Three Iowa State University history graduate students presented their research at the premiere national professional meeting for American historians last week. Held in New Orleans, the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians welcomed scholars from around the world to the Crescent City for four days devoted to discussing the latest advances in the discipline. Kicking off the ISU participation were Kelly Wenig and Maria Howe, doctoral candidates working on early Indianapolis and the Missouri River watershed, respectively. Participating in a panel on rivers and economic development in the Midwest, Wenig, originally from Green Bay, Wisconsin, spoke on the topic of the ironic effects of the panic of 1837 on Marion County, Indiana. He argued that fortuitously avoiding canal building and riverine development set the stage for Indiana’s future growth. Speaking in the same session, Maria Howe discussed the development of the “Nile Valley of the Middle West,” the Little Sioux watershed, where lawsuits over the creation of a massive drainage network resulted in a controlled flood plane. On Friday, at a session she organized, Margaret Weber (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) spoke about relations between Pioneer Hi-Bred and its local sales force, highlighting the challenges individual sales representatives offered to the corporation and how it responded.
For more information on ISU History graduate programs, please contact Prof. Michael D. Bailey, Director of Graduate Education, at mdbailey@iastate.edu or by phone, 515-294-7266..