Sunday, March 14, 2010

Teaching Spring courses

Teaching goes well. This semester the course is Genealogy & Local History. My 12 enthusiastic students are learning all about how to research the past and present using primary sources. It's one of my favorite courses to teach. In between, I get to teach some short courses. This past weekend I taught students how to search for government documents and information about the workings of our government agencies. An eye opening experience for most of them, especially those who don't follow political activities.

The Dissertation Proposal

I'm currently working on the proposal for my dissertation. I am going to examine the history of a printer in Akron Ohio who had a large, flourishing printing business from 1870 to 1914 with offices throughout the world. He's a typical late 19th century printer and businessman and is almost unknown today. The artwork his presses produce is absolutely gorgeous. I'm having fun putting together the pieces of his business successes and failures. The proposal has to be submitted and accepted before May, so I'm working to put the info together and form arguments as to why I should write this dissertation. Then I can barrel ahead and start really writing.