Saint Mary’s to host presentation about the U.S. religious landscape

WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary’s University will host a public presentation titled, “The U.S. Religious Landscape: Continuities and Some Change” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23.

Saint Mary’s will host guest speaker Clifford Grammich, Ph.D., the chairman of the 2010 Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies who will discuss the fact that recent religious data shows many remarkable patterns of stability over the past century, including the Catholic Church as still the largest religious body in the U.S.

The event will be held in the Common Room, located on the third floor of Saint Mary’s Hall, and is sponsored by the SMU Departments of History, Political Science and Theology.

For more information, contact Dr. Richard Tristano at rtristan@smumn.edu.

Student History Research Symposium is April 21 at SMU

WINONA, Minn. — Seniors from five area universities will present the results of their historical research at the Student History Research Symposium on Saturday, April 21, at Saint Mary’s University. The event — free and open to the public — is sponsored by the history departments of Winona State University, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Viterbo University, and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. This year’s symposium will also feature a panel of seniors from Cotter High School.

In addition to the student presenters, Dr. J. Vincent Lowery, assistant professor of Humanistic Studies and History at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, will speak on “Looking for the Port City Prophet: An Historian’s Tale of Research and Revisionism.”

Saint Mary’s and Winona State have co-sponsored a student research symposium for 10 years, with UW-La Crosse, Viterbo, and UW-Eau Claire joining in recent years. Each school asks senior history majors — and at Winona State, law and society majors — to write a senior thesis based on their original research of a historical question of their own choosing. In this way, the students actually do the work of historians, and in the process deepen their research, writing and speaking skills.

All symposium sessions will be held on the third and fourth floors of Saint Mary’s Hall. The symposium opens at 9 a.m. in Salvi Lecture Hall (Room 332) with a short welcoming ceremony and coffee. Students will present their research in concurrent panels of three or four students each. The first panel session starts at 9:15 a.m., the second at 10:45 a.m. Dr. Lowery’s talk will start around noon and will be accompanied by a complimentary lunch.

SMU student discovers unknown Lincoln documents

WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary’s University history student David Spriegel is making national headlines this week for uncovering two original, previously unknown documents written in 1844 by a then up-and-coming lawyer named Abraham Lincoln.

Spriegel of Gurnee, Ill., was on the second week of his summer internship at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill., when he made the discovery.

The following press release was sent by David Blanchette, (217) 558-8970, from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum:

I found two unknown Lincoln documents
on my summer vacation

Presidential Library intern discovers previously unknown documents
written by Abraham Lincoln in 1844

SPRINGFIELD – When the question is asked, “What did you do on your summer vacation,” no one will be able to top one college student’s story.

David Spriegel of Gurnee, Illinois, a student at Saint Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota, was on the second week of a summer internship at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, when he discovered two original, previously unknown documents written in 1844 by an up-and-coming lawyer named Abraham Lincoln.

“It was really a surprise,” said Spriegel. “I didn’t think it could be true.”

In late May, when he began to organize a four-inch-tall stack of old documents in the Presidential Library’s Manuscripts Department, Spriegel noticed a small inscription on two of them: “The above memorandum is in the handwriting of Abraham Lincoln. – M. Hay.” Milton Hay had clerked in the Stuart and Lincoln Law Office as a young man and would have recognized Lincoln’s script. Hay’s notations seem to date from late in his life, perhaps the 1880s.

Spriegel called the discovery to the attention of his supervisor, Glenna Schroeder-Lein, manuscripts librarian at the Presidential Library. She immediately contacted experts with the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project housed at the Library. Daniel Stowell and Stacy McDermott of that project confirmed Lincoln’s handwriting, as did James Cornelius, curator of the Lincoln Collection.

The two documents, bearing no other signature or date, are long lists of small parcels of land being bought and sold amongst a variety of early Springfield settlers, including Ninian Wirt Edwards and William Wallace (both of whom ended up as Lincoln’s brothers-in-law), Stacy Opdycke, Jesse B. Thomas, Stephen T. Logan, and others. The papers lay among several land warrantees that had been donated to the Library by a descendant of one of those settlers.

After some research Cornelius determined that the documents were part of the legal case Opdycke et al. v. Godfrey et al., from Christian County, Illinois, and that the lands in question are west of Taylorville, in that county. McDermott believes that Lincoln likely used these two pages of memoranda to prepare a petition he filed to initiate the case in March 1844. The documents will be available this fall for viewing, alongside those from the 5,600 other Lincoln legal cases, at the Papers of Abraham Lincoln website, www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org.

Meanwhile, the two documents join 1,580 other original Abraham Lincoln manuscripts at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

This is not the first time that a young student has made such a thrilling discovery. In 1952, 14-year-old Ron Rietveld, a student helper at the Illinois State Historical Library, the forerunner of the Lincoln Presidential Library, discovered the only existing original photograph of Lincoln lying in his coffin following his assassination. Rietveld later became a professor of history at California State University – Fullerton, where he had a student, Glenna Schroeder-Lein, the same woman who is supervising Spriegel on his summer 2011 internship at the Presidential Library.

“I never dreamed that my summer internship would bring me into direct contact with an original, previously unknown Lincoln document,” Spriegel said. “I’m happy that the discovery will increase our knowledge of Lincoln’s legacy.”

Visit www.presidentlincoln.org for more information about the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

Student History Research Symposium is April 16 at SMU

WINONA, Minn. — Seniors from five area universities will present the results of their historical research at the Student History Research Symposium on Saturday, April 16, at Saint Mary’s University. The event — free and open to the public — is sponsored by the history departments of Winona State University, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Viterbo University, and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. This year’s symposium will also feature a panel of seniors from Cotter High School.

In addition to the student presenters, Dr. Stacey Robertson, Oglesby Professor of American Heritage at Bradley University, will speak on “Hearts Beating for Liberty: Women Abolitionists in the Old Northwest.”

Saint Mary’s University and Winona State University have co-sponsored a student research symposium for nine years, with UW-La Crosse, Viterbo University, and UW-Eau Claire joining in the past four years. Each school asks senior history majors — and at Winona State, law and society majors — to write a senior thesis based on their original research of a historical question of their own choosing. In this way, the students actually do the work of historians, and in the process deepen their research, writing and speaking skills.

All symposium sessions will be held on the third and fourth floors of Saint Mary’s Hall. The symposium opens at 9 a.m. in Salvi Lecture Hall (Room 332) with a short welcoming ceremony and coffee. Students will present their research in concurrent panels of three or four students each. The first panel session starts at 9:15 a.m., the second at 10:45 a.m. Dr. Robertson’s talk will start around noon and will be accompanied by a complimentary lunch.

For further information, contact Dr. Tycho de Boer, SMU Department of History, at (507) 457-6995 or tdeboer@smumn.edu.

Student History Research Symposium is April 17 at SMU

WINONA, Minn. — Seniors from five area universities will present the results of their historical research at the Student History Research Symposium on Saturday, April 17, at Saint Mary’s University. The event — free and open to the public — is sponsored by the history departments of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Saint Mary’s University, Viterbo University of La Crosse, and Winona State University.

In addition to the student presenters, Dr. Donna Gabaccia, director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, will speak on “Imagining Nations of Immigrants.”

Saint Mary’s University and Winona State University have co-sponsored a student research symposium for nine years, with UW-La Crosse, Viterbo University, and UW-Eau Claire joining in the past three years. Each school asks senior history majors — and at Winona State, law and society majors — to write a senior thesis based on their original research of a historical question of their own choosing. In this way, the students actually do the work of historians, and in the process, deepen their research, writing and speaking skills.

All symposium sessions will be held on the third and fourth floors of Saint Mary’s Hall. The symposium opens at 9 a.m. in Salvi Lecture Hall (Room 332) with a short welcoming ceremony and coffee. Students will present their research in concurrent panels of three students each. The first panel session starts at 9:15 a.m., the second at 10:45 a.m., the third at 1:15 p.m. Dr. Gabaccia’s talk will start around noon and will be accompanied by a complimentary lunch.

For further information, contact Dr. Tycho de Boer, SMU Department of History, at (507) 457-6995 or tdeboer@smumn.edu.

Student History Research Symposium is April 18 at SMU

WINONA, Minn. — Seniors from five area universities will present the results of their historical research at the Student History Research Symposium on Saturday, April 18, at Saint Mary’s University. The event — free and open to the public — is sponsored by the history departments of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Saint Mary’s University, Viterbo University of La Crosse, and Winona State University.

In addition to the student presenters, Dr. Kendall Staggs, lecturer in history at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, will speak on “The Politics of Foreign Oil Dependency: A Historical Perspective.”

Saint Mary’s University and Winona State University have co-sponsored a student research symposium for nine years, with UW-La Crosse, Viterbo University, and UW-Eau Claire joining in the past two years. Each school asks senior history majors — and at Winona State, law and society majors — to write a senior thesis based on their original research of a historical question of their own choosing. In this way, the students actually do the work of historians, and in the process, deepen their research, writing and speaking skills.

All symposium sessions will be held on the third and fourth floors of Saint Mary’s Hall. The symposium opens at 9 a.m. in Salvi Lecture Hall (Room 332) with a short welcoming ceremony and coffee. Students will present their research in concurrent panels of three students each. The first panel session starts at 9:15 a.m., the second at 10:45 a.m. Dr. Staggs’s talk will start around noon and will be accompanied by a complimentary lunch.

For further information, contact Dr. Tycho de Boer, Department of History, Saint Mary’s University, at (507) 457-6995 or tdeboer@smumn.edu.

Student History Research Symposium is April 19 at SMU

WINONA, Minn. — Seniors from five area universities will present the results of their historical research at the Student History Research Symposium on Saturday, April 19, at Saint Mary’s University. The event — free and open to the public — is sponsored by the history departments of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Saint Mary’s University, Viterbo University of La Crosse, and Winona State University.

In addition to the student presenters, Dr. Kirsten Fischer, associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota, will highlight the day with her presentation, “Religion and the Founders: A Conversation about Original Intent.”

Saint Mary’s University and Winona State University have co-sponsored a student research symposium for eight years, with UW-La Crosse and Viterbo University joining last year. This year they welcome UW-Eau Claire to the event. Each school asks senior history majors — and at Winona State, law and society majors — to write a senior thesis based on their original research of a historical question of their own choosing. In this way, the students actually do the work of historians, and in the process, deepen their research, writing and speaking skills.

All symposium sessions will be held on the third and fourth floors of Saint Mary’s Hall. The symposium opens at 9 a.m. in Salvi Lecture Hall (Room 332) with a short welcoming ceremony and coffee. At 9:15 a.m., students will present their research in concurrent sessions of three students each. At 10:30 a.m., a complimentary brunch will be served in the Common Room, followed by a second session of concurrent panels at 10:45 a.m. and Dr. Fischer’s talk at noon.

The last round of student presentations run from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m.

For further information, contact Dr. Tycho de Boer, Department of History, Saint Mary’s University, at (507) 457-6995 or tdeboer@smumn.edu.

Student History Research Symposium is April 21 at SMU

WINONA, Minn. — Seniors from four area universities will present the results of their historical research at the Student History Research Symposium on Saturday, April 21, at Saint Mary’s University. The event — free and open to the public — is sponsored by the history departments of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Saint Mary’s University, Viterbo University of La Crosse, and Winona State University.

In addition to the student presenters, Dr. Peter Rachleff, professor of history at Macalester College in St. Paul, will highlight the value of historical thinking for citizens of a democracy in his presentation, “Comparing Freedom Movements: Lessons from the U.S. and South Africa.” Dr. Rachleff focuses his research and teaching on labor history and on the history of racism and the struggle against racial oppression. He recently contributed to the Science Museum of Minnesota’s on-going exhibit called “Race: Are we so different?”
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Saint Mary’s University and Winona State University have co-sponsored a student research symposium for eight years. This year they welcome UW-La Crosse and Viterbo University into their collaboration. Each school asks senior history majors, and at Winona State, law and society majors, to write a senior thesis based on their original research of a historical question of their own choosing. In this way, the students actually do the work of historians, and in the process, deepen their research, writing and speaking skills.

All symposium sessions will be held on the third and fourth floors of Saint Mary’s Hall. The symposium opens at 9 a.m. in Salvi Lecture Hall (Room 332) with a short welcoming ceremony and coffee. At 9:15 a.m., students will present their research in concurrent sessions of three students each. At 10:15 a.m., a complimentary brunch will be served in the Common Room, followed by Dr. Rachleff’s talk at 10:30 a.m. A second session of concurrent panels will begin at 11:45 a.m.

For further information, contact Dr. Greg Gaut, Department of History, Saint Mary’s University, at (507) 457-6944 or ggaut@smumn.edu.