Most of my history writing covers topics in either South Dakota or Wisconsin. Why is that? Well, I lived in South Dakota the first twenty-four years of my life, most of that time in my hometown of Plankinton. After high … Continue reading
Equality at the Ballot Box I wrote the chapter on school suffrage. Long before the Nineteenth Amendment passed, giving women equal voting rights, women in many states could vote on school matters and run for school offices. The book will … Continue reading
Since graduating in December of 2015 with a Masters in History, I’ve published a couple articles, attended several conferences, contributed to a book, and gone on the speaker circuit. A small section in my thesis about Woman Suffrage led to … Continue reading
Thesis Methodology for Rural Women Project: I am researching the public lives of rural women in a small county in South Dakota during the frontier era, 1880-1920, as the topic of my master’s thesis in Public History at the University … Continue reading
I’m on a mission to develop research management skills using technologies like Zotero. As I beta test my methodology on my master’s thesis, I’ll write about how well it works – how well it doesn’t. Blogs start July 13.
Today I read seven articles on Wikipedia, written by historians, assigned by the professor of my Digital History class. I wish I’d read the articles before I practiced being a Wikipedia editor. Knowing nothing, I quickly reviewed a few tutorials … Continue reading
My assignment for my Digital History class this week was to update or create a new Wikipedia entry. I forgot. So, today I gave it a try. I started with ambitious plans to create the first John Plankinton wiki entry. … Continue reading
In an effort to inflict some discipline on my writing habits and to share interesting historical happenings I discover about my hometown area, I have been writing a local history column about Aurora County, South Dakota, since January of 2013. … Continue reading
Adding to our Plankinton experience, we are leasing an apartment on the third floor of the Plankinton building for 12 months. We leased the space to explore downtown Milwaukee on weekends, provide a writing retreat for me during the week, … Continue reading
It’s been awhile, but I’m back. In my newest endeavor to improve my skills, I have started writing a monthly local history column for the Plankinton weekly newspaper, The South Dakota Mail. As soon as I clean up the citations … Continue reading
RPJ Histories - Ruth Page Jones 