ETA SIGMA CHAPTER OF PHI ALPHA THETA
Stephen F. Austin State University History Department
Student Organized & Operated Platform
Public History Capstone Thesis & History Thesis by Eta Sigma Members & Others
Each Capstone Thesis title is linked to ScholarWorks, where the thesis PDF is located. To see more click here!
Christopher Cotton, December 2021
Abstract
The W.T. Carter and Brother Lumber Company began in 1898 and operated until 1968 when it was sold to the U.S. Plywood Corporation. The Polk County, Texas company harvested longleaf pine during a crucial period of development for the Texas economy. The lumber industry was the state’s first large scale commercial enterprise not dependent on farming and provided a model for future extractive industries in the state. The W.T. Carter and Brother Lumber Company town of Camden, Texas exemplifies rural implementations of the company town system in the Texas lumber industry. This public history thesis provides a brief history of paternalism and its impact in the development of company towns in the southern lumber industry. In addition the thesis provides an updated history of the W.T. Carter and Brother Lumber Company, its subsidiary companies, and the sawmill company town of Camden, Texas. The author discusses archival preservation and processing best practices applied to the company’s extensive collection of ledgers donated to the East Texas Research Center, a regional university archive. This work demonstrates the archival decisions making process regarding a more traditional processing method over MPLP and other archival processing techniques.
Laura Turner, May 2021
Abstract
The national leprosarium of the United States, located in Carville, Louisiana, started as the Louisiana Leper Home in 1894. Since Louisiana contained the largest endemic population in the contiguous United States of people suffering from leprosy, or Hansen’s disease as it would later be known, and maintained a successful institution dedicated to the care of such patients, the federal government purchased the leprosarium for national use in 1921. Although the national leprosarium was closed as a hospital in 1999, a small analog museum located on site preserves the history of the facility, the lives of the former patients, and tireless work of the medical staff. This thesis summarizes the history of the national leprosarium and describes museum exhibition and interpretation theory utilized during the creation of a digital exhibit for the National Hansen’s Disease Museum that focuses on patient and staff life at the facility as well as the milestones in medical history that occurred at Carville.
Shelby Winthrop DeWitt, August 2020
Abstract
The prohibition movement began decades before the Civil War but did not gain considerable support in Texas until the late nineteenth century. While local option elections and calls for statewide prohibition in Texas failed, national prohibition efforts culminated in the instatement of the Eighteenth Amendment in January 1919 and the Volstead Act in October 1919. This thesis details the prohibition issue through an analysis of eight larger, better-funded Texas breweries who used evolving social and political conditions to combat prohibition and grow their companies, laying the foundation for the Texas brewing industry. This thesis and subsequent digital exhibit provide a better understand of prohibition and local option, while also explaining how the argument against prohibition was based upon business decisions rather than a desire to drink.
Conor Herterich, August 2018
Abstract
The prohibition movement began decades before the Civil War but did not gain considerable support in Texas until the late nineteenth century. While local option elections and calls for statewide prohibition in Texas failed, national prohibition efforts culminated in the instatement of the Eighteenth Amendment in January 1919 and the Volstead Act in October 1919. This thesis details the prohibition issue through an analysis of eight larger, better-funded Texas breweries who used evolving social and political conditions to combat prohibition and grow their companies, laying the foundation for the Texas brewing industry. This thesis and subsequent digital exhibit provide a better understand of prohibition and local option, while also explaining how the argument against prohibition was based upon business decisions rather than a desire to drink.
Alysha M. Richardson, May 2022
Abstract
The Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site is owned and operated by the Texas Historical Commission. Interpretation of the site spans the 1864-1940 period and includes stories of groups that once met there for social events, including the United Confederate Veterans. In recent years, the Confederate Reunion Grounds has seen a decline in visitation as well as a reduction in staff. This capstone project focuses on creating an interpretive master plan to accommodate the change. This interpretive master plan aims to address the changes that have occurred over the past seven years and set staff goals and objectives.
Austin Lee, August 2021
Abstract
The Stone Fort Museum is a steward for much of the historical and cultural character of East Texas. A new exhibition, such as the “Early Photography in East Texas” project is in part representative of these same social values. The exhibition serves to look at East Texas specifically as a microcosm of the social ramifications of the introduction of photography. The museum presents this project as a commentary and celebration of the culture of the region while being objective enough to discuss both the high points and the low points. The thesis project itself displays the best and most current museum practices in action.