This dissertation studies the Continental Army’s attempts to control navigation on the Hudson River in the New York Highlands during the American Revolutionary War. It examines the overlapping lines of authority between federal, state, and military entities; the escalation of civil-military tensions over supplies, provisions, and pay; how American strategy created varying levels of resources and troops in the region, and the failure of efforts to mitigate that risk; the anxiety created in Continental officers when they rejected a French engineers’ advice on the location and scope of riverside defenses; and how George Washington and his officers used the fortifications at West Point to demonstrate the legitimacy of the United States to domestic and foreign audiences. This dissertation utilizes correspondence, diaries, memoirs, the journals of legislative proceedings, orderly books, archeological studies, and contemporaneous newspapers to reveal that, despite the hindrance of overlapping authorities, the fortifications in the Highlands enabled US strategy and displayed the aftermath of colonialism in the United States. Controlling river traffic in the Highlands began as a colonial project with plans that outstripped available resources and relied on technology incapable of achieving its purpose. The New York Provincial Congress relocated its efforts five miles south and included a physical obstacle in the water. A British attack overwhelmed the defenses at the southern location in just a few hours. The Continental Army, contrary to the advice from a French military engineer, decided to rebuild near the original site and began the iterative development of a system of layered defenses. The project successfully deterred the British from attempting to take the works forcefully. Civil-military relationships grew tenser as the war wound down, but Washington’s intervention assured continued civilian control of the army. This dissertation uses the example of the Highlands fortification process to provide a new understanding of strategy that gives the term more explanatory value. It takes seriously the impact of the power imbalance between Great Britain and its North American colonies and analyzes the lingering effects of that relationship on the United States. Finally, it reveals the tension and conflict between different lines of authority throughout the war and uncovers the roots of civil-military tensions in the young republic. / History

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<p> This thesis, <i>Lenses of Industry,</i> examines how industrial companies and engineers adapted photography to their needs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Innovations in camera and plate technologies marketed to a broad range of people contributed to a steep rise in the number of photographers in the United States. Recognizing the potential that photography held for industrial companies and engineers, a handful of experts advocated the idea that photography had the potential to make many aspects of business faster, and easier, as well as to make visual records more truthful and accurate. Likewise, innovations in halftone printing technology allowed trade journals like <i>Engineering and Mining Journal</i> to print photographic illustrations, which engineers perceived as being more objective representations of machines and heavy equipment than handmade engravings. The photo collections of three Lake Superior mining companies show that approaches to industrial photography varied according to company and industry. Lake Superior mines did not use photography as regularly or as systematically as large national corporations because mines did not have large public interfaces that sold consumer goods to the public.</p>

<p> The Civilian Conservation Corps employed young white and black men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. In 1935 Robert Fechner, the Director of the Civilian Conservation Corps, ordered the segregation of Corps camps across the country. Massachusetts&rsquo; camps remained integrated due in large part to low funding and a small African American population. The experiences of Massachusetts&rsquo; African American population present a new general narrative of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The Federal government imposed a three percent African American quota, ensuring that African Americans participated in Massachusetts as the Civilian Conservation Corps expanded. This quota represents a Federal acknowledgement of the racism African Americans faced and an attempt to implement affirmative action against these hardships.</p>

<p> "The Center of His Existence: Domestic Architecture &amp; Class Identity in Nineteenth-Century Lincoln County, Tennessee" presents the Whitaker family of Lincoln County, Tennessee as an example of a middle class forming in the rural South during the Antebellum period. In showing the family's interests in economic diversity in the fields of agriculture and industry, religious involvement, and Northern-style progress, this thesis makes the case for a wider class-identity taking shape in provincial areas of the South. Moreover, it shows that the originating culture of the Whitaker family impacted their migration patterns and shaped the culture of their final location of choice. Finally, it argues that architectural expression, particularly pertaining to the family home, should be considered a primary source in considering how past peoples viewed their own socio-economic standing within their time and place. In the case of Newton Whitaker, whose home is under examination here, the blending of high style and vernacular variations overlaid upon the common I-house design stands to show that he saw himself somewhere in the middle of the economic and social stratum. Locally, other houses show a similar mentality, particularly the home of Alexander Greer, a man of similar age, lineage, and upbringing. This thesis shows that although class-identity takes years to fully form, one's beliefs, values, and place in their local community is revealed through their choice in artistic expression, namely the family home, a place where all the community sees a reflection of its owner in its design and style. </p>

<p> In <i>Dred Scott v. Sandford</i>, Chief Justice Roger Taney spoke for the majority of the United States Supreme Court to declare that Blacks were not constituent members of the American political sovereignty, but rather they were &ldquo;beings of an inferior order, altogether unfit to associate with the white race&rdquo; and they &ldquo;had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.&rdquo; Through engaging in a critical inquiry of constitutional hermeneutics, Blacks looked to the Constitution to deduce their collective identity. However, when they looked in the constitutional mirror, they saw a broken reflection. By evaluating the existential dichotomy of the African-American self-identity revealed in the responses to the <i> Dred Scott</i> decision, this research argues that the African-American self-identity was broken by the Supreme Court&rsquo;s declaration that they were neither citizens nor people under the Constitution; however, in the face of the <i>Dred Scott</i> decision, the African-American self-identity used the very document which denied their right to exist, to galvanize a unique identity capturing their oppression, and the hope to realize their deprived liberty.</p>

<p> The last four decades of research regarding the late prehistoric American Southwest has produced abundant evidence for violence, warfare and cannibalism among the Ancestral Puebloan peoples. Most archaeologists attribute this rise in violence and subsequent abandonment of the Four Corners region to degrading environmental conditions. While ecological factors surely contributed, it is hard to accept that this alone led to the extreme mutilation of hundreds of human remains found throughout the Pueblo territory. It is proposed that increasing social complexity along with new ritual practices resulted in intense and violent attacks throughout the Pueblo expanse.</p>

<p> The primary objective of this dissertation was to reevaluate how physical anthropologists address the issue of oral health and oral health disparities in past populations. By utilizing methodology from dentistry as well as theoretical frameworks from archaeology and public health, we are able to address oral health in a more comprehensive light, allowing for a more interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of oral health in past populations. </p><p> The Erie County Poorhouse, established in Buffalo, New York in response to growing poverty, was located at what is now the University at Buffalo&rsquo;s South Campus. In 2012, skeletal remains were recovered from the associated cemetery (1851-1913). In all, 482 burial locations were identified, with skeletal remains from 376 individuals being recovered for analysis. Archaeological analysis of artifacts and coffin alignment suggest a temporal boundary between an older (earlier) and more recent (later) sections of the cemetery. </p><p> This time period marked a revolution for dental medicine in the United States. Changes in education, innovation, regulation, and public outreach all dramatically increased the accessibility, increased the quality, and decreased the costs of dentistry during the 19th century. Because of this, individuals occupying a lower socioeconomic class could have obtained dental services at higher rates than previous research suggests. This research analyzes dental pathologies, oral health, and oral health disparities within this sample in light of these advances in dentistry. </p><p> Of the 376 individuals available for analysis, 253 had at least one tooth or portion of alveolar bone to be scored for dental pathologies (antemortem loss, carious lesions, abscesses, calculus, periodontal disease) and dental restorations (dentures, fillings, bridges). In general, high frequencies of dental pathologies are present within this sample while only 10 individuals had evidence of dental restorations. Differences in dental pathologies were analyzed using MANOVA/MANCOVA tests as well as Multinomial Logistic Regression between sex (males/females) and sections of the cemetery (earlier/more recent), as well as by age (&lt;15, 15-19, 20-35, 36-50, 50+).</p><p> To better address the concept of oral health, a new index, modified from an oral health index used in clinical dentistry, was utilized&mdash;The Oral Health Archaeological Index&mdash;which generates an &lsquo;oral health score&rsquo; for each individual. The oral health scores generated were compared using ANOVA tests between sex and sections of the cemetery. Results indicate that females had on average higher oral health scores than males (Females= 0.871, Males=0.759). </p><p> To assess the degree of oral health disparities, Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients were calculated using oral health scores and dental restorations. In order to test significance, 50 bootstrapped samples were generated for males, females, and for each section of the cemetery. For each bootstrapped sample, Gini coefficients were calculated. These Gini coefficients were than compared using student&rsquo;s t-test between the sexes and sections of the cemetery. Results suggest that there is greater evidence of oral health disparities among males than females (Female Gini Coefficient=0.0658, Male Gini Coefficient=0.09185). </p><p> This dissertation moved beyond traditional analysis of &lsquo;oral health&rsquo; by utilizing the above Oral Health Archaeological Index, theory, and public health studies to allow for a more robust analysis of oral health in past populations. These methods and theories allow for new interpretations to be made beyond the biological and socioeconomic, focusing on the individual experience and agency of an individual, attempting to ascertain what factors encourage or discourage an individual from seeking out dental treatment.</p>

<p> The Cuyuna Range is a former North American iron mining district about 90 miles(145 kilometers) west of Duluth in central Minnesota. The district was the furthest south and west of the three Minnesota iron ranges (Vermilion, Mesabi, and Cuyuna). In 2011, Students and staff from Michigan Technological University's Department of Social Sciences were asked to identify and promote features of the Cuyuna Range's mining heritage. Methods and approaches of mulitsited archaeology were used to unify the diverse places and themes into a more cohesive narrative. Their investigations focused on sites of technological innovation, social conflict, and important people. One collaborative project involved training a team of local volunteers to survey seven iron mining communities to identify sites with historic importance. In total, 876 sites were documented. The data generated from this effort can be used to develop plans for cultural tourism focused on the iron mining heritage of the Cuyuna Iron Range. It was found that using multiple themes from multisited archaeology strengthened the region&rsquo;s narrative better than simply focusing on sites from a single thematic viewpoint</p>

published_or_final_version / abstract / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts