Hey everyone -
I'm playing catch-up with everyone's blogs. I've finally responded to several posts that I wanted to. I spent the weekend at a conference in Detroit. In case you've never been to one, history conferences consist of a bunch of researchers from all over the country (and sometimes world) discussing a common field. This conference was specifically geared for labor historians and I presented on a section of one of my dissertation chapters. As much as I HATE presenting in front of a group of strangers, the talk went over really well. People were very supportive and I got some great feedback. Plus I got to hear some other great presentations as well.
Remember at the end of the semester, each of you will be responsible for presenting your research in front of the class. In case anyone has any reservations about presenting in front of a group, please remember that we're here to support each other, not criticize! Hopefully, as college students, you've all learned by now that, when it comes to education, all we can do is learn more! I've already learned a lot about labor history from the class just by listening and reading about your research, so please remember how valuable your ideas are. Please don't be afraid to share them!
I'm planning on going over some information about the paper on Tuesday, so please come to class prepared to ask questions and get help! Bring any work you've done so far with you. I'm not going to be judging the amount of work you have, but you may end up getting some valuable help from the class!
That's all for now!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Extra Credit
As I stated in class on Thursday, the next three weeks will be open to an extra credit opportunity that could boost your blog grade up by .5 (on a 4.0 scale). Here's what you need to do:
Visit the REOlds Transportation Museum at 240 Museum Drive, Lansing (this is just east of the Capitol and just off of Michigan Ave.).
A link to the museum can be found here.
Be sure to keep your receipt or some sort of proof that you visited the museum.
Write a two-page paper (12 pt Times New Roman, double-spaced) about your experience at the museum. I would like you to analyze how well the museum portrayed the history of the REOlds company. Who is represented in this museum? Workers? Founders? Lansing? What was your impression of REOlds after your visit? Was it different than your impression of the REOlds family that Lisa Fine writes about in her book? Provide specific examples!
While you are there, be sure to look for the baby REO! Kind of like a Power Wheels car for a super rich kid!
Visit the REOlds Transportation Museum at 240 Museum Drive, Lansing (this is just east of the Capitol and just off of Michigan Ave.).
A link to the museum can be found here.
Be sure to keep your receipt or some sort of proof that you visited the museum.
Write a two-page paper (12 pt Times New Roman, double-spaced) about your experience at the museum. I would like you to analyze how well the museum portrayed the history of the REOlds company. Who is represented in this museum? Workers? Founders? Lansing? What was your impression of REOlds after your visit? Was it different than your impression of the REOlds family that Lisa Fine writes about in her book? Provide specific examples!
While you are there, be sure to look for the baby REO! Kind of like a Power Wheels car for a super rich kid!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Archives Trivia
Ladies and Gents -
Portia has asked me to pass this information along to you: It's worth a shot and a good way to test your MSU history knowledge:
October is American Archives Month. In order to celebrate archives, the MSU Archives & Historical Collections is holding a trivia contest.
The questions can be accessed via Survey Monkey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W2VDRXZ
The contest is open to MSU faculty, staff and students; MSU alumni; and the greater Lansing community. This contest opens on Monday, October 4 and will end on Friday, October 29. Three winners will be chosen at random from among the correct entries and will be notified during the first week of November. This year’s prize is a color reproduction of a class rivalry poster. To learn more about the Freshman-Sophomore class rivalry and see poster samples, see our blog post at: http://msuarchives.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/class-rivalry-posters-on-flickr/
Good luck and thank you for playing!!
Portia has asked me to pass this information along to you: It's worth a shot and a good way to test your MSU history knowledge:
October is American Archives Month. In order to celebrate archives, the MSU Archives & Historical Collections is holding a trivia contest.
The questions can be accessed via Survey Monkey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W2VDRXZ
The contest is open to MSU faculty, staff and students; MSU alumni; and the greater Lansing community. This contest opens on Monday, October 4 and will end on Friday, October 29. Three winners will be chosen at random from among the correct entries and will be notified during the first week of November. This year’s prize is a color reproduction of a class rivalry poster. To learn more about the Freshman-Sophomore class rivalry and see poster samples, see our blog post at: http://msuarchives.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/class-rivalry-posters-on-flickr/
Good luck and thank you for playing!!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Possible Sources
Hey folks -
I was looking through the Library of Congress' website and just did a quick search for Clifton, Arizona where my research is based. It came up with several sources that could be potentially useful in my research. It's definitely worth taking a few minutes to see if there's anything digitized on there that could be helpful for your own work.
Library of Congress
I was looking through the Library of Congress' website and just did a quick search for Clifton, Arizona where my research is based. It came up with several sources that could be potentially useful in my research. It's definitely worth taking a few minutes to see if there's anything digitized on there that could be helpful for your own work.
Library of Congress
Monday, October 4, 2010
Interviews
For Thursday's class, I'd like you to listen to the following interviews in addition to reading Chap. 3 of the Pursuit of History:
Peggy Terry, migrant worker, Part 1&2
Sally Rand, fan dancer
Tony Soma, speakeasy owner
These interviews are about the Depression Era. The recordings for each of these interviews can be found here.
The interviewer for each of these recordings was Studs Terkel. A short bio about him can be found here.
While you listen to each interview, I'd like you to answer the following questions. Please jot your answers down somewhere and bring them to class with you so that we can talk more about them.
*What do you know about the interviewer? About the interviewee? What can this information tell us about the interview before we even listen to it?
*What information, from each interview, did you find especially useful or insightful (if you were studying this time period)?
*What types of precautions should historians take for listening to these interviews (provide specific examples from each interview)?
*Which interview was your favorite and why?
....
If you are planning on using oral interviews in your research paper (including your own interviews or interviews that others conducted) this class is mandatory!
Peggy Terry, migrant worker, Part 1&2
Sally Rand, fan dancer
Tony Soma, speakeasy owner
These interviews are about the Depression Era. The recordings for each of these interviews can be found here.
The interviewer for each of these recordings was Studs Terkel. A short bio about him can be found here.
While you listen to each interview, I'd like you to answer the following questions. Please jot your answers down somewhere and bring them to class with you so that we can talk more about them.
*What do you know about the interviewer? About the interviewee? What can this information tell us about the interview before we even listen to it?
*What information, from each interview, did you find especially useful or insightful (if you were studying this time period)?
*What types of precautions should historians take for listening to these interviews (provide specific examples from each interview)?
*Which interview was your favorite and why?
....
If you are planning on using oral interviews in your research paper (including your own interviews or interviews that others conducted) this class is mandatory!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
New Readings on ANGEL and some other stuff...
I've posted the assigned chapters of next week's readings on ANGEL. Please either print them out or bring your laptop to class next week so you have the readings in front of you to reference.
As a side note, I'm using the third edition because it was the only one available at the library.
Next Thursday we will be reading oral histories as well. This would be a good time to incorporate that workshop I was referring to for conducting research interviews. If you are interested in doing interviews as a part of your research, please plan to attend.
I'd like to thank all of you that have been attending classes regularly despite the early hour, dreary weather, and lack of attendance policy. Your continued participation will undoubtedly reflect the quality of work that you continue to do for this class. I thought that the small workshop today went really well and I'm glad to see we have a community of researchers interested in their project!
The blogs are looking fantastic as well! You guys have done a great job keeping them updated and keeping up with everyone's posts. I've seen some really great suggestions and stories so far and I'm looking forward to continuing to read them! If you haven't been writing as much as you think you should, I'd encourage you just to write a few things every few days. You do not need to make grandiose entries (it's a blog, not a book!) and feel free to write about anything you find, need help with, think, etc.
On a final history related note, my uncle just gave me several photo albums that my grandmother had put together when she was younger. She passed away in 1990 and I just now discovered that these were in our family's possession! There are two full albums that document her life growing up in a coal mining town in Western PA. I'm in the process of digitizing them for our family, so here are a few pictures:
My grandmother and her brother posing in rather fancy clothes behind their not-so-fancy house.
Picture of my grandfather(left) before he was married to my grandmother.
Oliphant Baseball Team (my grandfather played for them).
The actual town is called Oliphant Furnace and is located in Western Pennsylvania. It was a small mining community based around the cokeworks. Talk about a mining community - they even had "furnace" in their town name!
Thanks for letting me share a bit of family history!
As a side note, I'm using the third edition because it was the only one available at the library.
Next Thursday we will be reading oral histories as well. This would be a good time to incorporate that workshop I was referring to for conducting research interviews. If you are interested in doing interviews as a part of your research, please plan to attend.
I'd like to thank all of you that have been attending classes regularly despite the early hour, dreary weather, and lack of attendance policy. Your continued participation will undoubtedly reflect the quality of work that you continue to do for this class. I thought that the small workshop today went really well and I'm glad to see we have a community of researchers interested in their project!
The blogs are looking fantastic as well! You guys have done a great job keeping them updated and keeping up with everyone's posts. I've seen some really great suggestions and stories so far and I'm looking forward to continuing to read them! If you haven't been writing as much as you think you should, I'd encourage you just to write a few things every few days. You do not need to make grandiose entries (it's a blog, not a book!) and feel free to write about anything you find, need help with, think, etc.
On a final history related note, my uncle just gave me several photo albums that my grandmother had put together when she was younger. She passed away in 1990 and I just now discovered that these were in our family's possession! There are two full albums that document her life growing up in a coal mining town in Western PA. I'm in the process of digitizing them for our family, so here are a few pictures:
My grandmother and her brother posing in rather fancy clothes behind their not-so-fancy house.
Picture of my grandfather(left) before he was married to my grandmother.
Oliphant Baseball Team (my grandfather played for them).
The actual town is called Oliphant Furnace and is located in Western Pennsylvania. It was a small mining community based around the cokeworks. Talk about a mining community - they even had "furnace" in their town name!
Thanks for letting me share a bit of family history!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Just a Reminder...
Hey everyone -
Don't forget that you want to be well on your way in the research process with your upcoming proposal and annotated bibliography due in a little over a week! If you have any questions about where to find things or if you're still having trouble with a topic, please come see me soon.
On Friday I stopped by the MSU archives (at Conrad Hall) because I had to do some outside research for a class I'm taking. I am researching the history of Demonstration Hall and needed to find some old photographs of it as well. When I walked in I told Portia what I was researching and she was able to find several folders for me. Here are a couple of the photographs:
Photo courtesy Michigan State University Archives
Photo courtesy of Michigan State University Archives
Don't forget that you want to be well on your way in the research process with your upcoming proposal and annotated bibliography due in a little over a week! If you have any questions about where to find things or if you're still having trouble with a topic, please come see me soon.
On Friday I stopped by the MSU archives (at Conrad Hall) because I had to do some outside research for a class I'm taking. I am researching the history of Demonstration Hall and needed to find some old photographs of it as well. When I walked in I told Portia what I was researching and she was able to find several folders for me. Here are a couple of the photographs:
Photo courtesy Michigan State University Archives
Photo courtesy of Michigan State University Archives
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