Transcription

Smithsonian Magazine

No, I haven't taken up medical transcription, though it might be easier to decipher than what I have started working on. With gardening done for the season, except for leaf raking which will go on the rest of this month, I needed something to fill that outdoor time. I’m still knitting kitty blankets for a local cat rescue, volunteering at a nearby food bank, and working on my third book. 

I looked around for another "project" to work on, and recalled an article in Smithsonian magazine about the National Archives needing people who can read cursive to help translate documents. (Article linked at the top of this page.)

Citizen Archivist 

This article describes the Citizen Archivist program. The dashboard page has several videos to help volunteers get started and I watched those before signing up. I quickly learned that being able to read cursive isn’t enough—one especially needs to be able to read some really bad handwriting and often on faded documents. 

Starting with the shortest, most legible pages I could find, I worked on a situation just after the emancipation in Georgia. Other documents were about deporting Chinese laborers who were in the country illegally in the early 1900s. These latter papers were a sad reminder of the state of affairs today, but also led me to learn more about the history at these times.

Then I discovered typewritten documents that also need transcription in order to help researchers who use these archives. Not only is this work giving me a way to contribute to the National Archives mission, but I’m learning intimate details about history.

This hurts my eyes and brain!

I’m still unable to help with the spidery, faded documents and tagging the photos and drawings is more advanced than I care to do yet. Tagging involves describing what is in a photo, such as names of people, places, and description of an activity depicted. 

I'm happy to contribute a page or two every few days, and delighted that cursive penmanship classes decades ago are proving useful.

Source

 

 

Uncovering the Past

 

I did it!

While this post isn't entirely about an archaeological project, it does involve uncovering a project I’d abandoned a year ago. I adore felted ornaments with hand-sewn decorations and I purchased a Bucilla kit containing twelve of them last year. I immediately encountered two problems.

 

First, I find it very difficult to sit still for any length of time. Second, the instructions, while intended to be simple and basic, couldn’t have been more difficult for me to understand than trying to decrypt Viking runes. Fortunately, YouTube had instructional videos that helped me decipher the "simple" steps and sewing stitches needed.

 

So how did I finally resume this project? Archaeological videos, especially Digging for Britain. Most people probably listen to music or movies while crafting, but I love the ancient past and it is what kept me seated long enough to finish all these ornaments in just a few weeks.

 

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1963-1208-126

Hand sewing has a long tradition, a wonderful connection to the past. Imagine the labor that went into creating thread in antiquity—shear the sheep, card the wool, then use a hand whorl to get the final product. Many of these spindle whorls (photo at right) have been found in ancient burials.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Brooch

 While struggling to do the different stitches, I found it amazing to see the fine metalwork from these late 8th or early 9th century brooches. As difficult as spinning thread would have been, imagine doing something just as delicate with metal! Let’s not forget the metals had to be extracted from rocks, refined, cast, and finally hand-worked by an experienced craftsman.

 

Watching the archaeology videos made the work so enjoyable that I plan to do another embroidery kit later this year. First, there are other crafts to learn and make.

 

 

 

 

Roadtripping for Research

North Cascades Highway

Last month we took a road trip around the north Cascades highway. The trip allowed me a great opportunity to do historical research for my next book by way of small town museums. The first stop was Sedro-Woolley, a town far north of Seattle, established in late 1898. What an education this was!

According to the museum in Sedro-Woolley, outdoor privies were often relocated and then used as trash dumps. A lot can be learned about history from digging up these pits. Pottery, utensils, old bottles of many varieties, pistols, shoes, buckets, decorative household pieces, and tools were disposed in privies. Why my interest? I was going to have my protagonist avoid an old outhouse while searching property that had belonged to her family for over 100 years, but now this might be a way for her to dig up history. At the very least it deserves a mention in the story. Hmmm….

https://www.omventure.com/blog/mazama-store-in-mazama-washington

The next little community was Mazama founded around 1900. I fell in love with this little “town” tucked into the north Cascade mountains. While the community consists of just a handful of buildings, it's rustic and provided an experience of what a small pioneer town would look like. I’d love to live here if the gardening season weren’t so short. 😀
 
Another excellent example of old northwestern towns is Winthrop,

https://www.travelyesplease.com/travel-blog-winthrop-washington/

WA. The sidewalks are still boardwalk and all of the stores feature old western fronts. Due to the timing of our visit, I had to satisfy my museum interest with an online visit to the Shafer Historical Museum. It’s a town I hope we can visit again when everything is open.

I brought home two books about the history of life in small towns in the early 1900s. This information will aid my research of the historical period in my dual timeline story. While we can read about history, dig it up, and view artifacts, sometimes all this information raises more questions than answers about the past.



 

Digging in the Wrong Country

 

The Scotsman

Scottish Highlands

My recent enjoyment of dual timeline novels has involved two stories set in Scotland, a place I'd never given much thought to. Until now. Were I to consider travel again, the lush forests, high
mountains, and especially, castle ruins in Scotland are high on my list of places to visit.

This new fascination with early and medieval castles led me to search for YouTube videos of Scottish archaeology and castles. I also found a trove of archaeological videos produced by Britain’s Time Team. Oh, the finds waiting in the dirt! Time Team videos highlight relics from the iron age up to the 18th century. Imagine the excitement of such treasures and putting hard evidence together with written documents. I certainly can!

The Grouville (Jersey) Hoard.

There have been many stories of incredible archaeological finds by amateur metal detectorists as well. This hoard, for example, of more than 69,000 Iron Age and Roman coins found in the UK.

 

And even more impressive are the Sutton Hoo finds, also found in the UK, which consist of more than coins and jewelry. Below is a 6th - 7th century iron sword found there.

British Museum

Source

As a child I loved looking for fossils. So much so that recess often found me scraping through the dirt on a steep slope at my elementary school. I had success too. Though, my finds consisted only of tiny fossils like these crinoids. Not as impressive as Roman relics. 😏

No matter where I dig in the US, it's highly unlikely I'll ever come across a Roman coin. Though I'm searching in the wrong country if I long to uncover such exciting finds, perhaps one day I'll have the chance to visit magnificent ruins.

Time Split

 

Unsplash

Some of us would love to see the future. Others want to know the past. I’m in the latter group, fascinated by how people lived in ancient Rome, medieval Europe, and as they settled the United States.

Through this fascination I stumbled upon what is now my favorite kind of book: the time split or dual timeline. This type of story is in the point of view of a present day protagonist, and alternates with glimpses into the past. Chapters alternate between present day questions and historical clues. Both reader and characters discover how the past shaped the present. 

Thames

My absolute favorite time split book is The Lost Apothecary, by Sarah Penner. The present day story begins with mudlarking in the Thames where the protagonist discovers a small blue bottle lodged in the muck.

 

As the story alternates between past and present, the protagonist researches in the Bodleian and learns the history behind the blue bottle. It’s a wonderful blend of how finding the lost apothecary leads the protagonist to find her own truth. Pouring through archives, old diaries, and city records sounds romantic to me. 💓

I grew up in the country and one of my fondest memories is coming across an old cabin in the woods. Digging through the remains, I found silverware, broken jars, and a child’s tiny tea set. I wanted to know who lived here, what were their lives like, where did they go? It was only as an adult that I would learn how to research county records, genealogy, and newspapers as far back as a town had preserved them.

This memory led to a story I wrote last year, but only in the present time. As I learn more about writing the time split genre, the story will be revised to include chapters set the past. I'm excited to create a history for my old cabin and weave its story into my protagonist's present life. Who knows what she and I will dig up?

Unsplash

 

Travel Through the Pages ~ Lexa Fisher

 

 

Photo by Jake Blucker on Unsplash

 

While I no longer feel comfortable traveling, I can still visit the places I'd love to see by reading books set in those locations. 

I love books that allow me to walk down the streets, feel the weather on my skin, smell the roses, bougainvillea, or orange blossoms.

No longer having a daily commute, I  have nearly two more hours a day to indulge in exploring new genres and finding new authors to follow.

In addition to traveling to new places through books, I can also travel to times I'd love to visit. My current work in progress has backstory in the late 19th century and my research involves reading not only fictional stories set in this time, but also reading historical accounts of how people lived back then.

Online newspapers going back to the early 19th century have been extremely helpful. Products that were advertised, recipes, and small town news stories paint a detailed picture of daily life and help me create a more immersive story.

 

 

 

 

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

 

Another route I've traveled is down memory lane.This trip helps me add greater detail to my work in progress. What were my grandmothers' kitchens like, their gardens, their basements? The latter were always terrifying to this young child with their low ceilings, dim lighting, and cobwebs everywhere, heavy with dust.

Everywhere I've traveled through the books I've read this past year has been from the comfort of my own home, no reservations needed. I only need time to make a warm drink and settle in with my wonderful travel companion--Miss Bridgett. She's quite happy to sit beside me in a rocking chair as I journey through the pages.

 

Medieval Monastic Female Scribes by Lexa Fisher

Christine de Pisan, 1407 (Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain)

When we think of medieval monastic scribes it's likely that a tonsured male figure comes to mind. But women were also scribes! There are written records of this, such as necrologies that identify these women, and archaeological evidence that also points to these female artists.

The latest evidence to surface is the discovery of lapis lazuli in the teeth of a female monastic who lived at the monastery at Dalheim between 997 and 1162.

Why is this discovery of lapis lazuli in a nun's teeth so remarkable? This pigment was quite rare and therefore only the best artists were allowed access. Its use by female scribes indicates that they were just as highly skilled as their male counterparts.

 Silk repaired manuscript

In many ways, female and male scribes did the same work of copying manuscripts by hand onto parchment or velum sheets, most often using black ink made from oak galls. Nuns and monks also used rare pigments and gold leaf in manuscripts. But it is only in nunneries where we find silk threads used to repair manuscripts.

Alison on the right.

I became interested in female scribes during my Latin studies in college. One summer I was fortunate to have been admitted to a summer program on codicology (the study of old books) and paleography (the study of old handwriting) at Oxford University. There, I met Alison Beach, a fellow student who is now a professor of history at University of Saint Andrews. Alison has a blog on medieval female scribes at http://scriptrix.org/

While at Oxford we were allowed access to the Bodleian library. Access first required a swearing in (in Latin) by a robed librarian and signing of a pledge to treat the books with utmost care. Each item we wanted to view had to be brought from a storage area--no wandering the stacks here! All codices had to be handled while wearing white cotton gloves, and the pages were held open by beads resembling rosaries. It was a religious experience for our class of twelve, all who happened to be women.

Image from Wikipedia

During a weekend trip to London we visited the British library and were treated to a viewing of manuscripts written entirely on purple-dye vellum -- a Codex Purpureus. Purple dye came from snails found in the Mediterranean and was highly valuable. To have an entire book written on purple-dyed vellum was truly a rare treasure, and even rarer to have examples of these books today.

With the plethora of books so readily available to us today, it's easy to forget how precious these volumes were throughout history, and how much labor was required to produce them.

Heirlooms~ Gifts from our Ancestors ~ by Lori Crecelius Roberts

I love history. I’m a history geek and claim it. I’ve always loved antiques for as long as I can remember. Through the years, I’ve been blessed to have in my possession many heirlooms from my family. As a historian, I see the value in those items that were part of my ancestors’ lives.


My father’s ancestors came to America from Germany in 1764. For as long as I can remember, the stories about their emigrating to first Philadelphia and then to picturesque eastern Tennessee in the 1780s piqued my curiosity. It’s no wonder the genealogy bug bit me at a young age.

My grandmother and I spent many hours talking about the family. She and my grandfather lived on the same home place that my great-great-great-grandfather and grandmother lived before Indiana became a state in 1816.  

As an author, the names and stories passed down through my grandmother and family members have found their way into the pages of my novels. The items from their past appear in the scenes of my stories.

I use family names in my stories as well. In my latest book, the main characters are my Crecelius ancestors who came to America from Reichelsheim, Germany in 1764.

My grandfather’s pipe from the early twentieth century was the first heirloom I received. It still has the smell of the tobacco inside. A shaving mug and brush, razor and strap, land deeds, and family Bibles are treasures that I hope to pass down someday. 

My great-great-great-grandmother’s spinning wheel that traveled from the mountains of eastern Tennessee to the hills of southern Indiana remained in the homestead until the 1960s when it spent the next fifty years with my aunt. Upon her death, the heirloom was passed to me. 

A cast iron bean pot that also came to Indiana was used during the 1700s and placed in the fireplace of the Indiana homestead. It stayed with my mother and father until this year. 

Slowly, items from the first generation in America have found their way to me. Perhaps it is fitting and proper, one who loves family history should be the keeper of the heirlooms. The items can only be enjoyed by those who see their value.