VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Kiechle, Melanie A."

Browsing by Author "Kiechle, Melanie A."

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Consuming Trade in Mid-Eighteenth Century Albany
Evenson, Sara Christine (Virginia Tech, 2016-06-29)
An analysis of mid-eighteenth century trading centers reveals a distinct pattern different from that of earlier seventeenth century trading communities. Consumable items comprised the majority of internal and external commerce for many of these trading port cities. Albany, New York, a hinterland trading center, mirrored these changes and can act as a case study for many of the global transitions of the eighteenth century. Taken within the broader framework and understanding of the consumer revolution, it becomes clear that Albanian culture and society became crystallized around its food items and their trade, much as the coastal communities commonly studied. Due to the emphasis placed on it by Albanians, food and its trade became the culturally, socially, and economically homogenizing factor that began shaping the modern city as it transitioned from its seventeenth century roots. By the middle of the eighteenth century, Albanians had become active consumers and experienced traders in a global marketplace and had experienced marked cultural hybridization as seen via its food trade and consumption.
The Great Appalachian Flood of 1977: Prisoners, Labor, and Community Perceptions in Wise, Virginia
Adkins, Henry Clay (Virginia Tech, 2021-06-24)
The Great Appalachian Flood of 1977 was a historic flood that killed over 100 people, damaged nearly 1,500 homes, and displaced almost 30,000 Appalachian residents. The flood lasted from April 2nd to April 5th, 1977 affecting southwestern Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, and eastern Tennessee. This project focuses on the disaster relief efforts by the incarcerated population of Wise County Correctional Facility, commonly known as Unit 18, in Wise, Virginia. This project utilized locally produced primary sources known as the Mountain Community Television interviews. These interviews were archived online through the Appalshop Archives in Whitesburg, Kentucky. The Mountain Community Television interviews used for this project were recorded three to four weeks following the early April flood in Wise by media activists and volunteers. The reporters interviewed incarcerated men from Unit 18, the administrative staff and correctional officers at Unit 18, local business owners, and residential community members of Wise. This article examines how the community of Wise, Virginia reacted to the disaster relief efforts in the community. The disaster relief work performed by Unit 18 inmates in the aftermath of the 1977 flood exemplifies a growing reliance on prison laborers in central Appalachia specifically, and rural America more generally. The majority of residential community members in Wise expressed NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) attitudes toward the prison facility and incarcerated population at Unit 18. On the other hand, local business owners who directly benefited from disaster relief work and prison labor changed their opinions about Unit 18 inmates. This project details how the April flood influenced local business owners to move from "Not In My Backyard" to an expanding reliance on incarcerated labor. Most of the Wise community retained NIMBY perceptions about Unit 18 and the incarcerated population after the April flood relief efforts excluding local business owners, a small but important sect of the Wise population. The article concludes by examining Unit 18 inmates' reflections on their labor, wages, and the rehabilitation programs at the Wise County Correctional Facility in the late 1970s.
Invisible Inequalities: Persistent Health Threats in the Urban Built Environment
Schlichting, Kara Murphy; Kiechle, Melanie A. (Brepols, 2020-12)
A city’s materiality creates health and illness. We both write about air - its movement and its temperature - as it affects human bodies. We offer two topics as case studies, heat and ventilation, and how they exacerbate the effects of each other, to illustrate the long history of seemingly new challenges posed by the novel coronavirus. The environmental inequalities of heat exposure and access to fresh air underscore that cities can only be considered ‘low impact’ on the environment from a top-down, large-scale approach. In writing about air and heat, we direct attention to the feel and the bodily impacts of unseen but persistent problems in housing. Centuries of building inequalities into the urban environment are coming to bear on our present debates about indoor space, ventilation, and viral spread as cities encounter the COVID-19 crisis.
'The land of my birth and the home of my heart': Enlistment Motivations for Confederate Soldiers in Montgomery County, Virginia, 1861-1862
Jones, Adam Matthew (Virginia Tech, 2014-07-01)
There is a gap in existing literature in regards to the role of community in understanding the motivations of Civil War soldiers. Current historiographical studies try to apply the same motivational factors to entire states, armies, or to all Union or Confederate soldiers in general. Some historians even attempt to show that regardless of Union or Confederate, soldiers' motivations were similar due to a shared American identity. This thesis explores a community in the mountain valleys of present-day Southwest Virginia, which stayed loyal to Richmond and the Confederacy. This case study of Montgomery County illustrates that enlistment motivations varied based on a mixture of internal and external factors distinctive to a soldier's community; therefore, there cannot be a representative sample of the Confederate Army that covers all the nuances that makes each community unique. Enlistment was both a personal decision and one influenced by the environment. Montgomery County soldiers were the product of their community that included external factors such as slavery, occupation, and class, and internal ideological themes such as honor, masculinity, and patriotism, that compelled them to enlist in the Confederate Army in the first year of the war, April 1861 through April 1862. These men enlisted to protect their status quo when it was convenient for them to leave their home and occupation, and if they had fewer family obligations.
A Matter of Increasing Perplexity: Public Perception, Treatment, and Military Influence of Refugees in the Shenandoah Valley During the American Civil War
Crawford, Noah Frazier (Virginia Tech, 2021-06-28)
This thesis examines the ways in which definitions and perceptions of refugees in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia evolved over the course of the American Civil War. It investigates perspectives from individuals in both the United States and Confederate States to illustrate how misconceptions about refugees—who they were, what they wanted, and how they could benefit each side—dominated how displaced people were discussed. I argue that despite significant attention to refugees in newspapers, military reports, and among the public, both sides failed to adequately assist refugees who were displaced as a result of the war. Utilizing a broadly chronological approach allows greater insight into how the situation in the Shenandoah Valley escalated over time with the addition of various refugee demographic groups, including white Unionists, Black self-emancipated people, deserters, and pro-Confederate civilians. This thesis discusses how each of these groups challenged Americans' culturally-constructed definition of the word "refugee." It also demonstrates how military commanders made use of refugees as sources of military intelligence who directly influenced the events of several military campaigns. This thesis argues that misconceptions about refugees hindered an effective and meaningful response to the Valley's refugee crisis among government officials, military officers, and the general populaces of the North and the South.
Microbiology at the Nexus of Food, Energy, Water and Health
Badgley, Brian D.; Boyer, Renee R.; Dufour, Monique; He, Zhen (Jason); Hungerford, Laura L.; Kiechle, Melanie A.; Kuhn, David D.; Lawrence, Christopher B.; Marr, Linsey C.; Melville, Stephen B.; Pierson, F. William; Popham, David L.; Senger, Ryan S.; Sumner, Susan S.; Vinatzer, Boris A.; Schmale, David G. III; Stevens, Ann M. (Virginia Tech, 2017-05-15)
Microorganisms are absolutely critical to myriad aspects of the human existence. As a field of study, microbiology could and should serve a greater role on our campus, as it has key connections with many of the Destination and Strategic Growth Areas. We propose the development of a broad concept area in microbiology that will serve as a nexus, as it is applied to solve critical global challenges related to food, energy, water and health, by bridging across multiple disciplines at Virginia Tech (VT). There is increasing recognition of microbes as a driving force in natural and managed environments, biological processes, and ecological structure. Conversely, the importance of culture and individual behavior in affecting microbial communities has also become apparent....
Promoting Positivity: Securing Memphis's Image in Times of Crisis
Nehrt, Jennifer Lynn (Virginia Tech, 2017-06-29)
Situating the 1878 yellow fever epidemic in Memphis's long history shows how concern over Memphis's national reputation influenced how city leaders dealt with crisis. Throughout its history, Memphis government officials and business leaders promoted Memphis as a good city to do business, free from disease and racial strife. Despite their best efforts, they could not deny explosive incidents of racially-based violence or disease outbreaks. Instead, they tried to mitigate negative repercussions on the local economy during times of crisis. When the 1878 yellow fever epidemic struck, the Citizen's Relief Committee, the impromptu government formed by business leaders after outbreak, promoted Memphis as a functioning white city that was operating the best it could under terrible circumstances so the city could resume normal economic activity once the fever passed. This became the dominant narrative, repeated by newspapers across the country in 1878 and historians today. This narrative is problematic because it ignores black Memphians, who composed of 80% of the city's population after outbreak. Instead of recognizing black Memphians participation in relief activities, they promoted stories in the media about lazy or riotous African Americans to justify denying sufficient aid to the black community. Catholics had better luck earning the gratitude of Memphis's leaders. They worked with the white government and charities as nurses and fundraisers, and earned a glowing reputation in national newspapers. The inclusion of African Americans and Catholics in this thesis tells a more complete story and challenges white Memphians' carefully cultivated narrative.
Reading in Zion: Book Cultures of Mormon Youth, 1869–1890
Balli, Tyler A. (Virginia Tech, 2020-06-26)
This thesis examines the feelings of generational anxiety in the Mormon community from 1869 to 1890 and how those feelings intersected with ideas about reading. During this time, older members of the Mormon community in Utah Territory feared how changes in and threats to Mormon society might negatively affect young people's beliefs, abilities, knowledge, and adherence to their parents' religion. Older Mormons recognized a potential ally and enemy in books, newspapers, and other reading materials, which they believed could dramatically shape young people for good or for ill depending on the quality of the material. This thesis argues these older Mormons borrowed many elements from other US literary cultures and repurposed them for distinctly Mormon ends, including achieving theosis (chapter 1), navigating changing dynamics in Mormon families (chapter 2), and building their utopic society, Zion (chapter 3). This research adds to the work of those scholars who have combined the history of Mormonism with book history. It incorporates the voices of everyday Mormons to bring into focus the entire ecosystem of reading for young Mormons by focusing not only on fiction but also on biography, scripture, "Church works," history, and other genres. It examines not only discourse but also institutionalized programs and actions, such as the 1888 MIA Course of Reading (chapter 4), that shaped Mormons' world of reading. Such an examination begins to sharpen our understanding of the relationship of print and religion in America and what reading meant to Mormons.
Remove Him to the Poorhouse: Poor-Relief in Montgomery County, VA, 1830-1880
Gallagher, Jennifer Ann (Virginia Tech, 2019-10-18)
In 1962, historian Michael Harrington published The Other America, the inaugural work in the field of the history of poverty. Part history and part call to action, Harrington argued that the poor have largely remained invisible in American society. He endeavored to make America's poor visible as the first step towards addressing the tragedy of poverty. Today, 40 million Americans live in poverty, indicating that it is as much a societal issue in need of solution in the twenty-first century as it was in Harrington's time. Although the field is small, a few scholars have taken up Harrington's call and written histories of the poor and poor relief. This work seeks to complicate and expand upon the conclusions reached by these historians by studying poor relief at the local level of one singular community in the rural South. This research asks how the residents of nineteenth-century Montgomery County, Virginia understood the county's responsibility for providing poor relief, and what underlying values and beliefs informed that understanding. Using local government records and state legislative and administrative records, this research will argue that, largely because the county had not yet industrialized, poor relief in nineteenth-century Montgomery County diverged from national and regional trends in three significant respects.: attitudes towards the poor in Montgomery County tended to remain more benign than national attitudes well into the postbellum era; poor relief in Montgomery County was available to black residents, both before and after the Civil War; and Montgomery County continued to offer outdoor relief well into the postbellum era. An analysis of why poor relief differed to such a degree in a rural, Southern community, as opposed to more urban, Northern, or Midwestern locales, illuminates the effects of economy, geography, and demography on societal conceptions of the poor.
Shaping the City from Below: Urban Planning and Citizens' Battle for Control in Roanoke, Virginia, 1907-1928
Harmon, Emily Blair (Virginia Tech, 2018-05-31)
In 2017, urban planners in Roanoke, Virginia, created a plan to construct a new public space that will honor the city's first professional city planner, John Nolen. Nolen is now considered a founder of the urban planning profession in the United States. Roanoke officials hope to celebrate the city's connection with Nolen and emphasize his influence over Roanoke's development. Similarly, historical narratives about urban planning focus on male city planners while ignoring citizens' contributions. Urban histories, on the other hand, concentrate on large metropolitan areas in the urban North. By combining urban history, women's history, and southern history, this thesis seeks to understand how diverse citizens in a small city of Southwest Virginia shaped the city. Beneath the surface of John Nolen and professional city planning, upper-class white women, African Americans, and male city leaders and businessmen, engaged in a dynamic power play over Roanoke's built environment. As they engaged in this battle for control, citizens shaped Roanoke from below. Wealthy Roanokers partnered with John Nolen to assert power over other citizens and to shape the city in their own interests. By uncovering the story of a southern city's development in the early twentieth century, this thesis exposes the ways in which southern citizens shaped urban spaces to exert power over other citizens and engage in a battle for control over the urban environment.
Weird Old Figures and a New Twist: Cultural Functions of Halloween at the Turn of the 20th Century
Williams, Rebecca Jean (Virginia Tech, 2017-06-09)
Halloween arrived in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century with the surge in immigration from the British Isles — especially Ireland. However, the folk holiday did not gain widespread attention until the late 1870s and 1880s when descriptive pieces containing both accounts of Halloween's long history increasingly appeared in some newspapers and periodicals. Over the next couple decades, these descriptive pieces became more prescriptive, instructing women how to throw a "proper" Halloween party; what food to serve, games to play, and atmosphere to evoke. By the turn of the twentieth century and up through the 1920s, the middle-to-upper class — specifically women — adopted the holiday all across the country and characterized it with parties, decorative displays, and the propagation of literature, imagery, and ephemera. Since Halloween had existed as an ethnic folk tradition in America for several decades, why and how did this particular group of Americans adopt — and adapt — Halloween to meet their needs? Which Halloween traditions did they retain and how did they shape the holiday for their own purposes? Finally, how did this particular celebration of Halloween reflect the interplay of certain values among these celebrants through literature, imagery, and ephemera? This study of Halloween asks what the celebration of holidays and rituals can tell us about the culture in which they are celebrated. By employing a method which gives equal weight to historical context, audience, and imagery, we gain valuable insight about the stratum of American society which made Halloween an American tradition.
When This You See, Remember Me
Brown, Katelyn O'Halloran (Virginia Tech, 2018-07-22)
The massive mortality rates of the American Civil War challenged mid-nineteenth century Americans' understandings and relationship with death. Faced with inadequate methods of individual identification and record-keeping that were unable to keep up with the overwhelming mobilization of both men and resources that the war demanded, many soldiers simply disappeared or were buried under a stone marked "unknown." Even soldiers who kept their names died far from home, away from family, in a manner that challenged nineteenth century traditions of death. These factors caused many soldiers to seek some manner of permanence to ensure that their name would not be forgotten following death. This project examines the ways in which soldiers used visual culture, particularly graffiti, drawings, and studio photographs, to find permanence amidst the destruction and death of war. By looking at the subjects of and the ways that soldiers used the visual culture they created, this thesis seeks to understand the value of visual culture as both an outlet for soldiers of the Civil War and as an invaluable source for historical research today. This project first explores the role of religion as both a subject of and an influence on visual culture. It then moves on to examine how soldiers used visual culture as a means finding permanence, including as a means of claiming a place in and piece of the war and as a form of memorialization. By examining the power of visual culture for finding permanence, this project provides insight into the ways in which soldiers sought to remember each other and their own experiences while also adding to the human conversation on mortality.
The Women of Waterford, Virginia: Gender, Unionism, Quakerism and Identity in the American Civil War
Wild, Emily Frances (Virginia Tech, 2019-07-03)
Over the course of the Civil War the small community of Waterford, Virginia maintained Unionist sentiments regardless of being a part of the Confederate States of America. These sentiments were rooted in loyalty to the United States, their ostracization from southern culture, and their Quaker faith. In particular, the women of this community became exceptionally vocal with their displeasure with the Confederacy. In the last year of the Civil War they made the deliberate choice to publicly assert their Unionist convictions with their newspaper The Waterford News. The experience of this community, particularly that of its female residents, was influenced by the variety of identities that they held. The women of Waterford were Quakers, female, southern, unionist and editors/producers of a newspaper. The community of Waterford, Virginia was placed in the margins of Southern society because of the cultural differences rooted in their Quaker faith. The Civil War created a chaotic historical moment where those on the margins of society experienced it differently than those around them. By examining their identities as newspaper producers, as citizens of different groups, and within their interpersonal relationships the reality of how war is lived is brought to light. All of these factors reveal how war is lived, and how lives are manipulated to fit within times of chaos. Motivation matters.

Browsing by Author "Kiechle, Melanie A."

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