Tag Archives: family

H697 Image Assignment

18 Sunday Mar 2012

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My page for the image assignment is up.

I mention this on the page itself, but I don’t seem to be able to do restoration work on old photographs without darkening them considerably. If you look at my last post, where I worked with a photograph of Dora S. Devol, you’ll see what I mean. If anyone has insight into what I’m probably doing wrong, I’d be much obliged. My father has digitized a large number of old family photos and it would be nice to be able to clean some of them up without losing the fine detail that I find so interesting.

My subjects, if we ignore the oak tree, are both women. Well, a woman and a girl.

I enjoyed finding a whole trove of photos of southern suffragettes in the collection of American Memory. My favorite was really Sue S. White, Chairman of the Tennessee National Woman’s Party, who is wearing a jail door pin. However, I could not figure out what was going on with the background discoloration (was it originally the dark or light streak?) and so I gave up on the photo. My North Carolina woman, Virginia Arnold, is wearing a snazzy pinstripe number, and has the added benefit of representing my native state.

The girl whose photograph I colorized is the same person from my last post here: Isadora Dean Scott Devol. She shows up in census records as Dora, but her name really was Isadora, after her mother. She is my great-great grandmother, grew up in New Orleans, and was a very pretty young girl. Now that I have the hang of colorizing, I may bring new hues to some of my other ancestors.

Edited to add: I have commented on David and Richard’s posts.

H697 Playing with Photoshop

04 Sunday Mar 2012

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Original image of Dora Devol, ca. 1910s

Original

Lest you think my work this past week for H697 has been entirely intellectual, I have been playing around with some old family photos in Photoshop. I did not scan these: my dad has been very conscientious about scanning family pictures and putting them on flickr for the extended family.

So here is one of the photos I messed around with – a picture of my grandfather’s grandmother (I think), Dora Dean Scott Devol. I cropped out most of damaged border, given that it was just border and not vital to the image.

Edited

My edited version has lost some of the detail. Somehow the fabric of her dress doesn’t seem to be as clear in the edited version. Moreover, it all got darker, despite my best intentions. Part of the problem was figuring out how to lighten the background without over-exposing the neck and décolletage. I need to go back through the lynda videos to refresh my thinking. Even watching them in half-hour chunks, I get confused about when to use which tool. Oh, for a book with pictures rather than a video with separate transcript.

The Donor Side

23 Saturday Jul 2011

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This past week I participated in the museum donation process from the other side – the donor side. My father was donating some of the papers of his father and grandfather to a military museum, and my sister and I joined him.

The initial meeting with members of the collections and research departments was relatively familiar to me, having witnessed it happening in my own department when I was at the historic house museum. They explained the process of accession – slightly different from what I was used to – and we talked about the content and history of the 2 trunks, display table, and assorted files and scrapbooks. They were very excited about some of the material, and sensitive to the fact that it was sort of hard for us to let it all go. They are, however, going to digitize everything, and we’ll get a pdf of the finding aid once it’s complete.

The best part of it all, however, wasn’t even on the original itenerary. Dad of course mentioned that I had just worked in a curatorial department, which led to some friendly colleague chat with the research guys. They suggested that, after visiting my great-grandfather’s aircraft (undergoing restoration), we visit their office building, also the collections storage site. Continue reading »

My Grandfather

17 Tuesday Aug 2010

Posted by in 20th century, 21st century, family

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My paternal grandfather died on Saturday. He turned 87 at the beginning of this month.

I’m doing my best not to focus on the loss, on the fact that (more than likely) whoever I marry will never have met my wonderful grandfather, and think instead about what time I did have with him. After all, my maternal grandfather died when I was about four years old, and my memories of him are limited to an impression of pale plaid and beige, of the smell of pipe tobacco, and an overall sense of being loved. Which is wonderful, but different from the memories of a man who I knew for almost thirty years.

My grandfather was a living connection to the events of the 20th century. Not just for me – a few years ago he sent me a clipping from his local paper, talking about the travelling portion of the Vietnam Memorial Wall and how Vietnam vets were talking with the junior high kids, helping them to understand the reality of that history. My grandfather was named in the article, and his picture was there too. I have that clipping somewhere. He loved talking about history, whether it was his, our family’s, or the world’s.

Continue reading »

Short take on the news: shared beds

09 Wednesday Sep 2009

Posted by in community, General, Social

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There’s a story on the BBC today wherein a Doctor suggests that married couples not share a bed because sleeping apart is healthier. The article says “Dr Stanley, who sleeps separately from his wife, points out that historically we were never meant to share our beds. He said the modern tradition of the marital bed only began with the industrial revolution, when people moving to overcrowded towns and cities found themselves short of living space”.

I think someone needs to read a little social history.  Especially if he thinks the only time people have ever shared beds was as a married couple.

I remember when I was research women’s roles in war in Scotland (and Europe) for one of my grad seminars and read an essay about women’s units in Britain during WWII.[1] The administrators (upper and middle class urbanites) were concerned about what they saw as lesbianism among the women in the barracks; these women were from rural, less wealthy families and as one of them pointed out later, they had never had their own bed. Many of them were sharing a bed not in a romantic or sexual way but because they were so unused to sleeping alone they could not sleep at all.

I appreciate that people have the option to sleep seperately or alone, but one would hope that when you start making historical defenses for your scientific theories, you would actually understand the history…

1 I believe the essay was in A soldier and a woman : sexual integration in the military – it may have been the DeGroot article.

Tartan societies

19 Sunday Apr 2009

Posted by in America, organizations, Scotland, Social

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Today I attended the Washington DC St Andrews Society’s Kirkin of the Tartans. As the page from the Tartan Museum points out, it’s a very Scottish-American (and 20th century) tradition. I went with my father, who is a member of the DC St Andrew’s Society as well as Clan Scott USA.

I have to admit, as much as I love going out with my family to these events to watch people celebrate their heritage(s), but as a historian of (among other things) Scottish history, it’s a little difficult as well. The notion of “clans” and “tartans” which are discussed and celebrated at these events are generally a-historical. Tartans as we know them today (and as they are actively marketed in every major tourist town in Scotland) as “clan” identifier are an invention of the early 19th century. Plaids and tartans were worn, but not regimented in the way they are now. Every time I go to one of these gatherings, I think of the Sobieski Stuarts,a pair of English men who claimed to be related to Charles Edward Stuart and marketed the “Vestiarium Scoticum” a ‘reproduction’ of an ‘ancient text of clan tartans’ (it was all a con).  Not to mention the fact that half the “clans” are for Lowland and Borders families, whose ancestors would not have worn a kilt or had a clan in the highland sense.

I was sitting today in the gorgeous National Cathedral, thinking about all of this while we waited for the event to begin, and my mind wandered to the recent discussion of fraternaties at Historiann.com. The St Andrews Society of Washington, DC, is a charitable organization open only to men. It began in the 19th century, and incoporates the St Andrews Society of Alexandria, which was founded in the 1790s. I suddenly realized that this isn’t so much about History and Heritage (although the play a role) as much as it is about people’s continual need to make social groups of some kind. The St A’s Soc is a survivor of a sort of group which used to exist much more commonly – the (relatively) exclusive charitable organization. Clan Societies are a way of sharing an interest in Heritage, but perhaps also about constructing family groups in a time when so many genetic families are scattered.

I’m sure I’ve missed some facts or relevant comparisons – social clubs in america are not something I’ve ever conciously studied. On the other hand, with this insight, I’m now ready to face a Highland Games festival with a lighter heart.