Typewriting, for History and for a Veteran

 

Beloved Spousal Unit and I had dinner at Turner Hall last night.  It's located not too far from the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame and the Journal Communications Building, home of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. And on the corner of 4th and State Street is this sign.

 Christopher Latham Sholes

For folks who think of the Midwest as flyover country, pray do keep in mind Mr. Sholes' contribution to the world of word-making (and business).

Sholes gravestone plaque in Milwaukee's Forest Home Cemetery.

Speaking of people who "materially aided in the world's progress", a certain Milwaukee World War II veteran will soon be the new owner of a 1931 Underwood Portable that, up until this last Friday, was part of my collection. The gentleman's daughter contacted me after seeing the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article about me and my machines.  

Her father used this very model in his youth and, with his 90th birthday coming up this Fall, she wanted something to unique to honor him. It's rather perfect in my mind.  I bought this machine in Wausau, WI.  Not just because it was old (I have an older Corona 4.), but because MY Dad used an Underwood and it's the make of machine I first typed on when I was a kid.

For all that, this one never quite felt like it was mine. So when the lady made an offer, it seemed like the right thing to do. Dad to Dad and all.  She's going to have the machine refurbished and has promised to send me pictures of it and her Dad as well as his entire story after she gives it to him this coming November.  Something tells me that is going to be one mighty fine post I'll be sharing with you then!

Pepys Into The Past

Some brilliant soul is Tweeting lines from the famous diary of Samuel Pepys.  This morning's is such a flourish of language, color, and images, that I must needs post it here for our collective entertainment!

First, how do you pronounce his name?

"The accepted pronunciation today of his curiously spelled name is PEEPS. Sam definitely pronounced his name PEEPS as do the descendents of his sister Paulina. However other branches of the family pronounce it PEPPIS."

[from the Samuel Pepys Diary FAQ]

I am going with old Sam and dear Paulina; PEEPS it is.   

 Image source: Wikipedia

And then, who is this fascinating creature? Here are the first two paragraphs from that font of human knowledge, Wikipedia. I've left the links active, just for fun.

"Samuel Pepys' FRS, MP, JP, (pron.: /ˈpiːps/;^[1] 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II and subsequently King James II.

His influence and reforms at the Admiralty were important in the early professionalisation of the Royal Navy.^[2] The detailed private diary Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century, and is one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period. It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War and the Great Fire of London."

Mr. Pepys would utterly adore the Internet age.  If here were alive now, he would have invented Twitter if some else hadn't already done so.

Samuel Pepys diary manuscript volumes
Image source: Wikipedia

Here's more on him from the Samuel Pepys Diary FAQ cited above:

"Although he was known in his day for his efficient work with the navy, he is famous now for his intimate personal diary, written between 1660 and 1669. It is evocative of the 17th century, a time of great change in England but it is its intensely personal description of a man who is vain, lecherous, hard working, keen to learn, in love with yet argumentative with his wife, and determined to leave his mark on the world that makes his diary so fascinating even 350 years later."

I am happy to report that the whole of Pepys' diary now resides on my Kindle reader, thanks to the good people at Project Gutenberg. Here is the link to the various formats they offer (as well as a link to read it online).

Off to breakfast then, wishing I were doing so amid a noise of trumpets and fidlers and wearing a scarlett waistcloathe!

 Image source/credit

VIDEO: Rembrandt's Night Watch via Flashmob

Public Domain Image (Wikipedia)

[UPDATE: CNN has posted a nice little interactive that explains this painting a bit more.]

Many thanks to Artist/Author James Gurney for highlighting this truly amusing and entertaining video today. Be sure to compare the image above with the final cast picture at the end!

"The slogan 'Our Heroes are Back' is used to announce that, after an absence of one decade, all major pieces in the Rijksmuseum's collection are back where they belong. This is what happens when they suddenly emerge in an unsuspecting shopping mall somewhere in The Netherlands. With the support of main sponsor ING, entrance to the museum is free on the 13th of April from 12:00 to 00:00.

"This Flashmob recreates Rembrandt's Night Watch. It's considered one of the most famous paintings in the world."

[from the YouTube description]

Slightly to the Left, Eyes Right

Photo Description: 

"Teresa Truffi, full length portrait of a woman,
slightly to the left, eyes right, 

standing, in theatrical costume,
holding a small bottle."

Image from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Collection 

(Daguerreotypes Collection)

One of the key sets in the Summer Wizarding Event was the Headmaster's Office. We dressed it to look both normal and odd, the idea being that the occupant happened to be a wizard but was also a person of eclectic interests. One small desk prop was a hinged pair of brass frames. I was asked to locate possible images for it. The requester said the images needed to be "similar but different' and a little off kilter. Something that could be printed in sepia-toned ink. So off I went on an Internet hunt! Here's some of what I came up with.

Searching Google Images using the phrase old portraits photography brought a wide range of photos. Lots of baby pics, some rather buxom and forward ladies, and a few good options for our game.

From a Fickr photostream by Rado

Portrait by old school portraitist Yousuf Karsh

The Daguerreotypes Collection from the Prints and Photographs Online Collection at the Library of Congress had some wonderful personalities, fey and intriguing. It is impossible not to wonder about these people; what they were like, how they sounded when they spoke, what they thought funny, what made them sad. Here are a few images from the LoC site:

Edwin Forest

Unidentified Woman in White Shawl

Junius Booth

Unidentified Man and Woman with Child

Unidentified Woman Sewing

The following image is from a collection of daguerreotypes held by the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan. The daguerrean (as he titled himself) was Thomas Easterly. This portrait is of more singular interest given its poignant beauty and Easterly's note on the back: "Equal'd by few." The woman is (Anna) Miriam Bailey, the woman Easterly married a year later. 

The Post That Was

Image source

I like email for all the reasons most folks do: speed and ease.  But when it comes to solid connections, I am a devoted letter writer.  I so enjoy images of postal people and activity of times past.  It reminds me that the fourth dimension of TIME goes in both directions - forward and back.  I see old letters and old images and I feel a connection with all the people who lived before.

The British Postal Museum and Archives has its own Flickr account.  Here are some images I especially like.  You can find the home page for the account here.

 

 

COOL BOOK: That's "Detective Dante" to You

A couple of weeks ago I posted a slightly worshipful appreciation of Dante's Divine Comedy that included a number of images inspired by the work over the centuries.  My Beloved Spousal Unit recently gave me a gift for my birthday, a copy of Seymour Chwast's Dante's Divine Comedy: A Graphic Adaptation.  It was my bedtime reading last night and this morning I am still chuckling.

Dante is portrayed as a kind of pulp, dime novel detective.  His guide Vergil wears the suit and spats of a Mafia Don. 

As a "translation" Chwast's version is hasty and, at best, floats along the very the surface of the plot.  But for all that, after all these years (almost 30) I finally found out what goes on in Book III: Paradiso, when Dante leaves Vergil behind and finds the redemptive light show of heaven; lead ever upward by his saintly former love, the divine Beatrice. Chwast's abbreviated style cuts through the glare of all the holiness and reveals what actually happens.  

Now I want to go back and try reading one of the "official" translations again, right through to the end, to see if I can see the story any better. 

I did something similar after reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.  Pullman's work had Milton's Paradise Lost as a primary inspiration.  I took two courses on Milton in grad school and could never manage to penetrate his often florid poetic style.  I tracked down a copy of Professor Dennis Danielson's Paradise Lost: Parallel Prose Edition. On one page is Milton's glorious, melodiously, intensely dense text.  On the opposite is a prose translation by Danielson which rings softly with it's own music and pith. 

What I found, as I found with Chwast and Dante, is a kind of tenderness with  regard for the human condition. People fail; they make mistakes; they are prideful and selfish.  But there is a winsome hopefulness: the last fluttering creature to emerge from Pandora's box.  The delicacy of its wings is misleading.  Hope is quiet but muscular in its effect.

Don't Wait Until They're Gone

Thanks to Phil Bradley, who posted this mod of this World War II bond poster at his Flickr stream. 

We (in the U.S.) are so used to thinking of libraries as free.  But they are that way only because they are a long-time civic-sponsored investment.  The notion that Google or The Net can easily replace libraries and books is short sighted.  Books are only a small part of what libraries are for.  Libraries (and the librarians, professionals who have earned advanced degrees in information value, history, documentation, and retrieval) are the link between us and our store of knowledge.  Because of libraries, we don't have to carry all our knowledge around in our heads. 

Close libraries and we close our selves, our minds, and our culture.  We deny access to the words, thoughts, and makings of all who came before; we close off the possibility of our descendants knowing us. 

These images were taken of the now-abandoned Mark Twain Branch of the Detroit Public Library system.  This is what it looks like when we give up supporting our libraries. See the rest of the images at this link.

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NOTE: There are many kinds of libraries, though many of us are most familiar with the Public Library.  Schools of all levels have them (Academic Libraries and School Media Libraries), and then are Special Libraries, a vast collection of library types that most of us are unaware of.  They are found in hospitals, theaters, industries of all kinds, museums, law firms, news firms, government departments large and small. While not are not typically open to the public for use (one can often request special access, though), Special Libraries house or maintain access to the deepest levels of our human past.

Cool Books: Early 20th Century Mysteries

World War I Recruitment Poster

[Image source]

I am working on a book about a book - written by a man born in the late 19th century who died in the early 20th century. There is something about that time period that I find so intriguing. Like now, it was a time of much change: the surge of new, never-seen-before machines, social unrest, intense international drama, new musical styles . . .

I've been reading mysteries set in that time period; all well-written.

The Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear.  The action is set shortly after World War I.  Dobbs was a nurse then - now she is a private detective.  Winspear's style can sometimes be a tad precious, but her sense of place and time is powerful as are her characters.

Touchstone (2007) is a stand-alone novel by Laurie R. King.  King is also the author of another series set in the early 20th century about Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell (Russell being Holmes' protege and young wife).  Touchstone is the dramatic tale of an American agent in England as he tries to track down an anarchist bomber.  King's sense of character is poignant and well-crafted.

Charles Todd is a mother-son author pair.  Test of Wills is the first in a long series involving Scotland Yard detective Ian Rutledge.  Rutledge suffers shell-shock from his time in the trenches and is haunted by the death of a soldier he had to kill. Rutledge, and Hamish - the man who troubles him - are fully fleshed out characters.  The stories are occasionally over-plotted, but believable nonetheless.

Times After

I'm a nut for dinosaurs.  I am often asked why.  It's not the animals themselves, though they are awesomely awesome.  It's the idea that dinosaurs are our very own extraterrestrials: our own alien species.  Our planet was their homeworld, and now they are no more.

At some point, it's likely another species will replace us on the Terra Homeworld.  I don't find that depressing.  It fills my imagination of what things will be like then in the same way I imagine, regarding dinosurs, what it their then was like.

The History Channel has been airing a series titled Life After People that explores the great "what ifs" about our homeworld after we've moved on.

The Washington Monument 500 years later - from Life After People.

Photographer and blogger James D. Griffioen has posted several poignant and evocative images series on houses and buildings after they've been abandoned.  Trees, vines, and all manner of greenery slowly reclaim  the structures.  You can listen to an interview with Griffioen at American Public Media's the story, April 14, 2009.

Author Alan Weisman has published a book titled The World Without Us (NY: Thomas Dunne Books, 2007; ISBN: 978-0312427900).  His website for the book has this description:

"In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us.In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; what of our everyday stuff may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe."

 

Portion of timeline featured on Weisman's website for The World Without Us.

VIDEO: Your House Without You

[from the YouTube description]: "In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us. In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; what of our everyday stuff may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe."

Fun and Glory and History

Although I grew up in a creative household, one that assumed "making stuff" was not only normal but expected, I still get jazzed when I do some makies that have an historic element to them.  In this instance, the history involved canning tomatoes using jars that my mother used when we were kids and her mother used on The Farm.  I'm guessing some of the jars in my stash go back 80+ years.  Add to that the canning kettle that I found at Goodwill (for a mere $6.99!).  It was dinged in places and a tad rusty - clearly it had been used for some years.

The tomatoes came from a pick-your-own farm near north of here that's provided acres of well-grown vegetables for a couple of decades now.  Since The Farm has long since been sold, goodbye to the massive vegetable and fruit garden my grandparents kept each year; and since the grape vines that grew in our backyard when I was a kid met their maker over 40 years ago. . . this vendor farm is near and dear to my culinary heart.

So that was my day today: washing, coring, blanching, peeling, 'jarring', and hot-water-processing 18 quarts of tomatoes.  Is it the best thing I ever did?  Not really.  Does the world stop to notice?  No way, and why would it?  But do I feel like I stepped into History with my makings?  Oh yeah, a very big yeah!  Some personal fun and glory is what went down today. 

  

hey! it's been a lovely day! everything is going my way

i had so much fun today and i'm on fire

god it's been a lovely day everything's been going my way

ever since you went away hey i'm on fire.....

i'm on fire...

i'm on fire...

so you don't want to hear about my good day?

~~ from the song "Good Day" by Amanda Palmer