Dec. 5, 2020

Students explore county’s 'difficult history' for new exhibit

今年秋天，和记棋牌娱乐的公共历史系学生深入研究了该地区的一些“艰难历史”，并于11月11日推出了一个展览. 23 in Valk Center that shares some of what they learned.

“Remembering only ‘the good ‘ole times’ does not provide a complete historical picture,” reads an introductory panel at the display cases in the lower level of Valk Center. “Human suffering, violence and systemic injustice are elements of the past that are unattractive, uncomfortable, and hard to remember. 人们和社会都倾向于通过浪漫主义的视角来看待过去, because it is easier than reckoning with difficult truths. 艰难的历史可能是具有挑战性的，但这并不意味着它不重要.”

Through that context, 参观展览的游客将了解到在诺达威县奴隶制和印第安人的存在，以及一些有争议的杀人事件. Perry Hosher Talbott and the subsequent execution of his sons during the early 1880s, the lynching of Raymond Gunn in 1931 and the shooting of Ken Rex McElroy in 1981.

Students in the Local History Practicum course, under the guidance of Associate Professor of History Dr. Elyssa Ford, 整个学期都在学习如何在博物馆里分享艰难的历史，同时以小组为单位研究当地的事件，并创建校园展览. 他们还设计了配套网站，并制定了课程计划，可以通过二维码在展览中访问.

“他们创建的展览和他们创建的网站是100%的展示，这对校园博物馆来说非常重要和有用，但对于他们来说，作为一种非常重要的体验和改造者，也非常有用。,” Ford said. “What they have come out with is more than many students in graduate classes.”

For years, students in the practicum course, which is required for students studying minors in public history museum studies, 福特教授的其他学生研究了当地历史，并为诺达威县历史学会博物馆(Nodaway County Historical Society Museum)制作了各种主题的展览，从家乡球队到退伍军人再到民间音乐.

过去和记棋牌娱乐的历史系学生已经研究了“艰难的历史”展览中突出的案例元素, but Ford thought now was a time to have students research them more deeply. Students coming to Maryville from other communities, Ford noted, 能更容易地把自己从这些故事中抽离出来，而诺达威县的长期居民可能不会这么做.

“当地人可能很难想到自己的家人可能参与其中, but it is history – and since it is history, it needs to be discussed,” said Kelsey Evans, a native of Kansas City, Missouri, who graduates from Northwest this fall with her bachelor’s degree in history.  

Evans and Madison Barben, a senior history major from Omaha, Nebraska, researched Gunn’s lynching in Maryville. Gunn, a Black man, was accused of murdering a school teacher, Velma Coulter, on Dec. 16, 1930. 在等待审判期间，由于生命受到威胁，他被转移到全州各地的监狱, a mob took him from police custody on Jan. 12, 1931, chained him to schoolhouse and burned him to death.

By reading newspaper articles and books, Evans and Barben researched Gunn’s life as well as Coulter’s. 他们研究了媒体如何在该地区和美国其他人的背景下报道此案以及冈恩的私刑.

巴本说，对她来说，冈恩案件更有趣的一个方面是“不仅是谋杀的残忍，还有暴徒的心态。, and how so many people went to different jails and he was moved to different jails, and how much interest there was at the time. And after it happened, no one talked about it.”

而埃文斯则计划继续深造，攻读博物馆研究硕士学位, 巴本计划攻读历史硕士学位，希望成为一名历史教师.

“这门课是和记棋牌娱乐走向人生目标和如何做研究的最好垫脚石, put it all together and then create a display out of it,” Evans said.

Emily Happy, a junior Spanish major from Excelsior Springs, Missouri, researched the controversial Talbott murder. Talbott, a prominent doctor in Nodaway County, 1880年9月，一颗子弹射穿了他家的窗户，击中了他的胸部. Though little evidence existed, Talbott’s sons, Albert and Charles, 在审判结束时被判犯有谋杀罪，在审判期间，控方辩称，这对兄弟的动机是塔尔博特虐待他们的母亲. Albert and Charles were executed in July 1881.  

Happy, 因为和记棋牌娱乐公共历史项目的机会而在今年秋天转到和记棋牌娱乐的学生, enjoyed gaining the practical experience associated with the research, 包括对信息的解读并将其翻译成面向公众的展览.

“我对这门课感到非常兴奋的一个原因是，很多课程将讨论如何与公众互动，以及如何解决人们可能不太舒服的事情,” said Happy, who wants to pursue a career in public librarianship. “I learned so much about how people tend to process difficult history.”

Kara Severson, a junior creative writing and history major from Holland, Nebraska, studied the McElroy murder. In that case, 麦克尔罗伊在离开斯基德莫尔的一家酒吧时被枪杀，多年的欺凌和骚扰达到了高潮. More than 60 people reportedly witnessed the crime, but none came forward to name the shooter and the case was closed.

Severson read “In Broad Daylight,《和记娱乐ios》关于此案的畅销书，后来被改编成电视电影, and worked to sort facts from rumors. 她的团队还访问了斯基德莫尔，参观并拍摄了麦克尔罗伊故事的一些地点.

“即使是小规模地看到博物馆自己在做什么，以及他们是如何创建展览的，也令人兴奋,” Severson said. “Being able to work like a museum curator, even on a small level, was really exciting because this is the kind of work I want to do as my career.”

福特说，重要的是让人们了解展览中探讨的主题和案例, while difficult to discuss or comprehend, happened locally. 它们也为今天仍然存在的一些政治和种族紧张局势提供了背景.

“It’s not something that happened far away,” Ford said. “Slavery happened here. Lynchings aren’t just happening in Mississippi. They were happening here. 有照片显示有人在屋顶上被活活烧死，数百名玛丽维尔白人在观看. That’s a thing to talk about.

“With Doc Talbott, people will talk about that, but the thing we don't think about is the domestic violence that happened. That still happens today. We live that history today. That history impacts our lives today.”

该展览首先在西北校区展出，而诺达威县历史学会在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间关闭. 整个春季学期，展览都将留在沃克中心的下层.