Browsing by Author "David Zonderman, Committee Chair"

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Detached Kitchens, Detached Memories? The Plantation Landscape and the Challenge of Inclusive Museum Narration.
(2010-04-27) Adams, Robyn Elizabeth; David Zonderman, Committee Chair; Craig Thompson Friend, Committee Member; Katherine Mellen Charron, Committee Member
Visitors to historic plantation house museums may come for tours of grand manor houses, stories of elite white history, and expensive decorative arts, but once they step outside the main house they are confronted with numerous outbuildings which were once the work and living spaces of enslaved men and women. Perhaps the most popular outbuilding with visitors today, the detached kitchen is the focal point of my study into the interpretations of space at historic house museums. More commonly found at historic sites than smokehouses, privies, and dairies, the detached kitchen has become the primary venue for the incorporation of slavery into the master site narratives. As scholars of plantation landscapes have shown, the detachment of the kitchen was a purposeful choice made by white elites in an effort to control the access enslaved workers had to areas of the white family. This racial segregation meant a plantation household was really a series of households, and my paper argues that the architectural legacy of the kitchenâ€™s detachment from the house complicates the very ability of a site to incorporate and interpret the social structures of the plantation into one inclusive narrative. This paper focuses on Gunston Hall Plantation in Masonâ€™s Neck, Virginia, Tryon Palace in New Bern, NC, and Mordecai Historic Site in Raleigh, NC to highlight the ways the kitchen is interpreted through both the regular tours and special programming.
"I Am History, Don't Destroy Please": Three Gristmills and Their Communities in Wake County, North Carolina
(2008-05-12) Hawkins, Leslie Erin; David Zonderman, Committee Chair; Gerald Surh, Committee Member; Matthew Booker, Committee Member
The custom gristmill was a center of business and economic activity. Mills ground wheat into flour and corn into meal for millions of customers, providing a source for staple grains for both consumption and trade. Blacksmith shops, cotton gins, wool carders, community stores, and distilleries often soon followed the construction of a new custom mill. These services made the mill more valuable to both the owner and to the community by bringing local farmers to the mill site, thereby generating additional revenue for mill owners. The local gristmill, however, was more than a place of business. Millponds were popular places to fish and swim, and local churches often used millponds for baptisms. Mill yards offered common ground for neighbors to meet, trade, catch up on the news, and even date. Some mill owners formalized the social uses of their mills and ponds by renting boats or allowing the public to fish, swim, and picnic at the site. By using newspaper articles, oral histories, and county records to describe the history of three gristmills in Wake County, North Carolina, Yates Mill, Lassiter Mill, and the mill at Lake Myra, this thesis is able to elaborate on the importance of the social roles the custom mill played in the growth and development of its community. All three mills ground grain for area customers, and all three mills filled a variety of social needs for their communities as well. Traditionally, area residents could fish, swim, date, and trade goods at each mill as well. The last miller at Yates Mill began to formalize those activities by building and renting boats to mill visitors who wanted to fish on the pond. Today, Yates Mill is the centerpiece of a research and recreational park owned by NC State University and managed by Wake County. The nonprofit group Yates Mill Associates restored the mill and continues to be responsible for the continued maintenance and interpretation of the mill. The Lassiter family more formally recognized the social and recreational uses of their mill site by allowing county residents to continue to fish, swim, and picnic, even after the mill itself burned. Homes now surround the site, but the milldam and a portion of the mill's foundation remain. The Lassiter Mill site is preserved as a part of the Raleigh Greenway System, with picnic tables and a plaque that briefly describes the site's long history. Finally, during the last decades of the mill at Lake Myra's operation, the site was developed and marketed more as a recreational facility with swimming, fishing, boat rentals, and a community store than as custom gristmill. The mill has collapsed, but the private family that currently owns the property is working with the Wake County department of Parks, Recreation, and Open Space to develop the lake into a county park.
Women are people ... and citizens too! : changes in the Women's Bureau, 1944-1959
(2008-11-20) Dunston, Jamie Lynn; Frank Fee, Committee Member; Nancy Mitchell, Committee Member; David Zonderman, Committee Chair
ABSTRACT DUNSTON, JAMIE LYNN. Women are People -- and Citizens Too! Changes in the Women's Bureau, 1944 - 1959. (Under the direction of David Zonderman.) In 1945, Rosie the Riveter was a revered icon of womanpower and feminine patriotism. By the time Leave it to Beaver made its television debut in 1957, however, June Cleaver had supplanted Rosie as the new face of the American housewife. Many historians have studied this shift, but few have taken an institutional approach to the topic. This thesis explores the changing status of women in the labor force during the postwar decade through the lens of the Women's Bureau, a branch of the Department of Labor, and the two women charged with its directorship between 1944 and 1961. This thesis examines the differences between Frieda Miller, Women's Bureau Director from 1944 - 1953, and Alice K. Leopold, Director from 1953 - 1961. Mid-level bureaucratic appointments are often overlooked, but time and again, national events remind us that these organizational managers not only reflect the political philosophies of the Presidents they serve, but are often in a position to influence their fields even more than the Presidents who appointed them. By studying personal papers, press articles, interviews, and labor statistics the researcher paints a complex picture of working women during the tumultuous demobilization following World War II and the women chosen to lead and represent them. This thesis describes the origins of the Women's Bureau, gives statistical snapshots of womenâ€™s labor patterns, and examines the human factors (like long hours, wage discrimination, and availability of child care) that affect labor policy. The researcher then presents comparative biographies of Miller and Leopold and illustrates the broad changes that accompanied the Leopold's succeeding Miller in 1953. Two more different historical characters would be difficult to imagine. Frieda Miller was a longtime labor activist and advocate, a single mother living with a female companion, and an outspoken proponent of a woman's right to training, employment, and protection from exploitation. Alice Leopold was a meteoric success as a businesswoman who left the workforce to be a homemaker for 18 years before entering public life and catapulting to a federal position. Her conviction that a woman's primary role was wife and mother combined with her firm belief that the same woman could contribute much more to society led her to champion women's education, involvement in community organizations, and opportunities for women to work once their children were self-sufficient. By studying these two women, the author hopes to gain a new understanding of the nature of women in America's labor force, past and present, and to examine the role of federal appointees in shaping public policy.