Final Project Idea Proposal
February 19, 2014
First Idea
Something about the history of Washington D.C. that interests me is the change of the area that the district encompasses. The District of Columbia has changed in both size and shape throughout the years, and the reasons for the changes have serious historical implications. Exploring those implications and their impacts on the rest of history makes for an interesting project. Research would start with a Google search and looking at various maps of the district throughout time. In order to figure out why changes took place an understanding of the events that transpired during the time of the change. This topic is important because it chronicles the history that impacted the capital of the United States of America. Something that changed the literal shape of the district where the capital is located has to be quite a significant event. It could be a very interesting topic to research.
Second Idea
Another thing of interest for me would be to find out the extent of the district’s involvement in the civil war. With it being on the border of the enemy and where the Commander and Chief of the Union army residing within, there is bound to be plentiful significant events. There is also the possibility that D.C.’s involvement was minimal and the reasons behind that may be interesting as well. Finding the answer is important because it helps shape the whole story of the civil war and D.C. is not mentioned much in discussions about the civil war. Searching for sources would start at a database such as the library of congress. Primary sources would be a gold mine for this idea because they help shape the story in a way that secondary sources cannot. Primary sources, especially from the civil war, help express the emotion of the people involved which helps create a better understanding of what is being studied. There are also probably countless books on the civil war that mention the District of Columbia and the extent of its involvement.
Third Idea
The last topic that I could possibly explore is the change in residency, in terms of demographics, in different parts of the city over the course of its existence. I have already done some reading on this topic and it’s apparent that extensive research has been done to study this. The migration of people is indicative of the times and what was going on in the particular point in history. The importance is being able to establish what sort of impact the events of periods in time had on the people and how it affected their decision on where to live. Census data would obviously be a good place to start. Another place to start would be to research studies that have been conducted on this subject. An understanding of Washington’s history is crucial to being able to analyze shifts in population, so reading on history the district would be necessary. Something of particular that would need to be looked into would be the histories of certain neighborhoods.
One Response to “Final Project Idea Proposal”
February 26th, 2014 at 3:16 am
Each topic is interesting. I think you’ll find the first topic the most difficult to pin down to a specific question, time, or period.
With the Civil War, you’ll need a tight, precise question.
With the third–changing neighborhoods are fascinating and you’d need, of course to pick a neighborhood–or even a street and follow the demographics over a limited time period looking at the likely causes of demographic change in that period.
One legal decision that influenced neighborhood change was the 1948 case of Hurd v Hodge in the District of Columbia. The Supreme Court ruled that ruled that racial and religious housing covenants–that is, agreements not to sell, lease, rent or otherwise convey property to specific groups because of race, religion, color, etcetera.