Author: sailerd

Claiming that the fast-growing House Divided research engine shows admirable “sophistication,” Civil War Times recently reviewed elements of the project in the August 2010 issue:

“The House Divided Project builds on the experience of Dickinson College’s graduates to interpret the war era. Dickinson boasts a president, a chief justice of the U. S. Supreme Court and others among its 19th-century alumni who played roles in both the Union and Confederacy.

Readers who prefer to start the day with a historic newspaper will love the site’s opening page. After clicking “Enter,” a series of images appear, linked to biographical sketches of “Dickinsonians” born that day. Scanning down to “Events,” readers find documents or summaries of major events. In some cases there is no document, just a notation (e.g., in May 1857, Harriet Tubman was helping her enslaved parents escape to freedom). More details can be found with events tied directly to the college, such as when in 1847 Professor John McClintock and the free black community in Carlisle, Pa., tried to stop slave catchers from returning escaped slaves to Maryland. Visitors can follow links to newspaper coverage of the event, as well as brief bios of McClintock and others involved, and they will also find links to broad discussions of slavery, fugitive slave laws and the Underground Railroad.

Started in 2008, House Divided is separated into subcategories of User’s Guide, Almanacs, Teacher’s Guide and Collections. Visitors can search the site by calendars (under “Almanacs”) or subject headings (under “Collections”) – or they can opt to use the search bars to narrow their investigations.

House Divided’s creators warn that the site is still under constructions and likely will be through 2011. Anyone searching for information on battles and combatants may chafe at the limited attention these issues currently receive. The site is only completed through portions of 1861 at this point, so it is difficult to judge whether its designers will address the war with the same sophistication they brought to the crises of the 1850s.” (By Susannah J. Ural)

On Sunday September 12, 2010 members of the White Carnation League met at Dickinson College’s Waidner-Spahr Library for an opportunity to conduct research and share information with the House Divided Project’s staff and student interns. This event was organized as part of the Pennsylvania Grand Review, which in early November 2010 commemorated Harrisburg’s decision in November 1865 to honor the African Americans who fought during the Civil War. While “the gathering was meant to educate attendees on how to research their ancestors,” Carlisle Sentinel reporter Greg Gross explains that it “also proved educational for”  Dickinson College students and staff. Descendants brought old photographs, documents,

and told interesting stories about the men who served in the United States Colored Troops. As House Divided co-director Professor Matthew Pinsker noted, “it was interesting seeing college students interact with descendants.” You can read the full article online or download a PDF version.

On Saturday morning, April 16, 2011,  Matthew Pinsker will lead a teacher workshop focused on introducing educators to a variety of the best online resources for the study of the Civil War including many of the new tools provided by the House Divided Project. America’s Civil War magazine has already dubbed House Divided as “one of the most compelling sesquicentennial online projects” and predicts the site “will become a great resource for synthesizing many seemingly disparate elements of how and what we learn and teach about the Civil War.” Bloggers have been equally enthusiastic.  One history teacher / blogger claims that House Divided “will be invaluable in U.S. History classrooms.”

Breakout sessions will include hands-on computer demonstrations, focus groups and special sessions on particular topics related to Abraham Lincoln  and the outbreak of the war.

Matthew Pinsker is the Brian Pohanka Chair of Civil War History at Dickinson College and Co-Director of the House Divided Project.  He is the

author of Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers’ Home (2003).  During the last five years, he has led professional development workshops on the

Civil War era for more than 1,500 teachers from 45 states.

Registration

If you would like to attend, please complete the form below. If you have any questions, contact us at hdivided@dickinson.edu

Loading…

Details

We are grateful to the following sponsors and partners for their support:

Yale University historian David W. Blight will speak on Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 7pm in the Anita Tuvin Schlector Auditorium (ATS) at Dickinson College, providing a keynote address for the opening of the Civil War 150th anniversary and the House Divided Project launch weekend. This event is co-sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.  Renowned author of Race and Reunion: The American Civil War in American Memory (2001), Professor Blight will explore the meaning of the conflict on its 150th anniversary.  A book signing will follow.

David W. Blight is the Class of 1954 Professor of American History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University. He is the author of numerous books, including A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (for which he received the Bancroft, Abraham Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass prizes), and Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory, and the American Civil War. He is also the co-author of the bestselling American history textbook, A People and a Nation.

One of the classes that Blight teaches at Yale University is available online through Open Yale Courses. This is not simply a single lecture, as you can listen or watch all twenty seven classes of HIST 119: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877. As Blight explains, the “primary goal of the course is to understand the multiple meanings of a transforming event in American history.” Transcripts of each lecture are also available.

Listen to the Keynote Address

Details

We are grateful to the following sponsors and partners for their support: