Posted on Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Dr. Timothy Cuff, Westminster College associate professor of history, and three Westminster senior history majors conducted research at the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg.
William "Billy" McCallion is a son of Mark and Eva McCallion of Erie and a graduate of Iroquois High School.
Eric Patton is a son of Thomas and Karen Patton of Edinburg and a graduate of Mohawk Area High School.
Lynn Rice is a daughter of William and Susan Rice of Monroeville and a graduate of Gateway High School.
For three weeks in May, the students searched through the military records of more than 160,000 Pennsylvanians who enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard between the end of the Civil War and the end of World War I to identify birthplace and weight information for men in an 8,000 observation database Cuff created. The information will be analyzed for trends in the biological well-being of Pennsylvanians over the second half of the 19th century and will help in the development of detailed geographically-based patterns in biological well-being.
Preliminary counts from the students' research were included in a paper co-authored by Cuff and Dr. Carolyn Cuff, Westminster professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, that was presented at the Canadian Economics Association in May.
Timothy Cuff said, "This experiential learning opportunity helped the students understand and experience project definition and management techniques, archival procedures, the interpretation of 19th-century handwriting, historical synthesis from individual-level data, and group dynamics. The students worked very diligently. They put a lot into their work and, as a result, took a lot from it."
The students earned internship credit for their research and were able to begin work on their senior capstone projects, utilizing the expertise of staff at the state archives and state library as well as primary resources available there.
While in Harrisburg, Cuff and the students stayed at International House, a short-term apartment-style residence for students and researchers, and had the opportunity to interact with students from all over the world.
In addition to the research, the students visited the State Museum, the new Civil War Museum, the Pennsylvania State Library, and met with the staff of state Sen. Robert D. Robbins (R-50) while touring the state capital.
The collaborative research project was supported by funding administered by Dr. Bryan Rennie, Westminster's Vira I. Heinz professor of religion and chair of the Department of Religion, History, Philosophy and Classics.
Cuff, a 1978 Westminster graduate who joined the faculty in 2000, earned a master's from Bowling Green State University and a master's and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.
Contact Cuff at (724) 946-6152 or e-mail cufft@westminster.edu for additional information.
