Virginia Bever Platt

Virginia Bever Platt
A young white woman, in 3/4 profile, with light hair dressed to the nape, in a low chignon
Virginia Bever (later Platt), from the 1930 yearbook of the University of Washington
BornDecember 11, 1912
Bellingham, Washington, U.S.
DiedJanuary 15, 2009 (age 96)
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Occupation(s)Historian, college professor

Virginia Bever Platt (December 11, 1912 – January 15, 2009) was an American historian and college professor. She was a professor at Bowling Green State University from 1947 to 1975.

Early life and education

Bever was born in Bellingham, Washington, the daughter of James Bever and Virginia Greene Bever. Her father was the academic dean at Western Washington College.[1] Her younger brother James E. Bever taught geology at Miami University in Ohio.[2] She graduated from Whatcom High School at age 14, and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington in 1929. She earned a master's degree at the University of California, Berkeley in 1936, and completed doctoral studies at the University of Iowa.[3] She was a member of Alpha Chi Omega.[4]

Career

Platt taught at Western Washington College from 1936 to 1939, and at the University of Iowa from 1939 to 1940. She and her husband were both history professors at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) from 1947 until they both retired in 1975.[4] One of her undergraduate students was historian Stanley Kutler, who recalled her as an important influence.[5]

In 1984 she was appointed to the university's board of trustees, where she was seen as a "contrarian". "I don't have a job to lose, I don't have family to worry about. When you have that kind of security, I think it's your moral obligation to do what's the right thing to do", she explained in 1987.[6] She was the first woman president of the Ohio Academy of History, and was president of the Ohio-Indiana chapter of the American Studies Association. She spoke to community groups about historical topics.[7]

Publications

  • "Some Observations on European Student Unrest" (1969)[8]
  • "The East India Company and the Madagascar Slave Trade" (1969)[9]
  • Of Mother Country and Plantations: Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh Conference in Early American History (1971, edited with David Curtis Skaggs)
  • "Tar, Staves, and New England Rum: The Trade of Aaron Lopez of Newport, Rhode Island, with Colonial North Carolina" (1971)[10]
  • "Triangles and Tramping: Captain Zebediah Story of Newport, 1769-1776" (1973)[11]
  • "'And Don't Forget the Guinea Voyage': The Slave Trade of Aaron Lopez of Newport" (1975)[12]

Personal life

Virginia Bever married a fellow historian, Grover Cleveland Platt, in 1941.[13] They had daughters Carolyn and Phyllis. Her husband died in 1982.[14] Platt had Alzheimer's disease before she died in 2009, at the age of 96, in Cleveland, Ohio. There is a Grover and Virginia Platt Memorial Scholarship Fund at BGSU, for undergraduates majoring in history.[15]

References

  1. ^ Virginia Bever (death notice), The Bellingham Herald (October 18, 1963): 9. via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "James E. Bever". Miami University Faculty Memorials, Miami University Digital Collections. Retrieved 2024-10-21.
  3. ^ "Former Local Girl, Now Ohio Prof, Subject of AAUW Journal Article". Bellingham Herald. February 6, 1955. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b "BGSU's Platts conclude lengthy teaching careers" The Daily Sentinel Tribune (August 21, 1975): 2. via Newspapers.com
  5. ^ Lange, Robert (2006). Oral history interview with Stanley Kutler, University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives Oral History Project.
  6. ^ "Trustee thrives on conflict". News Journal. April 24, 1987. p. 31 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "University Women to Hear Address by Dr. Virginia Platt". The Daily Times. June 5, 1941. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Platt, Virginia Bever. "Some Observations on European Student Unrest" Phi Kappa Phi Journal 49(4)(Fall 1969): 28. via ProQuest.
  9. ^ Platt, Virginia Bever (1969). "The East India Company and the Madagascar Slave Trade". The William and Mary Quarterly. 26 (4): 548–577. doi:10.2307/1917131. ISSN 0043-5597. JSTOR 1917131.
  10. ^ Platt, Virginia Bever (1971). "Tar, Staves, and New England Rum: The Trade of Aaron Lopez of Newport, Rhode Island, with Colonial North Carolina". The North Carolina Historical Review. 48 (1): 1–22. ISSN 0029-2494. JSTOR 23518220.
  11. ^ Platt, Virginia Bever. "Triangles and Tramping: Captain Zebediah Story of Newport, 1769-1776" American Neptune 33 (1973): 294-303.
  12. ^ Platt, Virginia Bever (1975). ""And Don't Forget the Guinea Voyage": The Slave Trade of Aaron Lopez of Newport". The William and Mary Quarterly. 32 (4): 601–618. doi:10.2307/1919556. ISSN 0043-5597. JSTOR 1919556.
  13. ^ "Virginia Bever's Marriage Announced" Bellingham Herald (August 31, 1941): 14. via Newspapers.com
  14. ^ "Retired professor of history, Dr. Grover Platt, dies at 68". The Daily Sentinel-Tribune. June 1, 1982. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Historian served at BGSU for decades". The Blade. January 21, 2009. Retrieved 2024-10-21.