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The Research Study



Infinitely Obscure Lives: 


Invisibility of Women at a U.S. Historic Site


 “For all the dinners are cooked; the plates and cups washed; the children sent to school and gone out into the world.  Nothing remains of it all. All has vanished. No biography or history has a word to say about it. And the novels, without meaning to, inevitably lie.
All these infinitely obscure lives remain to be recorded.”
--A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf

Purpose

The purpose of this qualitative study is to create a “disorienting dilemma” (Mezirow & Associates, 1990) which will help students re-examine and critically question their own assumptions about the roles of women and other marginalized groups in the American Old West. 

The Site

Fort Smith National Historic Site


  • Part of the US National Park Service
  • Located in Fort Smith, Arkansas along the Oklahoma border in Northwest Arkansas. 
  • Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and opened as a historic site in 1961
  • Site of a U.S. fort established in 1817
    • First Fort 1817-2824
    • Second Fort 1838-1871
    • Stop along the Trail of Tears (1831-1847)
    • Seat of the Federal US Court for Western Arkansas and Indian Territory (1872-1896)

Questions Guiding the Study

Questions guiding the study are: 
  • What role does naming play in the Historic Site exhibits?
  •  Which women are named? Which women remain unnamed? 
  • How are African American and Native American males portrayed? How are those portrayals different than those of women of any race or ethnicity? 
  • How effective is the "feminist" hack tool in guiding critical thinking and responses to the historic site displays?

The Participants

Group I

  • 9 students visited the historic site (Ages 20-58)
  • 5 students completed the reflections
  • Only 3 students actually posted to the Facebook Page
  • Demographics:
    • 1 male, 8 females
    • Asian 1
    • Caucasian 6
    • African-American 1
    • Hispanic 1

Group II


  • 15 students visited the historic site (Ages 19-45)
  • 10 students completed the reflections
  • Demographics:
    • 4 males, 11 females
    • Asian 1
    • Caucasian 12
    • Hispanic 2

The Instrument


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A.R., Female, Age 24

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