Voices of the Past
The Frederic Remington Art Museum is one of the small museums of the North Country still in existence. Given that Frederic Remington (1861-1909) was a world class artist revered for his impressionist and realistic paintings and bronze sculptures, you would expect his art work to be dispersed throughout the world and owned by large museums as well as rich western patrons. However, the Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg, New York, possesses the largest collection of Remington artwork in the world.
Emily chose to document the Frederic Remington Art Museum through interviews with staff members she met while working there as well as through photos of the past and present state of the museum. The interviews catered to the oral history side of this project. The photos catered to her documentarian side. She wanted to present the oral history that she found both in audio as well as visual formats so the audience could experience the development of the museum through the eyes and ears of the people who have changed the museum personally See the transcripts of her interviews and listen to the interviews here!
Emily also took advantage of the option to create a website about her oral history research and documentary. Find her website here!
Rural medicine is the oldest field of medicine in North America as it traces its roots all the way back to pre-colonial times. There is no standard or accepted definition for the term “rural” because it can be defined as a number of different things depending on the context in which it is being used. Generally though, rural places are thought of as areas with small towns, low population densities, isolation, and agricultural landscapes. Rural healthcare practitioners face numerous problems in their practices and among their patients, including economic, educational, cultural, and social challenges, a lack of government recognition and support, and a lack of access to resources due to their remote location. The experience of rural physicians, specifically Dr. Hugh McChesney (1924-2010) who was a small town general practitioner in Pulaski, New York for over fifty years, supports the fact that these factors have existed throughout the twentieth century and still remain today. Dr. McChesney was Matthew’s grandfather.
Matthew chose to interview his father, Thomas McChesney, and his grandmother, Nancy McChesney. See the transcripts of his interviews and listen to the interviews here!
Discrimination has been all-too-common in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community for the last 100 years, and despite many advances, discrimination still takes place today. In his interviews and his outside research, Adam Quimby found LGBT people often face very different reactions from people in rural areas as compared to urban areas.
Adam interviewed Bryan Thompson and Gary Berk, two local men who made a family with each other and later their children. They came from very different demographic backgrounds and have had very different experiences as gay men in their community. See the transcripts of his interviews and listen to the interviews here!
As Alanna Wormwood explains on her website: “The purpose of this project was to use the beautiful, fascinating art of oral history to better understand the context of psychiatry in northern New York in relation to the community.” She argues that in Ogdensburg, NY, the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center, previously known as the St. Lawrence State Hospital, was “a uniting factor for the community.” She explains that “by helping those in need,” this institution “exemplified many of the ideals small north country towns like Ogdensburg epitomize. A sense of community and compassion for others can be found in Ogdensburg, and those same values are mirrored in the psychiatric treatment that can be found in the north country.”
Alanna interviewed Katherine Briggs and Brian Doe, both of whom possess a great deal of knowledge about the Psychiatric Center and its relationship with the community. See the transcripts of her interviews and listen to the interviews here!
Alanna also took advantage of the option to create a website about her oral history research. Find her website here!
Created by Emily Baker with materials provided by students from the class, "Voices of the Past"
Interviewees & interviewers signed release forms, allowing interviews to be placed on the web.