Climates for c19 Research in the Regional Western U.S.: Teaching Helen Hunt Jackson's Library
Lesley Ginsberg
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Lesley Ginsberg is Associate Professor at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, where she chaired the Department of English (2011-2016). Her work on nineteenth-century American literature has appeared in journals including American Literature, Studies in American Fiction, and the Nathaniel Hawthorne Review. She has published book chapters in American Gothic, The American Child, Popular Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers and the Literary Marketplace, and The Children’s Table. With Monika M. Elbert, she co-edited Romantic Education in Nineteenth-Century American Literature: National and Transatlantic Contexts (Routledge 2015).
Abstract
The links between c19 and research libraries such as the American Antiquarian Society highlight the importance of archives. But what about the regional Western U.S., far from the “generous dome” of the AAS, Eastern or... [ view full abstract ]
The links between c19 and research libraries such as the American Antiquarian Society highlight the importance of archives. But what about the regional Western U.S., far from the “generous dome” of the AAS, Eastern or Southern U.S. archives, or archives in major Western population centers? And how do archives impact research and teaching for those of us at undergraduate-focused institutions? This paper explores the high-impact pedagogy of working with undergraduates on an important but understudied nineteenth-century regional Western archive: Helen Hunt Jackson’s library. My course on Helen Hunt Jackson’s library centers on her book collection and Jackson’s bestselling novel, Ramona, published shortly before her death in 1885. Ramona was beloved in the late nineteenth-century Western U.S. Almost every city has a Ramona Street; Santa Fe was the site of the inauspiciously-named Ramona Industrial School for Indian Girls founded just after Jackson’s death (Gram 2015). Jackson’s contributions to Indian rights have been studied (Mathes 1990, 1998, 2015; Olund 2002; Weaver 2015) and there is copious analysis of Ramona as a racialized sentimental novel in the vein of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Padget 2000; Wagner 2002; Gonzales 2004; Wolff 2014). Scholars have discussed Jackson’s fascinating correspondence with Emily Dickinson (Pollak 2000, 2016) and the impact of Ramona in Latin America (Irwin 2003, Gilman 2008). However, study of Jackson as a reader and as a collector of books represents a new direction in public pedagogy and undergraduate teaching/research; this paper offers field notes on the climates for c19 research in the regional western U.S.
Authors
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Lesley Ginsberg
(University of Colorado Colorado Springs)
Topic Area
Individual paper
Session
P43 » Archival Remains (10:15 - Friday, 23rd March, Enchantment D)
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