Historical Chesnuts

This October, I had the honor of presenting a paper at the 2025 Pennsylvania Historical Association conference in York as part of the “Voices of Change in Education” panel. The panel constituted a wonderful variety of presentations on progress in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as one presentation by a current ongoing project to involve students in interpreting their own history.

My paper concerned my thrice-great uncle, Clem Chesnut, an 1886 graduate of Cumberland Valley State Normal School, and my predecessor at Shippensburg in more ways than one. Clem went on to a career in Fulton County as a teacher, county superintendent, and one-time state legislator, showcasing the positive influence and progress of the state normal schools even as they transitioned from private entities into state teachers’ colleges and ultimately the modern PASSHE system in Pennsylvania.

Left: Myself, 2025 PHA Conference, photograph by Amanda Chesnut. Right: Clem Chesnut, Class of 1886, located in the Shippensburg University Archives & Special Collections, photograph by H. Frank Beidel, Shippensburg.

Shippensburg University funded my endeavor with a grant from The Graduate School’s 2025 Graduate Research and Travel Grant program. Thank you to my fellow panelists and the audience for a lively panel and discussion, to our Chair Dr. Scott Wert for his constructive feedback and moderation, and professor and faculty advisor Dr. John Bloom for gently encouraging/requiring the presentation of my research.