Two factors have contributed to the important position Ft. Wayne has occupied in the political and economic history of North America --- first, its location upon the "most famous portage in North America," and second, the great abundance of fur bearing animals found along the streams and in the forests of this region.

The possession of a longbow around which cling the mysteries and the triumphs of its English predecessors presages an interest in its history and possibilities, so it is not strange when in the course of my studies at Butler University I was called upon to select a thesis subject that I found inspiration in my own bow. There is music in the twang of its bow-string; there is poetry in its lines. Every bow has its own personality; every arrow its own peculiar perversities.

Accustomed as we are today to paved highways, motor cars, steam railways, and airplanes it is difficult for us to picture the conditions of travel and transportation prevailing in Indiana in the early years of the last century. There were no canals, railroads, or pikes. All the streams except the Ohio were seriously obstructed by fallen trees, debris, snags, and sand bars. What wagon roads existed were frequently impassable and practically always bad.

Forty of fifty years ago it seemed that the rollicking mirth and breathless passion of romance was gone, perhaps forever, from the pages of world literature. It was a strenuous time, in which a Browning preached determined optimism, and a Tennyson tried to reconcile science and religion for the doubters, while novelists and dramatics the world over were trying to improve society from their respective pulpits and soap-boxes. It was a solemn epoch, a little too self-concious about its ethical duty, and a little exaggerated in its attempts at social reconstruction; but it swept out for us many an old musty belief, exposed to our view many corruptions we might not have dared to drag out, and, in fine, proved to be a period of wholesome though somewhat painful self-scrutiny on the part of society.

Catholicism has existed in the territory now known as Indiana since the latter part of the seventeenth century. Soon after the exploration of the Mississippi by LaSalle, in 1682, the government of France began to encourage the policy of establishing a line of trading posts and missionary stations in the country lying west of the Alleghany mountains. Despite many obstacles missionaries followed these traders for a period of seventy-five years. One of their early posts was established at Vincennes which was the center of activities for the first one hundred years of the institutional life of the Catholic Church in Indiana.

When the new government of the United States was put into operation, one of the first tasks with which it had to deal was that of filling offices, in order that the Constitution and the laws passed under it might be enforced. President Washington, whose chief characteristics were good judgment and punctilious exactness, was allowed to use his discretion in the question of qualifications. He realized the difference between appointing men barely fit to fill their offices, and appointing those who were most fit.

The purpose of this study is to give an accurate account of the history of Camp Butler, Illinois, from the time of its establishment to the present time. The contents have been drawn from historical records, letters, manuscripts, government reports, newspapers, and interviews, besides tombstone inscriptions and Springfield traditions.

The purpose of this paper is to give an approximate idea of the extent to which commerce developed between southern Indiana and the South prior to the period beginning with 1850, as well as to show how this mutual interdependence led to the formation of strong economic ties between the two sections. There is also an attempt made to show that this economic interest strengthened the social ties naturally resulting from the fact that a large percentage of the early settlers of southern Indiana came from beyond the Ohio River.

published_or_final_version / History / Master / Master of Philosophy

This dissertation interrogates the place of pornography within British culture between 1900 and 1939. While numerous scholars have studied British pornography using literary analysis and various cultural history approaches, this has not been accompanied by significant attention to the social dynamics of those involved in producing, consuming, and regulating pornographic materials. By dedicating equal attention to the products and operations of the pornography trade itself and to the surrounding hegemonic forces of state, press, and civil society, this research challenges widespread assumptions regarding the relationship between pornography and mainstream sexual culture. Specifically, this project argues that the pre-1939 pornography trade can best be understood as a queer sexual subculture. Moreover, this subculture operated as a node within a far larger and more complex transnational network rather than as an isolated national or local entity. Pornographic content reflected these conditions of production and consumption, offering subversive alternatives to heteronormative hegemonic practices such as mandatory heterosexuality, monogamy, and binary gender roles. Numerous social trends and competing discourses worked to create cultural spaces in which the subculture operated. The British state, civil anti-vice organizations, and the press all formally opposed the pornography trade yet limited their efforts against it due to competing priorities such as opposition to censorship and the desire to frame pornography as a strictly foreign social issue. This carefully historicized case study of a specific culture of pornography offers a counterpoint to contemporary treatments of pornography as an ahistorical and monolithic cultural production. By placing the pre-1939 British pornography trade in its specific imperial and transnational context, this dissertation shows that pornography can only be studied through close attention to its conditions of production, consumption, and regulation.