I’ve doubled-down on my research investment, purchasing several items, including a surprisingly clean copy of a rare atlas from 1875. There's a lot more to it than what historicmapworks.com shows, and I really can't be arsed to get to NYC or Philly (if Philly even has a copy) just to get glimpses at the data I want. Besides, they have all sorts of limitations on the material's use, but now that I have an original copy, I can decide my own limitations, and have all rights. It cost an arm and a leg, but it was worth it. It falls neatly between Federal Census years, and lists landowners, names of businesses and restaurants, and has a number of other intriguing details to help fill out the portrait...
An idea of how rare this atlas is? I have it, but ancestry.com does not, and I come up empty when Googling for auctions for it. The crazy stuff you'll turn up on ebay on a lark. :)
I also picked up a copy of "Missie" (1947) by Annie Fern Swartwout -- a niece of Annie Oakley's who traveled with her for a time as her assistant. It's said to be fact and myth in equal measure, but it may provide some good flavor. I'd tried to get a cheap copy, but someone sniped me, so I bit at a signed copy w/dustjacket. Probably didn't get any other bids because the seller labeled it poorly, not even mentioning Annie Oakley in the heading, so even if it's absolutely horrible, I can turn it around for an easy $25-50 dollar profit when I want, likely more. Similar copies have gone for more than twice what I paid, so I'm pleased.
I’d only received Walter Havighurst's book the week prior but it has probably proved the most useful when looking for a style from which to take inspiration. The man's got a way with words and really nails dialect and accent. Plus, he cites Annie talking about a family she’d stayed with in terms I’d not heard before, reminding me that there’s still some personal writing of hers I’ve got to track down.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
New York Public Library, OCRs and whatnot...
I hit the Schwarzmann Building (Milstein and Map Divisions) last week in NYC, and had a chance to examine:
History of Darke County, Frazer Ellis Wilson, 1914
The History of Darke County, W.H. Beers, 1880
The Biographical History of Darke County, 1900
The two former were most useful, the third very little. I've since procured OCR (optical character recognition) versions of the two I found useful, but let me warn any who would attempt similar: OCRs are crap. Optical Character Recognition technology is hit-and-miss. These versions, unedited, are rife with blatant typos, making them difficult to make sense of in some places. "N" is sometimes translated as "X". "W"s as quotation marks. If anything is to be made of them beyond the notes I already made in NYC, they'll have to be cross-referenced with online resources to guard against error. Pity that proper editing for these isn't deemed profitable. Clean modern reprints would be incredibly useful among the history-nut group.
The Map Division was rather less useful. Any images they make for me would prove unnecessarily expensive, and would grant no rights to reproduction. I know that once this work is finished, any rights to reproduction would be procured by the publishing house, but I like to have everything done myself. Little control freak in me, I guess.
I have a bid in for a copy of Swartwout's "Missie" on eBay. Swartwout was Annie's niece and accompanied her as an assistant overseas. The book is said to be truth and fiction in equal measure, but I'm welcoming such versions at this point. I want to see the apocrypha of Annie as well as the truth, and see what was skillfully woven, what was not, and what territory remains untread. I already have an interesting account for children, by Ellen Wilson, circa 1958.
And, watching "America: The Story of Us" tonight, I've learned that "milk-sickness" was caused by livestock eating white snakeroot, which injured not only the livestock, but also human consumers of the milk with its toxicity. Very useful, even though the cause of milk sickness wasn't recognized until well after the period I'm researching.
History of Darke County, Frazer Ellis Wilson, 1914
The History of Darke County, W.H. Beers, 1880
The Biographical History of Darke County, 1900
The two former were most useful, the third very little. I've since procured OCR (optical character recognition) versions of the two I found useful, but let me warn any who would attempt similar: OCRs are crap. Optical Character Recognition technology is hit-and-miss. These versions, unedited, are rife with blatant typos, making them difficult to make sense of in some places. "N" is sometimes translated as "X". "W"s as quotation marks. If anything is to be made of them beyond the notes I already made in NYC, they'll have to be cross-referenced with online resources to guard against error. Pity that proper editing for these isn't deemed profitable. Clean modern reprints would be incredibly useful among the history-nut group.
The Map Division was rather less useful. Any images they make for me would prove unnecessarily expensive, and would grant no rights to reproduction. I know that once this work is finished, any rights to reproduction would be procured by the publishing house, but I like to have everything done myself. Little control freak in me, I guess.
I have a bid in for a copy of Swartwout's "Missie" on eBay. Swartwout was Annie's niece and accompanied her as an assistant overseas. The book is said to be truth and fiction in equal measure, but I'm welcoming such versions at this point. I want to see the apocrypha of Annie as well as the truth, and see what was skillfully woven, what was not, and what territory remains untread. I already have an interesting account for children, by Ellen Wilson, circa 1958.
And, watching "America: The Story of Us" tonight, I've learned that "milk-sickness" was caused by livestock eating white snakeroot, which injured not only the livestock, but also human consumers of the milk with its toxicity. Very useful, even though the cause of milk sickness wasn't recognized until well after the period I'm researching.
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