February 2012
“madhatsally said: On the other hand, it can work in your favour as it’s all your own work and ideas. The best essay I ever wrote in which I got my highest mark was on a subject I could find nothing on.”
—That’s great for an essay, but a thesis is not an essay. It’s 35 pages or more of scholarly in-depth study, where you can have your own theories but you can’t make up your own evidence. I had 5 pages alone (not counted towards the 35) of just sources. What you’d consider an essay is just the proposal for the thesis.
Also, picking an obscure subject for your thesis is a horrible idea. You will end up digging yourself into a hole and then forced to change your thesis half way into the semester because you just can't find enough sources for the damn thing.
“feministhistorian a réagi à votre billet : The subject of your thesis matters.A person who is doing their thesis on Hemmings is going to get ignored unlike someone who is doing their thesis on women camp followers in the Revolutionary War, which has next to nothing written on it.”
—
Not really. You can take a much talked about subject and still make it stand out. You just have to have a different way of approaching the subject.
Obscurity doesn’t necessarily mean an automatic A+.
are there any unusual 18th century painters you can think of that don't seem to have much written about them? I'd like to research this area for my final thesis, but I have no idea where to start looking for a subject that hasn't been covered in such detail. Also, being British would help, because I only speak english and that limits what I can read up first sources on, sadly! :( xx
Well when writing a thesis, you should actually aim for an extensive source list. Also, don’t think that you have to pick someone obscure so as to make your thesis “unique.” It’s your approach, not the subject itself, the very last line in your proposal for your thesis that makes it your own. I wrote mine on Thomas Jefferson, someone who’s been written on hundreds of times, but I chose to focus on his early education and the influence of his mentors, something that hadn’t been talked about a lot. But even then, if I had chosen “Sally Hemings,” that would still be a legitimate thesis as you have to make it your own.
But enough of that,
TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION. :D
There’s a lot of focus on portraitists in the 18th c., but I never see a lot on those who did still life, seascapes, or even landscape (like George Frost). (esp. the American landscapers)
But also!
William Bache - American silhouettist (1771-1845)
- made silhouettes for Washington and Jefferson!
Lewis and Clark Journals: Cheering on the Invalids! Woo!
June 3, 1806
[Lewis]
Our invalids are all on the recovery; Bratton is much stronger and can walk about with considerable ease. the Indian Cheif appears to be gradually recovering the uce of his limbs, and the child is nearly well; the imposthume on his neck has in a great measure subsided and left a hard lump underneath his left ear; we still continue the application of the onion poltice. At 2 P. M. The Broken arm and 3 of his wariars visited us and remained all night. Colter, Jo. Fields and Willard returned this evening with five deer and one bear of the brown speceis; the hair of this was black with a large white spot on the breast containing a small circular black spot. Today the Indians dispatched an express over the mountains to travellers rest or the neighbourhood of that Creek on Clark’s river in order to learn from the Oote-lash-shoots a band of the Flatheads who have wintered there, the occurrences that have taken place on the East side of the mountains during that season. This is the band which we first met with on that river. The mountains being practicable for this express we thought it probable that we could also pass, but the indians informed us that several of the creek would yet swim our horses, that there was no grass and that the roads were extreemly deep and slipery; they inform us that we may pass conveniently in twelve or fourteen days. We have come to a resolution to remove from hence to the quawmash grounds beyond Collins’s creek on the 10th to hunt in that neighbourhood a few days, if possible lay in a stock of meat and then attempt the mountains about the middle of this month. I begin to lose all hope of any dependance on the Salmon as this river will not fall sufficiently to take them before we shall leave it, and as yet I see no appearance of their runing near the shores as the indians informed us they would in the course of a few days. I find that all the salmon which they procure themselves they obtain on Lewis’s river, and the distance thither is too great for us to think of sending after them even had we merchandize with which to purchase.
