Wilkes University Archives is excited to announce that thanks to Jess Cerra and Andrew Murawski, the Titled Foreign Figures, 1549-1949, subseries within the Gilbert Stuart McClintock collection is now processed and available online for researchers.
The Titled Foreign Figures series consists of manuscripts such personal letters, signatures, autographs, exchequer/financial receipts, biographies and heraldry from noteworthy historical figures in countries such as France, Italy, Russia, and the United Kingdom. These individuals were selected for this subseries based on the limited extent of influence that they had in their country under foreign rulers such as chevaliers, earls, barons, counts, ambassadors, high ranking military officers, exchequer/finance representatives, and other noblemen. Jess’ blog in particular discusses certain French figures such as Anne-César de la Luzerne, François Alexandre Frederic, Duke of Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, and Jacques Necker, and their influence within Pennyslvania during the late 18th century.
The author of the blog, Jess Cerra, served six years in the United States Navy as an Arabic cryptologic language analyst working in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Following her military service, Jess graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in French from Oregon State University. She is currently a graduate student at Wilkes University enrolled in the Master of Arts in Teaching program. Jess is scheduled to begin student teaching in a middle school classroom in the fall semester; and by pursuing additional teaching certifications in French or Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), she looks forward to one day sharing her passion of learning foreign languages with her students.