Vietnam & Ursinus

The Vietnam War had far-reaching effects across the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. This project has been created to understand how Ursinus fit into a climate fraught with government issues, campus protests, and fear of communism. This digital humanities project analyzes the social and infrastructural repercussions of the war on the Ursinus campus and questions how and why we remember/memorialize certain things the way we do. The written sources for this project come from the archives in Myrin Library and include Weekly’s (the previous name for The Grizzly which is our schools student newspaper), Lanterns, which is our student literary journal, and alumni journals. Alumni who were on campus during the Vietnam War have also been interviewed allowing for a deeper understanding of the atmosphere during this turbulent period in America’s history.

I wanted to pursue this project because not only have I enjoyed working on digital humanity projects in the past but this also gave me an opprotunity to learn more about a part of American history I had never really studied before. Much time and effort have gone into this project. My hope is that it can be of some use to either Ursinus or a student here.

This project was made possible with the help of so many people. First, a huge thank you is owed to Mrs. Carolyn Weigel and Mr. Andy Prock, both of whom work in Myrin Library helping to preserve our school's past. This project would not have left the ground without either of them. Next, I would like to thank my mentor for the Summer Fellows program, Dr. Kelly Sorensen. While not a historian and new to digital humanity work, he helped to push me to explore creative new avenues in which to take this project. Without him, this final project would look very different and certainly be of lesser quality. Finally, thank you to Dr. Herb Smith and Dr. Ross Doughty who took sizable chunks out of there day in order to let me interview them.

Now, please go on and explore the rest of the project. Hopefully you will come away having learned something about our school's history and maybe a couple questions of your own.

-Liam Griffin