Department of History

Congratulations to Frank Amico, Ph.D. candidate in History, who recently presented a paper entitled "Women Scientists and Masculine Spaces in the Production of Climate Knowledge," at the European Society for the History of Science annual conference in Barcelona, Spain.
Well done, Frank!

: Leah Sauceda & “The Creation of a Chicano Political Identity in California, 1930s-1970s”
Follow Leah as she shares her experiences of taking History's senior seminar - from designing her project to completing the research paper. Tap fla.st/2RMNK6KC to read the interview.

Since 2010, September has been Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Childhood cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease for children under the age of 14. Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation is one foundation that is supporting research to find a cure. In honor of the month, and Alex, learn more about the history of lemonade stands, and the role they have played in various fundraising endeavors.

Post credit: Abigail Tremblay
Sources: www.alexslemonade.org/
www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/kids-cornered-market-lemonade-stand-180983979/
lemonadeday.org/blog/history-of-lemonade-stands/

Images: www.loc.gov/item/99614638/
www.alexslemonade.org/campaign/stands-and-events/downloads

Second Annual Undergraduate Essay Contest

The Advisory Board for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Florida State University is proud to announce its Second Annual Undergraduate Essay Contest in Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies. This contest is meant to highlight the insights and analysis possible using the sources and methodologies associated with Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies across the disciplines. The winner of the contest will receive a $250 prize, with a $100 prize going to the second place essay. The awards will be presented at a ceremony held in the Spring 2025 semester.

Find more information here: https://ws.artsandsciences.fsu.edu/undergraduate-essay-contest

FSU History is excited to introduce our new Fall 2024 Social Media Interns - meet Cassady!
Cassady is a History and Political Science major from Columbus, Ohio. She hopes to become either a legislative aid or a history teacher. When she's not in class, you can find Cassady playing sports, getting a cup of coffee, hanging out at Tallahassee's many museums, listening to music, or walking on stilts!
Post credit: Annalia

Thank you for coming!

On Monday, Florida Trust CEO & President Melissa Wyllie spoke with an historic architecture class at Florida State University about why preservation helps build communities and how we can work together to protect our shared history.

Meet Daela! She is a FSU Department of History undergraduate student who did her first year abroad in London, England. Swipe to learn more about what inspired her, her story, and her adventures in London!
Post credit: Christianna

FSU History professor Andrew Frank weighs in on the history of the Apalachee in Tallahassee and North Florida, in this story for the Tallahassee Democrat.

Historical marker commemorates Native American city of Anhaica Next to the tennis courts in Myers Park will soon be the site of a historical marker commemorating the Apalachee city of Anhaica.

Congrats, Danielle!

Congratulations to Samuel Granoff and Danielle Wirsansky, two FSU College of Arts & Sciences doctoral students, on being selected for the prestigious The Fulbright Program! 🌍 Read about their exciting research and travel plans that will take them to Paris and Jerusalem 👉 fla.st/OH728CXW.

Social Media Intern Spotlight
Meet Megan! She is one of the Fall 2024 interns. Megan is a Hospitality and Tourism major and wants to work at Disney World after college. Follow along to see more of her work throughout the semester!
Post credit: Ainsley

Welcome back to "Luckily I have Purse! The History of Some of Your Favorite Bags," where we look into how timeless bags have emerged and remained symbols within society over many years. These accessories are much more than something to lug around on your arm, and today we'll continue the story with the Prada Re-Edition Bags!

A Family Business
Started by brothers Martino and Mario Prada in 1913, Prada Fratelli was a luxury leather goods store in Milan that featured travel trunks, bags, and accessories. it wasn’t until Mario’s granddaughter Miuccia took over in 1978 that the brand started to gain real traction.

Prada’s Rise to Fame
Miuccia broke new ground when she designed handbags made from nylon fabric. as a feminist she wanted to “provoke the normative notions of femininity, beauty, and taste,” so she chose a material not commonly seen as feminine - nylon.
The bags were not hugely successful at first. But when they were relaunched in 1985 with Prada’s signature triangular logo plaque on the front, their popularity grew.

The Nylon Mini Hobo Bag
In 2000, Prada released the Nylon Mini Hobo Bag which feminized the nylon styles that had previously existed at the fashion house. this new bag introduced a baguette-shaped body, allowing for wear of the bag under-the-arm.
The bag was released in a variety of colors and editions, elevating its status tremendously. However, when the decade made a shift toward oversized bag styles, Prada discontinued this design.

The Re-Edition Bags
With Y2K Styles making a comeback in 2019, Prada decided to reissue the iconic 2000 and 2005 versions of the nylon bag a year later!
The 2000 re-edition, remains the same as the original, only now with an interior that is more structured and logo lining.
The 2005 re-edition, however, has a removable strap and coin purse with a logo plaque, shorter key link chain, and a Saffiano leather key ring that says ‘Prada Re-Edition 2005.’

Post credit: Hannah

Source: thevintagebar.com/the-archive/please-welcome-back-prada-s-2000-and-2005-re-editions
Image credit: Pexels.com, from user Анастасия; Miuccia Prada, License: CCA-SA 2.0

Congratulations to Marina Ortiz, FSU History Ph.D. 2023, who recently accepted a new position at the State Archives of Florida. Ortiz will be supervising the reference room and its staff, assisting patrons with more complex requests, and assisting with using finding aids and digital catalogues. Well done, Marina!

Find out what Ben Goff (FSU History Ph.D. 2023) has been doing during his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Saskatchewan.
Read his insights here: fla.st/I27MJSF0.

Congratulations to Kathleen Powers Conti, Ph.D., who was recently elected to the Board of Directors for the Vernacular Architecture Forum. Well done, Dr. Conti!

Faculty and Staff Briefs August 2024 Florida State University’s faculty and staff are central to its mission and the key to its countless accomplishments. Throughout the year, honors and

History travel diary, episode 7: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with Laine

In the early 1800s, Pittsburgh was the ‘Gateway to the West,’ thriving in trade with coal, timber, glass, and more. Its geographical location, being the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers, created a great environment for water transportation and industrialization. So great in fact that Lewis and Clark’s expedition began in Pittsburgh's waterways. By 1911, Pittsburgh was a steel powerhouse, earning the nickname ‘The Smoky City’ due to the air pollution caused by manufacturing.

Follow me to some sites I checked out:
- The Smithfield Street Bridge, built in 1883, spans 1,184 feet across the Monongahela River, connecting Downtown Pittsburgh to the South Side.
- The Fort Pitt Bridge, a steel, double-decked bowstring arch bridge that opened in June 1959, replacing the Point Bridge. This was the world’s first computer-designed bowstring arch bridge.
- The Monongahela and Duquesne Inclines, originally opened in the 1870s, are the last of four inclines that are still operational on Mt. Washington.
Post credit: Laine
Sources:
pittsburghpa.gov/pittsburgh/pgh-about
www.visitpittsburgh.com/things-to-do/arts-culture/history/
www.visitpittsburgh.com/blog/25-famous-pittsburgh-bridges/
pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/feature-articles/duquesne-incline-historic-artifact-rise

Welcome back to "Luckily I have Purse! The History of Some of Your Favorite Bags" where we look into how timeless bags have emerged and remained symbols within society over many years. These accessories are much more than something to lug around on your arm, and today we'll continue the story with the Vera Bradley Duffel bag!

How Did The Duffel Come To Be?
Sitting in the Atlanta airport in 1982, best friends Barbara Bradley Baekgaard and Patricia R. Miller couldn’t help but notice the boring black and beige luggage that surrounded them.
Upon arriving home, using $500 total from both of their husbands, the friends bought colorful fabric and started crafting the first duffel on Baekgaard’s basement ping pong table.
This marked the beginning of the duffel and the brand itself!

Initial Growth of the Bag and the Brand
Word of the bag spread fast, after sending Baekgaard’s two college-aged daughters the creation. In no time the pair had many orders coming in from the girl’s peers and sorority sisters who loved the style of the bag.

With the bag’s vibrant design acting as a billboard, eventually, Baekgaard and Miller hired seamstresses who worked from home and returned the bags to them for final approval.
Within the first year the brand had sold $10,000 worth of products, jumping to 1 million by the third year.

Growth Up Until Today
The duffel was the “style that started it all” and was followed by thousands of other products, patterns, and designs for all occasions. Over the years, the company has produced many designs, with past patterns available to look back on in their “retired patterns archive.” Today the company has Net revenues totaling $470.8 million in the fiscal year 2024.

The Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer
The company consists of a foundation devoted to breast cancer research. Created in 1998, following the passing of Mary Sloan, one of the first Vera Bradley sales representatives and longtime friend to Baekgaard and Miller, it has contributed over 40 million dollars to research.

Additionally, the company has “The world of Vera Bradley,” which is a platform that teaches women about Web3. the platform even sells two “NFT” digital artworks to raise money for the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer.

Post credit: Hannah

Sources:
verabradley.com/pages/40-years-of-vera-bradley
www.cnn.com/2022/09/24/business/vera-bradley-founders-40-anniversary/index.html
www.verabradley.org/story

Image Credits:
A Vera Bradley Bag. License: GNU Free documentation, version 1.2 or later
Open Vera Bradley purse, makeup bag, and wallet, showing distinctive diamond quilting stitches and contrasting internal cotton fabrics. License: CCA-SA 3.0
A Vera Bradley Full Line store at Jefferson Pointe in the Company's hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana. License: CCA-SA 4.0 International

Congratulations to FSU History alumnus Chris Juergens, Ph.D., who recently started a new position as curator at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri. Juergens will be working across the entire breadth of their collection and, together with the vice president of curatorial affairs, he will develop the museum's collection, design exhibits, and field inquiries from the public.
Congrats, Chris!

UROP in History: Black Americans in the Soviet Union
Zoe, Kirill, and Kaysyn worked under the supervision of Madeleine Stout, Ph.D. candidate in History, on a Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program project exploring the experiences of African Americans in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s.

Zoe researched "Soviet Propaganda and Black Americans Before World War II," Kaysyn worked on "Moscow in the
Harlem Renaissance," and Kirill looked at "Black Americans in the Soviet Union through an Analysis of Newspapers."
Click the link to read about their research experiences: fla.st/P5JAI7YI

Welcome to the fall semester of 2024!
This post is to help you find key people in the Department of History and key resources for History students.

Ms. Kozar's walk-in advising timetable varies weekly, email her for the up-to-date schedule. Most weeks, she will be available Mondays through Thursdays from 10am to 1pm in Bellamy 421A.

Here is Ms. O'Neill's career advising schedule for the semester:
Drop-in Career Advising (No Appointment Necessary):
Tuesdays: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (Noon)
In-Person - Williams Building (WMS), Room #459
Thursdays: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (Noon)
In-Person - Williams Building (WMS), Room #459
Virtual Pre-Scheduled Career Advising Appointments (Scheduled via NoleNetwork)
Wednesday 10:00 am – 12:00 pm (Noon); 1:00 – 4:00 pm

To make an appointment with Dr. Koslow use her Calendly app (https://calendly.com/jkoslow).

Have a great semester!

Welcome to the fall semester! Let's take a look back to 2005 and 2006, the years when most of our incoming freshmen were born.
Have a great start at Florida State University!

Please join us in giving an to Dr. Aubrey Lauersdorf who will be joining the FSU Department of History this fall as an assistant professor.

Dr. Lauersdorf specializes in the history of colonial North America and the Native South in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Her research interests include Indigenous politics and diplomacy, Indigenous-settler relations, imperial borderlands, and women & gender.

Her current book project is titled Apalachee Coast: Indigenous Power in the Colonial Gulf South. It shows how the Apalachees (an Indigenous polity in the modern-day Florida panhandle) leveraged their relationships with the Spanish and their Indigenous neighbors to dominate the Gulf South region in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Dr. Lauersdorf has also published her work in the Florida Historical Quarterly and in two forthcoming edited collections. Her research has been supported by the Huntington Library, the Center for the Study of the American South, and the University of Florida Libraries.

Dr. Lauersdorf received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She then worked as a Professor of History at Auburn University for several years before coming to Florida State University. Dr. Lauersdorf currently serves as the Book Review Editor (North America) for the journal Ethnohistory.

At FSU, Dr. Lauersdorf is excited to offer courses on Indigenous and early American history, including: “The Native South: An Indigenous History of the American South,” “The American West: History, Myth, & Memory,” “Indians & Empires in Vast Early America,” “Women & Gender in Colonial North America,” and “Indigenous Tallahassee."
Welcome to Florida State!
Photo credit: Devin Bittner, FSU College of Arts & Sciences

Welcome back to "Luckily I have Purse! The History of Some of Your Favorite Bags" where we look into how timeless bags have emerged and remained symbols within society over many years. These accessories are much more than something to lug around on your arm, and today we'll continue the story with the Chanel 2.55 bag!

Why the name Chanel 2.55?
Coco Chanel (1883-1971) Was a French fashion designer and owner of the Chanel brand. The bag takes the name from its release date: February (aka “2”) 1955. It was discontinued in the 1970s and then released again by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel on the same day 50 years later under the name “reissue 2.55”.

Dates can be deceptive though …
1955 was not the earliest launch of this bag. Coco Chanel first introduced it in 1929.
In the 1920s, the bag’s design was seen as radical. It differed from other bags of the time due to its shoulder strap which was inspired by soldiers’ satchels.
Coco Chanel believed passionately in her product, leading to its relaunch in 1955.

Inspiration and Purpose
Coco Chanel was inspired to design this bag by experiences in her own life. Her goal was to create something practical. The addition of a shoulder trap allowed the wearer to move without restrictions, making the bag hands-free.

Design Elements of the Chanel 2.55
Coco Chanel is reputed to have drawn on elements from her childhood stay in a convent orphanage: the double chain strap based on the caretakers' key chains and the red leather lining from the shade of the orphans' uniforms. Additionally, the bag contains quilting, inspired by equestrian riding coats, covers, and saddle blankets.

It is important that we acknowledge ….
The life choices made by Coco Chanel in the years between the first and second launch of the 2.55. Chanel became increasingly antisemitic in the 1930s - similar to other members of her social circle.
During World War II while living in occupied Paris, France, she entered a romantic relationship with a high-ranking German intelligence officer and eventually became an intelligence operative for the N**i government. Historians speculate that Chanel’s connections to the British establishment protected her from post-war prosecution.

Value over time
Similar to other luxury bags, the 2.55's value has gone up over time. Ownership became a status symbol for many. The 2.55 was used in movies to indicate the class and status of the person carrying it. Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961, see title slide) is just one example.
Although the 2.55 was initially sold for about $220 in 1955; it cost $4,900 in 2016. Its price has increased by over 200% since.

Post credit: Hannah
Sources:
www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/a44542758/chanel-2-55-bag/
www.rewindvintage.co.uk/blogs/vintage-journal/history-of-the-chanel-2-55
www.invaluable.com/blog/the-history-of-the-chanel-classic-flap-bag/

Image Credit:
Screenshots of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" from Paramount Movies
Chanel 2.55 handbag This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Coco Chanel sitting at a desk during a visit to Los Angeles. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Black Chanel Bag image from pexels.com
Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel poses in a sailor top in the interwar period [1928]. This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired and its author is anonymous.

Congratulations to Brian Davis, Ph.D. candidate in History at Florida State University, who was recently awarded a McKnight Dissertation Fellowship.

The McKnight Dissertation Fellowship is a prestigious award that provides a stipend to aid graduate students working on their dissertation. The McKnight Dissertation Fellowship is a program that seeks to “address the underrepresentation of African American and Hispanic faculty at colleges and universities in the State of Florida by increasing the pool of citizens qualified with Ph.D. degrees to teach at the college and university levels.”
This award will help cover research related expenses as Davis travels to different archives across the United States.
Well done, Brian!

Find out more about McKnight fellowships here: https://ogfa.fsu.edu/about-us/mcknight-fellowships