Category Archives: Doing Historical Research

Soldiers “Trysting” in the Dakota Camp

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Carrie Zeman

“…I did not drill to day was sick –feel better to night –nothing of importance –another bans read on dress parade that there should be  no more Trysting with the Squaws it made the boys a little mad as there … Continue reading →

Posted in Dakota Commemorative March, Doing Historical Research, Indian Hating, Primary Sources, truth-telling | Tagged | 2 Comments

Josephine’s Experience Becomes a Story

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Carrie Zeman

Obituary clipping: Josephine Marsh Huggins Hanthorne c. 1927. Thomas Hughes Papers, Mankato State University, Mankato, MN. Newspaper not identified. ***** Eliza Huggins’s letters, which I transcribed in the previous post in this series about  Josephine Huggins’s 1862 captivity story, told … Continue reading →

Posted in Doing Historical Research, Josephine Huggins, Primary Sources | 1 Comment

Other Wise

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Carrie Zeman

Odobenus rosmarus Daughter, beginning student of Latin: “Mom, does that mean the walrus smells good?” ***** Recently, I heard a scholar explain his inability to supply information with what I think of as the “oral history excuse:” knowledge on that subject … Continue reading →

Posted in Doing Historical Research, Opinion | Leave a comment

The ABCs of Reading a Primary Text

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Carrie Zeman

In Sweden, according to the dear woman who told me the story, her grandmother was derisively branded “läsare”  –a reader —because she read the Bible for herself. In that time and place, the Bible was viewed as the province of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Doing Historical Research, Primary Sources, Stephen R. Riggs, Thomas S. Williamson | Leave a comment

“I am pained by the severe criticisms…upon Mr. Galbraith.”

Posted on September 1, 2012 by Carrie Zeman

Missionary Mary Ann Longley Riggs wrote to her husband on September 18, 1862, “I am pained by the severe criticisms of the St. Paul Press upon Mr. Galbraith…. I am sure we have never had as good an agent since … Continue reading →

Posted in Doing Historical Research, Minnesota Historical Society, Primary Sources, Thomas J. Galbraith | Leave a comment

Two New Dakota War Letters

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Carrie Zeman

page 1 of the Emeline Foot Blood letter in the Clements Library at the University of Michigan linked below It will be a long time until digital history replaces traditional archival research (if it ever does). Not because paper is … Continue reading →

Posted in Doing Historical Research, Primary Sources | Leave a comment

Finding the Huggins Family

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Carrie Zeman

Last Friday morning, six inches of copies richer for having spent Thursday in the library of the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus, Lois and I headed south to Highland County, Ohio. The 1832-35 Highland County Court House, Hillsboro, Ohio Thanks … Continue reading →

Posted in Doing Historical Research, Underground Railroad | Leave a comment

Dreaming in Digital

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Carrie Zeman

Lydia Pettijohn Huggins, who, last night, told me something in my sleep. Lydia was the daughter of abolitionists in Highland County, Ohio. She married Alexander Gilliland Huggins, the son of abolitionists, and hid a fleeing slave in their home at … Continue reading →

Posted in Doing Historical Research, Underground Railroad | 4 Comments

…And So Were German Turners

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Carrie Zeman

On the seventh day, God rested from creation. On the seventh day, Turners recreated. When my friend Lois Glewwe mentioned a few weeks ago that she’d happened upon a 19th century missionary organization whose sole goal was to convert Roman … Continue reading →

Posted in A Thrilling Narrative, Commemorating Controversy, Doing Historical Research, truth-telling | Leave a comment

Irish Catholics Were “Heathen,” Too

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Carrie Zeman

guest post by Lois Glewwe You never know what you might find while searching for a historic figure on the Internet. I was looking for R. McQuestern, who was mentioned in Robert Cressell’s little book  Among the Sioux: A Story … Continue reading →

Posted in Doing Historical Research, Opinion, Uncategorized | 1 Comment