Browsing by Author "Dr. David Zonderman, Committee Chair"

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    The Unionization of Erwin's Mill: A History of TWUA Local 250, in Erwin, North Carolina: 1938-1952
    (2004-11-15) Carver, Mark Dean; Dr. Joe Caddell, Committee Member; Dr. David Zonderman, Committee Chair; Dr. Keith Luria, Committee Member
    The purpose of this study is to document the history of the Textile Workers union of America (TWUA), Local 250, in Erwin, North Carolina, from 1938-1952. Prior to unionization, Erwin's workers suffered unfair labor practices including: heavy workloads, low wages, long hours, and the absence of grievance procedure. The unionization of Erwin's workers provided a grievance procedure, fair workloads, higher wages, and better hours. TWUA Local 250 worked hard to represent its members and assure them a fair and just system. This thesis examines the first fifteen years of unionization and some of the problems that occurred in Erwin's mill. These problems include anti-union sentiment, unfair company policies, an unnecessary strike, and a political power struggle within the national union. Through the examination of primary sources including company, union, government correspondences, newspaper articles, and personal interviews, it becomes evident that Erwin's workers needed a union to ensure a fair and just system. A fair and just system would only be possible through better communication with the company, the national union, and the federal government. The company, national union, and government seemed to care very little for the desperate situations endured by Local 250 during these first fifteen years. This thesis shows the national union's poor judgment, lack of leadership, and most of all, lack of compassion for Local 250. This study provides a view of the national union from the perspective of the local union.
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    The Whitney Museum of American Art: Gender, Museum Display, and Modernism
    (2010-04-30) Balcerek, Katherine Emma; Dr. David Zonderman, Committee Chair; Dr. Craig Friend, Committee Member; Dr. Stephanie Spencer , Committee Member
    The Whitney Museum of American Art founded in 1931 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney offers insight into the role of women patrons in the American art world. Furthermore, the Museum’s contemporary identification with the Museum of Modern Art obscures its unique history and different founding principles. This paper explores the foundation of the Whitney Museum in roughly the first two decades of its existence from 1931 to 1953 to examine how Whitney and the Museum’s first director, Juliana Force, negotiated gender and class ideology and the Modernist discourse to found the first museum solely devoted to American art. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and Juliana Force operated the Whitney Museum based on three main principles: the primacy of the individual artist, the promotion of American art, and the importance of an informal museum space. The Whitney Museum of American Art, staked Whitney and Force’s claim in a male dominated art world. The Museum was a complex space, representing a modern feminine viewpoint that embraced inclusivity and elitism, masculine and feminine, Modernism and conservatism. Whitney and Force wanted the Whitney Museum to be less formal and more inclusive, so they designed it like a middle class home with intimate galleries, furniture, carpets, and curtains. However, the decor hindered the Whitney Museum’s influence on the modern art canon because critics perceived the Museum as feminine and personal, Modernism’s rejection of the feminine and realism that ultimately led to the exclusion of the Whitney Museum’s collection of realist art from the modern art historical canon.