STUDENT RESEARCH
ABOUT
The students of Dr. Mooney-Melvin’s WWI and American Culture class at Loyola University Chicago worked with digital historian and PhD student Karen Sieber to create a digital exhibit based around some aspect of the Great War period in the Chicago area. Using scholarly works and historical archives on the era, the students brought the WWI experience at home to life in their individual projects. After choosing a topic, students tweeted about the historic material they found in the archives. They then linked a historical image to a coordinated longitudinal/latitudinal location in the Chicago area related to the war using StoryMaps. Finally, the students wrote a 1,000 word blog post, complete with archival finds, to illuminate their topic for a public audience. Together, they created this website using Google Sites.
The students' research recovers a complex period of American history from a variety of angles. These stories, often forgotten in public memory, hold both local and national importance. Visit the student blogs below or access them using the drop down menu to the left.
student projects
- Evan Cavalier, "Chicago’s Fort Sheridan: Training the American Military"
- Scott Clancy, "The Black Experience in WWI"
- Kevin Donohue, "The Grant Park War Exposition"
- Erin Lippert, "Polish Volunteers: For the Fatherland, from the Homeland"
- Jimmy Mann, "Essanay Studios and the Chicago Film Revolution"
- Veronica Materna, "Polish Immigrants Help the Old Country"
- Thomas Oswood, "Loyola University and the War Effort"
- Samantha Peron, "World War I Veteran Experience"
- Bailey Placek, "Great Lakes the Quarter Deck of the Navy"
- Alia Salazar, "The Suppression of the Hyphen"
- Judson Smith, "Betrayal on the Home Front: socialism and the Great War"
- Natalie Watts, "Post-War Chicago: The Cradle of Jazz"
- Samuel Wilkinson, "Chicago Stockyards"
