Posts tagged historiography

 On our trip to Oberlin in the fall, as well as visiting the archives, we had an opportunity to tour the the campus and surrounding area of Oberlin. This tour was a great starting point to our research, and provided a great opportunity to learn about the abolitionist roots of Oberlin College. We learned about such prominent figures as that contributed to the foundation of the college and seminary such as Charles Finney and John Mercer Langston.

A plaque explaining Oberlin’s abolitionist past.

The monument commemorating the Oberlin Wellington Rescue of the slave John Price.

A plaque commemorating those who assisted in the rescue of John Price.

Clark Bandstand at Tappen Square, a Square named for the 19th century abolitionist Charles Tappen.

The famous “Reading Girl” statue at the Mudd Library. She even has has her own blog!

The Little Red Schoolhouse at Oberlin College, the oldest building at Oberlin. Built in 1837, it’s current location is the fourth place it has been moved to.

This is just a small sample of our tour at Oberlin. In addition to posting other content, we will continue to post more pictures of our trip to Oberlin. As well, look for our Black History Month, starting tomorrow and continuing every Wednesday for the month of February.

One of our first hands-on experiences with the practice of history was at the our trip to Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. Oberlin College is important to our research because the archivist at the College provided us with the primary source documents for our research and transcription purposes. Our class’s relationship with the Oberlin College Archives is a reciprocal one, as they provide us with the documents for our research purposes and in turn we aim to provide them with accurate, completed transcriptions.

This is a good example of how historiography works. Uncovering the past does not just occur in isolation, rather it is a collaborative effort in the community of historians. The work accomplished completed provides a foundation for not only our research into the life of Hiram Wilson and the abolitionist movement in Southern Ontario and Northern Ohio, but future research as well.

The following photos are of the History 3801 class at the Oberlin College Archives.

The purpose of this blog will be to chronicle the research process of the students of History 3801 as we explore the abolitionist movement centred in Southwestern Ontario and the Northern United States, focusing on the letters of abolitonist Hiram Wilson and the establishment of the Wilberforce settlement.

This project is association with the Promised Land Project (PLP), and aims to be congruent with the overall research aims of the PLP.

Last year’s class also studied the letters of Hiram Wilson and their blog can be found here.

What we hope to accomplish through this blog:

-a central place to display the work of various groups within the Historian’s Craft Class and how they present their research through various multimedia and creative presentations

-to examine the research of the students and the unseen historiographical process

-to engage the public with our research via the platform of Tumblr through tagging posts, reblogging posts that are relevant to our study

The culmination of the blog will be fufilled in the formal presentation at Huron University College (date TBA).

For contact proposes, we can be contacted at his3801huron@gmail.com.

Thank you for joining us on our journey!