The 19th century kitchen in America

This is a waffle iron from the 19th century. This was not a common appliance in the American home at the end of the 19th century seeing as it consumed time and was expensive.

This is a dipper with a wooden handle from the between 1800-1900's. It now has a value of $7-$15. It was something of not great expense although tin dippers were more common at this time.

This is a stove from the 19th century. This particular stove known as the the Grand Windsor Stove was one of the high end stoves of this century.

The image shown above is that of a stove kit. It is encased with everything needed such as pots, pans, cooking utensils, and measurements. It would have a value of $145-$165 now.

These are measuring cups from the 19th century. It now has a value of $15-$30.

This is a Potato Fryer from the 19th century that first debuted in 1879. It now has a value of $15-$25.

Music and Everything in Between

Genisis Balico Music and Everything in Between Music for me is more then just music. It’s an extension of myself and has truly help shape how I view the world. Since I can remember music has stood out to me more then anything else. What I’ve recently come to love the most about music is its ability to transcend language. Good music whether in a language you understand or not is good music. This past summer I began to grow weary of listening to the same sound over and over again. Not that I don’t love the music I hear on the radio or the older stuff from Bob Dylan to Clubhouse, but I felt as if my music broad span was becoming more of a cycle. So the most logical thing to me was to start exploring different types of music. I was already open -minded about all types of music in my language, so why not listen to something perhaps out of my comfort zone? This perhaps one of the most rewarding decisions I’ve made. I started with going back to my roots and listening to more Latino music and was surprised to find how much I liked certain songs. This not only taught me more about my culture but it brought me closer to members in my family who had more knowledge and a love for Latino music. From here I branched off to listen to different types of music that my friends suggested in other languages such as music in Japanese and found a singer whose work I greatly admire, Utada. Of all the music I listened to I came to love Korean music the most. Although there is no particular artist that I like the most this cultures music has captivated me the most. It is through my venturing of different music that has led me to also look into different cultures mostly using media such as Facebook or an app called Viki that is an Asian entertainment outlet. It’s amazing. I’ve found that countries with media similar to ours have many similarities to us. At the end of the day we all have the same basic human feeling and in retrospect our thoughts are similar. Before my adventure through music I didn’t realize how much I viewed the world through our borders. This is just one of many things that music has given me. As of late it has been the inspiration to add more places on my list of places to see, and has taught me more about people in general. It is a passion that will never die because it is a source of inspiration and comfort, for that I’m grateful.

Assessing the Sweet Briar Slave Cabin

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Genisis Balico

Professor Rainville

INTD108

10 October 2012

                                                Sweet Briar College Slave Cabin

            The Sweet Briar Slave Cabin although small in size is significant in its history. The cabin has a history that not only connects it to American history but to the history of Sweet Briar. The Sweet Briar Slave Cabin is dated back to 1825 and Sweet Briar is the only college to have a slave cabin on its campus, making the college even more distinctive. The slave cabin is part of the few slave cabins left in Virginia; there are four or five slave cabins left in Amherst County, Virginia (Recycling a Campus Relic Ann Marshall Whitley 2). It first belonged to Logan Anderson; the overseer of the plantation while Indiana Fletcher Williams owned it. The house then went to Sterling Jones Sr. an employee of Sweet Briar who made the bricks that make up Sweet Briar; it eventually became the Alumnae House, then the student wreck room, and eventually a shack/museum.

Before coming to Sweet Briar I had absolutely had no knowledge of slave cabins, except knowing that they were small and didn’t really care to learn much about them. I would have fallen into the category of people who could’ve cared less about whether or not this small structure, part of an abhorrent time in American history, was maintained. Being from the north I looked at this subject and everything associated with it objectively, because who remembers something if it isn’t constantly present. It wasn’t until I came to Virginia and learned of the history of the cabin and through the discussions in American Economies in the 19^th century that I realized how significant this seemingly insignificant cabin really was.

              It is only a small one-room cabin that hasn’t been significantly remodeled, just fitted with electricity and the essentials for heating. Detailed like this it might just seem like a small insignificant structure but there is more to this cabin. It is its history that is part of what makes Sweet Briar distinct and it adds to the value of Sweet Briar. Not only is it because it is a rarity for a college to have an actual relic like a slave cabin but because it is part of Sweet Briars identity. It is a reminder of Sweet Briars roots. It was a piece of land that was founded on the backs of others forced labor. Now it is a college, which supports women from all walks of life and ethnic background in getting a degree. This part to me is perhaps the most personal. To know that when this cabin originally went up it would have been unthinkable for a young Latino woman to go to college is something that I can barely imagine; it makes me proud to see that this country has come such a long way and that it can bee seen and represented by this one small building on the Sweet Briar campus. This cabin is a reminder of just how far we’ve come. Its history and what it represents can’t have a price tag attached to it.

            This leads into what I think should be done with the cabin. I believe the cabin should be made into a museum and a place where students of Sweet Briar can excavate to find the still unanswered questions associated with the topic of the slave cabins on the Sweet Briar campus. Such as where the other cabins were located, where was the road for the slaves, and what did the slaves of Sweet Briar and the owners’ value, questions like these. From an observation of mine since the cabin is behind the house of the original owners and the owners after that, there must have been a great deal of trust because of its close proximity. One wouldn’t have a house put so closely to one’s home if there was distrust. It is questions and observations like these that are still unanswered and that the cabin may still be able to provide an answer for.

The museum aspect of my idea is that it should be opened to the Sweet Briar community and its visitors as a source of knowledge on what slave cabins were like. In the cabin there would be some of the artifacts that were originally found there to help entice visitors to come visit the museum. Perhaps in order to generate interest in the cabin there would be more opportunities for students to explore the cabin as opposed to now where there isn’t really a chance to do this. That is why turning the cabin into a museum would be a great idea. It would allow students and visitors a chance to learn the history of the school and to have a primary source, themselves, of what these cabins were like.

 As I mentioned it is a part of not only American History and but it is also part of Sweet Briars identity. I truly believe that this cabin will never be left to decay because I believe that others believe and see the cabin in a similar light as I do. I believe that we should never forget. To forget the past or shove it into the corners of our memories is just as bad as acting as if it never happened at all. Which is why this cabin should be turned into a museum.

            As a northerner who tends to forget the ugly truth I am grateful that there is the Sweet Briar Slave Cabin. Now that I am at Sweet Briar this cabin has become more personal. I am now apart of Sweet Briar and it’s history. It is for this reason that I can look at the cabin and all it represents and feel pride in not only my school but in my country. There is still so much to be discovered and discussed with this cabin. Now that I know more about this historical eighteen by fifteen foot cabin I find it amusing that it has much more value then its size would let people believe.          

Franz Boas Biography

Franz Boas was of Jewish decedent who was born in Westphalia, Germany. He was born on born on July 9,1858 to a father with a successful business and mother that was civically. He studied at the universities of Heidelberg, Bonn, and graduated from the University of Kiel with a Ph.D. in Physics and a minor in geography in 1881. It is this degree that led him to investigate seawater in Artic Conditions between 1883-1884. It is while he was there that Boas spent time with the tribes of Eskimos in Canada. This experience inspired him to turn to the field of Anthropology. Boas went on to work at the North Pacific Coast of North America museum. While there he spent his time he working on Native American Cultures to general public work. He eventually left this museum and ended up at the American Museum of National History. There he created the Northwest Coast Indian exhibit, which is still up today. In 1905 he went on to teach Anthropology, becoming the first Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University. Franz Boas’ field focus was on collecting information on race, languages, art, dance, and archaeology. In his field he stressed the unimportance of race in understanding humans. Boas was an avid speaker against racism, which seems to have greatly influenced his work. At one point he presented that the skulls in which he had collected from various races showed that there was no correlation between skull size and racial background. One of the model Boas designed was the “four field” model. This model included four branches; they were physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology. When it came to value Boas believed that cultures were so different from one another that there was no way to compare value even if they had similar social, economic, and environmental conditions (Franz Boas and Bronislaw Malinowsky: A Contrast, Comparison, and Analysis P.42). Franz Boas died in 1942, having established a real anthropology as science. Website for this image

Assignment #3

Genisis Balico Professor Rainville INTD: 108 19th Century American Economies 10 September 2012 Assignment #3: Establishing and Valuing an SBC (Sweet Briar Currency) In order for currency to work it must have value, something that was pointed out a numerous amount of times in Weatherfords A History of Money. Also discussed in Weatherfords book is that it is a society or a culture that decides what has value. The currency I created for this project is something that our little society on campus would find valuable, hence making it a prime candidate for a hypothetical commodity. The things that many students value on campus are computers, printers, and shuttle rides, especially the shuttle rides for obvious reasons. The currency I created would involve all three of these services being seen as commodities. It is similar to the electric money discussed by Weatherford with an occasional barter system method. In this currency there would be a system that involves passes for the computer, printer, and shuttle rides. These passes would come in two forms, in a plastic card form or paper form. This currency would be distributed from an office much like the Business office. The cards would come at three levels. The first would be the lowest; SBC passes with only 94 passes. The second would be SBC Light, which would come with 102 passes. The last card would be the one with the most value, SBC Exclusive. This card would come with 114 passes. I based the number of passes on each card by accounting for the three meals everyday for thirty days, 90, and increased the number of passes according to the amount of times each level would be able to use these three services. The passes could be used for either of the services described earlier. How this system would work is that in exchange for services on campus one would be paid in SBC passes or pay in SBC passes. One way that this could be done is that the consumer of whatever service could pay using the paper passes as discussed earlier. The receiver would in turn go to the Business office and have the Business office transfer the paper money electronically into their account. Another way to transfer funds would be to call the Business office and ask them to transfer the amount of passes owed to the receivers account. The later would most likely be the one used most frequently because it requires less work and less time. Determining how much a service is worth will at times be up for debate thus giving this currency some of the characteristics of a barter system. For example say someone wanted a tutoring session with a fellow student. Well once this person finally found the tutor they needed, it would be between both parties to determine how much the service was worth. Is the service worth giving up a shuttle ride, or a use of the computer or printer? How many time? It would be between both parties to decide. This same principle could be applied to all other similar situations. There would be defined prices in situations directly related to the school. In situations like purchasing food from Prothro, it would be one pass for each meal. The school could then take these passes and pay its student workers in these passes. These passes have value because they allow for the necessary liberty needed on the Sweet Briar campus. Hence making the passes valuable on campus and why the school could use them as currency in which to pay its students with. Who gets these passes and at what level be it SBC passes, SBC Light, or SBC exclusive, would be based on their contributions to the Sweet Briar campus and school in general. The harder a person worked the higher value of card they would receive and the more passes they would receive. These contributions could be academic, sports, or work-study. The currency I’ve devised will be harder to counterfeit because there will be precautions that will aid in it being difficult to counterfeit. For the paper currency, each paper pass will have a watermark of Daisy’s portrait that will prove it’s authenticity and the plastic cards will have a serial number that will be unique to each students account. The symbols on my currency will be symbols that represent Sweet Briar. One symbol on my currency will be a picture of Fletcher Hall because this building is one of the oldest on campus and it bears the name of the family that founded Sweet Briar. This building also encompasses what Sweet Briar is about and like; it is classic, timeless, and full of history and of smart women. The other symbol I’ve chosen for this currency is a horse. I’ve chosen a picture of a white horse running through a field because I feel that this too represents Sweet Briar, more specifically it’s students. Equestrian has always been apart of the Sweet Briar experience even if one does not ride. Putting aside Sweet Briars history with horses this is symbolic of the student in Sweet Briar because like the horse in this picture they are unlimited in how far they want to go in their lives. They’re strong and capable enough to go wherever they wish to go just like the horse in this picture. The symbols on my currency will serve as a reminder to the students of Sweet Briars, of its history and what they themselves are capable of doing because of Sweet Briar. Both of these symbols will be displayed on both forms of currency, plastic and paper. I believe the consequence of the currency I’ve described on the social and economic classes will be that those who work the hardest will receive what they deserve. This is a system in which if one is slothful they will receive very little. Those who do have the most passes will become the wealthy class on campus and will have the ability to do as they please when it came to computers, printers, and shuttle rides. These are all services that on campus are free of charge and because of that many people take these services for granted even though they are of value. If these services where to come with a price I think that they would become a precious commodity on the Sweet Briar campus.

The history in art.

I found this art piece on the first floor of Benedict. This art piece is a view of Sweet Briar from 1928. I like this picture because from Monumental Hill Sweet Briar still looks like this.

Historical sites on campus

Mary K. Benedict is who this building is named after. The building was built in 1906, hence making it historical just by it's age.this image also show that the building has been around long enough to need renovations through the help of many resources.