As my inaugural post on what I hope to be the home for my historical research from here on out, I though I’d introduce one of the largest research projects I have ever embarked on. In the Spring 2025 semester at UMW, I took HIST 299: Intro to the Study of History with Dr. Claudine Ferrell. Each student chose our own research topics and then spent the entire semester researching, sharing our research in the forms of informal discussion, 3 formal presentations, and finally a 10 page research paper, and a website to display our research. It was in this class as well that we all got a full introduction to the processes that Historians go through as they research and put together their own books and papers, including the rather frustrating process of coming up with a thesis, researching and studying, going back to your thesis and adjusting it, and repeating that until the thesis made sense.
My project was focused on the history of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. I have always been a huge fan of baseball (my parents practically raised me on it) and when I was little, all I wanted to be was a baseball player, but on a team with other women like me. That dream never came to fruition, but as I got more interested in the history of baseball, I became fascinated by the league that had seemed like a dream to me, one where women were not only allowed to play baseball, but were celebrated for it. As I researched, I realized that not only were these women expected to play just as well (if not better) than men, they were expected to do it all while wearing short skirts and makeup, with their hair done up. I was fascinated by this dichotomy, which quickly became the crux of my research.

The 10-page paper can be found below. If you would like to see the website as a whole, which features a timeline, discussions of femininity and the women of the league, and the proposal and final paper for this class, it can all be found here:

The AAGPBL – Femininity and Athleticism (1943-1954)

The essay: