History Department
What We Do
Utica University's History Department provides an innovative program that exposes students to a wide variety of topics in American, European, and Non-Western content areas.
Office Location
126 DePerno Hall
The History Department at Utica University encompasses both majors and minors in History and Africana Studies.
History (major) History (minor)
Africana Studies (major) Africana Studies (minor)
Welcome to the Utica University History Department! The major in history offers one of the broadest and most flexible liberal arts fields at Utica University. It is intended for students who seek an understanding of the human condition through its historical development.
Graduates are prepared for fields such as social science teaching, all varieties of government service, and other careers requiring a liberal arts preparation. Students who pursue the minor in education are prepared for teaching at the secondary or elementary level. Some students pursue graduate study of history.
History is an excellent background for those contemplating professional training in law, library science, and similar fields.
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Special Learning Opportunities
The History Department at Utica University offers a variety of talks, lectures, symposia, and historical organizations to expand and cultivate knowledge.
Utica University has published 14 issues of The History Project, an annual publication featuring history students' research, which have been distributed to libraries, schools, and historical societies. Copies are available at Utica's Gannett Library.
Utica University's History Project provides the department's majors with the opportunity to undertake original primary source research and produce a journal length article. The best student papers are published in our in-house journal--The History Project--that is distributed locally.
"I think it's rather unusual to have this built into the curriculum," says David Wittner, professor of history. "The students come into this at a time when they are focusing on graduation. But after performing original research, and working hard on their projects, they realize the value of walking away with tangible evidence of our program and what they've learned. This is more than a senior thesis, which usually doesn't get saved. With this program, students walk away from the class with a publication."
Getting Started
Students start the program with HIS 455: Historical Methods. This course is designed to train students in historical research, including locating sources, critical evaluation of sources, and the organization and writing of scholarly papers.
In HIS 455, the faculty advisor identifies a theme. The students then select and research a related topic. The following spring, students enroll in HIS 456: Guided Historical Research. In 456, each student completes a 20 to 30-page journal length article.
Ultimately, a faculty committee blind reviews the paper and selects the best papers for publication in The History Project. At the end of the semester, students present their findings at a symposium.
The Finished Product
Published journals are distributed to Utica University's Library, the Utica Public Library, the Oneida County Historical Society, and 27 high school libraries in Oneida, Herkimer, and Madison counties. Journals are also available for purchase.
*You can request a copy by contacting Mary Dobek via e-mail at mfdobek@utica.edu, or download and print a The History Project order form.
A monthly series of presentations by historians on a variety of historical topics and geographic locations. Information on future presenters and talk locations can be found at the History Department Facebook Page.
History Department Resources
Utica University's History Department offers a myriad of opportunity for hands-on learning, historical archives and societies for research, and more.
A digital archive of previous History 456 papers and Department of History related documents can be found in our Box account. To access the account, click here and log in with the following username and password.
Username: history@utica.edu
Password: UCh1$tory
The following are original research projects created by Utica University history majors. They are the sole property of the author(s) and may only be used for scholarly purposes.
In addition to independent research projects, all history majors partake in two semesters of original research during their junior and senior years at Utica University. Students present their papers each spring in a day long symposium. The best papers are published in The History Project, an academic journal that is distributed locally by the Utica University Center for Historical Research.
The Wermacht in Utica by David Cooney
This research project explores the history of the former POW camp in Utica for German prisoners during World War II
Area Revolutionary War Graves by Jeremy Young
This paper examines the tombstones of local soldiers who fought in the American Revolution
Colonial Frontiers: Remnants of the Past by Nolan Cool
More than 100 photos of eighteenth and nineteenth century historic sites in New York and New England
American Presidency Project - Online archive of primary sources associated with American political history
Annals of Congress - Official Congressional debates of the United States House of Representatives and Senate from 1789 to 1824
Brooklyn Daily Eagle - Searchable archive of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper from 1841 to 1902.
California Digital Newspaper Collection - Large repository of newspaper published in the State of California.
Colgate University Libraries Digital Collections - Includes Colgate University's student newspaper; documents related to University's history; local and regional newspapers.
Columbia University Digital Archives - The John Jay Papers; Corporate records of New York businesses; New York real estate brochure collection; Audio archives with transcriptions of famous New York city residents.
Congressional Globe - Official Congressional debates of the United States House of Representatives and Senate from 1833-1873
Congressional Record - Official Congressional debates of the United States House of Representatives and Senate from 1873-1875
Credo: Special Collections and University Archives (UMass, Amherst) - Primary sources related to W.E.B. DuBois; photography of Anthropologist Joel M. Halpern.
Documenting the American South - Primary sources related exclusively to the American South
The Frederick Douglass Project (University of Rochester) - Primary sources related to Frederick Douglass
The Friend of Man Abolitionist Newspaper (Cornell University) - Full run of The Friend of Man abolitionist newspaper
Google Books - Extensive digital archive of full books that are in the public domain. Most can be downloaded in either PDF or ePub formats.
Google News Archive - Digital archive containing domestic and international newspapers.
Hamilton College Special Collections & Archives - Includes Samuel Kirkland's and Elihu Root's Papers; Diaries, letters, and other primary sources (including photographs) of students who attended Hamilton College.
Historical Census Browser (University of Virginia) - Searchable archive of the United States Census
Historical Newspapers Online (University of Pennsylvania) - Alphabetical listing of newspapers available online.
House Divided Project - Primary sources associated with Abraham Lincoln
Internet Archive - Fully searchable online library including the full text of numerous primary and secondary sources (books, videos, audio recordings, etc.)
In Motion: The African American Migration Experience - Primary sources and images from the Schomburg Institute. Archives include the Transatlantic Slave Trade; runaway slaves and runaway slave narratives; the Domestic Slave Trade; the Great Migration; and African immigration.
Library of Congress: American Memory - Online archive of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Newspaper Collection - Online archive of digitized newspapers.
Making of America: Cornell University - Online archive of books, nineteenth century popular magazines, the official Civil War records of the Union and Confederate armies and navies, etc.
Making of America: University of Michigan - Online archive offering different primary sources than that which is available through Cornell's "Making of America" website. Most sources deal with nineteenth century America.
McClure's Magazine Archive (Hathi Trust Digital Library) - A online archive offering several editions of McClure's magazine from the 1890s-1920s.
Mississippi State University Digital Collections - Online archive of primary sources associated with Mississippi's state history
National Park Service: The Civil War - Searchable database of soldiers and sailors who fought for the Union or the Confederacy during the Civil War.
New York State Archives - Primary and secondary resources, including photographs, audio, and video, examining different aspects of New York State history.
New York Heritage Digital Collections - Correspondance, directories, maps, newspapers, photographs, postcards, scrapbooks, and yearbooks pertaining to New York State.
New York History - Full issues of the New York State Historical Society's journal, New York History (2010-Present). *Please Note: You will be required to log in with your Utica College username and password.
New York Newspaper Archive (Fultonhistory.com)- Extensive database of New York newspapers
New York Newspaper Project - Detailed list of the location, call numbers, and other pertinent archival information for every newspaper previously or currently published in New York State.
New York State Historical Newspapers - Online archive of newspapers for Oswego, Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton, and Essex Counties
New York State Historical Association - Digitized newspaper collections from throughout New York State
New York State Library - Wide variety of primary sources, plus "how to guides" for conducting research on New York State history.
Register of Debates - Official Congressional debates from the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, 1824-1837
The Simms Initiative (Southern History): University of South Carolina - Online archive of primary sources associated exclusively with the American South
The Special Collections & University Archive of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst - Online archive of primary sources examining movements for social change, New England history and culture, and innovation and entrepreneurship
Utica College Center for Historical Research Digital History Project - Digitized primary sources and historical artifacts associated with the Mohawk Valley
The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War (University of Virginia) - Online archive of primary sources associated with Franklin County, Pennsylvania and Augusta County, Virgina
Vanishing History (Fordham University) - Burial database of enslaved African Americans
Virginia Military Institute Archives - Journals, letters, diaries and images from the Civil War
Contact Us
Peter De Simone
Peter De Simone
History Department Chair
(315) 792-3242
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