{"id":1758,"date":"2017-11-07T22:04:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T22:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/historyblog\/?p=1758"},"modified":"2018-05-05T00:51:09","modified_gmt":"2018-05-05T00:51:09","slug":"senior-thesis-profile-christopher-bulfinch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/historyblog\/2017\/11\/07\/senior-thesis-profile-christopher-bulfinch\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior Thesis Profile: Christopher Bulfinch"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Brendan W. Clark ’21<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor; History Major<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

About the Thesis Writer: <\/strong>Christopher Bulfinch \u201918 is a senior history major and thesis writer. Chris came to Trinity knowing that he wanted to study history, but did not declare until the spring of his sophomore year. He has studied a myriad of topics from within the history department, but takes a particular interest in subjects of Americana. However, one of his favorite courses falls outside of this realm: \u201cLiving on the Margins of Modern Japan,\u201d taught by Jeffery Bayliss, is a course he highly enjoyed and encourages prospective or current history majors to take.
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Chris attributes his involvement in the Guided Studies program (now the Humanities Gateway Program) as significantly influencing his interest in history, citing especially the \u201cexposure to a wide variety of foundational topics for interpreting historical concepts.\u201d Within the guided studies program, some of Chris\u2019 favorite courses included Professor Samuel Kassow\u2019s \u201cModern European History.\u201d Chris is currently the Editor-in-Chief of The Trinity Tripod, <\/em>with which he has been involved since his freshmen year. Chris, in his spare time, is also an avid numismatist.
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\nFavorite Period of History:<\/strong> Chris is particularly interested in the study of Americana, but also has an interest in the far-reaching impacts of European colonialism.<\/p>\n

The Thesis Proposal:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cCompare and contrast the experiences of individuals in debtor\u2019s prison in early Republican Boston, using the letters of my ancestor, Charles Bulfinch, to determine the actual realities of prison life and, additionally, examine the implications of social class in debtor\u2019s prisons.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Christopher Bulfinch ’18<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Thesis Unpackaged:\u00a0<\/strong>Chris originally was pursuing two broad ideas: the experience of fugitive slaves in Boston and the experience of those incarcerated in debtor\u2019s prisons. After surveying the existing literature, Chris decided that he wanted to focus on something that could be original and settled on the debtor\u2019s prison as his thesis topic, as there is nascent literature on the subject of prisoner\u2019s individual experiences.<\/p>\n

Chris\u2019 primary sources include a significant amount of correspondence from his relative, Charles Bulfinch, who was an architect, police superintendent, and member of Boston\u2019s Board of Selectmen during the Republican period. Chris, through his research, has found that \u201cdebt was understood, during the time, to be a very feminine attribute.\u201d Chris has found that many articles and correspondence note the sense that prisoners had \u201clost their masculinity\u201d as a result of losing control of their finances.<\/p>\n

While finding the horrid conditions of debtor\u2019s prisons deplorable, Chris has not found this to be particularly surprising considering previous historical anecdotes on the topic. However, Chris did find it disconcerting to hear that his ancestor, Charles, had been involved in coordinating the deportation of more than 200 fugitive slaves back to the south during his tenure as the Boston police superintendent.<\/p>\n

Chris has worked extensively with the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Boston Public Library to find additional sources from which to compare the correspondence of his ancestor. The support of outside agencies has been \u201ccritical\u201d to deriving research and assembling a bibliography, added Chris.<\/p>\n

Chris is currently drafting his thesis and will formally present it at the History Department\u2019s Thesis Presentations Ceremony on Wednesday, May 2nd<\/sup>, 2018 from 9:00 A.M.-12:00 A.M. in Seabury 215. <\/em><\/p>\n

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        By Brendan W. Clark ’21 Editor; History Major About the Thesis Writer: Christopher Bulfinch \u201918 is a senior history major and thesis writer. Chris came to Trinity knowing that he wanted to study history, but did not declare until the spring of his sophomore year. He has studied a myriad of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/historyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/historyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/historyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/historyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/historyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1758"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/historyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1897,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/historyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758\/revisions\/1897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/historyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/historyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/historyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}