George William Castone: An Integrated Baseball Life at the Close of the Nineteenth Century, Revised

George William Castone was a Black baseball player during the 1880s and 1890s. He pitched for integrated town teams and minor league teams, as well as Black clubs, such as the Lincoln Giants in Nebraska and the Cuban Giants in the northeastern United States. Most of his time on the diamond was spent in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska, but Castone also played on an otherwise white barnstorming team organized in Salt Lake City that traveled through Montana, Oregon, and California. He was among the few Black players on minor league teams in the Colorado State League in 1889 and the Nebraska State League in 1892, before the color line barring Black players from organized baseball was firmly drawn. In the early twentieth century, Castone was a waiter and an artist, best known for his oil-on-canvas paintings. He passed away in St. Paul, Minnesota in January 1967, just a few days before his 100th birthday. This essay was originally published in 2019 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume two of the anthology (Baseball Biographies with Kansas Connections).https://scholars.fhsu.edu/all_monographs/1005/thumbnail.jp

Baseball Takes Root in Oregon, 1866–1869, Revised

The first baseball club in the Pacific Northwest was organized in Portland, Oregon in 1866 as the Pioneer Base Ball Club (BBC). As the only club in the area, games were initially played between teams picked from the members of the club. The Clackamas BBC in Oregon City was organized later that year, and the first intercity baseball game was played between the first nines of these two clubs in Oregon City on October 13. The following year, numerous baseball clubs were organized, and the first baseball championship was held at the State Fair in Salem. In addition, a regional baseball association open to any teams in Oregon and the territories of Washington and Idaho was organized in Portland. These clubs and the association soon gave way to others, but they succeeded in establishing the sport in the region. This essay was originally published in 2020 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume one of the anthology (Essays on Baseball Origins in the West, 1858–1883).https://scholars.fhsu.edu/all_monographs/1019/thumbnail.jp

Caeli (Self Portrait in Blue)

Caeli (Self Portrait in Blue) By Emily Kohls Drawing Colored Pencil In

Creatura

My sculptural practice is rooted in the belief that humans and nature are not separate, but deeply interwoven. I create immersive installations that embody cycles of life, death, and transformation; spaces where spiritual and material realities coexist in tension and harmony. Through cast metal, organic materials, and fabricated forms, I channel archetypal symbols from mythology, ritual, and the collective unconscious to create environments that speak to both personal and universal experience. During my time at Fort Hays State University, I developed a body of work grounded in installation and cast metal. I forged branches, flowers, and leaves from steel, and cast human hearts, skulls, birds, butterflies, and serpents - each form contributing to a mythological ecology that unfolds across the gallery. These sculptural environments serve as maps of transformation, guiding viewers through grief, rebirth, and spiritual awakening. Throughout Creatura, fragmented human forms such as hands and arms, skulls, feet, and hearts merge with wings, vines, antlers, and flowers, evoking metamorphosis and the threshold between worlds. Creatura, a term from Carl Jung’s Seven Sermons to the Dead, represents the realm of duality, imperfection, and embodied consciousness; the soul bound to Earth, the universe experiencing itself. My work resides in this liminal space where life and death, memory and presence, spirit and body coexist. The exhibition unfolds across two rooms: one filled with natural light and the expansive energy of life, the other a dimly lit sanctuary for grief and remembrance. In the light-filled space, Bird’s Eye View, a central spiral staircase with forged branches, flowers, and leaves, offers a vantage point over the mythological ecology below. A cast hand appears to drag a moss and dirt covered blanket into the wall (Earthbound and Elsewhere), beginning a spiral path of transformation. Along this path, hollow cast feet filled with real flowers and rooted with forged metal (Grounded) walk inwards, anchoring the viewer to the Earth while inviting reflection on the spiritual journey. In the darker room, works like Grandma’s Hands installation and a cast iron guitar surrounded by monarchs (See You Next Lifetime) become offerings of memory and love. The hanger installation honors my grandmother’s hand-knitted hangers, some recreated in metal and suspended with cast butterfly silhouettes, as personal relics and sacred objects. I inherited the guitar from my cousin Nick after he passed away. This body of work is both deeply personal and mythologically universal. It speaks to the brokenness and beauty of being human; our longing to root, to bloom, to fly, and to remember. My practice is not just about what is seen, but what is felt: the weight of memory, the pulse of the Earth, and the flicker of something beyond

Separate Still

Separate Still by Emily Schoeppner Art Education, Undergraduat

Self-Defense or Served Justice? Kirstin Lobato Case

Kirstin Lobato spent 16 years in prison for the crimes of voluntary manslaughter and sexual penetration of a dead body. The Innocence Project took on her case and helped to exonerate her in 2017. After critical evidence that was withheld during the original trial was brought forward, Lobato was retried and had her conviction reversed. She was awarded $34 million in retribution for her time in prison due to her mistrial

Casey Anthony Case

Casey Anthony is the mother of Caylee Anthony who went missing in 2008. Her mother called the police to report her missing 31 days after her last sighting. During the investigation, Anthony lied to police on multiple occasions which lead them to arrest her for the murder of her daughter. Anthony was then charged with first degree murder along with aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child. Caylee’s body was found shortly after the missing person\u27s report, wrapped in a blanket near the Anthony’s home. Florida wanted the death penalty in the case against Casey Anthony with mostly circumstantial evidence. The defense wanted to show the conspiracies that led up to the case. Casey ended up being sentenced to four misdemeanor counts of lying to the police and multiple fines that she had to pay for the police investigation

The Ironsmith

18 THE IRONSMITH by Joseph Borra Wildlife Biology Digital paintin

What Stays After a Pen Rests Too Long

What Stays After a Pen Rests Too Long Dalton Steinert Accounting, Senio

White Noise

WHITE NOISE by Uriel Campos Englis