HI249 - Historical Research Methods: Select Your Topic

Archival Resources to Start

• Ernest Nason Harmon Records
• Records of Fraternities, Societies, and Clubs
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers
  • Try heading for "fraternities" and under names of individual fraternities

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Syrett, Nicholas L. The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
• Sasso, Pietro A., J. Patrick Biddix, and Miranda Monica Lee (eds.). Foundations, Research, and Assessment of Fraternities and Sororities: Retrospective and Future Considerations. Gorham, Maine: Myers Education Press, 2020.

• Nuwer, Hank (ed.). Hazing: Destroying Young Lives. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2018.

Archival Resources to Start

• 7th Squadron, Rhode Island Cavalry Collection
• William Strong Dewey Papers
• Charles Nelson Kent Papers
• Charles Arthur Hoyt Letters
• University catalogs, 1861-1865
• Reveille (student newspaper), 1860-1865

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Cohen, Michael David. Reconstructing the Campus: Higher Education and the American Civil War. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012.
• Morehouse, Maggi M. and Zoe Trodd. Civil War America: A Social and Cultural History with Primary Sources. London: Taylor & Francis, 2013.
  • Chapters 11 & 12 are particularly helpful for this topic
• Geiger, Roger L. The History of American Higher Education: Learning and Culture from the Founding to World War II. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.

Archival Resources to Start

• Loring Edward Hart Records
• Vermont College Records
• Roberta Moskos Cooper Scrapbooks
• Board of Trustees Records
• Media Relations and Web Communications Records
• Linnea Westberg (Peterson) oral history
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers
  • Try headings starting "women" or for "Vermont College"

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Brodie, Laura Fairchild. Breaking Out: VMI and the Coming of Women. 1st ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 2000.
• Datnow, Amanda and Lea Hubbard. Gender in Policy and Practice: Perspectives on Single Sex and Coeducational Schooling. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis, 2013.
  • Chapter 10 is particularly helpful for this topic
• Armstrong, Kate. The Stone Frigate: The Royal Military College's First Female Cadet Speaks Out. Toronto: Dundurn, 2019.
  • Although this is not a scholarly book, it could be useful as a primary source that you can compare with primary sources from the Norwich Archives

Archival Resources to Start

• Oscar Eugene Learnard Papers
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers (under "Learnard, Oscar E." heading)
• For more context around Learnard's time as an NU student:
  • University Regulator
  • University Owl

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Earle, Jonathan Halperin and Diane Mutti Burke (eds). Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 2013.
• Ponce, Pearl T. To Govern the Devil in Hell: The Political Crisis in Territorial Kansas. DeKalb, Illinois: NIU Press, 2014.
• Epps, Kristen. Slavery on the Periphery: The Kansas-Missouri Border in the Antebellum and Civil War Eras. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2016.

Archival Resources to Start

• Homer Levi Dodge Records
• Charles Newell Barber Records
• Donald O. Nell Photographs
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers
  • Try heading "veterans of World War II -- at Norwich"

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Altschuler, Glenn C. and Stuart M. Blumin. The G.I. Bill: A New Deal for Veterans. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Boulton, Mark. Failing Our Veterans: The G.I. Bill and the Vietnam Generation. New York: New York University Press, 2014.
• Mettler, Suzanne. Soldiers to Citizens: The G.I. Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Archival Resources to Start

• Ernest Nason Harmon Records
• Barksdale Hamlett Records
• Loring Edward Hart Records
• W. Russell Todd Records
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Wallenstein, Peter. Higher Education and the Civil Rights Movement: White Supremacy, Black Southerners, and College Campuses. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008.
• Rogers, Ibram H. H. The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
• Turner, Jeffrey A. Sitting In and Speaking Out: Student Movements in the American South, 1960-1970. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010.
  • Perhaps this source could be used as a comparison to what students at Norwich thought about the Civil Rights movement?

Archival Resources to Start

• Biographical Files Collection
• Subject Files Collection
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers
• Individuals from early 20th century:
  • Harold "Doc" Martin and Malcolm Jenkins (African American students, attended 1916-1920)
  • Taraknath Das and Fakirchand Pal (Students from India, attended 1908-1912)
  • Chen Huan-Lei, George Bow, and others (Chinese and Chinese American students, attended 1906-1930s)
  • Emilio Guerra y Giro, Jose Maria Farragoita y Carbonell, and others (Students from Cuba, attended 1899-1906)

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Wechsler, Harold S. and Steven J. Diner. Unwelcome Guests: A History of Access to American Higher Education. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021.
• Neill, Maudean. Fiery Crosses in the Green Mountains: The Story of the Ku Klux Klan in Vermont. 1st ed. Randolph Center, Vt.: Greenhills Books, 1989.
• Rogers, Ibram H. H. The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Archival Resources to Start

• Unpublished writings and drafts in the Alden Partridge Records
• Newspapers in the Alden Partridge Records
• University catalogs, 1821-1841

Published writings (examples):

• Partridge, Alden. Capt. Partridge's Lecture on National Defence. Place of publication not identified, 1821.
• Partridge, Alden. Capt. Partridge's Lecture on Education. Middletown, Conn, 1828.
• Partridge, Alden, and Americanus. The Military Academy, at West Point, Unmasked: Or, Corruption and Military Despotism Exposed. Washington D.C: Sold at the Bookstore of J. Elliot, 1830.
• Partridge, Alden, and United States. Congress (26th, 2nd session : 1840-1841) Senate. Memorial of Alden Partridge Praying the Application of a Portion of the Proceeds of the Sales of the Public Lands to the Establishment of a System of Education. Washington, D.C.: publisher not identified, 1841.

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Coulter, John A. Cadets on Campus: History of Military Schools of the United States. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2017.
• Webb, Lester A. “The Origin of Military Schools in the United States Founded in the Nineteenth Century,” 1958.
• Kershaw, Alex, and Gordon R. Sullivan. Citizens & Soldiers: The First 200 Years of Norwich University. Northfield, Vt.: Norwich University Press, 2018.

Archival Resources to Start

• Charles Horace Spooner Records
• Henry Ward Orser Records
• Harold E. O’Neill Scrapbook
• Joseph Moore Peirce Papers
• Walter Frank Adams Papers
• Alice Barr Tompkins Memoirs
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers
  • Try heading for "illnesses"

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Spielman, Andrew I. and Gulshan Sunavala-Dossabhoy. "Pandemics and Education: A Historical Review." Journal of Dental Education 85, no. 6 (2021): 741-746.
• Geiger, Roger L. The History of American Higher Education: Learning and Culture from the Founding to World War II. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.
• Stern, Alexandra Minna, Mary Beth Reilly, Martin S. Cetron, and Howard Markel. "'Better Off in School': School Medical Inspection as a Public Health Strategy During the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic in the United States." Public Health Reports 125, supplement no. 3 (2010): 63-70.

Archival Resources to Start

• Board of Trustees Records
• Collection on Roger Strong Howard
• Collection on Malcolm Douglass
• Charles Hildreth Lewis Papers
• Collection on George Nichols
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers
  • Try heading for "South Barracks" or "Belknap, Perley"

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Cohen, Michael David. Reconstructing the Campus: Higher Education and the American Civil War. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012.
• Schoen, Brian. The Fragile Fabric of the Union: Cotton, Federal Politics, and the Global Origins of the Civil War. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
• Barreyre, Nicolas. Gold and Freedom: The Political Economy of Reconstruction. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015.

Archival Resources to Start

• Frank Tompkins Papers
• Alice Barr Tompkins Memoirs
• Spencer Borden Papers
• Records from the Office of the Commandant
• Board of Trustees Records
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers
  • Try headings for "Cavalry -- N.U." and "Horsemanship"

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Coulter, John A. Cadets on Campus: History of Military Schools of the United States. First ed. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2017.
• Steffen, Randy. The Horse Soldier, 1776-1943: The United States Cavalryman - His Uniforms, Arms, Accoutrements, and Equipments. 1st ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977.
• Hofmann, George F. Through Mobility We Conquer: The Mechanization of U.S. Cavalry. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 2006.

Archival Resources to Start

• Records from the Office of the Commandant
• George Ethelbert Carpenter Papers
• Timothy Michael Donahue Papers
• Alonzo Jackman Papers
• Leonard Fish Wing Papers
• Vermont National Guard, Company F, Photographs
• Alden Partridge Records
• Board of Trustees Records
• University catalogs, 1821-present (not all available digitally)
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers
  • Try headings for "Vermont Militia" and "Vermont National Guard"

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Haraty, Peter H. Put the Vermonters Ahead: A History of the Vermont National Guard, 1764-1978. Burlington, Vt.: Queen City Printers, 1978.
• Shalhope, Robert E. Bennington and the Green Mountain Boys: The Emergence of Liberal Democracy in Vermont. 1760-1850. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
• Bellesiles, Michael A. Revolutionary Outlaws: Ethan Allen and the Struggle for Independence on the Early American Frontier. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993.

Archival Sources to Start

• Alden Partridge Records
• University catalogs, 1821-present (not all available digitally)

  • Include student body rosters up until World War II

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Dorn, Charles. For the Common Good: A New History of Higher Education in America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2017.
• Rudolph, Frederick. The American College and University: A History. University of Georgia Press, 1991.
• Geiger, Roger L. The American College in the Nineteenth Century. 1st ed. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2000.

Archival Sources to Start

• Loring Edward Hart Records
• W. Russell Todd Records
• Records of Fraternities, Societies, and Clubs
• George Leroy Shelley Papers (NROTC)
• David E. Potts Aviation at Norwich University Collection (AFROTC)
• Miscellaneous Publications Collection
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Woolley, William J. Creating the Modern Army: Citizen-Soldiers and the American Way of War, 1919-1939. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2022.
• Downs, Donald Alexander and Ilia Murtazashvili. Arms and the University: Military Presence and the Civic Education of Non-Military Students. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
• Higbee, Douglas. Military Culture and Education: Current Intersections of Academic and Military Cultures. London: Taylor & Francis, 2016.

Archival Sources to Start

• Barksdale Hamlett Records
• Loring Edward Hart Records
• W. Russell Todd Records
• George R. Turner Collection
• Russian School Records
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers
• Possible programs to consider:
  • Acquisition of the Russian School in 1968
  • Contemplated Aerospace Studies program (affiliated with Space Research Corporation)

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Levin, Matthew. Cold War University: Madison and the New Left in the Sixties. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013.
• Lowen, Rebecca S. Creating the Cold War University: The Transformation of Stanford. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
• Loss, Christopher P. Between Citizens and the State: The Politics of American Higher Education in the 20th Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012.

Archival Sources to Start

• Alden Partridge Records
• Alonzo Jackman Papers
• Ernest Nason Harmon Records
• Barksdale Hamlett Records
• Loring Edward Hart Records
• W. Russell Todd Records
• Board of Trustees Records
• Records from the Office of the Commandant
• University catalogs, 1821-present (not all available digitally)
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Woolley, William J. Creating the Modern Army: Citizen-Soldiers and the American Way of War, 1919-1939. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2022.
• Downs, Donald Alexander and Ilia Murtazashvili. Arms and the University: Military Presence and the Civic Education of Non-Military Students. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
• Higbee, Douglas. Military Culture and Education: Current Intersections of Academic and Military Cultures. London: Taylor & Francis, 2016.

Archival Sources to Start

• Barksdale Hamlett Records
• Loring Edward Hart Records
• W. Russell Todd Records
• Information Technology Department Records
• Business and Management Division Records
• University catalogs, ca. 1960-present (not all available digitally)
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers
  • Try headings starting with "computer"

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Pyle, Robin Lea. First in the Field: Breaking Ground in Computer Science at Purdue University. Ashland: Purdue University Press, 2019.
• National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on the Fundamentals of Computer Science: Challenges and Opportunities. Computer Science: Reflections on the Field, Reflections from the Field. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2004.
• Dasgupta, Subrata. It Began with Babbage: The Genesis of Computer Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
• Garfinkel, Simson and Harold Abelson. Architects of the Information Society: 35 Years of the Laboratory for Computer Science at MIT. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999.

Archival Sources to Start

• Alden Partridge Records
• Herbert Rufus Roberts Papers
• Ernest Harmon Records
• Barksdale Hamlett Records
• Loring Edward Hart Records
• W. Russell Todd Records
• Edward J. Sutfin Papers
• Collection on Josiah Swett
• Subject Files Collection
• Records of Fraternities, Societies, and Clubs
• University catalogs, 1821-present (not all available digitally)
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Waggoner, Michael. Sacred and Secular Tensions in Higher Education: Connecting Parallel Universities. New York: Routledge, 2011.
• Arthur, James, Liam Gearon, and Alan Sears. Education, Politics and Religion: Reconciling the Civil and the Sacred in Education. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis, 2010.
• Kemeny, Paul Charles. Princeton in the Nation's Service: Religious Ideals and Educational Practice, 1868-1928. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Archival Sources to Start

• Jehiel Lillie's 1838 play script
• William Jemerson's letter to Alden Partridge in 1841
• NU alumni veterans who fought in the American Indian Wars
• Alonzo Jackman Papers
• International Students Office Records
• Alden Partridge Records
• Biographical Files Collection
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers

  • Try headings for "Native Americans," "Abenaki," etc.

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Haviland, William A. and Marjory W. Power. The Original Vermonters: Native Inhabitants, Past and Present. Rev. and expanded ed. Hanover, N.H.: University of Vermont, Published by the University Press of New England, 1994.
• Carney, Cary Michael. Native American Higher Education in the United States. New Brunswick, N.J.: Routledge, 1999.
• Jacob, W. James, Sheng Yao Cheng, and Maureen K. Porter (eds.). Indigenous Education: Language, Culture and Identity. Dordrecht: Springer, 2015.

Archival Sources to Start

• Alden Partridge Records
• Newspapers in the Alden Partridge Records
• Thomas H. Darling Papers
• John Hancock Jr. Journal
• Riley M. Adams Journal
• Elijah Kent Hubbard Papers
• Paul Carrington Cameron Letters
• Collection on Gideon Welles
• University catalogs, 1821-1828 (no catalogs extant between 1828 and 1834)

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Coulter, John A. Cadets on Campus: History of Military Schools of the United States. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2017.
• Webb, Lester A. “The Origin of Military Schools in the United States Founded in the Nineteenth Century,” 1958.
• Kershaw, Alex, and Gordon R. Sullivan. Citizens & Soldiers: The First 200 Years of Norwich University. Northfield, Vt.: Norwich University Press, 2018.
• Rudolph, Frederick. The American College and University: A History. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991.

Archival Sources to Start

• Alden Partridge Records
• Michael Ross Perlman Papers
• Loring Edward Hart Records
• W. Russell Todd Records
• Printed Ephemera Collection
• Records of Fraternities, Societies, and Clubs
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers
  • Try headings beginning with "environmental" or for topics like "recycling" and "solar power" or for related holidays like "Arbor Day," "Earth Day," and "Green Up Vermont" OR think about headings reflecting nature as a setting for education and recreation at the university, such as "pedestrian excursions (hikes)," "Outing Club," and "Alden Partridge Trail"
     

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Waterman, Laura, and Guy Waterman. Forest and Crag: A History of Hiking, Trail Blazing, and Adventure in the Northeast Mountains. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2019.
• Lord, Gary T. “Alden Partridge's Excursions to the White Mountains, 1811-1824, and the Emergence of Modern Views of the Mountain Environment.” Historical New Hampshire Vol. 57, No. 1-2 (2002) 26-38.
• McCullough, Robert. The Landscape of Community: A History of Communal Forests in New England. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1995.
• Harrison, Blake A. and Richard William Judd. A Landscape History of New England. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2011.

Archival Sources to Start

• Paul A. Cigal Scrapbook
• Oral history interview with Joshua Fontanez
• Ernest Nason Harmon Records
• Loring Edward Hart Records
• Vermont College Records
• Event Ephemera Collection
• Subject Files Collection
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers

  • Try headings beginning with "women," "sex," or "sexual." OR, if interested in exploring this topic when Norwich was all male, try headings related to social events such as "Junior Week," "Winter Carnival" and "Regimental Ball." OR try headings for local women's colleges like "Vermont Junior College" or "Colby Junior College." OR try headings like "panty raids" or "parietals."
     

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Wooten, Sara Carrigan and Roland Mitchell (eds.). The Crisis of Campus Sexual Violence: Critical Perspectives on Prevention and Response. New York: Routledge, 2016.
• Kulbaga, Theresa A. and Leland G. Spencer. Campuses of Consent: Sexual and Social Justice in Higher Education. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 2019.
• Hatch, Alison E. Campus Sexual Assault: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, Cal.: ABC-CLIO, 2017.

Archival Sources to Start

• Board of Trustees Records
• Ira Louis Reeves Papers
• Charles Horace Spooner Records
• Herbert Rufus Roberts Papers
• Frank Tompkins Papers
• Alice Barr Tompkins Memoirs
• Records from the Office of the Commandant
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers
  • Try headings for "military preparedness" and "Wood, Leonard"

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Clifford, J. Garry. The Citizen Soldiers: The Plattsburg Training Camp Movement, 1913-1920. New ed. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2014.
• Franz, Manuel. "Preparedness Revisited: Civilian Societies and the Campaign for American Defense, 1914-1920." The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 17, no. 4 (2018): 663-676.
• Ford, Nancy Gentile. The Great War and America: Civil-Military Relations during World War I. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Security International, 2008.

Archival Sources to Start

• Colvocoresses Family Papers and Colvocoresses and Haddock Family Papers
• Allan Danvers Brown Papers
• Collection on George Dewey
• Collection on Gideon Welles
• Selected letters from the Alden Partridge Records
• General information about the military service of NU alumni 
• Biographical Files Collection
• Published writings of James Harmon Ward:
  • Ward, James Harmon. A Manual of Naval Tactics : Together with a Brief Critical Analysis of the Principal Modern Naval Battles. New York: D. Appleton, 1859.
  • Ward, James Harmon. Elementary Instruction in Naval Ordnance and Gunnery. New ed., rev. and enl. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1861.
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers
  • Try headings starting with "U.S. Navy"

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Leeman, William P. The Long Road to Annapolis: The Founding of the Naval Academy and the Emerging American Republic. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
• Dull, Jonathan R. American Naval History, 1607-1865: Overcoming the Colonial Legacy. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 2012.
• Sprout, Harold and Margaret Sprout. The Rise of American Naval Power: 1776-1918. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015.

Archival Sources to Start

• Oral history interview with Carol Todd
• W. Russell Todd Records
• Academic Affairs Records
• International Students Office Records
• Media Relations and Web Communications Records
• Index to NU's student and alumni newspapers

Suggested Secondary Sources

• Cobbs Hoffman, Elizabeth. All You Need Is Love: The Peace Corps and the Spirit of the 1960s. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000.
• Paterson, Thomas G. Kennedy's Quest for Victory: American Foreign Policy, 1961-1963. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  • Of particular note is the chapter entitled "Passing the Torch and Lighting Fires: The Peace Corps" by Gary May, pp. 284-316.