Monday - Post-Halloween/Sugar Rush and Back to the Grind

I'm reading quite a few blog posting over the past couple of days that seem to be saying the same thing: everyone's busy with term papers, midterm exams, etc. I know how overwhelming work can get around this time of the semester. I'm also feeling the crunch of being past the mid-semester mark and needing to do a LOT of work for my dissertation chapter. Best of luck to everyone!

I know you're all busy trying to crank out a rough draft for this class as well. The readings for the next couple of weeks are not too long, however, and I'm hoping that you have a chance to finish them and come prepared to class to discuss the readings. I'm preparing some good discussions for this week and next, but they will probably be much more interesting to you if you do the readings! The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction tackles some conceptual ideas that would give you some major bonus points (hint, hint) if you could begin to think about them in your own paper (such as race, citizenship, etc.). The amount of contribution you put into the class and discussion will directly reflect your own performance on your final project.

I'll have lots of primary sources to share this week and next concerning our topic of discussion as well. Here's a newspaper clipping:
New York Times, October 7, 1904

I'll also try to share several of the photographs from Clifton Morenci that I found in the archives while I was there.


Mr. Risdon was the town photographer in this area of Clifton-Morenci at the turn-of-the-twentieth century. His work documents the diverse families and communities that were in this small mining area at this time. The family pictured above is unidentified but speaks to the fact that Arizona's frontier was comprised of people of various backgrounds and ethnic identities. Many of these photos may challenge our own understanding of what communities and families looked like at the turn-of-the-twentieth century.