Fall 2023

Volume 49, No. 3, Fall 2023

The Fall issue contains an editor’s note from Pam Parry and articles by Harlen Makemson, Meg Heckman & Arden Bastia, Timothy Roy Gleason, and Jodi McFarland Friedman. Interested in reading these articles? Get information on subscribing here.

Article Abstracts

“From Gibson Girl to Gibson Goddess: The World War I Illustrations of Charles Dana Gibson in Life Magazine,” Harlen Makemson
Charles Dana Gibson’s leadership of the Division of Pictorial Publicity, part of the US government’s Committee on Public Information (CPI), during World War I has been thoroughly studied, yet scant attention has been given to his own art during the conflict. This study examines Gibson’s illustrations that appeared in the illustrated humor magazine Life during World War I, with the primary purpose of examining how he employed the female image to not only garner support for the war, but also define women’s responsibilities and limitations in time of war. Examination of Lifeduring the war indicates that the Gibson Girl’s “Beauty” or “Sentimental” typologies had limited utility in convincing Americans that the battle in Europe was worth fighting. Instead, Gibson was more likely to use two female forms that had long ago become well-recognized American propaganda devices—the “Protecting Angel,” who assumed roles as nurses, aid workers, and, by extension, mothers of soldiers; and the “Amazon Warrior,” always attired in gowns, usually in large (if not colossal) scale, and most often bearing conceptual labels such as Freedom or Democracy.

“Expecting Advice: Reproductive Health and Consciousness Raising in the Boston Globe’s Confidential Chat Column,” Meg Heckman & Arden Bastia
This article explores consciousness raising in the Boston Globe’s Confidential Chat column, documenting how, during the second wave of feminism, it became a venue where women educated themselves about reproductive health. The Chat’s nonhierarchical, participatory nature allowed women to discuss abortion, contraception, infertility, and related topics during a time when the role of women in society was undergoing profound change. Boston’s deep Catholic roots added complexities to these discussions. The findings provide historical context for modern social media discourse around reproductive choice.

“The Irish People and the American Presidency,” Timothy Roy Gleason
Irish People was a New York-based newspaper with the single mission of supporting Catholics in Northern Ireland as they faced discrimination from the British-controlled Ulster government. While Irish American magazines promoted a romantic view of Ireland that encouraged tourism to the Republic of Ireland, Irish People reported on political and social conflict. This article examines Irish People’s role as a propaganda newspaper that targeted the American presidencies of the 1980s and 1990s. While it was mostly a “white propaganda” operation—truthful and overt propaganda—that reported British offenses and applied pressure on the American government to intervene, some of the money the newspaper helped to raise for Northern Irish charities may have gone to the Irish Republican Army.

“”Mystery People”: Triracial Isolate Newspaper Coverage and Conceptions of Race from 1880-1943,” Jodi McFarland Friedman
Croatans, Melungeons, Redbones, Wesorts. In US society at the turn of the twentieth century, as in other times, racial identity brought power and powerlessness. Triracial isolates—with their presumed blend of Indian, European, and African ancestry—puzzled early newsmen who marveled about and ridiculed them. This qualitative content analysis pulls apart newspaper coverage of such groups to explore its underpinnings. Analysis of news stories (N = 125) spanning sixty-three years, from 1880 to 1943, reveals the themes of Mysterious Origins; Description, especially racial comparison; and Anecdote, from history to humor. The articles’ presence in publications hundreds, even thousands, of miles from these communities evidences a kind of racial campfire story, taken out, burnished, and repeated for entertainment. Group members’ voices are largely excluded from narratives. The coverage illustrates society’s deep-seated desire to name, claim, and defame based upon perceived race, as well as news conventions of othering.