In the summer of 2022 Lorraine Bernhard ’23 and Margaret De Fer ’24 traveled to Scotland and England to do archival research with Serena Zabin, Professor of History. The purpose of the trip was to search through legal and national archives for traces of the story of Hannah Flucker, the daughter of a wealthy Boston family who was divorced by Captain James Urquhart, a British army officer, for infidelity in the late 18th century. The project follows the splintering of the marriage between Urquhart and Flucker, and the ensuing family strife. The story spans from 1774 until 1787, a period that closely resembles the American revolution as civil war. This research about one of Boston’s most prominent loyalist families and their flight from the emerging United States gives insight into the nature of family, marriage, immigration, loyalists, and the global impact of slavery. Raine and Margaret shared their experience as SRPs with the Humanities Center.
Raine says, “As we dug deeper into this story, we visited six different historical archives across the UK, in which we discovered materials never previously used by historians. In so doing, we made genuine discoveries about the characters in this drama, their connections to the political currents of the time, and the nature of family relationships.
In the archives, we were looking for records of a specific person in eighteenth century Naval muster rolls- huge log books that were once aboard ships, but now almost fell apart in our hands. We spent an entire day looking for him, and while we found many other interesting things, his name remained missing. On the second day, we started to get discouraged, but then I spotted him in one of the muster rolls. We all got very excited–and proceeded to find him several more times that day, getting just as excited each time. It was so fun to work together in the archives, even when it was tough to find what we wanted.
We learned how to conduct archival work effectively and read manuscripts. Additionally, we learned how to design research projects and be open to changing them when necessary.”
Margaret added, “Going to Aberdeen and reading the personal letters of William Urquhart was a highlight of the trip, both in the experience of doing archival work, and in finding information that helped us understand the story we were trying to follow. Having all the context from the research we had done in preparation made our historical findings feel like a culmination of work and were incredibly satisfying.
I learned what it was like to work in an archive and to search through historical documents. Working with primary sources, particularly ones in manuscript presented a challenge, but also helped me develop my skills as a researcher. I think that good research skills will serve me throughout my Carleton career, as persistence has been of utmost importance when trying to discover new findings and arguments to make in class.
It was excellent to work more directly with a faculty member and understand their expertise up close. Serena taught me how to read through documents and allowed me to synthesize and analyze the information we found more quickly, and with depth that I couldn’t have reached myself.”
Raine added “The archives in Aberdeen closed surprisingly early, so we had much of the evening free. One day we had a particularly successful day in the archives, but it was so nice out that we decided to go to the beach. It was super windy, but so much fun to walk along the beach and talk about our research and life.”