Peter Ellertsen, 2125 South Lincoln Avenue, Springfield, Illinois 62704. Telephone: (217) 793-2587. Email: peterellertsen@yahoo.com. [Updated 11-23-10]
Professional experience
Free-lance writer, living history interpreter and amateur musician, 1995-present. I have articles on music in Dulcimer Players News, the EverythingDulcimer.com website and regional history magazines in Illinois and Missouri [see below for list]. As a trained volunteer interpreter at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site, Route 1, Petersburg, Illinois 62625, I staff interpretive stations and demonstrate period music on the Appalachian dulcimer in an 1830s historical village. I developed presentations on shape-note singing schools and 19th-century "ballads, Bobby Burns and fiddle tunes" for the Road Scholars Program, a speaker's bureau of the Illinois Humanities Council, 2001-2004, and currently give talks on music history for a negotiable fee. I also coordinate meetings of the Prairieland Dulcimer Strings, a group of amateur musicians in Springfield.
College instructor and associate professor, 1993-2010. Taught English, journalism and interdisciplinary humanities courses in Native American cultures and American roots music at Benedictine University at Springfield [formerly Springfield College in Illinois]. Served as faculty adviser to campus literary magazine,The Sleepy Weasel, and chaired faculty Assessment Committee,dealing with learning outcomes assessment and accreditation issues. Named to the LaFata Endowed Chair for distinguished service to the College and its students, 2002-03. Listed in Who's Who Among America's Teachers. I continue to teach mass communications classes as an adjunct instructor.
Webmaster and editor of campus publications, 1998-2010. As faculty adviser to The Sleepy Weasel, I produced an online magazine featuring public affairs, research and creative writing by students, faculty, alumni and others in the Benedictine/Springfield College community. As assessment committee chair, I wrote and edited Nuts & Bolts, a monthly newsletter for faculty providing updates on federal education policy and learning outcomes assessment techniques and issues.
Web log administrator, 2006-present. The blogs were initially created for student assignments at SCI-Benedictine and maintained for my own research notes. Hogfiddle, at http://www.hogfiddle.blogspot.com/, contains my notes on Appalachian dulcimers (also known as "hogfiddles"), shape-note hymnody, Doctor Watts spirituals, gospel, blues, Anglo-Celtic ballads, old-time string band music, cultural studies and folklore. The Mackerel Wrapper, at http://www.mackerelwrapper.blogspot.com/, has assignments for my mass comm. students, plus links and comment on newspapering and journalism.
Desktop publisher. 1992-2000. Rosehill Press, Springfield. Sole proprietor, with wife Debi S. Edmund, of home-based desktop publishing business specializing in short-run literary titles including the chinkapin oak: poems, 1993-1995 by John Knoepfle and Tramping Across America (1999), a reissue of Vachel Lindsay's travel writing.
Administrative assistant. 1991-1993. Office of the Treasurer, Illinois Capitol, Springfield 62706. Researched banking, taxation and legislative issues assigned by state Treasurer Patrick Quinn; wrote office profile in the Illinois Blue Book and estate tax manual for county treasurers; drafted press releases and assisted with downstate news media advance.
Political reporter and columnist. 1985-1991. The State Journal Register, One Copley Plaza, Springfield 62701. Covered city, county, state and federal elections and political news. Wrote op-ed column, spoke to civic groups and moderated candidate debate panels.
Courthouse reporter. 1984-1985. The Rock Island Argus, 1724 4th Avenue, Rock Island, Illinois 61201. Covered county government, political and economic news. As weekend city editor, assigned spot news stories, sized photographs, edited copy, wrote headlines and laid out inside pages.
Reporter and state editor. 1975-1982. The Oak Ridger, 785 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37828. Covered government, schools, politics, environmental and nuclear industry issues, labor relations, courts and police news in a four-county area. Supervised and edited regional correspondents, helped train beginning reporters.
Articles and presentations
"Psalmodikon: A Joyful Revival." Dulcimer Players News Fall 2010: 50-53+.
"Vachel Lindsay, Edgar Lee Masters and the Roots of Oldtime Music." Illinois State Museum Brown Bag Lecture, Research and Collections Center, Springfield. Sept. 22, 2010.
"The Music Behind the Poetry: Vernacular Traditions in Vachel Lindsay's and Edgar Lee Masters' Writing." Vachel Lindsay Home, Springfield. Sept. 18, 2010.
"Years of Jubilee: Music of the Civil War Era." March 7, 2010. Decatur Public Library, Decatur, Illinois. [See coverage by Kenneth Lowe, "The Sounds of Lincoln's Time: In Music as in Life, the Past is Prologue." Decatur Herald and Review March 8, 2010. http://www.herald-review.com/news/local/article_86354fe6-2ab7-11df-8ad3-001cc4c002e0.html.]
"Drones, Picks and Popsicle Sticks: The Ancient Sound of the Dulcimer." EverythingDulcimer.com. Sept. 1, 2009. http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=91:drones-picks-and-popsicle-sticks&catid=30:dulcimer-happenings
"Minding the Store at New Salem." Illinois Times Nov. 13, 2008. http://illinoistimes.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A8908
"What Does an Old Fiddle Tune Have to do With Rev. John Berry’s Service in the War of 1812?" The Prairie Picayune [Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site] October 2009. Available at http://hogfiddle.blogspot.com/2009/10/period-music-workshops-at-new-salem.html
"A Legend about Peter Cartwright." Prairie Picayune July 2008. http://hogfiddle.blogspot.com/2008/06/legend-about-peter-cartwright.html
"Tales of Sir Galahad." Illinois Times Jan. 17, 2008. http://illinoistimes.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A7238
"A Shape-Note Sing-Along." Presentation at Pioneer Days, W.H. Sommer Park, Peoria Park District, Peoria. Aug. 26, 2007.
"Alaskan Liturgical Hymns, Our Lady of Sitka and the 'Presence of the Holy' in Cross-town Traffic." The Sleepy Weasel 12 (2007-2008). http://www.sci.edu/comm_arts/sleepyweasel/v12/sitka.htm and http://hogfiddle.blogspot.com/2010/03/our-lady-of-sitka-in-cross-town-traffic.html
Sacred Music: Early Black and White Gospel Music Traditions." Presentation at Dixon Mounds State Museum, Lewistown, Illinois. July 22, 2007.
"A 'Doleful Sound' at Springfield's First Hanging." Prairie Picayune March 2006.
http://hogfiddle.blogspot.com/2006/02/at-springfields-first-public-hanging.html
"Anglo-Celtic Ballads and Fiddle Tunes in Southern Illinois, 1800-1850" Presentation at John A. Logan Museum during Apple Festival, Murphysboro, Illinois. Sept. 16, 2006.
"Seeking the Old Paths: Shape-Note Singing at Eagle Creek." Midwest Open Air Museums Magazine 37.1 (Spring 2006) 22-28.
"Sacred Harp Singing in a Living History Environment." Paper presented at Midwest Open Air Museums Coordinating Council, Fall Conference, Eagle Creek Conference Center, Findlay, Illinois, November 10, 2005. http://www.sci.edu/classes/ellertsen/livinghistory.html
"For Dulcimer: Gospel Hits of 1830s?" Prairie Picayune November 2005.
http://hogfiddle.blogspot.com/2006/02/appalachian-dulcimer-1830s-style.html
Classroom Assesment for Continuous Improvement: A Guide for Instructors. Springfield: Springfield College/Benedictine University, 2005.
Introduction, The Missouri Harmony Songbook [with Karen Isabell]. Wings of Song ed. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society, 2005.
"Healing Power of Art" [Review of prayer against famine & other irish poems by John Knoepfle]. Sleepy Weasel 10 (2004-2005) http://www.sci.edu/comm_arts/sleepyweasel/archive/weasel05/review.html
"The Missouri Harmony: Revisiting the Hymnbook of Shape-Note Music" [with Karen Isabell]. Gateway [Missouri Historical Society] 25.1 (Summer 2004): 33-41.
"Praise on the Prairie: The Dark Poetry of the Missouri Harmony." Illinois Heritage, April-May 2004: 8-9.
"'Untaught melody of grateful hearts': Southern Appalachian Folk Hymnody in Illinois, 1800-1850." Journal of Illinois History 5.4 (Winter 2002): 258-82.
"Closing the Loop: Assessment in the Springfield College English Department" [with Judi Anderson and Lynette D. Shaw-Smith]." Presentation at Allerton Community College and University English Articulation Conference, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, April 26, 2001.
"Soul of the Wind." Illinois Times April 19, 2001: 9. http://www.sci.edu/classes/ellertsen/cedarflute.html.
"'It Takes a Whole Village' ... to Pass a Referendum." [with Debi Edmund]. Illinois School Board Journal Nov.-Dec. 2000: 4-7 http://www.iasb.com/files/J0111202.htm; Jan.-Feb. 2001: 26-31 http://www.iasb.com/files/j1010206.htm.
"American Folk Hymnody in Illinois, 1800-1850." Paper presented at Conference on Illinois History, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Springfield, October 14, 2000. http://hogfiddle.blogspot.com/2010/05/american-folk-hymnody-in-illinois-1800.html and http://hogfiddle.blogspot.com/2010/05/works-cited-1.html
"Dulcimer: Home-Made Southern Upland Music." Prairie Picayune September 2000. http://hogfiddle.blogspot.com/2006/02/for-dulcimer-gospel-hits-of-1830s.html
"Faith, Hope and Poetry: (Pre-)Postmodern Ways of Knowing in the Poetry of Kathleen Norris." Last Lecture Series, Springfield College in Illinois, March 9, 2000. http://hogfiddle.blogspot.com/2010/08/faith-hope-and-poetry-2000.html
Tramping Across America: Travel Writings of Vachel Lindsay. Springfield: Rosehill Press, 1999. Edited, designed, researched and wrote endnotes for the book, which was self-published by William Furry of Springfield.
"[Paul] Simon: We Have to Stand for Something" [with Debi Edmund]. Illinois School Board Journal Nov.-Dec. 1998: 8-11.
"Beyond Press Releases: Building Community while Building a School" [with Debi Edmund]. Illinois School Board Journal July-Aug. 1997: 18-22.
"Shape Note Singing Returns to New Salem." Illinois Times 14 Nov. 1996: 14.
"The Battle of Belmont and the Citizen Soldiers of the 27th Illinois Infantry." Civil War Regiments 3.4 (1994): 24-67.
"Richard Durbin: Congressman Who Loves his Job." Illinois Issues April 1991: 11-13. http://www.lib.niu.edu/1991/ii910411.html
"Paul Simon: First Stop, Iowa." Illinois Issues July 1987: 8-11.
"Moline Election Fouled Up by Computer." Illinois Issues Nov. 1985: 12-15.
"James Agee, the Bomb and Oliver the Cat." Christian Century 31 July 1984: 709-11.
Education
Workshops in Appalachian dulcimer, ballad, folk hymn and shape-note singing traditions, 1999-present. Appalachian State University, John C. Campbell Folk School; Western Carolina University; and annual Dulcimerville conference, Black Mountain, N.C.
M.A., journalism, 1983. Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
Ph.D., English, 1975. University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
M.A., history, 1967. University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Studied Norwegian language and history, 1966. International Summer School, University of Oslo, Norway.
B.A., history, 1964. Albion College, Albion, Michigan.
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