I just wanted to add briefly to Brenna's discourse on Halloween. I remember learning in religious ed. classes years ago that the tradition of Trick or Treating comes from a practice more intimately related to the Holy Days that follow Halloween. Children would go around the neighborhood asking for soul cakes, which had little slips of paper on them with a deceased family member's name. The children chanted, "a soul cake, a soul cake, a prayer for a soul cake," meaning that in return for the yummy cake, they would pray for the deceased family member.
If you have any other fun Halloween anecdotes about the origins of our traditions (the legend of Jack O'Lantern is a really fun tale!) or anything else about the holiday, feel free to comment away!!! Happy Halloween, and All Saints' Day!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Holiday History: This Is Hallowe’en!
Happy Halloween everybody! Or, as the ancient Celts would have said, Meighach Samhain (according to Bess)! In honor of this lovely day, we (meaning Brenna) are providing a brief description of the lineage of this spooky holiday and its companion days, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.
Hallowe’en, or All Hallows’ Eve, is the night before All Saints' Day in the Christian calendar. However, the basis of our actual Halloween practices date back to the pagan holiday of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). Samhain is the second of the Druidic fire holidays, the other one being Beltane (May Day). Beltane was all about fertility, with the coming of spring. Samhain was a preparation for the coming of winter.
It was also believed that this was a time in the year when the veil separating this world and the beyond was at its thinnest. This meant that magics would be more powerful, and that the sidhe (faeries) and other such creatures would be seen more in this realm; it also meant a unique closeness to the dead. One Samhain tradition was to set a place at the table for every member of your family who had died so that you could eat with them.
However, superstitions about the Druidic beliefs about the presence of spirits beside those of the dead led the Christians who adopted the holiday to create their own rituals. The idea of carving the Jack O’ Lantern was designed to frighten away evil spirits and to ward off witches. If we were to go back to, say, America in the 1700’s, we might recognize quite a few of the practices which they engaged in, though I believe that they might be a bit put off by our practice of Trick or Treating.
This belief about the connection to the dead carried into the Christian tradition, leading to All Hallows’ Eve and the following day of All Saints’ Day. Whether to the druids or the Christians, this day was always about remembering the dead and the fact that, in some way, they are still with us.
Tomorrow, All Saint’s Day, and the following day of All Souls’ Day, are highly celebrated in Mexico and are known as Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). It is a combination of Catholic and Aztec tradition. Their traditional practices include decorating skeletons and setting up alters for those who have died. They also make Pan de los Muertos, which is bread with sugar in it. They put it out on the stoop for the dead to eat. Once it’s gone stale, that means that the dead have eaten it. We get the tradition of dressing up from Dia de los Muertos and, like the Jack O’ Lantern, it was designed to scare away the spirits.
All Saints’ Day is celebrated in France, more so than Halloween. It’s called Toussaint. They have a practice where they put chrysanthemums, the traditional funeral flower in France, on the graves of those who have died.
This entry certainly ended up being a collaborative effort, with help from both Gillian and Bess, so thanks guys! I hope that we will all have a wonderful Halloween. For those who care, we watched It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! last night and we’re watching Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride tonight.
Even if you don’t go Trick or Treating or anything like that, take the time out for a ghost story. And set an extra place or two tonight. After all, you never know who will show up…
Hallowe’en, or All Hallows’ Eve, is the night before All Saints' Day in the Christian calendar. However, the basis of our actual Halloween practices date back to the pagan holiday of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). Samhain is the second of the Druidic fire holidays, the other one being Beltane (May Day). Beltane was all about fertility, with the coming of spring. Samhain was a preparation for the coming of winter.
It was also believed that this was a time in the year when the veil separating this world and the beyond was at its thinnest. This meant that magics would be more powerful, and that the sidhe (faeries) and other such creatures would be seen more in this realm; it also meant a unique closeness to the dead. One Samhain tradition was to set a place at the table for every member of your family who had died so that you could eat with them.
However, superstitions about the Druidic beliefs about the presence of spirits beside those of the dead led the Christians who adopted the holiday to create their own rituals. The idea of carving the Jack O’ Lantern was designed to frighten away evil spirits and to ward off witches. If we were to go back to, say, America in the 1700’s, we might recognize quite a few of the practices which they engaged in, though I believe that they might be a bit put off by our practice of Trick or Treating.
This belief about the connection to the dead carried into the Christian tradition, leading to All Hallows’ Eve and the following day of All Saints’ Day. Whether to the druids or the Christians, this day was always about remembering the dead and the fact that, in some way, they are still with us.
Tomorrow, All Saint’s Day, and the following day of All Souls’ Day, are highly celebrated in Mexico and are known as Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). It is a combination of Catholic and Aztec tradition. Their traditional practices include decorating skeletons and setting up alters for those who have died. They also make Pan de los Muertos, which is bread with sugar in it. They put it out on the stoop for the dead to eat. Once it’s gone stale, that means that the dead have eaten it. We get the tradition of dressing up from Dia de los Muertos and, like the Jack O’ Lantern, it was designed to scare away the spirits.
All Saints’ Day is celebrated in France, more so than Halloween. It’s called Toussaint. They have a practice where they put chrysanthemums, the traditional funeral flower in France, on the graves of those who have died.
This entry certainly ended up being a collaborative effort, with help from both Gillian and Bess, so thanks guys! I hope that we will all have a wonderful Halloween. For those who care, we watched It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! last night and we’re watching Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride tonight.
Even if you don’t go Trick or Treating or anything like that, take the time out for a ghost story. And set an extra place or two tonight. After all, you never know who will show up…
Profiles in History: King Wamba
At last, I, Gillian, have returned to the blog. I couldn't let Brenna have all the fun, after all. It seems fitting that our first profile in history should be the biography of the one and only King Wamba. You may be asking, who is King Wamba and why should I care? I had never heard of King Wamba either until I wrote my research paper for Dr. Sorrentino's Medieval Europe course last fall, but he has since become one of my absolute favorite historical figures. His unfortunate life has brought me great pleasure, and you would be surprised at the effects of his story on those who hear it.
Wamba was a Visigoth living in Iberia during the 7th century. The Visigoths were one branch of Goths who migrated from central Asia during the migrations of the 4th century and were instrumental in the fall of Rome, having sacked the city in 410 and then 476. The group of Goths that became known as the Visigoths settled in what we now know as Spain and much of France (which was later conquered by the Franks under Clovis), while the branch remaining in Italy became known as the Ostrogoths. The Visigoths, as I wrote in my paper, had a pretty unstable kingdom and never managed to create a stable, strong monarchy for various reasons, and Wamba was one of the last kings. He was a noble who was elected king around 680 (for the most part, the kingdom had an elected monarchy, but that was part of its problem), but Wamba did not want to be king. He was forced to take the throne and immediately had to put down a couple of rebellions (other parts of the Visigoths' problem) and he ruled for about 10 years. During his reign, he provided for poor relief, the restoration of property, the return of exiles, and the extension of amnesty for political prisoners, but he also alienated the clergy, interfered in the creation of dioceses and in consecrating bishops “without proper ecclesiastical authorization” and issued legislation that ended the practice of bishops taking offerings from the churches of the diocese.
Wamba's involvement in Church affairs as well as his other policies made him unpopular with the archbishop of Toledo, Julian, and with the other nobles, who conspired against him (also a common occurrence in Visigothic politics). Another noble named Erwig attempted to poison Wamba and then tricked Wamba into naming him his heir. Wamba was then tonsured in anticipation of death, but he recovered. Since he had already been tonsured, he had to abdicate the throne, and Erwig became king; his authority was soon confirmed by the Council of Toledo. Poor Wamba was forced to live out the rest of his days in a monastery. He was not the best king, but I love his story because his life was so unfortunate. There must be something about a failed king, because others have become enamored with the story of Wamba. It's rather amusing for me. The Visigoths in general are just some really interesting people because there were so many problems in their kingdom and there were so many different players. I'd like to do more reading and writing about the Jewish population in Visigothic Spain, since the Jews were both persecuted by the kings and actors in conspiracies against the kings and the kingdom.
That concludes this week's edition of Profiles in History. Next week, we will profile Huey P. Long, a rather interesting individual in his own right, but for very different reasons. He had his own theme song, which is about his only redeeming characteristic. But more about that later.
Wamba was a Visigoth living in Iberia during the 7th century. The Visigoths were one branch of Goths who migrated from central Asia during the migrations of the 4th century and were instrumental in the fall of Rome, having sacked the city in 410 and then 476. The group of Goths that became known as the Visigoths settled in what we now know as Spain and much of France (which was later conquered by the Franks under Clovis), while the branch remaining in Italy became known as the Ostrogoths. The Visigoths, as I wrote in my paper, had a pretty unstable kingdom and never managed to create a stable, strong monarchy for various reasons, and Wamba was one of the last kings. He was a noble who was elected king around 680 (for the most part, the kingdom had an elected monarchy, but that was part of its problem), but Wamba did not want to be king. He was forced to take the throne and immediately had to put down a couple of rebellions (other parts of the Visigoths' problem) and he ruled for about 10 years. During his reign, he provided for poor relief, the restoration of property, the return of exiles, and the extension of amnesty for political prisoners, but he also alienated the clergy, interfered in the creation of dioceses and in consecrating bishops “without proper ecclesiastical authorization” and issued legislation that ended the practice of bishops taking offerings from the churches of the diocese.
Wamba's involvement in Church affairs as well as his other policies made him unpopular with the archbishop of Toledo, Julian, and with the other nobles, who conspired against him (also a common occurrence in Visigothic politics). Another noble named Erwig attempted to poison Wamba and then tricked Wamba into naming him his heir. Wamba was then tonsured in anticipation of death, but he recovered. Since he had already been tonsured, he had to abdicate the throne, and Erwig became king; his authority was soon confirmed by the Council of Toledo. Poor Wamba was forced to live out the rest of his days in a monastery. He was not the best king, but I love his story because his life was so unfortunate. There must be something about a failed king, because others have become enamored with the story of Wamba. It's rather amusing for me. The Visigoths in general are just some really interesting people because there were so many problems in their kingdom and there were so many different players. I'd like to do more reading and writing about the Jewish population in Visigothic Spain, since the Jews were both persecuted by the kings and actors in conspiracies against the kings and the kingdom.
That concludes this week's edition of Profiles in History. Next week, we will profile Huey P. Long, a rather interesting individual in his own right, but for very different reasons. He had his own theme song, which is about his only redeeming characteristic. But more about that later.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
History Majors Just Gotta Have Fun
You may think that because we are History majors we dwell in the past. We sit in our rooms, hunched over Plutarch's Life of Crassus with highlighter in hand, prepared to absorb every fact about Crassus' life which Plutarch chooses to divulge, and we never see the light of day, except when history teaches us that if we don't eat, we will die.
This is completely untrue. We both may be pastey, but what can we say? We're naturally pale people. We do get out and have fun. Why, only yesterday, we played tennis. Well, as much as you can "play" when you are chasing after balls that were accidentally aimed at the two older men playing on the court next to you. We also went to a concert on campus. Admittedly, there were no mosh pits or amplifiers to make our ears want to run for cover (well, mostly just Brenna's. They are rather sensitive, poor things). It was sedate acoustic guitar music. But it was wonderful!
Like most other students, we do enjoy getting off campus once and awhile. The most common haunts are Annapolis and Dover. However, when we are feeling very ambitious, we head to Baltimore. All three cities provide nice, off-campus fun. We also enjoy going to the local movie theater or going out to dinner once and awhile.
Right now, we are enjoying Raiders of the Lost Ark. A fantastic movie. Beautiful locations, interesting plot... Harrison Ford is nothing to sneeze at, either. For anyone who is deprived enough to have not seen it, we highly recommend it.
P.S. We know that there have been quite a few posts in the past few days. There will not usually be this many. We're just getting into this and enjoying it immensely.
This is completely untrue. We both may be pastey, but what can we say? We're naturally pale people. We do get out and have fun. Why, only yesterday, we played tennis. Well, as much as you can "play" when you are chasing after balls that were accidentally aimed at the two older men playing on the court next to you. We also went to a concert on campus. Admittedly, there were no mosh pits or amplifiers to make our ears want to run for cover (well, mostly just Brenna's. They are rather sensitive, poor things). It was sedate acoustic guitar music. But it was wonderful!
Like most other students, we do enjoy getting off campus once and awhile. The most common haunts are Annapolis and Dover. However, when we are feeling very ambitious, we head to Baltimore. All three cities provide nice, off-campus fun. We also enjoy going to the local movie theater or going out to dinner once and awhile.
Right now, we are enjoying Raiders of the Lost Ark. A fantastic movie. Beautiful locations, interesting plot... Harrison Ford is nothing to sneeze at, either. For anyone who is deprived enough to have not seen it, we highly recommend it.
P.S. We know that there have been quite a few posts in the past few days. There will not usually be this many. We're just getting into this and enjoying it immensely.
Guest Stars
While we (Gillian and Brenna) may be the main characters of this blog's drama, a few other important people will probably find themselves wandering in and out of our posts. To begin with:
Bess: She is Brenna's roommate. She likes tea and she loathes Descartes. She blogs as an Environmental Studies major here.
Also, as members of the History Department, the professors of said department tend to play a rather active role in our lives:
Dr. Black: He is the chair of this department we call History. He teaches classes on Russia, Germany, China, Japan, the Holocaust, Modern World History and Paranoia. Gillian's first history class at WaC was with him, and he is her advisor.
Dr. Miller: The newbie of the department, he teaches early American history. He is also responsible for bringing the wonderful world of Townball to Washington College (expect a post from Gillian on the subject at some point...).
Dr. Sorrentino: She is the first professor Brenna ever had class with at WaC. She brings WaC into the Middle Ages, since she teaches many classes on Medieval and Renaissance topics. She also feeds her upper level students, something for which they are very, very grateful. Brenna currently has her for Ancient Rome.
Dr. Striner: He teaches classes on U.S. history since the Civil War and various film classes. He also has the fashion sense of a man in the '20s. We both have him for the New Deal and WWII.
Dr. Wilson: She focuses on slavery and African-American history. The only class either of us has had with her was Gillian in History of South Africa, and she is Brenna's advisor.
They, and all of our other professors, can be found at the school's Meet the Faculty page.
Bess: She is Brenna's roommate. She likes tea and she loathes Descartes. She blogs as an Environmental Studies major here.
Also, as members of the History Department, the professors of said department tend to play a rather active role in our lives:
Dr. Black: He is the chair of this department we call History. He teaches classes on Russia, Germany, China, Japan, the Holocaust, Modern World History and Paranoia. Gillian's first history class at WaC was with him, and he is her advisor.
Dr. Miller: The newbie of the department, he teaches early American history. He is also responsible for bringing the wonderful world of Townball to Washington College (expect a post from Gillian on the subject at some point...).
Dr. Sorrentino: She is the first professor Brenna ever had class with at WaC. She brings WaC into the Middle Ages, since she teaches many classes on Medieval and Renaissance topics. She also feeds her upper level students, something for which they are very, very grateful. Brenna currently has her for Ancient Rome.
Dr. Striner: He teaches classes on U.S. history since the Civil War and various film classes. He also has the fashion sense of a man in the '20s. We both have him for the New Deal and WWII.
Dr. Wilson: She focuses on slavery and African-American history. The only class either of us has had with her was Gillian in History of South Africa, and she is Brenna's advisor.
They, and all of our other professors, can be found at the school's Meet the Faculty page.
I Know What I Did Last Summer Pt. 2: Internship
Well, good morning again! I (Brenna) have returned to share more information about my historific summer. Rather than writing this as I eat breakfast (which I did yesterday), I write this from work. Let me just ask, what college student in their right mind treks completely across campus between 10 and 12 on a Sunday morning to use a computer lab? The correct answer is, the student who is getting paid to do so. No one ever comes in. Why? They are all sleeping. Lucky them. But I digress. On to the point of this post:
Besides doing tons of fun research at the Newberry Library, I had an internship in the Research and Access department of the Chicago History Museum. It was yet another wonderful summer experience. Anyone who is interested in a fun summer internship, you should look into it. You don't have to be from around Chicago; one of my fellow interns was from Florida!
(photo courtesy of http://chicagohistory.org/aboutus/building/?searchterm=began)
Anyway, my job dealt with updating the online card catalogue information for pictures from an old Chicago newspaper, the Chicago Daily News. Besides the fact that I gained a lot of useful experience with using an online card catalogue, I also got to see a lot of amazing pictures from my city's history. There were pictures of such historical figures as William Jennings Bryan and Charlie Chaplin. You can actually see the pictures I was working with at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/ichihtml/cdnhome.html
The photos were digitized and put online in conjunction with the Library of Congress. Check out the site; the pictures are fun to look at.
To make up for not being able to pay us, the Museum hosted lunches with various museum personnel and behind the scenes tours of some sections of the museum. We got to meet with everyone from the president of the museum to the curator of the costume collection. I have to admit, the tour through the costume collection was definitely one of the coolest parts of the summer. There was some beautiful stuff down in that basement. And, I'm pleased to say, as a result of the increased publicity the Museum has been getting since its renovation, a museum in New York is doing an exhibit of couture fashion from Chicago, using items from the Museum's collection! Here is a link to a brief article about the exhibit: http://www.huliq.com/37917/chicago-history-museum-debuts-at-fit
Besides the fun of learning the ins and outs of online card catalogues and getting to hold 100 year old books, why was my summer fun? Because I got to work in the city. I love my Chicago a great deal and no other city could ever replace it in my heart, but never before had I gotten to experience the city as such a major part of my life. I now understand the frustration of CTA commuting, the absolute fun of walking to the train station while being monsooned on (not really fun, by the way), and why my mother does not feel like making dinner when she gets home at night (a lesson which she seemed amused that I learned).
I also think that I ate more apples over the summer than I have in my entire time actually on my college campus. My mom, being the brilliant and health conscious woman that she is, always eats an apple and some rice cakes on her train ride home to tide her over until dinner. While I would need to be practically starving before I would eat rice cakes, she always brought an apple for me as well. Obviously, this is just a natural extension of various conversations from my childhood that went something like this:
Me: Mom, when's dinner going to be ready?
Mom: About an hour. If you're hungry, why don't you have an apple?
Me: I'll wait for dinner.
What does this revelation have to do with being a History major or the educational content of my summer? Absolutely nothing. However, it just goes to show you that your mother is going to be asking you whether or not you've brushed your teeth until long after you are asking your own children. It will take some time to come to terms with this fact.
I think that is about it for my summer revelations for today. Keep an eye out for part 3, what happened with all of this once I finally got back to school...
Brenna
(photo courtesy of http://chicagohistory.org/aboutus/building/?searchterm=began)
Anyway, my job dealt with updating the online card catalogue information for pictures from an old Chicago newspaper, the Chicago Daily News. Besides the fact that I gained a lot of useful experience with using an online card catalogue, I also got to see a lot of amazing pictures from my city's history. There were pictures of such historical figures as William Jennings Bryan and Charlie Chaplin. You can actually see the pictures I was working with at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/ichihtml/cdnhome.html
The photos were digitized and put online in conjunction with the Library of Congress. Check out the site; the pictures are fun to look at.
To make up for not being able to pay us, the Museum hosted lunches with various museum personnel and behind the scenes tours of some sections of the museum. We got to meet with everyone from the president of the museum to the curator of the costume collection. I have to admit, the tour through the costume collection was definitely one of the coolest parts of the summer. There was some beautiful stuff down in that basement. And, I'm pleased to say, as a result of the increased publicity the Museum has been getting since its renovation, a museum in New York is doing an exhibit of couture fashion from Chicago, using items from the Museum's collection! Here is a link to a brief article about the exhibit: http://www.huliq.com/37917/chicago-history-museum-debuts-at-fit
Besides the fun of learning the ins and outs of online card catalogues and getting to hold 100 year old books, why was my summer fun? Because I got to work in the city. I love my Chicago a great deal and no other city could ever replace it in my heart, but never before had I gotten to experience the city as such a major part of my life. I now understand the frustration of CTA commuting, the absolute fun of walking to the train station while being monsooned on (not really fun, by the way), and why my mother does not feel like making dinner when she gets home at night (a lesson which she seemed amused that I learned).
I also think that I ate more apples over the summer than I have in my entire time actually on my college campus. My mom, being the brilliant and health conscious woman that she is, always eats an apple and some rice cakes on her train ride home to tide her over until dinner. While I would need to be practically starving before I would eat rice cakes, she always brought an apple for me as well. Obviously, this is just a natural extension of various conversations from my childhood that went something like this:
Me: Mom, when's dinner going to be ready?
Mom: About an hour. If you're hungry, why don't you have an apple?
Me: I'll wait for dinner.
What does this revelation have to do with being a History major or the educational content of my summer? Absolutely nothing. However, it just goes to show you that your mother is going to be asking you whether or not you've brushed your teeth until long after you are asking your own children. It will take some time to come to terms with this fact.
I think that is about it for my summer revelations for today. Keep an eye out for part 3, what happened with all of this once I finally got back to school...
Brenna
Saturday, October 27, 2007
History Blogs Repeat Themselves
As part of this blog, we’ve decided to have two regular features:
Repeating History: A weekly post which will let you know what we learned in our history classes: fun factoids, crazy things our professors said, that sort of thing. What history classes are we taking? Well:
Ancient Rome (Brenna)
The New Deal and WWII (Gillian and Brenna)
And
Profiles in History: A recurring post in which we will shine the spotlight on someone from history. Often times, this will be someone who we feel has not gotten the historical recognition they deserve.
Also, everyone should visit the new Environmental Studies blog from our friend (and Brenna's crazy roommate) Bess: It's Easy Being Green!
Please, stick with us! We promise more exciting history in the coming weeks!
Repeating History: A weekly post which will let you know what we learned in our history classes: fun factoids, crazy things our professors said, that sort of thing. What history classes are we taking? Well:
Ancient Rome (Brenna)
The New Deal and WWII (Gillian and Brenna)
And
Profiles in History: A recurring post in which we will shine the spotlight on someone from history. Often times, this will be someone who we feel has not gotten the historical recognition they deserve.
Also, everyone should visit the new Environmental Studies blog from our friend (and Brenna's crazy roommate) Bess: It's Easy Being Green!
Please, stick with us! We promise more exciting history in the coming weeks!
I Know What I Did Last Summer...
Good morning, all, this is Brenna signing on! I may be a History Major, but first and foremost, I am a college student. As I begin to write this, it is 11 AM and I have been up for a little less than an hour. Sleeping in: the reason Saturdays are so magical! Especially so this semester, since I have to get up at 7:15 and 8:15 the rest of the week. Anyway, I decided that while I sit in my dorm room and eat my breakfast, I might as well talk about one of the coolest parts of being a History Major: research!
To be specific: last school year, I applied for and won something called the Comegys Bight Fellowship. It sponsors students doing research in American History or who are doing unpaid internships over the summer. The topic that I chose to research was the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, specifically, the role of women in the Exposition. The reason why this was perfect for me was that I was doing my research in Chicago, which is the city that hosted the Exposition.
I took the train into the city with my mother, but since she needed to be at work before the reading rooms at the Newberry Library (at left, photo courtesy of http://www.acm.edu/newberry/) opened, I had time to chill. First, I had to take my lovely CTA bus down to the Newberry, where I was doing my research. Then I would usually walk over to the nearby bakery, buy a hot chocolate and a croissant and sit in the park across from the Library and read until 10. If it was rainy, I would sit in the bakery.
For those of you who have never spent any extended amount of time in a large research library, such as the Newberry, you truly do not know what you are missing. First of all, I simply love libraries and books, so being in a nice library with lots of old books was wonderful. I adore them, which is probably why it is a good thing that I’m going into Library Science. Anyway, you go to the reading room and, in the case of the Newberry, they assign you a table to sit at. After a few weeks, they got to know me and always gave me the same table next to the window. Then, you go to the card catalogue on the computers and fill out call slips for the books that you want to look at. You bring them to the front desk, go back to your table and wait. Then, the books are brought out to you! For the larger or more fragile books, they bring out cushions for you to rest them on while you read them. Having never been waited on before in a library, it was a pretty sweet experience.
I worked with quite a few books this summer, both primary and secondary sources, but my favorite of them all was a book from 1893. It was published to go along with the Woman’s Building. It had essays in it from some of the major women involved in the creation of the building, including the head of the Woman’s Board, Bertha Palmer. Let me just say, these women could write. Most of them never had what we would call an extremely good education; women were just being let into colleges within the past decade. However, they certainly knew how to spin a rhetorical phrase or two. Besides this, the book itself was beautiful. The cover was a dark brown with the title and designs embossed into the surface and the edges of the pages were gold. Also, I was holding a book that was over 100 years old! Being into history, nothing beats holding history in your hands.
I’m going to let you go for now, because my fellow blogger, Gillian, my roommate and I are about to go play tennis at the Fitness Center. I shall return to you later, probably at a point when I don’t feel like doing homework anymore.
Brenna
To be specific: last school year, I applied for and won something called the Comegys Bight Fellowship. It sponsors students doing research in American History or who are doing unpaid internships over the summer. The topic that I chose to research was the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, specifically, the role of women in the Exposition. The reason why this was perfect for me was that I was doing my research in Chicago, which is the city that hosted the Exposition.
I took the train into the city with my mother, but since she needed to be at work before the reading rooms at the Newberry Library (at left, photo courtesy of http://www.acm.edu/newberry/) opened, I had time to chill. First, I had to take my lovely CTA bus down to the Newberry, where I was doing my research. Then I would usually walk over to the nearby bakery, buy a hot chocolate and a croissant and sit in the park across from the Library and read until 10. If it was rainy, I would sit in the bakery.For those of you who have never spent any extended amount of time in a large research library, such as the Newberry, you truly do not know what you are missing. First of all, I simply love libraries and books, so being in a nice library with lots of old books was wonderful. I adore them, which is probably why it is a good thing that I’m going into Library Science. Anyway, you go to the reading room and, in the case of the Newberry, they assign you a table to sit at. After a few weeks, they got to know me and always gave me the same table next to the window. Then, you go to the card catalogue on the computers and fill out call slips for the books that you want to look at. You bring them to the front desk, go back to your table and wait. Then, the books are brought out to you! For the larger or more fragile books, they bring out cushions for you to rest them on while you read them. Having never been waited on before in a library, it was a pretty sweet experience.
I worked with quite a few books this summer, both primary and secondary sources, but my favorite of them all was a book from 1893. It was published to go along with the Woman’s Building. It had essays in it from some of the major women involved in the creation of the building, including the head of the Woman’s Board, Bertha Palmer. Let me just say, these women could write. Most of them never had what we would call an extremely good education; women were just being let into colleges within the past decade. However, they certainly knew how to spin a rhetorical phrase or two. Besides this, the book itself was beautiful. The cover was a dark brown with the title and designs embossed into the surface and the edges of the pages were gold. Also, I was holding a book that was over 100 years old! Being into history, nothing beats holding history in your hands.
I’m going to let you go for now, because my fellow blogger, Gillian, my roommate and I are about to go play tennis at the Fitness Center. I shall return to you later, probably at a point when I don’t feel like doing homework anymore.
Brenna
Friday, October 26, 2007
The Beginning of A New Chapter in History
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me, well, us, your eyes!
Welcome to our lives as history majors at Washington College! We can't guarantee that our lives are interesting, but, to be quite frank, we think our lives are quite fascinating, and we hope that you will agree.
I guess I'll go first. My name is Brenna Bychowski and I'm a junior. I'm from a small suburb of Chicago, IL. Why did I choose to go to school in Maryland? Well, I put an interest in Creative Writing on one of my standardized tests, and I got a mailing about the program here. I came to visit and fell in love with it. I'm also a Creative Writing minor. Besides my love of history, I'm very interested in crafting, specifically in knitting, crocheting and cross-stitch. I dearly love my classical music, especially Beethoven and opera. I'm in WAC's Vocal Consort and I am in Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society. I also am completely addicted to chocolate in all of its forms, especially hot cocoa. I work for the Office of Information Technologies, babysitting one of the computer labs. I kind of want someone to try and steal something so that I can chase them down, screaming, "Give me back the mouse!" I love movies and reading, especially the works of Laurie R. King and Edgar Allen Poe. I plan to go to grad school and get my Master's in Library Science so that I can be a rockin' reference librarian. This makes me the black sheep of my family, both of my parents and my sister being scientists. And now, I turn this over to...
Me. I'm Gillian Bourassa, and I'm from Baltimore. I didn't think I would go to school in Maryland, and it wasn't until my senior year in high school that I started looking at WaC. At the suggestion of one of my high school teachers (and a WC alum), I talked to an admissions rep at a college fair and then visited the school, and I really liked it. I was impressed by the history and education programs and just loved the campus. When I left after my overnight visit, I couldn't wait to come back 10 days later to the Open House, which was my first introduction to some of WaC's amazing professors. I am pursuing secondary education certification in social studies, but I'm not quite sure what I actually want to do in two years when I graduate. At the moment, I want to go to graduate school, and, among other things, I would love to be a college professor. On campus, I am in the Sting Ensemble and Early Music Consort, Vice President of Phi Alpha Theta history honor society, President of Catholic Campus Ministry, and have been involved in a bunch of other things. I enjoy writing, I work as a peer consultant in the Writing Center (WC students--come to the Writing Center!!!!!), and I have earned the nickname Ten Page from one of my professors because of the extended length of my papers. In the little empty time that I have, I love to read, play my violin, watch movies, and, like Brenna, do needlepoint.
Both of us absolutely love the history major and the school in general. We have amazing professors, both in the history department and in our other classes as well. We love the personal relationships that all students here can have with their professors. Every school says that, but it's really true here. Professors frequently eat in the dining hall, often joining students, and stop to talk to students around campus. The faculty here truly cares about the student body and about each individual as an individual, not just as a student. Stay tuned for more of our exploits and adventures!!
Welcome to our lives as history majors at Washington College! We can't guarantee that our lives are interesting, but, to be quite frank, we think our lives are quite fascinating, and we hope that you will agree.
I guess I'll go first. My name is Brenna Bychowski and I'm a junior. I'm from a small suburb of Chicago, IL. Why did I choose to go to school in Maryland? Well, I put an interest in Creative Writing on one of my standardized tests, and I got a mailing about the program here. I came to visit and fell in love with it. I'm also a Creative Writing minor. Besides my love of history, I'm very interested in crafting, specifically in knitting, crocheting and cross-stitch. I dearly love my classical music, especially Beethoven and opera. I'm in WAC's Vocal Consort and I am in Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society. I also am completely addicted to chocolate in all of its forms, especially hot cocoa. I work for the Office of Information Technologies, babysitting one of the computer labs. I kind of want someone to try and steal something so that I can chase them down, screaming, "Give me back the mouse!" I love movies and reading, especially the works of Laurie R. King and Edgar Allen Poe. I plan to go to grad school and get my Master's in Library Science so that I can be a rockin' reference librarian. This makes me the black sheep of my family, both of my parents and my sister being scientists. And now, I turn this over to...
Me. I'm Gillian Bourassa, and I'm from Baltimore. I didn't think I would go to school in Maryland, and it wasn't until my senior year in high school that I started looking at WaC. At the suggestion of one of my high school teachers (and a WC alum), I talked to an admissions rep at a college fair and then visited the school, and I really liked it. I was impressed by the history and education programs and just loved the campus. When I left after my overnight visit, I couldn't wait to come back 10 days later to the Open House, which was my first introduction to some of WaC's amazing professors. I am pursuing secondary education certification in social studies, but I'm not quite sure what I actually want to do in two years when I graduate. At the moment, I want to go to graduate school, and, among other things, I would love to be a college professor. On campus, I am in the Sting Ensemble and Early Music Consort, Vice President of Phi Alpha Theta history honor society, President of Catholic Campus Ministry, and have been involved in a bunch of other things. I enjoy writing, I work as a peer consultant in the Writing Center (WC students--come to the Writing Center!!!!!), and I have earned the nickname Ten Page from one of my professors because of the extended length of my papers. In the little empty time that I have, I love to read, play my violin, watch movies, and, like Brenna, do needlepoint.
Both of us absolutely love the history major and the school in general. We have amazing professors, both in the history department and in our other classes as well. We love the personal relationships that all students here can have with their professors. Every school says that, but it's really true here. Professors frequently eat in the dining hall, often joining students, and stop to talk to students around campus. The faculty here truly cares about the student body and about each individual as an individual, not just as a student. Stay tuned for more of our exploits and adventures!!
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