history

Our “Miller’s Tale”

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Book cover of "De Zwaan: The True Story of America’s Authentic Dutch Windmill"Move over, Chaucer! Kalamazoo College has its own “Miller’s Tale,” that of Alisa Crawford ’91, who recently won the state history award from the Historical Society of Michigan for her book “De Zwaan: The True Story of America’s Authentic Dutch Windmill.” Alisa is the resident miller at the De Zwaan windmill, which is located in Holland, Michigan. Achieving qualifications for that job was no “run of the mill” effort; nor was piecing together the origins and history of the mill she operates and loves. After many years learning to speak Dutch, study, apprenticeship, and testing, Alisa became a Dutch-certified miller. Then after more testing, she was admitted to an elite Dutch guild of professional grain millers. Through that process, she came to know a number of mill historians in The Netherlands. Together they dug through dusty archives in The Netherlands, interviewed people connected to the mill, and crawled through the windmill searching for archaeological clues.

“At the time of its purchase,” notes Alisa, “authorities in The Netherlands thought it had been built in 1761 in the Zaan region in North Holland to make hemp rope, but then clues began trickling in that made that impossible.” Without giving away the end of the book, Alisa says of the mill that now stands on windmill Island in Holland: “De Zwaan began its career far from North Holland and does not have a ‘purebred pedigree’, as originally presumed.” She indicates that it was assembled from the parts of several mills much later than 1761. However, that lineage, she writes in the book, “is what makes De Zwaan unequivocally authentic. Windmills were and continue to be working machines. When they break, they are repaired. When they become outmoded, they are re-purposed. When the parts wear out, they are replaced.”

Alisa received the award at the State History conference held in Saginaw. In her acceptance speech she noted, “I like to say I’m a miller by trade, an historian by degree, and now an author by award, and I thank the Historical Society of Michigan for that honor.” Her book is available on Windmill Island in Holland, at local retailers and online at In-Depth Editions.

Coming to the ’Zoo? Lucky You!

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Downtown KalamazooThat’s the theme of a recent (June 25) Washington Post article (“You’re going where? Kalamazoo is tired of your Creedence Clearwater jokes“) by freelance writer Maya Kroth. It’s a fun read, worth a slow pace all the way to the end–just like a good beer. And once you reach the end, you may wonder where’s the K connection. Well, the article quotes alumnus (and Bell’s Brewery founder) Larry Bell ’80 at length, and mentions National Book Award finalist Bonnie Jo Campbell, a former Summer Common Reading author and creative writing professor at K. Bottom line: Kalamazoo is a great place to live. You’ll find lots of cool history in Kroth’s article. And perhaps the next time she’s in town, we’ll get her to visit the ’ZOO within the ’Zoo

Commencement Then and Now

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Graduates of the class of 1909
Graduates of the class of 1909. Williams Hall is in the background, the present day site of Stetson Chapel and Mandelle Hall.

Can you believe graduation is just around the corner? I couldn’t; or at least I couldn’t until the day last week when I watched College Archivist Lisa Murphy build a library display from old pictures and old traditions of previous commencements. You can see her work in the display case across from the circulation desk.

I’m Mallory Zink, a German and International Area Studies double major and a proud member of the graduating class of 2015—whoo-whoo! I still can’t wrap my head around my own commencement in two months! Wasn’t it only yesterday parents were moving us into Trowbridge, Hoben and Harmon; with mini-fridges, collapsible chairs, and a new ‘college edition’ bed comforter?

1905 senior breakfast attendees
Seniors (all of them) breakfast in 1905 at the home of then-professor Herbert Stetson. He was later president.

We met and made friends, joined clubs, did a mountain of homework, created memories. Later, especially after study abroad, a lot of us moved out of the dorms and split rent for our first ‘real’ houses, in the Vine Street area heavily populated with college students from K and Western. Our residences may have changed; the mountains of homework didn’t. We (or maybe, mostly, I) almost never read the entire 200 pages for our 400-level course in the allotted two-day time period, not because we were (or maybe, mostly, I was) out partying (well…), but instead we were applying for jobs and grad schools! (I’m sticking with that story.)

While I talked with Lisa as she built her display, I wondered if the graduating class of 1909 felt the same way we did freshman year? Did they share their excitement via some turn-of-the-century (the 19th to 20th!) counterpart to “hashtag-Kalamazoo College bound?” Did a young woman with an interest in studying German feel lucky when she got the last teal shower caddy at the bookstore? Was there a bookstore? As the days until graduation dwindled, did they hear as many times as we do: “What is your plan for next year?”

Class Day in the early 1930s
During Class Day Exercises—part of commencement week in the early 1930s—seniors would read class histories and prophecies.

I think every senior dreads that question until she has a plan for the following year…then we (or maybe, mostly, I) begin to hope, maybe even beg, that people will start asking us (me) about our plans, even strangers on the street. I hugged an innocent stranger after I finalized my plans for next year! (I’ll put my major to use when I begin my master’s degree at the University of Bonn in Germany…I told you I was begging to tell someone!)

I like the ‘Class Day Exercises” graduates of the early 1930s did. I like the piano outdoors and the horse and buggy in the background (you can barely see them in the upper left corner). The stage is set where Anderson Athletic Center and facilities management are located today. I bet that class didn’t have to hear the Amtrak train horn.

In 1905 the entire senior class would breakfast at a professor’s or the president’s house. That seems cool, though 300-plus members of the class of 2015 wouldn’t fit in Hodge House.

1929 poster for the senior class play
Poster for the senior class play of 1929, a commencement tradition “way back then.”

In the late 1920s a senior class play was a commencement tradition. Hmm. Maybe Festival Playhouse’s production of CARRIE the musical will serve for our class. After all, senior prom is temporally close to graduation. In the novel the title character kind of addressed any potential overcrowding at a hypothetical commencement breakfast.

It was fun to visit Lisa and check out her display, the old photos in particular…so much different; so much shared.

Commencement for the class of 2015 will take place on Sunday, June 14th at 1 p.m. on the campus quadrangle. I hope to see you there. I wonder what they checked out for more info in 1909.

Text by Mallory Zink ’15. Photos courtesy of Kalamazoo College Archivist Lisa Murphy ’98.

Kalamazoo College Professor Awarded NEH Grant

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Dennis Frost, the Wen Chao Chen Associate Professor of East Asian Social Sciences, was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to support his project titled “The Paralympic Movement, Sports, and Disability in Postwar Japan.” His was one 232 humanities projects in the country to receive NEH funding. Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Professor Frost earned his B.A. at Wittenberg University and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He completed research programs at University of the Ryukyus (Okinawa, Japan) and Iwate University (Iwate, Japan). He is the author of Seeing Stars: Sports Celebrity, Identity, and Body Culture in Modern Japan. In addition to his study of the Paralympic Movement, sports, and disability in postwar Japan, his current research interests include a comparative exploration of military “base towns’ in Okinawa and mainland Japan. Said NEH Chairman William Adams: “The grants announced continue the Endowment’s tradition of supporting excellence in the humanities by funding far-reaching research, preservation projects, and public programs.”Congratulations to Professor Frost!

Kalamazoo College Lecture Will Focus on the Holocaust

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Professor Doris L. BergenThe 2015 Edward Moritz Lecture in History coincides with the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps and the end of World War II. The lecture will occur Thursday, April 16, at 7 p.m. in Dewing Hall Room 103. The event is free and open to the public. Professor Doris L. Bergen, Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto (and one of the world’s most distinguished scholars of the Holocaust), will speak on “Holocaust or Genocide? Uniqueness and Universality.”

Professor Bergen received her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina, where she studied with Professor Gerhard Weinberg. Her research focuses on issues of religion, gender, and ethnicity in the Holocaust and World War II and comparatively in other cases of extreme violence. She has written many books including War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (2003). The recipient of many honors and awards, Professor Bergen is a member of the Academic Advisory Committee of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington , D.C.

The annual Edward Moritz Lecture pays tribute to the late Professor Edward Moritz, who taught British and European history at Kalamazoo College from 1955 to 1988 and served for many years as department chair.

Germany Honors K History Professor

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Kalamazoo College history professor David BarclayDavid Barclay, the Margaret and Roger Scholten Professor of International Studies, was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland), the country’s highest decoration, popularly known as the Federal Cross of Merit. Because he was unable to receive the award in Berlin, it was presented to him at a ceremony at the German Consulate General in Chicago on June 17.

The website of the Federal President of Germany describes honor as follows: “The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany was instituted in 1951 by Federal President Theodor Heuss. It is the only honour that may be awarded in all fields of endeavour and is the highest tribute the Federal Republic of Germany can pay to individuals for services to the nation. The Order of Merit may be awarded to Germans as well as foreigners for achievements in the political, economic, social or intellectual realm and for all kinds of outstanding services to the nation in the field of social, charitable or philanthropic work.”

At K, Barclay has taught a wide variety of courses on European history and German history. He directed the Center of Western European Studies at Kalamazoo College from 1990 to 2003, and he currently serves as the executive director of the German Studies Association. He is the author of numerous books and articles, and the focus of his scholarship in particular has been the history of West Berlin from 1948 to 1994. Barclay has received many academic awards and honors, among the most prominent of these was his selection as the George H.W. Bush/Axel Springer Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin (2007). He and fellow faculty member Joe Fugate (professor emeritus of German and director emeritus of the foreign study program) are two Kalamazoo College faculty to receive the Order of Merit.

Physics Professor on the Starboard Guns

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Professor of Physics Tom Askew on a boatProfessor of Physics Tom Askew had physics in mind this summer–the physics of force and trajectory of early 19th-century cannon fire. Askew as deckhand and gunner on the Friends Good Will during a reenactment of the Battle of Lake Erie. Small but well-armed, Friends Good Will led the British battle line into action against the American fleet. Askew’s is a replica tall ship from the Michigan Maritime Museum in South Haven, and Askew serves on board every summer. The original Friends Good Will was built in Michigan at River Rouge in 1810 as a merchant vessel. In the summer of 1812, she was chartered by the federal government to take military supplies to Fort Dearborn, a small military and trading post at what is now Chicago. She was returning with furs and skins when she was lured into the harbor of Mackinac Island. The British, having taken the island just days before, were flying false colors above the fort ramparts. The British confiscated the vessel, cargo, and crew, renaming her “Little Belt.” She was armed, taken into service, and fought with the Royal Navy until September of 1813, when she was recaptured by United States Commodore Oliver Perry at the Battle of Lake Erie. Within an hour after the great guns fell silent, Commodore Perry mentioned her in his now famous dispatch, “We have met the enemy and they are ours: Two Ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop.” That sloop was Friends Good Will. The ship then served in the United States Navy, transporting General William Henry Harrison’s troops across Lake Erie in the successful invasion of Southern Ontario. She was driven ashore in a storm south of Buffalo in December 1813. In early January 1814, during efforts to re-launch the ship, the British unceremoniously burned the once-proud vessel during a raid on Buffalo.

K History Professor Will Deliver Public Lecture in Berlin

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David Barclay, History, will deliver a public lecture at the Free University of Berlin. The title of his talk is “Old Glory und Berliner Baer: Die USA und West-Berlin 1948-1994 [Old Glory and the Bear of Berlin: The USA and West Berlin 1948-1994].” The event commemorates the collaboration of the German Studies Association (GSA) with the Free University and also the 50th anniversary of the famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech by President John F. Kennedy. Barclay is the executive director of GSA. He will be introduced by Elke Loeschhorn, director of international programs at the Free University, and by Professor Harald Wenzel from the John F. Kennedy Institute of American Studies at the Free University. Barclay’s talk will be moderated by Professor Andreas Etges of the America Institute at the University of Munich. Commentary on the talk will be provided by Walter Momper, mayor of Berlin when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989; Professor Dorothee Brantz of the Technical University of Berlin and director of its Center for Metropolitan Studies; and Dr. Klaus Dettmer of the Landesarchiv Berlin (Berlin State Archives).

K professor talks about complex Bonaparte

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Book cover of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte: An American Aristocrat in the Early RepublicK Professor of History Charlene Boyer Lewis ′87 is the author of the 2012 biography, Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte: An American Aristocrat in the Early Republic. Boyer Lewis is quoted in a recent Baltimore Sun article about a new historical exhibit in Baltimore on its famous 19-year-old citizen who married Napoleon Bonaparte′s younger brother. Read more about Elizabeth′s long, colorful, and controversial life and view photos and a video about the new exhibit at http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/bs-ae-betsy-bonaparte-20130608,0,1051008.story#ixzz2VqTTxKXU.

Celebrating the Life of Charles Goodsell Sr.

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A memorial service celebrating the life Charles True Goodsell Sr. has been arranged by his son, Charles T. Goodsell Jr., a member of the Kalamazoo College Class of 1954. The event will occur on Saturday, May 11, at 11 A.M. in the Blacksburg (Virginia) Presbyterian Church (701 Church Street). The senior Goodsell was a professor in the K history department from 1928 until his sudden death while speaking in Stetson Chapel on November 25, 1951. Goodsell also served as the acting president of Kalamazoo College in 1935-36. Stories will be told by his son prior to the placement of his ashes in the Church Columbarium. (The ashes were discovered unclaimed at Langeland Funeral Home in Kalamazoo last November.) A lunch will follow the memorial service. Charles Jr. sent word of the service because some alumni who knew his father may still be alive and interested in knowing about the event. All are invited to the service. Persons interested in joining the family for lunch should RSVP at 540.552.9032 or goodsell@vt.edu.