Annotated Bibliography

Each annotation is composed of 3-7 complete sentences including one (or more) of the following:

 summary

 evaluation (in terms of usefulness to your research, credibility, viewpoint, etc.)

 your reaction to information (unanswered questions, surprising facts, etc.)

 comparison to other sources in your annotated bibliography

Guggenheim, Charles, and Louis Clarke. “The Scene of the Crime.” American Heritage Nov. 1992: 120-

128. The “scene” is South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club upriver of Johnstown, Pennsylvania,

and the “crime” is negligence by the club’s wealthy members to properly maintain the dam that

created their recreational lake. The victims of the crime were the 2,200 immigrant steelworkers

and their families who died in the flood of 1889. Though photographs taken of the devastation

abound, this article focuses on the tycoon club members and reveals the only known photographs

to be taken of them in their tranquil vacation spot. The legal battles that ensued to find the club

members liable were unsuccessful and the courts ruled the flood an act of God. The authors

acknowledge that, because the dam had failed once before, it was “considered by many local

citizens to be unsafe.” Did these citizens make any attempt to obtain or question safety

inspections before the flood? Is this a crime or a natural disaster?

Kinney, Doris G. “After the Flood.” Life May 1989: 144-48. InfoTrac General Reference Center Gold. Gale.

Glenbrook North H.S. Lib., Northbrook, IL. 23 July 2002 . The article

reveals several never before published accounts by survivors of the Johnstown flood that convey the

overwhelming power of the raging river and the everlasting fear it engendered. These accounts may be

useful in the introduction of my paper to encourage the reader to relate to the event and its victims.

Though several familiar statistics are included, one that surprised me is that 99 entire families were lost.

Kinney highlights the “greatest outpouring of charity this nation had ever seen” but fails to mention

whether any of the tycoon club members contributed funds.