The David Library

This is where I was last Wednesday. The David Library in Washington Crossing PA. I went there to do research for my honors thesis which is about Quakers in the American Revolution. The David Library has a really helpful microfilm collection of pension applications made by Rev. War vets and their widows years after they had served. It wasn't until the 1810s that Congress passed the first bill that allowed Revolutionary War Veterans to collect pensions. Once it was passed the veterans who were still alive had to apply by describing their experience and answering a series of questions. Their answers are extremely revealing about life in Colonial and early America, and they give a fascinating account of the life of continental soldiers.

I was looking for a few specific Quakers from the Exeter Monthly Meeting who I knew fought in the Revolution. I was able to get a hold of a paper index before I made the two hour drive to the library. I was at the disadvantage of looking for men with names like John Hughes, John Boone, etc. Soooooo common. And the index revealed that there were many Higheses and Boones who applied for pensions in Pennsylvania.

Unfortuntaley when I got to the library I realized that it would be little help. None of the men whose applications I read seemed to be the Exeter Quakers I was looking for. One John Boone was related to the John Boone I needed. That was as close as I got. Researching in History is like being a detective. Sometimes, by the most curious serendipity you will find some piece of evidence that changes the way you see everything, or bolsters your argument and helps you immensly. A lot of other times you do a lot of work hunting for things that were never there to being with.

I'm Back

My internship ended August 8th and I ran out of steam the last few weeks with my blog. I've decided to start blogging again for a couple of reasons. First of all I feel like the things I learned at Daniel Boone have not just stopped because the internship is over, they will contunue to affect me, probably forever. Secondly, I feel like I still have a lot to say about history, and blogging gives me an outlet. Thirdly, blogging helps me articulate thoughts and get them out in the open, so that they can develop into ideas for papers, projects, etc. And finally, I'm going to keep blogging because I am working on two rather exciting projects that I would like to document, recieve feedback on, and describe online.

One thing to keep in mind about all this is that I am now back at school. I don't have the time to write voluminous entries like I did over the summer. Nor do I have time to blog everyday. However, I will still try to make time for it, and update the blog with some amount of regularity.

Now onto those projects I mentioned. The first is my honors thesis. It's supposedly the seminal project of my education . I actually got the idea for it from working at Daniel Boone. I am writing about participation in the American Revolution by Quakers who belonged to the Exeter Monthly Meeting. I am trying to make the connection between Quakers who had a lot of contact with other ethnic groups, and those who fought in the War. I think that the Quakers who were more accustomed to dealing with people who did not adhere to thethey Quaker creed were probably more likely to fight. I am trying to prove this "ethnic mingling" if you will, by looking at marriage patterns, property ownership, god parentage, partnerships, and other legal relationships between people of different ethnicities.

The other project has to do with ethnicity as well. This one I am very excited about . I am writing a paper about the Pennsylvania Germans during WWI. I am trying to prove that the reason the Pennsylvania German Society (do I always get inspired by old employers?) halted meetings during the war years was because it was trying to distance itself from the German immigratns of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this paper, I am exploring the Pennsylvania Germans' sense of ethnic identity, the ideas they had that made them feel separate from other German groups, and those that made them feel that they were being American in their own way.

I will elucidate more on both these topics later on. You will hear about my sources, the process I use to write and edit, as well as get a more detailed sense of what each paper is about.