NU Grad Receives Award For Study Of Jane Porter Relics Found In County Courthouse
Christine Bacon, a recent graduate of Niagara University’s master’s degree program in interdisciplinary studies, received the Best Capstone Award during a brief ceremony on May 11 in the Dining Commons at NU. The Williamsville resident’s capstone examined a facet of the power industry’s history that was, quite literally, hidden away in a dark courthouse basement for decades.
Bacon’s thesis, Power and Insanity: A Case Study in Niagara Falls, New York, builds an interdisciplinary history based on an old trunk of documents found at the Niagara County Courthouse, labeled “In re: Jane A. Porter Estate.” Handwritten inside the trunk was “Lunacy.” Porter and her sister had inherited significant land holdings in Niagara Falls that left them prey for emerging industrialists by the 1880s.