SUNY Potsdam Scholars Dr. Thomas Baker and Dr. Gaylynn Welch Participate in Federal Grant Project to Revise U.S. History Curriculum
SUNY Potsdam history faculty members Dr. Thomas Baker and Dr. Gaylynn Welch recently participated in a seminar to rethink the U.S. history curriculum on the late 19th century period, funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant.
Historians typically spend their time in the classroom teaching and in the archives researching and writing, but SUNY Potsdam faculty members Dr. Thomas Baker and Dr. Gaylynn Welch recently joined 14 other SUNY scholars in the Adirondacks, as part of a federally funded effort to reimagine the U.S. history curriculum across the SUNY system.
Dr. Baker and Dr. Welch joined U.S. historians from 10 SUNY campuses, including Brockport, Buffalo State, Cortland, Fredonia, Geneseo, New Paltz, Oswego, Plattsburgh, Potsdam, and Tompkins Cortland Community College. The scholars spent a week at SUNY Cortland’s Camp Huntington, a National Historic Landmark site on Raquette Lake.
“It was great to be able to get together with fellow historians from SUNY campuses to brainstorm about course redesign,” Baker said. “The Adirondack lake setting was lovely, too!”
“This was a wonderful workshop! Both the conversations and atmosphere were rejuvenating. It was great to discuss and debate different approaches to teaching the Gilded and Progressive Era while staying at one of the historical Adirondack ‘Great Camps,’” Welch said.
SUNY Cortland professors Dr. Kevin B. Sheets and Dr. Randi Storch led the Humanities Initiative grant project, which is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The project enabled the SUNY scholars to participate in the weeklong faculty study group, focused on the late 19th century period often described as the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.
Baker and Welch were joined by SUNY colleagues and two visiting scholars. Dr. Kristin Hoganson, professor of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne and Dr. Rebecca Edwards, professor of history at Vassar College, who led workshops during the week.
The project’s goals include developing new courses within SUNY and revising existing courses to better reflect the current state of the field.
In the second year of the grant, participating faculty will develop outreach efforts to local school districts across New York State. They will provide professional development opportunities for middle and high school social studies teachers.
The project will also produce a book and companion website designed to help teachers, community college instructors and college professors incorporate recent scholarship and best teaching practices into their courses.
Sheets and Storch chose to host the project at Camp Huntington because of its historical significance. Built by William West Durant and his father, Thomas “Doc” Durant in the 1870s, the camp, known originally as Pine Knot, became the first “Great Camp.” The Durants hoped to attract interest among the era’s industrial elites. They designed the camp as an Adirondack retreat, a rustic wilderness alternative to the “cottages” of Newport, R.I.
William Durant sold Pine Knot in 1895 to Collis Huntington, one of the “Big Four” who created the Central Pacific Railroad. Huntington’s Central Pacific and Thomas Durant’s Union Pacific rail lines joined at Promontory Summit in Utah on May 10, 1869.
After Pine Knot, William Durant built Camp Uncas, which he sold to J. P. Morgan. Subsequently, Durant built Camp Sagamore. He sold that camp to Alfred Vanderbilt.
Pine Knot was sold to SUNY Cortland in 1947 for one dollar when Huntington’s heir, Archer Huntington, agreed to sell the property to be used for educational purposes. SUNY Cortland students and faculty have been using the Raquette Lake historic site since.
Since 2012, Sheets and Storch have received more than $1 million in funding from the NEH to run professional development workshops for K-12 teachers. “Re-Placing the Gilded Age and Progressive Era” is their first grant focused on college instructors.
SUNY Potsdam’s Department of History offers a variety of courses ranging from the ancient world to the present, and from Africa and Asia to Europe and the Americas. The department’s faculty is comprised of inquisitive scholars, whose passion for history enlivens their classrooms. For more information, visit http://www.potsdam.edu/academics/AAS/History.
About SUNY Potsdam:
Founded in 1816, The State University of New York at Potsdam is one of America’s first 50 colleges—and the oldest institution within SUNY. Now in its third century, SUNY Potsdam is distinguished by a legacy of pioneering programs and educational excellence. The College currently enrolls approximately 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Home to the world-renowned Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam is known for its challenging liberal arts and sciences core, distinction in teacher training and culture of creativity. To learn more, visit www.potsdam.edu.