Primary image credit to Irish Central
Over 10 years ago, history professor Richard Jenson published a paper in the Oxford Journal’s Journal of Social History, claiming that the famed “Irish need not apply” signs—a classic example of early American intolerance toward its immigrant population—was simply a “myth of victimization.”
In fact, Jensen went so far as to claim that “no one has ever seen one of these NINA [No Irish Need Apply] signs because they were extremely rare or nonexistent.” Jensen hypothesized that a contemporary song about the immigrant Irish working class started the NINA "myth," rather than physical evidence of discrimination.
However, after online media sources found his paper—creating a minor viral storm of re-publication and citation—a single curious private school student discovered on a whim the very signs the college professor said he couldn’t find.
While it’s true that the paper and its subsequent “NINA myth” theory was published 13 years ago, it’s only in recent years that Jensen’s "debunking" has piqued popular interest. From pop news websites like Cracked.com and Vox to formal book reviews on early Irish-American history—many took Jensen’s “NINA myth” narrative at face value.
That is, until Rebecca Fried, a ninth grader at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., heard about Jensen’s claims. In the true spirit of the Sidwell Friends School's mission “to stimulate creative inquiry, intellectual achievement, and independent thinking” in its students, Rebecca decided to see if she could find these mysterious signs that the history professor insisted could not be found—just to see if it could be done.
As Rebecca told reporters, “Just for the fun of it, I started to run a few quick searches on an online newspaper database that I found on Google. I was really surprised when I started finding examples of NINA ads in old 19th-century newspapers pretty quickly.”
She investigated the old newspaper archives, finding many examples of what Jensen had claimed was impossible to find. Considering that this source material was so publicly and easily accessible, Rebecca looked for any academic rebuttals of Jensen’s work, but could find none.
So, with the help of retired Irish history professor Kerby Miller (who suspected something was wrong with Jensen’s theory “from the first”) and her father, Rebecca published a scholarly article entitled “No Irish Need Deny: Evidence for the Historicity of NINA Restrictions in Advertisements and Signs” in The Journal of Social History—the same publication that initially published Jensen’s original theory.
Rebecca’s paper is currently causing waves, not the least of which is the temerity of a fourteen year old to take on a long-established academic theory published by a professor of history. Vox has even updated its original article to include Rebecca’s work and the subsequent “debate.” Inspired by the inquiry and independent thinking encouraged by the Sidwell Friends School, Rebecca is a shining example of how a school’s mission can cause ripple effects far beyond its immediate student community.
Additional ISM resources:
ISM Monthly Update for Business Managers Vol. 12 No. 9 Saving Money at the Office Printer
Private School News Vol. 13 No. 7 Private School Sixth-Grader's Science Fair Project Cited as "Pilot Study" in New Lionfish Research
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 39 No. 16 Establishing Student Achievement Levels
I&P Vol. 34 No. 13 New Research: The Relationship Between Faculty Professional Development and Student Performance
I&P Vol. 27 No. 14 Creative Ways to Demonstrate Programmatic Success
