Date Awarded
2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
History
Advisor
Paul Mapp
Committee Member
Nicholas Popper
Committee Member
Joshua Piker
Abstract
“The Divine Act of Creation” contains two essays that focus on two different historical time periods, connected by items that serve as the lynchpin of each unique historical narrative. This portfolio argues that it is these items, regardless of who created them, that serve as the conduit for historical change. The material is as complex and impactful as the intellectual or cerebral. The first essay, ““Sunrise, Parabellum”: An Examination of Jesuit Relations with the Illinois Peoples and the Creation of the Gravier Dictionary, 1630-1710” examines the making of Gravier’s Illinois Dictionary. This dictionary, meant to bridge the language barrier between French Jesuits and the Illinois people during missionary activity, worked insofar as to only increase understanding of the other between the two groups. However, when this veil fell, both cultural groups began to understand that they could not co-exist, nor were the Jesuits successful in their missionary activities in Illinois country. The culmination of the creation of Gravier’s dictionary, then, was violence, leading to Gravier’s own dearth. A far cry from the evangelization that Gravier had hoped for when studying the Illinois peoples. The second essay, ““Un Jour Je Serai Près de Toi”: Girlhood Embroidery and the Early American Republic, 1800-1870” seeks to understand the process of creation that early American girls and women went through to create their stunning samplers and needlework that adorned many upper-class early American homes. This piece argues that there was much more to the creation of these pieces than what their male counterparts imposed on them and was instead a realm in which girls not only ensured that they would be desirable in society, but also remined uniquely themselves through small changes made to their pieces. This essay also serves to blend the lines between history and modernity, as the writing shifts between historical analysis of the pieces and personal writings, to embrace the legacy that both these girls and the author herself are a part of.
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-t7xh-xk76
Rights
© The Author
Recommended Citation
Looff, Kathryn Michelle, "The Divine Act Of Creation: Gravier’s Dictionary (1640-1710) And Women’s Embroidery In The Early Republic (1800-1870)" (2023). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1697552684.
https://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-t7xh-xk76
