Archives can be fun
After a Saturday spent inside tweaking my fellowship application (be sure to read all the way to the end of that clause, friends), I really needed a bit of a release on Sunday. I started with dim sum with H, at this fantabulous dim sum place in Docklands. At 1 I met up with my housemate J, and spent the rest of the day walking around East London. (In my Housemate Venn Diagram, J is in the "Welsh" circle, but not in the "dancer" circle.) We started at Dennis Sever's house, a "still life drama" which is too bizarre for words, and which J had had sex in. Like, in the museum, after hours, with the caretaker. This lent the experience and extra frisson. We also went to the Geffrye Museum, the Whitechapel Gallery, Christ Church Spittalfields, Spittalfields Market, and Brick Lane. Oh and for lunch we had pho, which made me ever so nostalgic. No, it wasn't as good at Pho An Dao on East 18th and Lakeshore, in case you were wondering. But it was still a wonderful, wonderful day.
Today I met the other archivist at the Royal Academy, the one who controls the documents. I spent most of the day pouring over the Minutes of the Directors' meetings, which was more interesting than you might imagine. There's not all that much to report, but I can see a picture beginning to build up. And, frankly, there is a thrill to doing what feels like "real" archival work -- the minutes exist only in manuscript, have never been edited or indexed, etc. There really is something about having seen the original. I mean, I already knew that Garcia was appointed as a professor on 10 November 1848, but now I've seen the place where someone wrote, on the 10th of November, "M. Garcia was appointed today..." It's seductive, in a way.
Oddly, the letters in the RAM collection are of negligible interest, but I have several more leads. (Where all the letters Sterling-Mackinlay cites have ended up is as mysterious as ever.) The archival work suddenly seems much bigger than I thought, but I'm trying to stay focused on what the chapter will look like. We'll see.
Today I met the other archivist at the Royal Academy, the one who controls the documents. I spent most of the day pouring over the Minutes of the Directors' meetings, which was more interesting than you might imagine. There's not all that much to report, but I can see a picture beginning to build up. And, frankly, there is a thrill to doing what feels like "real" archival work -- the minutes exist only in manuscript, have never been edited or indexed, etc. There really is something about having seen the original. I mean, I already knew that Garcia was appointed as a professor on 10 November 1848, but now I've seen the place where someone wrote, on the 10th of November, "M. Garcia was appointed today..." It's seductive, in a way.
Oddly, the letters in the RAM collection are of negligible interest, but I have several more leads. (Where all the letters Sterling-Mackinlay cites have ended up is as mysterious as ever.) The archival work suddenly seems much bigger than I thought, but I'm trying to stay focused on what the chapter will look like. We'll see.
posted by Grrg at 9:37 PM
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