Tag: research

Two Years and Ten Days

December 1, 2023, was the first post on this site when it was reimagined, and it has been a very busy two years. I started and completed my second master’s, applied and was accepted into a doctoral program, considered withdrawing from the doctoral program, applied for and was accepted into a third master’s program at Johns Hopkins, before deciding to recind my application to that program, and now, waiting for the start of the Spring term to re-engage with the doctoral program already underway. This reengagement was only possible after taking the fall term off to seriously reevaluate whether or not I would continue with this doctorate. In all honesty, the majority of the ‘drama’ has been between last July and September. However, it is official, I am enrolled in the spring term for my last academic class, HIUS 713 American Entrepreneurship Since 1900, and my first dissertation class, HIST 901 Doctoral History Research. I still have three Comprehensive Examination and Reading classes, HIUS 911 Early America, HIUS 912 Modern America, and HIEU 914 Modern Europe, before starting the formal dissertation phase, when I can consider myself a Doctoral Candidate and not just a Doctoral Student.

I have a wide range of interests, which has been both a blessing and a curse. On the positive side, it is relatively easy to shift from one subject to another and to learn new methods for presenting research. It also allows for a broader perspective to view subjects of research. This is great as a student in the academic setting, less so outside the academe. In a time where increasing specialization is the preferred mode, being a generalist can be disadvantageous. On the negative side, falling down a new rabbit hole is all too easy. It can be difficult at times to set the blinders and focus on one thing. This has been a contributing factor in not having fixed on a specific topic for the upcoming dissertation.

As a maker, my perspective on history is often guided by how things were done. Understanding how things were done and how the processes of doing have evolved can open up many avenues of inquiry in the historical record. At the core of making, for me at least, is knowing how things function and how they were made. Thus, my broad interests in machinery, transportation, communications, engineering, architecture, and design. Woodworking is one of the root trades for all of these categories. From Archimedes’ water screw to wind and water mills, wagons & carts, the printing press, early long-distance mechanical visual communications systems, and of course, the shelter and furnishings of our ancestors for thousands of years. Woodworking is also a self-supporting craft with tool-making historically being a key skill learned by the apprentice early on, making their own tools, chests, and benches, all being made in whole or in part from wood.

Before moving north from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Klamath Basin, a fair amount of time was spent building a workshop space that focused on bookbinding, restoring old tools, and woodworking.

One thing that did not make the move was the workbench. Proper positive workholding is one of the most important keys to effective and safe workshop processes in wood, metal, plastic, or any material. Without a proper workbench since moving, many cherished shop skills have languished in disuse. This week marks a reversal, a new heavy bench is now under construction.

The new bench is an interpretation of the traditional hand tool joiner’s bench. The list of projects that will rely on this bench includes the cabinetry and chests that will replace all of the current shop furniture, making specialized hand tools, making workholding & pressing tools for book repair and binding, and furniture making. Most of these projects will also have a historical component to them, particularly the tool and furniture projects.

One of the concepts under consideration for a dissertation includes developing and employing a framework for Experimental History, using period-appropriate tools and methods to replicate an object of importance to a specific line of research inquiry, whether as an artifact or process. If this concept is to be included in the upcoming dissertation, there will most certainly be a need for tool and pattern making, as well as the construction of the object of inquiry itself. This requires the re-establishment of a working shop, the joiner’s bench being the anchor of the shop.

Between shop projects and the possibility of employing Experimental History, the urgency of getting a working hand tool shop up and running is high. To that end, the materials for the bench were acclimating in the shop last week: (10) 2″ x 8″ x 10′ nominal fir construction lumber, and a 6/4 – 14″ x 12′ maple slab. Two days ago, the materials were milled down from nominal lumber to near-dimensional boards, and yesterday, glue-ups started for the major components in rough sizes: (4) legs 5″ x 4″ x 36″, (4) stretchers 5″ x 3″ x 48″, and (1) bench top 5″ x 20″ x 60″. By the end of next week, all of the glue-ups should be done, and final dimensioning can begin. The target size for the bench is a 5″ thick bench top, 20″ deep, 60″ wide, standing 32″ tall, with a 1″ thick fir shelf about 7″ from the floor, inset into the stretchers. The draw-bore mortise and tenon joinery should be all marked out and cut next weekend over the winter solstice. Installation of the mapleface, back, and ends, along with a Moxon-style face vise, tail wagon-vise, the hold-fast and dog holes, and finishing should be done over Christmas week. The plan is to be finished and dressed by January 1st, so work can begin with the new year.

Slavery in America: A sampling

By: Jonathan Wanzer ORCiD 0009-0004-9275-7410
Submitted on: April 5, 2025
Submitted to: Dr. Schultz – Liberty University
Course: HIST 701 Historical Professions
Chicago Citation:
Wanzer, Jonathan. “Slavery in America: A Sampling.” Historical Interpretations. Jonathan Wanzer, April 5, 2025. http://wanzer.org/2025/04/slavery-in-america-a-sampling/.

Abstract
This blog post takes a look at slavery from the narrow perspective of the New Hampshire Methodist Episcopal Church through its conference minutes of 1844-1845. It looks at the church’s Committee on Slavery’s position paper and resolutions in its report to the conference. The committee states its abolitionist views clearly and in strong, unequivocal terms. It also addresses the north-south schism forming within the church. The post’s conclusion places the conference minutes in context with the Civil War, and in its analysis, it asserts that the underpinning concepts of slavery are with us to this day.

Preface

The topic of slavery in America is a topic charged with emotions, regardless of the perspective from which you view it. As an older guy, a descendant of Northern and Western European ancestry, I find this a complex topic to approach. However, it is a topic I have been paying more attention to in recent years. In a class on the Civil War a book by Charles B. Dew came to my attention, Apostles of Disunion.1 Dew’s book fanned the flames of inquiry urging me to look below the surface when researching subjects that have racial or ethnic discriminatory elements, be it aboriginal peoples, the enslaved, or any other opposing people groups. This post, aside from being a class assignment,2 addresses an important topic that should be better understood by every American, slavery in the American context. This post is only one narrow look at a complex topic.

Methodist Episcopal Church,
New Hampshire Conference 1844-45

The Minutes of the New Hampshire Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church for the year of 1844-45 provides a lot of information about the church at this time in a short 22 pages. It addresses topics from membership to finances, appointments, and obituaries. It also contains two position papers with resolutions on topics that would become very important to the country in the coming decades. The minutes contain position papers on Temperance and Slavery.

Division over the topic of slavery has been a part of political discourse in America since the debate over independence in the Second Continental Congress. Despite participation in the slave trade and many of the founding fathers owning slaves themselves, the north-south division on the subject has manifested in many ways ever since. One has been through the publishing of position papers, often by civic groups including those specifically focused on abolition, and in position papers and resolutions published by organizations in their charters and minutes from various organization-wide meetings, conventions, congresses, and conferences.

The Methodist Episcopal Church had, according to its 1844-45 Conference minutes, a Committee on Slavery that had “for several successive years past presented” their sentiments on slavery as “the great evil and sin of American Slavery.” Having restated their position several times already, but recognizing the importance of the matter they felt “duty bound” to again address slavery and make sure the church and world knew that “the slave in his bonds and deprivations has not lost our sympathy.”3 Following this with a commitment to abolishing the practice.

New Hampshire Methodists were not alone in this sentiment finding slavery a moral evil, offensive to God, and ruinous “to the best interests of the church and nation.” They further pronounced that the destiny of slavery was fixed, that the practice must die. Acknowledging that a schism was forming within the larger church, they were sure that Providence was on their side. The committee also predicted that a change was coming, that they would be “free from all connection” with the practice of slavery. To further state their position and to address the succession of southern churches they concluded the committee report with nine resolutions summarized here:

The committee resolved that the practice of slavery was a great evil. Traveling lecturers should denounce the practice of defending slavery through the pretext that it benefitted the slave. Through the secession of dissenting churches, they would be “ecclesiastically free from connection with this great evil.” If southern churches chose slavery over their alienation from the greater church, they should be pitied rather than deplored. Those in dissenting churches not holding slaves should join the northern churches in “spreading scriptural holiness.” The resolutions also included thanks to leadership supporting abolition and rebuking those dissenting and in favor of secession.

Conclusion

This division in the Methodist church over slavery took place a full fifteen years before the Secession Commissioners 4 took to the meetinghouses of the south and west to sow the seeds of secession in America. Slavery has been a part of American history since its inception. While the buying and selling of people is no longer legal, the underpinning concepts that allowed slavery to flourish are still with us. The concepts of us v. them and fear of the other, the dehumanization of the other, to refer to them as inferior, to justify abhorrent actions and inhumane treatment. This is evil.

  1. Charles B. Dew, Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War, Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2016. ↩︎
  2. Liberty University, HIST 701 Historical Professions: Module 3: Blog: American Christianity. ↩︎
  3. Methodist Episcopal Church, New Hampshire Conference, Minutes of the New Hampshire Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Vol. 1844-45, Boston, MA: D.H. Ela, 1845. Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926. Accessed April 5, 2025. 11-13. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CY0109925437/SABN?u=vic_liberty&sid=bookmark-SABN&xid=8aaaa08f&pg=1. ↩︎
  4. Dew, 2016. ↩︎

Experimental History

My current research is a historiographical pursuit to determine if Experimental History exists as a subfield of history. If it does exist, the research will seek out its methodologies and practices. If it does not already exist as a sub-field of history, the research will be to define working parameters and define appropriate methodologies. This will include acknowledging the similarities and differences between Experimental History and Experimental Archaeology.

I discovered this week that the term Experimental History has often applied to a philosophy applied to the study of Natural History in the 17th and 18th centuries by Francis Bacon who dubbed the philosophy “Natural and Experimental History.”1 Bacon’s use of this term has nothing to do with the practice and study of doing history as we think of it today. Searching for academic journal articles on JSTOR,2 the vast majority of search results for “Experimental History” refer to or relate to Bacon’s “Natural and Experimental History.”

A couple of relevant results did come up, one is an article in the journal The History Teacher, “A Pedagogical Trebuchet: A Case Study in Experimental History and History Pedagogy”3 from 2012 that utilizes Experimental History in the classroom to answer questions that would otherwise be unanswerable other than through hypothetical assertions.

My interpretation of Experimental History as a sub-field can, on the research end, help in producing improved tools and materials for Experiential Learning. Anyone who has worked with elementary school kids will likely have plenty of anecdotal experience with the potential of experiential learning. I came to my interpretation of what Experimental history could be through Experimental Archaeology, and one of the reasons I became interested in Experimental Archaeology was my own experience in experiential learning. This is how I learn best, through doing, and following that up with teaching someone else. The process of learning through experimentation and then turning around and teaching what you have learned through papers and presentations is the cornerstone and heart of Amateur Radio. The process works.

The idea behind Experimental History, in my interpretation, is for the researcher to engage in experiential learning, using experimentation along with traditional research to answer questions about the subject, and to apply the physicality of the experimentation and research contextually and physically to generate the resulting products of their research, which should include materials for pedagogical use. I am inclined toward producing products that can be applied in the public history sphere but are not limited to that environment. While the physicality of Experimental History can provide context to traditional outputs, that physicality shouldn’t be lost in the translation, Experimental History, as I interpret it, wants to bring the physicality to all interpretive environments, in the presentation, in the museum, and in the classroom.

This historiographical look at Experimental History and its applications in research and pedagogy is the foundation of my current work and is in its initial stage to understand what the literature is, if any, and to enumerate and evaluate the available sources if such sources exist. As literature emerges I will post it to a designated area of the site.

  1. Anstey, Peter R. “Locke, Bacon and Natural History.” Early Science and Medicine 7, no. 1 (2002): 65–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4130409. ↩︎
  2. https://www.jstor.org/ ↩︎
  3. Brice, Lee L., and Steven Catania. “A Pedagogical Trebuchet: A Case Study in Experimental History and History Pedagogy.” The History Teacher 46, no. 1 (2012): 67–84. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43264074. ↩︎

Benchmarking

I am just starting the second week of HIST 701 Historical Professions, and I am already finding the class interesting and challenging. One of this week’s assignments is a benchmarking assignment. I opted to look at graduate history programs here in Oregon, offered by institutions that report having graduate programs in history. Below is the paper submitted.

By: Jonathan Wanzer ORCiD 0009-0004-9275-7410
Submitted on: March 23, 2025
Submitted to: Dr. Schultz – Liberty University
Course: HIST 701 Historical Professions
Chicago Citation:
Wanzer, Jonathan. “Benchmarking Programs: History Programs at Universities in Oregon That Offer Graduate Degrees.” Paper. Historical Interpretations. Jonathan Wanzer, December 2, 2024. http://wanzer.org/2025/03/benchmarking/.

Benchmarking Programs: History Programs at Universities in Oregon That Offer Graduate Degrees

by Jonathan Wanzer
March 23, 2025
ORCID.org/0009-0004-9275-7410

This analysis focuses on degrees offered by colleges and universities with graduate programs in history in Oregon, the number of history degrees awarded in the 2022-2023 program year, and the percentage history degrees represent in the institution’s total degrees awarded. Data was collected from the National Center for Education Statistics, College Navigator website using the search parameters: Oregon, advanced degrees with the following Programs/Majors selected American History, General History, Public/Applied History.[1] The search results indicate that four Oregon universities offer advanced degrees in history. The Institutions indicated are; Oregon State University[2], Portland State University[3], University of Oregon[4], and Western Oregon University[5].

Oregon State University offers bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in history. In the program year, OSU awarded a total of 7,389 degrees, 5,829 bachelor’s, 1,140 master’s, and 420 doctorates. Of these, OSU awarded 59 bachelor’s and 4 master’s degrees in history, slightly over 1% and 0.35% respectively. A doctoral program in history is not available at OSU.

Portland State University offers bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in history. In the program year, PSU awarded a total of 5,621 degrees, 3,839 bachelor’s, 1,717 master’s, and 65 doctorates. Of these, PSU awarded 46 bachelor’s, and 4 master’s degrees in history, just under 1.2% and 0.23% respectively. A doctoral program is not available in history at PSU.

University of Oregon offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs in history. In the program year, UO awarded a total of 5,441 degrees, 4,089 bachelor’s, 968 master’s, and 65 doctorates. Of these, UO awarded 59 bachelor’s, 1 master’s, and 1 doctorate in history, just over 1.4%, 0.10%, and 0.26%, respectively. UO is the only institution offering a doctorate in history in Oregon.

Western Oregon University only offers a bachelor’s degree program in history. In the program year, WOU awarded a total of 1,031 degrees, 855 bachelor’s and 176 master’s degrees. WOU does not offer doctorates in any field. Of the degrees WOU awarded, only 8 bachelor’s degrees were awarded in history, slightly over 0.93% of bachelor’s degrees.

The cumulative total of degrees awarded, bachelor and above, awarded in Oregon by institutions offering advanced degrees in the program year was 19,482 of those, 182 were in history, 172 bachelor’s degrees, 9 master’s degrees, and 1 doctorate, less than 0.01% of degrees awarded by Oregon institutions that offer advanced degrees. Just 10 of the 19,482 degrees were graduate or doctoral degrees.[6]

Oregon universities offer many graduate programs in business, medicine, and physical sciences, both residential and online. When it comes to the history or public history fields for history majors, particularly graduate degree programs the state’s universities do not provide much of an offering. Furthermore, all the programs in this study are residential, there are no graduate-level programs in history available online from Oregon’s universities. This is surprising in one sense considering the state’s many active historical societies and important museums. While this is disappointing for anyone seeking a graduate degree in Oregon, it is not that surprising. Anecdotally, a prior nationwide search for online graduate programs in history provided limited results, and only one online doctoral program was located in the United States, Liberty University’s online doctorate.[7]

APPENDIX

History Program Completions & Program Percentage of Institutional Total Awards[8]

UniversityDegree Level Degrees AwardedHistory % of Total
Oregon State UniversityUndergradHistory591.0122%
Univ. Total5829 
GraduateHistory40.3509%
Univ. Total1140 
DoctoralHistory *00.0000%
Univ. Total420 
 
Portland State UniversityUndergradHistory461.1982%
Univ. Total3839 
GraduateHistory40.2330%
Univ. Total1717 
DoctoralHistory *00.0000%
Univ. Total65 
 
University of OregonUndergradHistory591.4429%
Univ. Total4089 
GraduateHistory10.1033%
Univ. Total968 
DoctoralHistory10.2604%
Univ. Total384 
 
Western Oregon UniversityUndergraduateHistory80.9357%
Univ. Total855 
GraduateHistory *00.0000%
Univ. Total176 
Doctoral †History00.0000%
Univ. Total0 

Table 1. Data from College Navigator

* No history degree is offered at this level
† No doctoral programs available

[1] “College Navigator,” accessed March 23, 2025,  https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?s=OR&p=54.0102+54.0105+54.0101&l=94.

[2] “Oregon State University,” accessed March 23, 2025, https://oregonstate.edu/.

[3] “Portland State University,” accessed March 23, 2025, https://www.pdx.edu/.

[4] “University of Oregon,” accessed March 23, 2025, https://www.uoregon.edu/.

[5] “Western Oregon University,” accessed March 23, 2025, https://wou.edu/

[6] See Table 1 in the appendix

[7] Author conducted a search of U.S. colleges and universities in the summer of 2024 looking for online doctoral history programs.

[8] “College Navigator”

Experimental History

A Field That Does Not Yet Exist

Some time ago, before or around 2015, I saw a documentary following the journey of an archaeologist who wanted to answer the question, could the Vikings have been the first Europeans to land in North America? From a navigational perspective, the Polynesians have been navigating the Pacific for centuries, there is no reason to doubt that the Norse seafaring people had some similar skill. Unfortunately, there isn’t a definitive navigational tradition that has been passed down through Norse legend, but we can see it as a possibility. The next question is, could their vessels have made transatlantic crossings? This is a question that can be answered, Viking ships have been located and unearthed. It is known what they looked like and how they were constructed, there are examples available for reference. Likewise, there are references for the tools they had. To answer the question if it was possible, a ship would have to be built from materials like those available, with tools they had according to the historical record, and techniques evident in the example ships available. Assembling a team of woodworkers and sailors they embarked on building a historically accurate, to a reasonable degree at least, Viking ship. The process of building the ship provided a lot of insight into the process and provided some answers to questions about the building process. On completion of the build, the vessel was eventually sailed from Scotland to Newfoundland by way of Iceland and Greenland in an epic North Sea adventure. This was one of the first documented Experimental Archaeology enterprises. It was also the inspiration for some of the paths I have chosen over the years.

The Viking adventure above was a big project that took years to accomplish, had a good-sized team, and had a sizable price tag. It would be great to consider myself an archaeologist, and it is not completely out of the realm of possibility if I were to approach it from the experimental history direction. The concept of experimental archaeology is very appealing to a maker with a broad range of skills. As a historian, the thought of bringing more experimentation into the process is exciting. This post is inspired questions posed to one of my professors floating this idea of experimental history and his incouraging responses.

I prefaced my questions with this…

“My thoughts on the differentiation between the two fields are that experimental archaeology would involve fieldwork and unknowns whereas experimental history would be more of an archive-to-lab/workshop affair to reproduce a known to illustrate the function and operation.“

“As an amateur radio license holder, I am passionate about radio communications, and communications technologies in general. My vision of experimental history is conducting historical research and building the equipment that either no longer exists or is so rare that replicas or reproductions are the most practical path forward, documenting the process, and conducting operational experiments with the end goal of producing historical documentary products, papers, articles, books, documentary films, and exhibits. The technologies I am most interested in are the early forms of the electric telegraph through radiotelegraphy and the early forms of telegraphic printing to radioteletype.“

Is there a path to experimental history as a field, or is it too close to experimental archaeology?

“I think so, and I’d love to have you consider it.“

If it seems like it could be a distinct field, how does one promote a field like this?

“Maybe, but I don’t know. …Feel free to do research on items of interest, working on a functional model for experimental history“

Clarifying later in another email he said “I used the expression “functional model…” because this is a novel concept. … As you work on projects, you can refine your thinking and present this as a legitimate approach to dissertation research.“

What are your general thoughts on the concept?

He liked the idea of “experimental history” and would be happy to see this in practice noting that it would “draw heavily on historical sources and methodologies, albeit with some specialized skills” which I agree with entirly.

Also in a later email he said “As you think about “experimental history,” you will want to consider research approaches and methodologies that you would use in your dissertation research.“

This is all very encouraging, it also is a paradigm that affects my current class and well beyond, it could mean a significant shift in my dissertation topic. To what degree is yet to be determined, but it is clear I have a considerable amount of thinking to do.

~Jon

The Power of Food

To know someone, break bread with them.

Enjoying a meal with someone, or a group, is a great way to get them to open up, get to know them, and see who they are. I like to cook for special occasions, and eat of course. I am by no means a chef but many, many moons ago I worked as a line cook. I have always enjoyed the culinary arts and through personal experience, I have found that cooking foods that are historically appropriate in using historically appropriate ways can create sensory links to the period that enhance the memory and context.

Revolution period reenactors will likely recognize the online store and YouTube channel for Townsends. They have done a wonderful job of outfitting revolution reenactors for decades and John spends a lot of time on recipes and cooking in the 18th century. Over the years I have been inspired down more than one rabbit hole thanks to John’s research, it was one of my early inspirations to resume handwriting which led to further research, and an interest in transcription, graphology, and documentary editing.

The desire to be more experimental in the kitchen and to apply a food context to period research also grew out of watching the 18th century cooking videos John and Ryan put out. This is something I will be trying to engange with more in the new year.

~Jon