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- Obituaries of Grinnell Civil War Veterans: Value Race and Identity in Small Town Iowa
Obituaries of Grinnell Civil War Veterans: Value Race and Identity in Small Town Iowa
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Project examining how Grinnell, Iowa remembered its Civil War veterans, through the content and language of obituaries written in the Grinnell Herald.
| creator | Bergman, Sydney. |
| creator | Fitzpatrick, Anthony. |
| Title | Obituaries of Grinnell Civil War Veterans: Value Race and Identity in Small Town Iowa |
| sponsor | Purcell, Sarah J. |
| supporting host | Grinnell College. History Department. |
| sponsor | Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Symposium, 2017 |
| Index Date | 2016 |
| Publisher | Grinnell College |
| Type of Resource | text |
| Genre | poster |
| Digital Origin | reformated digital |
| Digital Extent | 1 sheet |
| Media Type | application/pdf |
| note | Final group project for HIS 214 American Civil War & Reconstruction which was presented at the 2017 Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Symposium. |
| description | Our project examines how Grinnell, Iowa remembered its Civil War veterans, specifically through the content and language of obituaries written in one of Poweshiek County’s most widely read newspapers, the Grinnell Herald. Through critical examination and content analysis of these obituaries, we can discern, through the public nature of this type of commemoration, the process of mourning in Grinnell, what kind of model life and values were conveyed and what about the war was deemed worthy of being remembered or forgotten. In short, we can determine what particular value was placed on each of these men’s lives. Situated within processes of mourning and remembrance occurring nationwide (in particular touching on the scholarly debate between David Blight and Caroline Janney over how reunion and reconciliation transpired along racial lines), this analysis seeks to establish the way conceptions of value, race, and identity were formulated in Civil War veteran memory and perpetuated on a local level. Although Grinnell’s memory of the Civil War strongly vindicates the Union cause and cherishes the legacy of emancipation, the obituaries use veteran status in a way that supports white supremacy by conceding to a racial conception of citizenship and value in society, a conception that was used to unite the town in times of trouble and upheaval yet carried a racial cost. Grinnell’s experience offers insights into how memory played out elsewhere, demonstrating that even in the context of a strong emancipationist memory, the accommodation of white hegemony can contribute to racial erasure. |
| Language | English |
| Topic | Social status. |
| Topic | Civil War, 1861-1865. |
| Topic | Social conditions. |
| Topic | Obituaries. |
| Geographic | United States. |
| Geographic | Grinnell (Iowa) |
| Temporal | 19th century |
| Classification | F217.I |
| Related Item | Digital Grinnell |
| Related Item | Undergraduate Student Symposium |
| Related Item | Student Scholarship |
| Identifier (local) | grinnell:18758 |
| Access Condition | Copyright to this work is held by the author(s), in accordance with United States copyright law (USC 17). Readers of this work have certain rights as defined by the law, including but not limited to fair use (17 USC 107 et seq.). |
| Identifier (hdl) | http://hdl.handle.net/11084/18758 |