About Me: Ryan Reed

My name is Ryan Reed and I am a senior History major at the University of Dayton.  I hail from Columbus, Ohio but have called Dayton my home for these past four years.  I am bittersweet about moving on into the “real world.” While I have learned so much at this university, I know I am called to continue my education after graduation.

My future plans include: Attending the University of Helsinki in Finland to earn a Master’s Degree in Russian Studies, going to Russia to continue my Russian language education, earning a PhD in History, and finally teaching, researching, and writing until I am old and gray. Then I will retire to Montana and start a homestead. If Montana does not work, maybe I can retire to Siberia; plenty of land there. I hope to be a life-long learner and convey my passion for history to a younger generation more bright and brilliant than myself.

This semester I will be researching Christmas at the Dayton Arcade.  I am looking forward to expanding our knowledge of the Arcade’s Christmas beyond just the Hollydays in 1992 and 1993.  We do not know much about holiday festivities at the Arcade, but Christmas shopping has shaped retail and has influenced marketing for decades of American history.  I want to explore the ways in which seasonal sales impacted the tenants at the Arcade, the history of public seasonal decoration, and Christmas charity at the Arcade.

With this project I am attempting to fit the celebration of Christmas at the Arcade into the larger narrative of Christmas retail and celebration in public spaces.  I am working on expanding our primary source base and building a narrative that stretches further back into time than has previously been done. I hope to provide a history of Christmas at the Arcade from its creation to its closing. Undoubtedly, the story of Christmas at the Arcade will also involve the rest of the city of Dayton as Christmas has always been a shared experience, not relegated to a single space, but rather took place in a number of ‘sacred’ Christmas spaces; from the mall, the home, the church, and even the local Dayton Arcade.