abstract: The constructing of visitor expectations and memory of historic sites is an important aspect of the heritage industry. This study examines the creation and change of dominant historical memories at four British palaces and ancestral homes. Through the close analysis of a variety of guidebooks beginning in the eighteenth century as well as other promotional materials such as websites and films, this study looks at which historical memories are emphasized for visitors and the reasons for these dominant memories. Place theorists such as Yi-Fu Tuan and Michel de Certeau as well as memory theorists such as Maurice Halbwachs, Pierre Nora, and Eric Hobsbawm have influenced the analysis of the project's sources. This inquiry focuses on four palaces: Hampton Court Palace outside London; Edinburgh Castle in the heart of Edinburgh, Scotland; Cardiff Castle in Cardiff, Wales; and Chatsworth House in Devonshire, England. The Victorians have played a large role in determining dominant memories at these sites through their interest in and focus on both the medieval period and objects in the home. Dominant memories discussed focus on the Tudors, medieval military importance, the myth and imagining of the Victorian medieval, the Regency period of Jane Austen, and elite family-home relationships. This study argues that the emphases on certain subjects allow us glimpses into the national spirit (past and present) of the peoples of Britain. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis History 2015

abstract: This dissertation examines the history of Cabrini-Green through the lens of placemaking. Cabrini-Green was one of the nation's most notorious public housing developments, known for sensational murders of police officers and children, and broadcast to the nation as a place to be avoided. Understanding Cabrini-Green as a place also requires appreciation for how residents created and defended their community. These two visions—Cabrini-Green as a primary example of a failed public housing program and architecture and Cabrini-Green as a place people called home—clashed throughout the site's history, but came into focus with its planned demolition in the Chicago Housing Authority's Plan for Transformation. Demolition and reconstruction of Cabrini-Green was supposed to create a model for public housing renewal in Chicago. But residents feared that this was simply an effort to remove them from valuable land on Chicago's Near North Side and deprive them of new neighborhood improvements. The imminent destruction of the CHA’s high-rises uncovered desires to commemorate the public housing developments like Cabrini-Green and the people who lived there through a variety of public history and public art projects. This dissertation explores place from multiple perspectives including architecture, city planning, neighborhood development, and public and oral history. Understanding how Cabrini-Green became shorthand for failed program design while residents organized and fought to stay in the area provides a glimpse into possible futures of an emerging Chicago neighborhood. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation History 2017

abstract: This thesis explores some of the ways in which Egyptian men and women changed certain aspects of their reality through collective actions in public spaces during and after the 2011 Revolution. This thesis argues that the power of collective action which Egyptian men and women successfully employed in 2011 to bring down the thirty year regime of Hosni Mubarak carried over into the post-Revolutionary era to express itself in three unique ways: the combatting of women's sexual harassment in public spaces, the creation of graffiti with distinct Revolutionary themes, and the creation of protest music which drew from historical precedent while also creating new songs. The methodology of this study of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution lies is the use of newspaper reporting and online sources as primary source material. These sources include Egyptian newspapers such as Egypt Independent and Al Ahram, as well as scholarly websites like Jadaliyya, and also personal blogs. These accounts provide topical and up to the minute accounts of history as it unfolded. Primary source material is also drawn from oral interviews done during the summer of 2012 by the author and others in Egypt. The theoretical grounding lies in social movement theories that are centered on the Middle Eastern context in particular. Drawing from newspaper accounts and social movement theories this thesis is built around a notion of collective action expressed in unique ways in post-2011 Revolution Egypt. This thesis is also solidly grounded in the history of Egypt as relevant to each of the topics which it explores: combatting sexual harassment and the creation of graffiti and music. Relevant scholarly books help to inform the historical material presented here as context. This thesis is situated within the existing literature on the 2011 Egyptian Revolution and public history while also contributing something new to this area of study by examining the actions of ordinary men and women acting in public spaces in new ways during and after the Revolution. The existing literature on the 2011 Revolution generally neglects micro-level changes of the sort discussed in the topical areas to follow. The ordinary men and women who contributed to the Revolution are now part of the historical record, an example of the public making history par excellence. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. History 2014

U.S. Senator David Levy Yulee’s Margarita sugar plantation flourished from 1851 to 1864 in Homosassa, Citrus County, Florida. The plantation was abandoned in 1864 and memory of its precise location slowly faded, as the physical evidence of its existence deteriorated. Today, the only plantation structure known to be still standing is the sugar mill, preserved as part of the Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Historic State Park (CI124B). The remainder of the plantation, including its boundaries, remains unknown. Perhaps at least partly owing to this absence, the mill’s interpretive signage provides an unfortunate univocal historical interpretation of the site and lacking in both acknowledgement and understanding of the experiences of the enslaved laborers who lived at Margarita. This thesis research uses archaeological reconnaissance survey and historical research in an attempt to locate the slave quarters in order to shed light on the power structures that existed between planter and enslaved laborer at Margarita. Shovel tests on state, county, and private land surrounding the mill identified two new archaeological sites, including possible remnants of an additional plantation structure, and ruled out for several locations as the site of the former slave quarters. Historical research uncovered additional information about the names of the enslaved laborers and provided more insight into their experiences on the plantation. This work culminates with suggestions for updated State Park interpretive signage, and suggestions for future work.

Magister Artium - MA / South Africa

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No description available.

This thesis is an exploration of queer domesticity, queer possibility and intuitionin historic house museums. It develops a methodological framework intended to intervene in archival, research, interpretive and institutional practices at these sites. Using the Elfreth’s Alley Museum’s podcast The Alley Cast as a case study, I examine how utilizing a framework that understands queerness to be just as possible as straightness; that uses intuition to guide research; and queer and trans theory to denaturalize categories of sexuality and gender can uncover queer domestic patterns that unsettle and disrupt the public’s hetero- and cisnormative assumptions about the past. I argue that this is a framework that can be adopted by historic house museums in order to engage with queer history when evidence may be lacking or whose historical subjects’ gender or sexuality resists easy classification. Finally, I argue that implementing such a framework can only be done successfully if it is engaged as part of a larger institution-wide commitment to creating a socially just and responsive museum that understands the importance of sharing complicated and difficult history with its public and dismantling its own position of power and authority. / History

For over 250 years, Philadelphia scientists and doctors have stolen human remains to use in educational and entertainment. The borders of this practice have long been maintained by Philadelphians, making up a landscape of resistance and acceptance. Today many human remains out of the body trade reside in museums and educational institutions. The fight for post-mortem dignity persists in activist circles. resistance against post-mortem exploitation and exhibition have continuous roots in Philadelphia, taking place outside traditional archival scope and within marginalized communities subjected to the very defilement directed at targeted bodies. In Their Footsteps is an intervention into the physical, public landscape in Philadelphia that begins to mark sites of resistance against the body trade and display. The physical landmarks of the body trade, from collectors to subsequent institutions and exhibitions, are visible and protected spaces in the city. It is time to make visible the long-standing practice of resistance. Philadelphia is currently witness now to a fourth major wave of resistance and activism against complicit institutions and individuals. It situates the 2021 movement with three other major events: the Lebanon Cemetery Scandal of 1882, the Blockley Almshouse Board Intervention in 1845, and the Sailor’s Mob of 1765. / History

Otto Ege cut apart hundreds of medieval manuscripts during the first half of the twentieth century, claiming to do so to provide wider access to them. His destruction resulted in the loss of provenance, material history, and context of these manuscripts. Moreover, he made mistakes when identifying and dating the manuscript leaves he cut, and the loss of the bindings and front matter of the manuscripts makes it difficult to correct these. Much of the research concerning Ege focuses on his identity as a biblioclast, yet even scholars who denounce his book-cutting admit he allowed for places and people to have access to these manuscripts that otherwise would not. In this thesis, I examine how place impacted not only Ege’s motivations to distribute medieval manuscript leaves, but how place further impacts the accessibility of these leaves to people of lower socio-economic status. By mapping the locations of Ege’s Fifty Original Leaves of Medieval Manuscripts portfolios against the percentage of the population with college degrees, I make the argument that Ege’s portfolios are not as accessible to underrepresented populations as they could be, because most of these portfolios are located at university special collections and archives. I draw on social and geographic theory to show that non-college educated people are less likely to visit a college campus than those who attended college. I then explore current scholarship in archives and special collections to show the importance of public outreach programs and how bridging the gap between university archives and special collections and public libraries or other community institutions can make Ege’s portfolios more accessible to a broader audience. I conclude that while Ege did irreparable damage to the historical value of these medieval manuscript leaves, they do indeed still have value in their ability to allow more people to learn from and appreciate them. Ege’s vision of democratizing medieval book history may not have been perfect, but with the damage done, we can move in a more positive direction so as not to waste the potential benefits of these portfolios.