin Lamberton is a descendent, but so far my research has not been able to confirm or deny.

I did find an obituary from the Washington Post about Benjamin Peffer Lamberton. I think this obituary is very valuable because it describes Lumberton’s career, experience in the Spanish-American war, hunting escapades with President Cleveland and his death. I think this obituary is the most helpful and informative article I have found on Benjamin Lamberton.

On the Historical Archives database, I also found a short article from the Washington Post about how Benjamin Lamberton was to be honored by Theta Delta Chi fraternity. I found this article to be interesting because it specifically references Dickinson College.

In the 19th Century U.S. Newspapers database, I found an article about Benjamin Lamberton going hunting with President Cleveland. I thought this article was compelling and Lamberton’s friendship with President Cleveland is an interesting fun fact.

 

 

               George William Caruth 

After my research on Clay McCauley and Benjamin Lamberton, I seemed to have hit a wall. I intended to research Martin Christian Herman and William P. Willey but my newspaper research on the two men did not rear any real results. This could be my own fault and I am not going to give up researching these two members of the class of 1862. However, I took this as an opportunity to research another member of the class of 1862 who I haven’t really looked at yet.

George William Caruth was born on March 7th, 1842 in Scottsville, Kentucky. He was a non-graduating member of the class of 1862. During his time at Dickinson, Caruth was a member of Sigma Chi and Union Philosophical Society. After college, he became a lawyer and then eventually Judge of the Supreme Court of Arkansas and a diplomat to Portugal.

The Daily Arkansas Gazette highlighted Caruth on his appointment. The article describes Caruth as an accomplished lawyer and distinguished man. The article speaks volumes on who George William Caruth was as a person and a professional. It is a good start into research on George William Caruth. The Daily Arkansas Gazette had a democratic political affiliation.

Reflection 

I originally thought that I was going to be researching Clay McCauley, Benjamin Lamberton, Martin Christian Herman and William P. Willey. I had trouble finding articles on Martin Christian Herman and William P. Willey so I turned to other members of my class. I would encourage other students to look past the members of their class who they find to be the most interesting, because you may find valuable information regarding other class members.Overall, I was very happy with most of the articles I found during my research. I was especially pleased with the articles I found about Clay McCauley. It was very time consuming but I uncovered a lot of information that I did not find during my reference research or my archival research. I plan to expand on this research by using microfilm at the Dickinson College library.

 

The next step I took in researching the Dickinson Class of 1852 was looking at 19^th century newspapers, through online databases. This process was both fruitful and time consuming. My basic strategy for finding useful information in these databases was searching for people, in the class  of 1852, who have confirmed death dates. This date helped me narrow my search to around the time of their death to look for an obituary. After looking through the Alumni Record: Dickinson College, I found that of the 55 graduating and non-graduating members of the class, only ten have an exact recorded death date on file. Using this information as a starting point, I then used the Dickinson Library Database Finder, to gain access to multiple websites with literally millions of century old newspapers on file. I started using the 19^th Century U.S. Newspapers database. Through previous research I have found that one of the most renowned members of this class is Charles Albright, so I started my search process with him. I confined my search to within a month of his death, figuring that if someone did write an obituary for him, it would be shortly after he died. This proved to be true as the second link that appeared was a copy of his obituary, published the day after his death. The 19^th Century U.S. Newspapers however, for multiple reasons, was not as helpful on the other members of my class. Some students died in the early 20^th century so the papers being published at the time of their death are not part of this database. After preforming the same search on the other nine members of this class and not finding anything I switched databases. After searching through other databases with no prevail, Accessible Archives and Civil War Era, I finally tried the Chronicling America database that is hosted by the Library of Congress. At this time, I decided to widen my search to articles in the life time of the person that I’m searching. The Chronicling America database proved to be extremely useful. Articles surfaced referring to some of the marriages that Reverend Thomas Sherlock officiated as well as another article talking about Sherlock’s unexpected death.

Published in The North American, Charles Albright’s obituary paints the picture of a well-rounded intellectual who lived a fulfilling life of service to his country as well as his community. After Dickinson Albright studied law up until the Civil War. When Broke out her volunteered with the One  Hundred and Thirty Second regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. Albright commanded a brigade in the Union Army at the Battle of Chancellorsville. He also served in the United States Congress after the War. (Albright is pictured right).

The North American  was a daily newspaper that  printed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from the years 1839- 1925. According to Chronicling America, the paper was prominent Whig newspaper. The Whig  party was formed due  to a dislike  of President Andrew Jackson and the Democrats. Their main grievances against the Democrats were, according to the Columbia Encyclopedia, “a severe dislike towards tyranny.”  Prominent national figures joined this party such as Henry Clay from Virginia and Daniel Webster from New Hampshire. The election of  1852 however,  “brought about a quick end to the party and its remnants gravitated toward other parties” (Columbia Encyclopedia). The main party that Whigs resorted  to after the collapse was the Republican party, the antislavery party. It can be inferred that that there would be some bias in this paper as it has clear Republican affiliations. Even the name shows quite clearly what side it is on, The North America. 

There is an incorrect statement in article below. Although Albright went to Dickinson for four years, he did not graduate with the class according to the Dickinson College Alumni Record.

 

There are many articles published that include Dickinson graduate Thomas Sherlock. He was a Methodist reverend who apparently officiated multiple weddings. These articles do not talk into detail  about Sherlock but they make it possible to recognize his work. Shown directly below are two of the articles that list Sherlock as  the reverend at the wedding  on from 1857 and one from 1859. Both of these articles were  published in The Star of The North.  Although it is not clear in these articles this paper affiliates with the Republican Party.

Courtesy of The Star of The North

This third article talks about the unexpected death of Reverend Thomas Sherlock.  According to the article Sherlock went out for a morning walk on the beach, suffered a hemorrhage and died on the spot. Although, this article  is  literally one paragraph long, it still has a powerful message.  Sherlock was a devoted priest but also had a strong sense of community. His death was completely unexpected. The Juniata Sentinel and Republican was a weekly newspaper that was printed in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania. The title makes the party affiliation clear.

Works Cited:

“Albright, Charles,” House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/4962.

“General Charles Albright of Carbon County”. The North American. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, September 29, 1880. [Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers].

George Leffingwell Reed, ed., Alumni Record: Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA: Dickinson College, 1905).

“The Whig Party.” The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th ed. New York, New York: Columbia UP, 2012. Print.

“Married”. The Star of the North. Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, January 13^th, 1858. [Chronicling America].

“Married”. The Star of the North. Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, November 16^th, 1859. [Chronicling America].

“Short Locals.” Juniata Sentinel and Republican. Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, September 2^nd, 1855. [Chronicling America].

     To further acquire information about Alexander Ramsey and Spencer Baird, I proceeded to search within the newspapers from the nineteen-century. For my investigation I used the 19th Century U.S. Newspapers database, the Historical Newspapers database, and Chronicling America Collection from the Library of Congress. The first resource that was used for the research was the 19^th century U.S Newspapers Database, which I found in the Library Database Finder of Dickinson College. I decided to start my investigation writing Alexander Ramsey using the search engine, I was interested in knowing more about Alexander Ramsey’s life when he was governor of Minnesota, thus I decided to do an advance search within the database to narrow the information obtained. In the advanced search engine, I looked up Alexander Ramsey specifically within the years 1849 to 1864. The reason why I started with 1849 was because that year, after Ramsey helped Zachary Taylor become president of the United States, Ramsey was appointed by Taylor as the designated governor of Minnesota. At first, Ramsey was hesitant to accept the job because he was more interested in being the Collector of the Port of Philly, which had a lot of economic benefits. However, he accepted it because he though it would help his political career. Unfortunately, I was not able to obtain the information that I wanted, thus I decided to further narrow my advanced search by adding the keywords: Ramsey, governor, Minnesota and the date range, 1849-1864. With this new detailed advanced search, I was able to obtain 306 results. The results ranged from when he was appointed governor, to when he was elected governor, and his involvement in the Dakota War.

“He is social, hearty and good humored, but cool, cautious, shrewd and persevering.” [1]

    Out of all of the results, the article that got my attention was from the Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette newspaper. The article was published on April 26, 1849 and talked about Alexander Ramsey being appointed governor of Minnesota. In the article it stated that they got information regarding the appointment of Ramsey from a variety of newspapers located in Philadelphia. Then the article talks about the different faculties and qualities that made Ramsey the perfect choice for being assigned governor of Minnesota, which included his extensive experience and character. The article also gives a detailed description of his political career, which started with working in the “Secretary of the Harrison Electoral College of 1840.” [2] Afterwards the article describes his German and Irish descent, and reinstates Ramsey’s character. A point that got my attention from the article was at the end when it stated that Ramsey had the ability to deal with the Native Americans from the region. Because of the way the Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette was talking about Ramsey in the article I was curious to know its partisan affiliation. In order to obtain the information, I search on Google “Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette partisan affiliation 1800s”. I found a reliable source, which by no surprise said that it was a Whig paper; I also found a book called Memoirs of Milwaukee County in Google Books. The book described the Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette as “then the leading Whig organ in the Territory.” [3] Since the moment I read the article I knew there had to be a connection between the party and the paper because while you read the paper you notice that it is biased.

    Because I was even curious about how the Dakota War was portrayed by newspapers in general, I decided to search it on the 19th Century U.S. Newspapers database.  To start my search, I did the advanced search and typed Dakota war, governor Ramsey, and set the publication dates from 1862 to 1864, but I was not able to found any results. Then I remember that the tribe that participated in the War was the Sioux, so I decided to take out Dakota War in the search and replace it for Sioux War. By replacing the names, I obtained a result from the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel. The article was useful because it described the war. Even though I obtained one result, I decided to shift the advance search in order to try to obtain a broader amount of results. I proceeded to search using the following keywords: Sioux, Ramsey and the range of the dates, 1862-1864. With this new search I was able to obtain 45 results. Reading the articles, sparked my curiosity on what was Ramsey’s point of view of the war. However, because within the results there were mostly the same type of articles, I proceeded to change databases and search within the Historical Newspapers database.

“The public safety imperatively requires it. Justice calls for it. Humanity itself outraged by their unutterable atrocities demand it. The blood of the murdered cries to heaven for vengeance on these assassins of women and children.” – Gov. Ramsey [4]

     On the Historical Newspaper database I started my research by typing governor Ramsey, Sioux, Indian War and set the publications from the years 1862 to 1864. From the results, I selected one that caught my attention because of its caption. The caption was “Governor Ramsey’s message”. [5] The article was from September 17, 1862 published on the Chicago Tribune.  It was Ramsey’s message about the conflict. After reading the article I decided to choose it to continue my research because it gave an inside perspective of what Ramsey was thinking during the first part of the war. The Chicago Tribune was a six-column newspaper and the article covered two of those six.  On the article, there were extracts of the message that Ramsey gave. These extracts talked about the beginning of the conflict, which was when a group of four Indians from the Sioux tribe on August 17, 1862, killed a white family of six. [6] In his message Ramsey also talked about his plan to stop the conflict; which was by forming a campaign against the tribe which final goal to be the kill the entire tribe. Ramsey also talked about the punishments he was going to implement which were killing the Indians. Because the Chicago Tribune gave extracts of Ramsey’s message I got curious about which partisan affiliations it had. After searching I found that it was affiliated with the Republican party.

     For my research on Spencer F. Baird I decided to begin the search within the Historical Newspaper database. With Baird, I was curious to know more about his work in the Smithsonian Museum. It intrigued me that the first 10 articles were obituaries of his death from different newspapers. This made me think that he had a great impact in his job and community. One that struck me was from October 11, 1887, published in The Washington Post. The caption of the article read “The Late Prof. Baird’s Will“.  [7] Even though the article is extremely short it had a great amount of information. The article stated that Baird would leave everything to his wife and daughter and if they were to die without heirs all of his possessions would go to the Smithsonian.  I was impressed they would release that information to the press because it never occurred me the press was allowed to release someone’s will.

“It may safely be estimated that at least three-fourths of scientific exchanges of this country and of Europe now pass through the Smithsonian Institution” – Spencer F. Baird [8]

    To obtain more information, I decided to continue my research in the Chronicling America Collection from the Library of Congress. The keywords chosen for this search engine were the following: Spencer F. Baird, Smithsonian, and the publications ranged from 1850-1887. I decided to range the publications between these years because Baird started working in the Smithsonian Institution on 1850 and he died in 1887. Similarly, to the past results, the results obtained from this search were mostly obituaries. However, I was able to find an article published by the Weekly National Intelligencer in January 14,1854, that I thought would be relevant to the information that I was striving to obtain. The newspaper was a six column newspaper and the article was two and half columns long. The article was a detailed yearly report that the Smithsonian needed to present to Congress informing the operations of the year, which included publications, travels, collections, books received and reports. For me this was really interesting because I had never heard that before that the Smithsonian had to give annual reports. The article describes with detail parts of the report. It also mentions a special report that Baird made about scientific exchanges between Europe and the Smithsonian, and scientific explorations. Personally, I considered this article to be interesting because of the amount of information it has regarding how the Smithsonian used to operate, and Baird’s involvement in it after.

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[1]”The New Governor of Minnesota,” Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette, pag. 2, column 2 (Milwaukee), April. 5, 1849. link of article

[2] “The New Governor of Minnesota,” Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette,  pag. 2, column 2 (Milwaukee), April. 5, 1849. link of article

[3] Watrous, Jeremy Anthony, Memoirs of Milwaukee County (Madison : Western Historical Association, 1909), 97. Link

[4] “Governor Ramsey’s Message,” Chicago Tribune, pag. 3, column 3 (Chichago), Sep. 17, 1862. link of article

[5] “Governor Ramsey’s Message,” Chicago Tribune, p. 3, column 3 (Chichago), Sep. 17, 1862. link of article

[6] “Governor Ramsey’s Message,” Chicago Tribune, p. 3, column 3 (Chichago), Sep. 17, 1862. link of article

[7] “The Late Prof. Baird’s Will,” The Washington Post, p. 3, column 2 (Washington), Oct. 11, 1887. link of article

[8] “The Smithson Institution,”  Weekly National Intelligencer, p. 4, column 1-3, Jan. 14, 1854 Link of article

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References:

“Governor Ramsey’s Message.” Chicago Tribune, pag. 3, column 3 (Chichago), Sep. 17, 1862. link of article

“The Late Prof. Baird’s Will.” The Washington Post, p. 3, column 2 (Washington), Oct. 11, 1887. link of article

“The New Governor of Minnesota.” Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette, pag. 2, column 2 (Milwaukee), April. 5, 1849. link of article

“The Smithson Institution,”  Weekly National Intelligencer, p. 4, column 1-3, Jan. 14, 1854 Link of article

Watrous, Jeremy Anthony. Memoirs of Milwaukee County. Madison: Western Historical Association, 1909, 97. Link

 

 Newspaper Research

Columbia Spy (Columbia, PA)., Saturday, July 4, 1868; Front Page: Column 7

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To get a feel for using different online databases, and as a preliminary check, I ran John Franklin Goucher’s name through Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, Accessible Archives, Civil War Era, and Historical Newspapers; all subscription based collections available through Dickinson. No results in the first three, but there was a short piece on a reception held for Goucher at the University of Southern California in the Historical Newspapers Database.

Unlike the other resources, with this one there were over a hundred results, but many of them either had no mention of Goucher, or were brought up simply because they included the names “John” or “Franklin”. A search of “Goucher” with the same date restrictions had more results, as could be expected, which meant a greatly increased number of extraneous articles, and a couple that were actually relevant to my research, like obituaries. I also ran “Goucher” through the other subscription-based sites, and had results similar to my first searches there.

This isn’t entirely unexpected; Goucher and everyone else in the Class of 1868 lived most of their adult lives after the time of the Civil War. Goucher in particular was known for his international presence, and is therefore unlikely to have been a major subject in any of the more local publications, especially those that focused on the after-effects of the war, or issues of race in post-slavery America.

“Dickinson College” had similarly lackluster results in all the aforementioned programs. It’s important to note that this is due in part to my search terms. I didn’t dedicate more than a couple hours to searches in these databases. There are many more combinations of words and places to try– I didn’t exhaust all my options in that respect by any stretch of the imagination. However, there is a point when perseverance becomes inefficient and it makes more sense to move on to other sources if they are available.

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Chronicling  America was the most useful for my purposes. Simple searches of “John Franklin Goucher” and “Dickinson College” bring up the kind of specific results needed for this entry. There are obituaries, notices of departure in the social pages, and for Dickinson College, two articles explaining financial difficulties.

After these discoveries, the challenge became finding articles that offered a different or unique perspective, while also providing information. In 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, I found a paragraph on Alexander Cook Chenoweth in the gossip pages of a New Orleans publication that mentions the discovery of several ancient artifacts on his property, and his own amateur archaeological pursuits. There was very little information of substance, though, so it’s the obituary from Chronicling America that I’ve included here:

New-York tribune., April 16, 1922, Page 14: Column 6

This excerpt provides a tidy summary of A .C. Chenoweth’s life, and perhaps areas for further research– for example, records of the Croton aqueduct, or those of the various societies of which he was a member.

The partisan leanings of a newspaper are unlikely to have a huge effect on its obituary of a non-political figure, but regardless, I looked at the “New-York Tribune” description in the Chronicling History website: it was Republican-affiliated.

The only other article of interest I could find related to Chenoweth, again with 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, was one detailing his claim to a large portion of the city of Baltimore, due to what he maintained were his ancestral ties to Oliver Cromwell. All in all, he seems a rather eccentric figure.

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Through Chronicling America, this time with the search “Goucher anglo-japanese college”, I located this article:

 

Evening star., November 22, 1907, Page 18: Column 1

Full page here, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Chronicling America.

This piece in the Evening Star (no political affiliation, according to Chronicling America, Wikipedia, and Readex) addresses not only Goucher’s resignation as President of the college he founded, but also his various involvements in other educational institutions, his philanthropy, and his Methodist missionary work around the world. It has greater detail than the majority of obituaries I examined.

This was by no means the only article made available with these search terms; I had a hard time deciding which to include. There are multiple articles on missionary activity, including one detailing Methodist Conference allocation of funds according to country and program. Goucher is mentioned, again for his association with the Anglo-Japanese College. There is more on the College that doesn’t have to do with Goucher; many newspapers tracked the travels of the “First Japanese Bishop”, a man named Honda who made multiple visits to the U.S. for Methodist conventions and speeches on global education. He was a graduate of Aoyama Gakuin (the Anglo-Japanese College), and so appeared in many of my searches.

To track down John Franklin Goucher in foreign publications, I first tried to find a list of Methodist missionary newspapers. Yale has a very comprehensive list, but I was unable to locate links to actual PDF files of the papers, which leads me to believe many have not yet been digitized. Princeton has a digitized collection of the “Japan Mail”, an english-language paper based in Yokohama in the 19th century, that I believe might include more information on the Anglo-Japanese College and perhaps Goucher himself. Unfortunately, access is only available for Princeton students.

Lastly, there is a link that pops up in the Dickinson Database Search when one types in “Historical Newspapers”. Historical Chinese Newspapers is a resource I have yet to fully explore, but a quick search of Goucher’s name reveals that he had an obituary in the “Chinese Recorder”, a newspaper based in Shanghai:

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Returning to Pennsylvania, I located two articles dealing with Dickinson College’s lack of an endowment in 1866. The more entertaining read is this heartfelt plea for funds from an unknown author in the “New York Methodist”:

The evening telegraph., October 19, 1866, FIFTH EDITION, Page 2: Column 3

In short, the article describes Dickinson’s position as a bastion of the Methodist faith, from its great founders to the fine young men it educates in the mid 19th century. It also details the college’s need for funds, as money is apparently so short that the faculty is only paid half of their due, and the entire institution is in danger of shutting down.

This would have been extremely relevant to the students enrolled in the college at the time. There may be exaggeration in the article, but regardless, the uncertainty of the future of the school would have had an impact, particularly on the faculty, if the account is to be believed.

Clearly the appeal worked, as Dickinson is still functioning today.

Full page here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Additional Work

Local Carlisle newspapers from the 19th century have not yet been digitalized, so the only way to access them is through microfilm. I was able to examine the Carlisle Herald through the records of the Cumberland County Historical Society.

The Carlisle Herald was a Republican-affiliated publication during the years I focused on, 1864 to 1868 (Fralish). This partisan tilt was evident in its endorsement of Ulysses S. Grant in the first column of every second page. There was also the occasional snide comment directed towards more Democratic-leaning papers, and multiple references to “Copperheads”, a Republican term for anti-war Democrats (Wikipedia.com).

It took two hours of flipping through microfilm to go backwards from August 1868 to October 1866, looking for any mention of Dickinson College or its students. In this brief span, I was unable to uncover any particularly compelling accounts of student activities. The class of 1868 appears to have been relatively well behaved.

I found an article on the death of Dickinson President Andrew Johnson and his obituary, a piece on the 1868 Commencement and all the events associated with graduation, and something about the anniversary celebrations for the Belles Lettres and Union Philosophical societies. In terms of relevance, Johnson’s death probably had the most impact on the students, but the other two articles directly mention members of the class of 1868 by name and detail the subjects about which they spoke, something that, to me, is of greater interest.

Commencement Article

Literary Societies

Page numbers were not listed anywhere on the microfilm images, so it was impossible to note on which page these articles were, however, I did note the dates: the literary society article was in the Friday, December 24, 1866 edition, and the Commencement in the Friday, June 26, 1868. Neither are on the title page. They fall under the “Town and County” section of the news.

There was no author listed for either.

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As a final note, I discovered something interesting in the microfilm. There are a surprising number of international topics mentioned in the Carlisle Herald for a small-town Pennsylvania publication.

There were stories on the excavations at Pompeii, articles titled “Japanese Men and Women”, “Exploration of the Nile Tributaries”, “An Eastern Romance” (this supposedly taking place in Cairo), “An immense gold-field has been discovered in Peru”, “Burning Widows” in “Jhallowar, Rajpoutara” and the “Exposition Universelle” in Paris, just to name a few.  This seems an excellent topic for later exploration: the way young Americans in 1868 perceived the world, and how they were influenced by the publications of the time.

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Citations

“Mid-19th Century Cumberland County Newspapers”, John C. Fralish, In the collections of the Cumberland County Historical Society.

Wikipedia.com

Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers (through Dickinson College subscription)

Accessible Archives (through Dickinson College subscription)

Civil War Era (through Dickinson College subscription)

Historical Newspapers (through Dickinson College subscription)

PA Civil War Era Newspapers Collection (Penn State)

Chronicling America (Library of Congress)

Historical Chinese Newspapers (through Dickinson College subscription)

My third foray into the world of historical research began with Horatio Collins King. He is one of the two big contenders for the subject of my final project, given that the Dickinson Archives has his entire journal documenting his four years at Dickinson, so I wanted to see what newspapers have written about him.

The first article I found [HC King campaign] was for King’s campaign for Secretary of State from the New York Times in 1895, and was a very obvious example of political bias in 19^th century newspapers. It was fairly interesting and clearly biased- almost like an advertisement to vote for the Democrat H.C. King. The article had a fairly thorough biography of his life, and made him out to be extremely intelligent and heroic. There wasn’t too much in the article that I didn’t already know, but I was intrigued by the clear bias shown by the writers.[1]

Another article I found on Horatio Collins King-there were a lot-was from the Washington Times on March 4, 1914. The article’s title was “Gen. King, Orator and Author, Is Ill,” and the article the article (like the last one) mostly provided a short biography of his life. It’s starting to become apparent to me in this search how famous Horatio

Collins King became, for a fairly popular newspaper to feel the need to write an entire article just because he gets sick. I also noticed that the article states that King was “chiefly known to fame, however, as an author.”[2] I knew he wrote books, but I had no idea they became at all popular. King’s popularity and very interesting and diverse life would definitely give me a lot of material to study and work with, but for some reason I just don’t find him intriguing as other, less easy ideas that I have. I will have to keep looking into him as well, though, because I don’t want to limit myself to one subject of research just yet.

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My biggest concern (I like to save the best for last) was to find something useful on my most interesting student, Joshua Allen Lippincott. I was hardly able to find anything of significance (other than a possible secret family) on him during my first two research attempts, but I would not accept defeat this time. I was really hoping to find a connection between Lippincott and the Carlisle Indian School, so after searching for King, I began to look for newspaper articles with that focus in mind.

My tenacity helped me devise a number of different research terms, including “Lippincott AND Carlisle,” “Lippincott AND Indian,” “Lippincott AND Pratt,” and of course including all of the 50 billion different ways one can spell the name Lippincott. I searched endlessly on multiple different newspaper databases, including 19^th Century American Newspapers, Accessible Archives, and Historical Newspapers, but to no avail. However, this time, I did not give up my search.

The first relevant document found was an obituary from the LA Times entitled “Noted Educator Passed Here,” found on ProQuest [LA Times Obituary]. At first I was disappointed, but then something peaked my interest at the bottom of the short article:

“The only surviving relative in this part of the country is his son, J. B. Lippincott.”[3] This is the second piece of evidence I have found in my research that proves that Joshua Lippincott did have a family, despite the fact that the Dickinson Archives’ biography of him states otherwise. It wasn’t the find I was looking for, but it’s definitely exciting.

 

 

 

My lucky search term was “Lippincott AND Carlisle,” in the Chronicling America database, as I found two relevant results. The first was from the Lancaster Daily Intelligencer:

As seen above, the article states that Lippincott was “an active friend of the well-known Indian school at that place.”[4] FINALLY! It wasn’t much; in fact, it’s basically nothing, but I finally have documentary evidence beyond one single reference source that Lippincott was in fact involved with the Carlisle Indian School- even an “active friend.” Now, I can continue searching with confidence that there is some sort of impact he must have made on the institution for a newspaper for a town an away (by today’s standards) to specifically write about it.

The second article, from The Billings Herald, gives me even more insight into Lippincott’s connection to the Indian School:In describing the addition of 56 new students to the Indian School, the article implies that Lippincott was the one who brought them from their homes. It also mentions a “commissioner of Indian Affairs,” and I am not sure if this is Lippincott or a different individual, but now I at least know that Lippincott brought (took? I am not entirely sure about the methods used to populate the school’s student body) the Native children to the Indian School on at least two occasions.[5] This is an amazing find, as I went from not even being completely sure that Lippincott even had any sort of meaningful connection with the Indian School to learning all of this information. My tenacity and army of search terms pulled through!

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[1] “Gen. Horatio C. King: Democratic Candidate for Office of Secretary of State,” New York Times (New York, NY), Oct. 6, 1895, 21:1 [Proquest}.

[2] “Gen. King, Orator and Author, Is Ill,” Washington Times (Washington, DC), March 4, 1914, 14:1 [Chronicling America].

[3] “Noted Educator Passes Here,” Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA), Dec. 31, 1906, 17:5 [Proquest].

[4] “Personal,” Lancaster Daily Intelligencer (Lancaster, PA), Aug. 25, 1883, 2:2 [Chronicling America].

[5] “General News Summary,” Billings Herald (Billings, MT), Oct. 5, 1882, 2:3 [Chronicling America].

Collections Search

While researching for information about Dickinson College Class of 1852, the Dickinson College Archives & Special Collections was an excellent resource. In order to find more information about my class I started online, using the college archives website. These list were honestly less helpful than I was hoping. Due to the overwhelming number of pictures, letters, diaries, newspapers, speeches and numerous other items I was, at first, unsure of where exactly to take my search. My class is relatively big, 21 graduates and 34 non-graduates, but there isn’t any one figure that stands out above the rest such as a head of the Smithsonian or the President of the United States. Based on previous research, one area that sparked interest for me was social involvement. Although I did not really know how to find relevant information on such a topic College Archivist James Gerencser and Special Collections Librarian Melinda Doran were extremely helpful. In the first class I had in the archives I was presented with a commencement address written by one of the graduating members of my class, John McCarty. When I first looked over the original copy of John McCarty’s commencement speech I thought that this speech was some sort of graduation address, as they are now. However, during another class in the archives classroom, college archivist James Gerencser informed me, “during this time period every student needed to write a speech, almost like a senior thesis, in order to graduate.” Using finding aides in the archives I was later able to locate more of these commencement speeches. After further research I found that there were in fact 10 speeches in the archives, all in remarkably good condition. These documents provided me with plenty of relevant information about the class of 1852.

Document Identification 

The teachable items that I found at the archives all stem from the first archive that I saw from the class of 1852, a commencement speech by John McCarty. Using McCarty’s speech as a base these speeches were an excellent source for looking into some of the relevant issues facing this class. McCarthy’s speech, titled “A Word for the Poor”, talks about the divide between classes the rich and the poor. He writes about the importance of awareness in terms of the causes of poverty as well as the problems that come with it. On page two of his speech McCarty writes, “Indolence should not be lost sight of as a cause of poverty; she has her victims as well as votaries: those who follow in her train will not always receive the propitious smiles of fortune.” He is warning against the temptations of laziness as he states that it can lead directly to poverty. This speech provides a lot of questions for further inquiry. What were McCarty’s motives for writing about poverty? Other than being born in Allegheny county, Maryland, what facts are known about his home life an upbringing? Perhaps McCarty is writing because he has seen firsthand the pains and sufferings that come with poverty. Did Dickinson College offer classes on the importance of financial stability, driving McCarty’s passion for economic importance? What other ideas were stressed in his classmate’s speeches?

After reading over the other nine speeches from McCarty’s classmates, there seems to be little relevance between McCarty’s speech and his classmates. Other speeches, such as William Andrew Snively’s talks about human development, character and the importance of personal opinion, in a piece titled “The War of Opinion. Joseph Blake Wilson also writes about general human interactions by focusing on inevitable biases, and selfishness. The title of Wilson’s speech is “The Instability of Popular Favor”. Finally, Christian Z.P. Humrich focuses on political justice and protection with a speech titled “Our Destiny”. Although they do not line up with what McCarty was writing about, all of these commencement speeches were very insightful. They showed that there is a similarity between issues 164 years ago, and modern day. One of the most telling signs of this similarity is the picture left at the bottom of Snively’s speech. Shown below, this picture serves as proof that students have been doodling for more than a century.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below is my transcription of the  first paragraph of McCarty’s  speech:

When we see a man in all his symmetry of form, and perfection of in-/ tellect of struggling up the ascent free from the depravities and wicked-/ ness of life, his virtues everything a genial influence upon his fellow/ the scene calls up an emotion of grandeur and sublimity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited:

Humrich, Christian Philip Ziegler. “Our Destiny”. Address delivered at Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, 8 July 1852. Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

McCarty, John. “A Word for the Poor”. Address delivered at Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, 8 July 1852. Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

Snively, William Andrew. “The War of Opinion”. Address delivered at Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, 8 July 1852. Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.

Wilson, Joseph Blake. “The Instability of Popular Favor”. Address delivered at Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, 8 July 1852. Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.