In the Face of Tragedy: Pearl Harbor and September 11th

Project Summary

Events that affect our country as a whole tend to be viewed solely on a national scale. Our project aims to bring that focus down to a local level as we have been looking at how Pearl Harbor and September 11, 2001 have resulted in changes on campus and how the two events compare in Ursinus’s memory. This focus has given us greater insight concerning how the Ursinus community reacts to tragedies and will help us in answering our question. Through our research, we have a better idea of how Ursinus reacts to tragedy. We have been looking at both the immediate aftermath of the attacks and what people were saying years later.  

The main sources we will be using to address the question are the Grizzlys, the Weeklies, Rubies, memoir writings from the 1998 reunion mural dedication and physical objects saved from memorials. 

Moving Forward

Moving forward, we would love to see our project continue to grow. There is so much more about Ursinus College's history and so much more to study about how Ursinus reacts to and remembers events on both a national and local scale.

About

We are a group of students at Ursinus College looking into how our campus has responded to tragedy in the past. To accomplish our goals for this project, we have been researching the impact Pearl Harbor and 9/11 had on our campus and how our school reacted to and remembers these events.

We want to extend our thanks to our two teachers, Dr. Kara McShane and Dr. Susanna Throop and to Carolyn Weigel and Andy Prock who work in Myrin Library for the amount of time and support they have dedicated to helping us. We would also like to thank the many people who took time out of their busy lives to come speak with us, share their knowledge, and help turn this project into a reality.

And thank you to our readers for coming along with us and hopefully learning something about our schools history.

Thank you,

Liam Griffin, Jon Kishpaugh, Tiffini Eckenrod, David O'Neil