October 2009 Meeting

NEHA CONFERENCE – UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT, Burlington, Vt.

THE ANNUAL FALL MEETING of the New England Historical Association held at the University of Vermont, Waterman Building, South Prospect Street, Burlington, Vermont on Saturday, October 17, 2009. The program was arranged by Vice President Melanie Gustafson with help from NEHA Association Officers and its Executive Committee. Local arrangements were planned by Melanie Gustafson, Paul Deslandes, and their colleagues at the University of Vermont.

NEHA and its members thank the UVM Department of History, Dean Eleanor Miller, Provost Jane Knodell, and former Provost John Hughes for sponsoring and supporting this meeting.

PRE-REGISTRATION for this conference is strongly recommended, although registration at the conference is possible, luncheon seating is limited. Pre-registration GREATLY facilitates early morning arrival, so please do consider both the cost saving and the time saving afforded by pre-registering. The pre-registration form enclosed herewith should be completed and mailed to the executive secretary by October 10. Please do not mail registrations after October 8 as they may not arrive in time for processing. On-site registration at a slightly increased registration fee will be available.

REGISTRATION is required for members and non-members who attend the conference, including each panelist. Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. in Memorial Lounge, Waterman Building. Members are encouraged to bring copies of their recent publications as well as other relevant professional literature for display.

TRAVEL INFORMATION: From I-89: Take Exit 14W into Burlington. Head west on Williston Road up hill. Turn right onto South Prospect Street. Take first left onto College Street. Take first left into visitor parking lot. The Waterman Building is located across the street from the parking lot, at College and South Prospect streets.

From Route 7 North: Follow Shelburne Road/Route 7 into Burlington. At rotary, bear right onto South Willard Street/Route 7. At rotary, bear right onto South Willard Street/Route 7. Travel less than 1 mile to intersection with Main Street (Route 2). Continue on South Willard Street one more block to College Street; turn right onto College. Just past South Williams Street, take right into visitors’ parking lot. The Waterman Building is located across the street from the parking lot, at College and South Prospect streets.

OVERNIGHT ACCOMMODATIONS: A block of rooms has been reserved at the Burlington Sheraton, 870 Williston Road, Burlington (802-865-6600) for Friday evening at the rate of $109. This is “leaf-peeping” season in Vermont and hotels will be very busy and pricey, so the $109 rate is a bargain. You MUST identify as a NEHA member and you MUST make your reservation NO LATER THAN September 11 to get this rate. There are other hotels and Inns near the UVM campus, but rates will likely be considerably higher and availability will be difficult. Note: As of 9/8/09, the Sheraton Burlington appears to be fully booked. Reasonably priced rooms (under $100) are reported available by ORBITZ in the nearby towns of Colchester and Shelburne. ANOTHER BLOCK OF ROOMS HAS OPENED UP (9/15/09) AT THE COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT IN WILLISTON, VT. Call 802-879-0100, identify yourself as attending the NEHA Conference and ask for the rate of $119 per night.

LUNCHEON will be in Warterman Manor on the UVM campus. The NEHA Book Award will be presented at the luncheon. Lunch, including special accommodations, will be available for pre-registrants HOWEVER you are asked to reserve luncheon in advance since this facilitates meal planning. We will likely not be able to accommodate vegetarian or other special diet requests on the day of the conference.

FALL CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Registration and Continental Breakfast: 8:15 a.m. — Waterman Building. All sessions will be in the Waterman Building.

7:30-8:30 a.m. Saturday Morning, Oct. 17 — Early Bird Walking Tour:
“Dr. Dann’s Queen City Magical Medicine Show and Promenade”

Long before becoming the birthplace of such magical elixirs as Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Magic Hat beer, and Phish’s music, Burlington was the site of magical doings, both esoteric and exoteric. This one-hour tour will begin on the waterfront, where we will contemplate the workings of Abenaki mdawlinno (shamans), then amble up to the UVM Green, stopping to catch glimpses of Freemasons, Spiritualists, Stage Magicians, Patent Medicine Hucksters, Hermeticists, and Astral Travelers.

Participants will meet either at Memorial Lounge, Waterman Building, at 7:20 or at the ECHO Center on the waterfront at 7:30am. Registration materials and a continental breakfast will be ready for you when you return to Waterman at 8:30. Voluntary donations of any amount directly to the Tour Docent are encouraged but not required.

8:15-8:45 REGISTRATION: Memorial Lounge, Waterman Building.

MORNING SESSIONS I: 8:45-10:15

8:45 Session 1: Roundtable on World History Room: 427A Waterman
Chair: Alfred Andrea, University of Vermont/Vice-President, World History Association
• Holly-Lynn Busier, University of Vermont
• Dane Morrison, Salem State College
• Anthony Penna, Northeastern University
• Malcolm Purinton, Independent Scholar
Comment: The Audience

8:45 Session 2: Business and Politics Room: 455 Waterman
Chair and Comment: Aldo V. Garcia Guevara, Worcester State College
• Robert Hodges, University of Maine, “Merchants & Consumers: Consumerism, Material Goods, and Identity in Early Loyalist Saint John, 1784-1799”
• Ronald Angelo Johnson, Purdue University, “ ‘Our Minister to Toussaint’: Race and U.S. Relations toward Revolutionary Saint-Domingue”
• Yovanna Pineda, St. Michael’s College, “The Foreign Business of Advertising Agricultural Machinery in Argentina, 1880-1940”

8:45 Session 3: Redemption, Preservation, and Celebration: The Impact of Civil War Memory on American Culture Room: 458 Waterman
Chair and Comment: Steven C. Eames, Mount Ida College
• Bethany W. Jay, Salem State College, “Preservation and Reunion: Museums, the Civil War and Slavery”
• Erin Powers, Salem State College, “Whatever Happened to Jefferson Davis? How the Johnson Administration and the North Helped Redeem a Confederate”
• Jill Messender, Salem State College, “Celebrations of the ‘Million Dead’: The Grand Army of the Republic and the Establishment of the National Memorial Day, 1866-1869”

8:45 Session 4: American Foreign Policies Room: 456 Waterman
Chair: Andrew Buchanan, Ruthers University./University of Vermont
• David Turpie, University of Maine, “ ‘Howling Upon the Scent of Another Victim’: Senator Edward W. Carmack, Southern Anti-Imperialism and the Uses of History”
• Matthew J. Clarcq, Niagara County Community College, “Scaffolding, Tarps and Mortar: Activities of the Monuments Men in the Italian Theater, 1943-1946”
• Darren J. McDonald, Boston College, “ ‘Justice in a Sinful World’: Jimmy Carter, Religion, and the Making of U.S. Foreign Policy”
Comment: Keith Olson, University of Maryland/University of Vermont

8:45 Session 5: Creating History: Recollections and Remembrance Room: 457 Waterman
Chair: Johnathan Spiro, Castleton State College
Comment: Lisa Cline, Johnson State College
• Diana Hennessy-Curran, Boston College, “Remembering the Battle of the Boyne: History, Traditions and Commemorations in Contemporary Northern Ireland”
• Willard Stanley, Bryant University, “Torn Between Two Societies: The Vietnamese-American Immigration Experience”
• Chris Kostov, University of Ottowa, “Balkan Ethnic Presence in Toronto and the Multicultural History Society of Ontario Archives”

8:45 Session 6: National Questions and New England Politics Room: 400 Waterman
Chair: John Lund, Keene State College
• Millington William Bergeson-Lockwood, University of Michigan, “ ‘A Democrat within the true meaning of the word’: Edwin Garrison Walker and African American Independent Politics in Boston, Massachusetts, 1867-1901”
• Chris Burns, University of Vermont, “Bogus Butter: the 1886 Congressional Debate over Oleomargarine”
• Philip A. Grant, Jr., Pace University, “Northern New England and the Repeal of the Prohibition Amendment, 1932-1933”
Comment: Karen Madden, Johnson State College/University of Vermont

8:45 Session 7: The Great War and After Room: 401 Waterman
Chair: Douglas Slaybaugh, St. Michael’s College
• Jeff Roquen, Western Illinois University, “The Seeds of Intervention: White House Perceptions and Responses to World War I, 28 June – 28 August, 1914”
• Steven Haynes, Kent State University, “American Charity: Wilson, Harding, and World Peace”
• Timothy R. Blake, St. Michael’s College, “The Diplomatic Struggle of David Lloyd George and George Nathaniel Curzon: The Case of Auckland Campbell Geddes”
Comment: Matthew Masur, St. Anselm College

Break for Book Exhibit & Refreshments: 10:15-10:45

MORNING SESSIONS II: 10:45-12:15

10:45 Session 8: Digital History and the Classroom Room: 457 Waterman
Chair: Jeremy Dibbell, Massachusetts Historical Society
• Tona Hangen, Worcester State College, “Creating Digital History as a Teaching Tool”
• Hope Greenberg, University of Vermont, “Digital History/Digital Humanities: Where Are We?”
Comment: The Audience

10:45 Session 9: Spirits of Patriotism Room: 455 Waterman
Chair: Rebecca R. Noel, Plymouth State University
• Woden Teachout, Union Institute & University, “The Fourth of July and Other Tales from Charles Herbert’s Diary: American Sailors, British Jails, and Nationalism in the Revolutionary Era”
• Ann M. Becker, SUNY Empire State College, “Joseph Plumb Martin, American Revolutionary”
• Sara Georgini, Boston University, “God Pleading with America: The Nexus of Providence, State, and Prayer in Antebellum Fast Day Worship”
Comment: Stephen Berry, Simmons College

10:45 Session 10: States of Intellectual and Cultural Life Room: 458 Waterman
Chair and Comment: Martha Yoder, Commonwealth Honors College, UMass, Amherst
• Lisa Pinley Covert, Yale University, “Containing Foreignness: Gender, Youth and Nation in Provincial Mexico”
• M. Raisur Rahman, Wake Forest University, “The Qasbah of Amroha: Muslim Intellectual Life in Colonial South Asia”
• Gayle Veronica Fischer, Salem State College, “Witches, Devils, Fairies, and Richard Nixon: Children’s Halloween Costumes and the State of the United States, 1950-2001”

10:45 Session 11: Art, the Environment, and History Room: 401 Waterman
Chair: Mark Herlihy, Endicott College
• Maria Bashshur Abunnasr, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, “Imagining New England in Ras Beirut”
• Peter Clericuzio, University of Pennsylvania, “Art Nouveau and the Revival of the Alsace-Lorraine Question, ca. 1900-1914”
• Troy Paddock, Southern Connecticut State University, “Thinking about History and the Natural Environment: Viewing the Mosel”
Comment: Paul Monod, Middlebury College

10:45 Session 12: Nationalisms Room: 456 Waterman
Chair and Comment: Trent E. Maxey, Amherst College
• Andre Fleche, Castleton State College, “ ‘This Rebellion is a World Event’: Secession and the Creation of Northern Nationalism”
• Paul Braun, University of Florida, “ ‘Passage to War’: Jose Martí’s Voyage to the Cuban Revolution of 1895”
• Sean Lent, University of Southern Maine, “Beauty and Patriotism: Yukio Mishima and the Rebirth of Nationalism in Japan after World War II”

10:45 Session 13: Personal and Political Responsibilities at Home and Abroad Room: 427A Waterman
Chair: Bruce Cohen, Worcester State College
• Harvey Strum, Sage College of Albany, “Famine Relief from the Children of the Auld Scotia: American Aid to Scotland in 1847”
• Benjamin Feldman, Independent Scholar, “Sauce for the Goose: The Strange Breach of Promise Case of George Barnard vs. Mary Power in Antebellum New York”
• Jun Kinoshita, Kokugakuin University, “Returning to Wachusett: The Sons of Vermont, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1870-1875”
Comment: Paul Searls, Lyndon State College

12:15 – 1:30 LUNCHEON & BUSINESS MEETING — Waterman Manor

PLENARY SESSION: 1:30-3:00 Room: 413 Waterman
“Museums and, the ‘Plugged-in Culture’: What this Means to All of Us”
This plenary session will begin with short presentations by public historians and then open up to a discussion between the moderator, panelists, and audience.
Participants:
• Ranger Chuck Arning, National Park Service, John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor
• Seth Bongartz, Executive Director, Hildene: The Lincoln Family Home
• Jeremy Dibbell, Massachusetts Historical Society
• Stephan Jost, Director, Shelburne Museum

RECEPTION: 3:00 – 4:00 – Memorial Lounge

NEHA and its members thank the UVM Department of History, Dean Eleanor Miller, Provost Jane Knodell, and former Provost John Hughes for sponsoring and supporting this meeting.

4:00 Adjournment