Letter #4: Man of Action

Letter #4: Man of Action

I'm continuing my series of scanning, transcribing, and annotating my grandfather's love letters to my grandmother leading up to their marriage in June 1940. The letters are chronologically organized and preserved, using the methods I discuss in detail in my book, Creating Family Archives: How to Preserve Your Papers and Photographs

In his fourth letter, Grandpa seems to be all business. He's getting used to working in the factory and is looking forward to taking on new projects and learning new skills. He seems a bit distracted by the amount of work that's ahead of him. I think it's his way of saying that he's working very hard and earning as much money as he can. It seems odd that the check would be sent home to his father, but perhaps that was because Grandpa had just gotten settled into his boarding house. 

Letter #3: Sweeter Than Sweet

Letter #3: Sweeter Than Sweet

I'm continuing my series of scanning, transcribing, and annotating my grandfather's love letters to my grandmother leading up to their marriage in June 1940. The letters are chronologically organized and preserved, using the methods I discuss in detail in my book, Creating Family Archives: How to Preserve Your Papers and Photographs

In Grandpa's third letter, he's feeling homesick. The weather is bad, he's breaking out, his money may run out, and the theater in town doesn't compare to the one at home. 

How to Analyze Historic Photographs

How to Analyze Historic Photographs

Photographs contain a wealth of information, but you need to build your visual literacy to extract clues. The social history context that photographs provide is especially important for groups who have historically not been represented in text-based archival collections, such as women or people of color. I've gathered some of the techniques I use when conducting historical analysis of photographs.

Letter #2: Getting Settled

Letter #2: Getting Settled

I'm continuing my series of scanning, transcribing, and annotating my grandfather's love letters to my grandmother leading up to their marriage in June 1940. chronologically organized and preserved in archival-quality folders, using the methods I discuss in detail in my book, Creating Family Archives: How to Preserve Your Papers and Photographs

In this letter, Grandpa is getting settled in Scranton during his first week there. When he's not working at the factory, he's eating out, playing pool, shopping, and going to the movies. He also attends church, which he made sure to include in his letter because my grandma would've approved. Nice play, Grandpa!

Letter #1: Arriving in Scranton

Letter #1: Arriving in Scranton

From January to June 1940, my paternal grandparents corresponded with each other until they were married. I only have the letters that my grandfather sent my grandmother, which have been chronologically organized and preserved in archival-quality folders, using the methods I discuss in detail in my book, Creating Family Archives: How to Preserve Your Papers and Photographs

Organizing a Zine Collection

Organizing a Zine Collection

A zine (short for magazine or fanzine) is a small-circulation, self-published work. Zines come in a variety of styles: photocopied, printed on cheap paper, or professionally printed. They could and were about any topic imaginable. My favorites were the punk and true crime-related ones. Extreme Noise in Minneapolis had a free zine bin that I happily dig through every time I visited and I'd leave with the most interesting ones. Zines were particularly popular in the mid- to late-1990s, and were later replaced by blogs and social media.