Department of History

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https://hdl.handle.net/10217/100450

These digital collections contain theses, dissertations and student publications from the Department of History. Also included are images used in the CSU Story Map Project.

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 85

Open Access
Abiding nourishment: vegetable production and the pursuit of nutritional sovereignty in Colorado
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) McCollum, Sean C., author; Little, Ann, advisor; Childers, Michael, committee member; Martinez, Doreen, committee member
This thesis explores the various methods of small-scale gardening efforts and the importance of wild and cultivated plant food to the people who have inhabited Colorado. From Arapaho and Cheyenne horticultural practices to the kitchen gardens of the American homesteader, and the vegetable truck of the first generation of Coloradan-Americans, the environment of the Rocky Mountains forced its inhabitants to adapt their methods of planting vegetables and fruit in order to survive. The pursuit of nutritious plant food is the central human-scale endeavor in Colorado's diverse history. This thesis explores the nutritional content of several important vegetables and fruits, their importance to Colorado's inhabitants, and how the environment of Colorado lends itself to the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, while challenging the planter to a nearly extreme degree.
Open Access
Accelerating waters: an Anthropocene history of Colorado's 1976 Big Thompson Flood
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Wright, Will, author; Fiege, Mark, advisor; Orsi, Jared, committee member; Howkins, Adrian, committee member; Baron, Jill, committee member
Scale matters. But in the Anthropocene, it is not clear how environmental scholars navigate between analytical levels from local and regional phenomena on the one hand, to global Earth-system processes on the other. The Anthropocene, in particular, challenges the ways in which history has traditionally been conceived and narrated, as this new geological epoch suggests that humans now rival the great forces of nature. The Big Thompson River Flood of 1976 provides an opportunity to explore these issues. Over the Anthropocene's "Great Acceleration" spike, human activities and environmental change intensified both in Colorado's Big Thompson Canyon and across much of the world. The same forces that amplified human vulnerability to the catastrophic deluge on a micro-level through highway construction, automobile vacationing, and suburban development were also at work with the planetary upsurge in roads, cars, tourism, atmospheric carbon dioxide, and flooding on the macro-level. As a theoretical tool, the Anthropocene offers a more ecological means to think and write about relationships among time and space.
Open Access
Administration
(Colorado State University. Libraries) Unidentified photographer
Close-up view of the Administration Building.
Open Access
Administration building
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Jones, Maggie Moss, photographer
The front/north view of the Administration building on a snowy day.
Open Access
Aggie Village redevelopment
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Hodgell, Beth, photographer
Exterior photo of the Aggie Village Redevelopment on a snowy day, under construction.
Open Access
Aggie Village redevelopment renderings
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Unidentified artist
Artist's rendering of Aggie Village Redevelopment.
Open Access
Albert C. Yates
(Colorado State University. Libraries) Unidentified photographer
Photo of Albert C. Yates.
Open Access
An urban field of dreams: professional baseball and the fruition of new - old Denver
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Miller, Preston, author; Alexander, Ruth, advisor; Gudmestad, Robert, advisor; Dickinson, Greg, committee member; Didier, John, committee member
This thesis examines how Coors Field framed the evolution of Denver's cultural geography and common identity between 1980 and 2010. I focus on the ballpark's connection to the process of "placemaking" as it unfolded between two adjacent "Old Denver" neighborhoods: North Larimer - a multicultural enclave that became the "Ballpark Neighborhood" - and the Lower Downtown historic district, whose founders bemoaned Denver's subsequent transformation into "Sports Town USA." As a contested icon, Coors Field affected notions of place, image, and inclusion for these neighborhoods and the city at large. Given this volatile context, I argue that its fruition highlighted what the Retro Ballpark Movement could and could not do for postmodern urban America. Many observers have heralded this ballpark project as an urban panacea, but an analysis of how ordinary Denverites perceived the new kind of city it left in its wake exposed a growing rift between baseball's working class mythos and the upscale nature of contemporary ballpark projects. Despite its instant success as an economic anchor, Coors Field ultimately contributed to the homogenization (or "Disneyfication") of "Old Denver" - a trend that clashed with baseball's democratic promise and previous notions of this downtown area as a diverse and authentic enclave. Utilizing local periodicals and government documents, I look at how this facility sprang from the hopes, dreams, and qualms of myriad individuals; the finished product representing a new dawn for some and a recurring nightmare for others. The narrative follows, as a central protagonist of sorts, Karle Seydel, an influential urban designer and neighborhood activist who should be recognized as the grassroots "Father of Coors Field." Seydel championed the project as a means to save North Larimer, guided its design, and dealt with its consequences. I wanted to offer a people's history of the "Blake Street Ballpark," and thus his experiences and opinions (as well as those of his allies and opponents) will guide my analysis of how an urban field of dreams contributed to Denver's reinvention as a new - old "city of leisure."
Open Access
Anatomy-Zoology building
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1969-10-29) Unidentified artist
Architectural drawing of CSU's new Anatomy building. CSU Collegian, October 29, 1969.
Open Access
Anatomy-Zoology building
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1970) Unidentified photographer
Blueprint Negatives of University Buildings (1881-1985): Box 1, 8-9 (Anatomy/ Zoology #143) 1970-1976.
Open Access
Anatomy-Zoology building
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1972-03-23) Unidentified photographer
Photo and caption of new Anatomy-Zoology Building, 60% complete. CSU Comments, March 23, 1972.
Open Access
Baptists and slavery in frontier Missouri during the antebellum era
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Woodward, Nathan, author; Knight, Fred, advisor; Gudmestad, Robert, committee member; Lindsay, James, committee member; Kim, Joon, committee member
This thesis examines the way residents of the Missouri frontier viewed and reacted to slavery, with a particular emphasis on Missouri Baptist thought. I argue that Baptists were ambivalent toward slavery because of their religion and their unique agricultural position on the frontier far from the large cotton plantations of the Deep South. Their attitude toward slavery manifested itself in Frontier Baptist Conventions and within Baptist newspapers in Missouri. Because of this ambivalence, Baptist slaveholders and slaveholders in the largely Baptist town of Liberty, Missouri, had to find a way to reconcile their growing antislavery thoughts with their largely proslavery surroundings. Their answer came in the form of gradual emancipation of the slaves. Missouri Baptists sought to free and expatriate African Americans in colonization movements to Africa. To gauge these sentiments, this project relies heavily on three newspapers published in Missouri during the antebellum era: The Western Watchmen of St. Louis, The Liberty Tribune of Liberty, and The Border Star of Westport. The first is the only Baptist paper and the latter two are both secular. To ascertain their opinions on slavery, I used the papers to focus on ideas relating to the colonization movement, John Brown, Bleeding Kansas, states' rights, and secession. The final part of the thesis examines how southern Baptists reacted to the newly freed slave population during and after Reconstruction.
Open Access
Beet borderland: Hispanic workers, the sugar beet, and the making of a northern Colorado landscape
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2002) Standish, Sierra, author; Fiege, Mark T., advisor; Orsi, Jared, 1970-, committee member; Ore, Janet, committee member
At the turn of the nineteenth century, the arrival of the sugar beet industry wrought change in northern Colorado. The sugar beet was a totally new plant-it was unlike corn, wheat, alfalfa and other crops that local farmers were familiar with. The biological characteristics of the beet required a particular style of intensive labor, indeed shaping the daily life of laborers. Hispanic migrants to Fort Collins worked and lived under the influence of the sugar beet, but they were not passive participants in the story; they effectively transplanted some of their cultural traditions and left their own imprint in the landscape. Two years after the turn of the twentieth century, the Fort Collins landscape still bears the mark of the sugar beet. Yet even as landscape tells history, history must help explain landscape. Adobe houses still stand in some old neighborhoods, suggesting that Hispanic inhabitants once played a part in the early chronicles of Fort Collins. This thesis endeavors to flesh out that story-to explain the origins of Hispanic beet workers; how the beet changed their lifestyle, bodies, and public identity; and in what ways they modified their environment.
Open Access
Building collage with Ram Horn
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016-04-01) Hodgell, Kris, artist
CSU building collage with ram horn in the center.
Open Access
Campus development plan, 1945
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1945-02) Unidentified mapmaker
A map of the proposed changes to CSU's campus in 1945.
Open Access
Chemistry building
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1969) Unidentified photographer
Blueprint Negatives of University Buildings (1881-1985): Box 2, 14-16 (Chemistry Building #150) 1969-1979.
Open Access
Chemistry building
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1970-06-19) Unidentified photographer
Photo of New Chemistry building under construction. CSU Collegian, June 19, 1970.
Open Access
Clouds over Fort Collins: settlement, urban expansion, and flooding along a layered landscape
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Purdy, Tristan, author; Childers, Michael, advisor; Orsi, Jared, advisor; Grigg, Neil, committee member
Fort Collins, Colorado, home to over 150,000 people along the northern Front Range, is prone to flood. This natural disaster threat is not a recent development nor a strictly natural problem. Rather, flooding in Fort Collins is informed by the interaction of the local environment and the city's growth and development beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. This thesis explores the historical roots of Fort Collins's flood threat by considering the social, economic, and political factors that informed the physical shape of the city and how the city interacted with the watershed within which it sat. By tracing how the city's agrarian root's informed its location, and how a university, (usually) pleasant weather, and westward migration paved the way for urban and suburban expansion, this thesis displays flooding not as an exterior threat, but a natural process that has become enmeshed in Fort Collins's physical structure. Fort Collins is just one of many mid-sized American cities across the American West whose growth over the past century-and-a-half has created increasingly pressing environmental concerns. Addressing contemporary and future concerns over further growth and an increasingly unstable environment in Fort Collins and cities like it begins with understanding the historic interconnections between city growth and the environmental problem in question.
Open Access
Conclusion image, building collage
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Hodgell, Kris, artist
Building Collage Image, compares historic photos with modern photos, light green ram horn in the center.
Open Access
Confederate military strategy: the outside forces that caused change
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Varnold, Nathan, author; Gudmestad, Robert, advisor; Orsi, Jared, committee member; Black, Ray, committee member
When addressed with military strategy the first thought is to drift towards the big name battlefields: Shiloh, Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. Our obsession with tactics and outcomes clouds our minds to the social, cultural, and political factors that took place away from the front lines. Less appealing, but no less important to understanding the war as a whole, this study incorporates non-military factors to explain the shift of Confederate military strategy in the Western Theater. Southern citizens experienced a growth of military awareness, which greatly influenced the military policies of Richmond, and altered how Confederate generals waged war against Union armies. The geography of Mississippi and Tennessee, and the proximity of these states to Virginia, also forced Western generals to pursue aggressive military campaigns with less than ideal military resources. Finally, the emotions and personal aspirations of general officers in the Army of Tennessee, and the Western Theater as a whole, produced a culture of failure, which created disunion and instability in the Western command structure. Confederate generals pursued aggressive military campaigns due to a combination of social, cultural, political, and military factors.