This Sleeth project is becoming more and more like a logic puzzle. I've finally started in on the dreaded newspaper clippings. Thousands upon thousands (and that's no exaggeration) of Dana's newspaper column, all undated, from at least five different newspapers (also unknown).
And now it's my job to sort them all out. I'm not going for total chronology--that would just be crazy and impossible. Instead, I'm shooting for a date range of about a year. I'm basing my conjecture on a few different things:
1) dates found on the opposite side of the paper-- Luckily for me, the Spokane Press ran Dana's column with the legal notices on the reverse of the paper.
2) dates sometimes copyrighted for advertisements
3) dates occasionally included in the clipping, along with the name of the paper
4) dates from advertisements for movies. Oh International Movie Database, how you've helped me out. Sometimes the only way I can even come close to guessing a date is from the advertisement for the Saturday matinee.
I'm also getting quite good at matching typeface, different pictures of Dana, boxes and formats, all which indicate which newspaper carried the column. It will never be perfect, and I'm sure that they're hopelessly out of order, but the important thing is the content, not the date. For now, circa is as good as I can hope for.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Eugenia
I've moved past Mattie Sleeth, and moved on to Dana's wife, Eugenia. She only has a few things, tossed in the back of the box, all in a mess. Clearly, she was not seen as the important figure of the family. But for me, this has been a fascinating afternoon. There are several gaps in her folder, and her life seems to jump from her high school report cards, to letters from her son Marshall, to letters of condolence. Eugenia's papers illustrate, better than anything I could ever write, the extraordinary difficulty historians have studying women's history. People often choose to keep things based on what they consider to be "history." And for the majority of American history, that definition hasn't included women's history. Unlike Dana, whose every scrap of paper was carefully preserved, Eugenia's noteworthy information included report cards, a few scraps of paper from her husband and son (not her daughter, notably), and letters from people on the death of her husband. Undoubtedly, she wrote letters back to her husband and her son, and her daughter. Undoubtedly, there was an obituary upon her death. But no one thought to keep it, like they did with Dana.
So when reconstructing her past, it's incredibly difficult, and usually done in the relief of her husband and son's past. It's what we historians call "oblique" history-- looking for a story, not by looking at your subject, but looking past it, looking around it, looking at the shadow it casts on the wall of the cave.
So in shifting through what was kept,it's a bleak picture that's painted. Hidden amongst the letters of condolences from a senator from Washington, the Scripps family, and old friends, was a newspaper clipping, advocating a new way of treating burns using tannic acid. And thinking about Eugenia, who just lost her husband far too young of extensive burns, clipping out that article, leaves the impression of a grieving woman, whose voice has been lost in history.
So when reconstructing her past, it's incredibly difficult, and usually done in the relief of her husband and son's past. It's what we historians call "oblique" history-- looking for a story, not by looking at your subject, but looking past it, looking around it, looking at the shadow it casts on the wall of the cave.
So in shifting through what was kept,it's a bleak picture that's painted. Hidden amongst the letters of condolences from a senator from Washington, the Scripps family, and old friends, was a newspaper clipping, advocating a new way of treating burns using tannic acid. And thinking about Eugenia, who just lost her husband far too young of extensive burns, clipping out that article, leaves the impression of a grieving woman, whose voice has been lost in history.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Back on the History Track
So travel blogging has taken a break for the moment in favor of my current hopelessness.
I finished the Dana Sleeth collection earlier today, and boy does that feel good. In some strange way, putting all our hard work into one easy to access finding aid feels as though we have put Dana into an easy to access, easy to understand format.
This couldn't be further from the truth of course, but it's a nice thought. Here's what I wrote about Dana in the biographical sketch for the aid:
"Dana Sleeth was a fiery, polemical muckraker of the early 20th century. He was on February 22, 1878 in Boonesborough, Iowa. As the son of two fire and brimstone Methodists, he left home at a young age to become one of the most progressive newspaper editors in the country, presiding over a domain from Los Angeles to Seattle. He was editor of the Peoples Press and the Portland News from 1906 to 1915. While at the Portland News, he brought to light a homosexual sex scandal at the YMCA involving some of Portland’s most important political leaders. He was soon approached by E.W. Scripps to edit the Los Angeles Record, where, by 1916, he successfully agitated for the resignation of Mayor Charles Sebastian and the city council of Los Angeles.
From the hills of Scappoose, Oregon, Sleeth, writing under the pseudonym of Hill Billy, brought a well-articulated workingman’s opinion to an increasingly capitalistic society. Sleeth wrote on subjects both pedestrian and philosophical and gained the loyalty of readers across the West. Along with letters from hundreds of fans, Sleeth garnered the attention of such notables as Upton Sinclair, Margaret Sanger and even Eleanor Roosevelt. He was consistently engaged in local and national politics and kept up a steady correspondence with some of the West Coast’s most prominent politicians. His untimely death, at the age of 56, marked the end of an generation of newsmen unafraid to relentlessly champion the values of the common man."
And yet there is so much more that I want to mention and discuss. Though there is never enough space to talk about what an interesting man he is.
But that's not why I'm hopeless. The finishing of the Dana project means moving on to his mother, Mattie. From a feminist point of view, she's the far more interesting character. Here's some of her firsts: She was a Methodist preacher before they had forms for female preachers, and had to cross out "he" and write "she".
She was the president of the Oregon WCTU. She was the first female juror in Oregon.
And her collection is significantly smaller than her son's.
And yet.
All of her stuff has been pre "oreganized" by someone. I put organized in quotes, because it's not a system I understand or care for. And there are photocopies of everything! Multiples! Unlike Dana, some one's already been here, and I feel odd throwing that all out the window, but I need to buck up and do it. It's hard to assert your historical authority (to a dead woman, to boot) when you are going up against some one who has a personal understanding of the whole collection. It's funny how I have no problem arguing my point amongst my fellow student historians, but now, I can't seem to take charge.
Or maybe it's just kinda dull and gray outside, and I really just don't have much motivation.
I finished the Dana Sleeth collection earlier today, and boy does that feel good. In some strange way, putting all our hard work into one easy to access finding aid feels as though we have put Dana into an easy to access, easy to understand format.
This couldn't be further from the truth of course, but it's a nice thought. Here's what I wrote about Dana in the biographical sketch for the aid:
"Dana Sleeth was a fiery, polemical muckraker of the early 20th century. He was on February 22, 1878 in Boonesborough, Iowa. As the son of two fire and brimstone Methodists, he left home at a young age to become one of the most progressive newspaper editors in the country, presiding over a domain from Los Angeles to Seattle. He was editor of the Peoples Press and the Portland News from 1906 to 1915. While at the Portland News, he brought to light a homosexual sex scandal at the YMCA involving some of Portland’s most important political leaders. He was soon approached by E.W. Scripps to edit the Los Angeles Record, where, by 1916, he successfully agitated for the resignation of Mayor Charles Sebastian and the city council of Los Angeles.
From the hills of Scappoose, Oregon, Sleeth, writing under the pseudonym of Hill Billy, brought a well-articulated workingman’s opinion to an increasingly capitalistic society. Sleeth wrote on subjects both pedestrian and philosophical and gained the loyalty of readers across the West. Along with letters from hundreds of fans, Sleeth garnered the attention of such notables as Upton Sinclair, Margaret Sanger and even Eleanor Roosevelt. He was consistently engaged in local and national politics and kept up a steady correspondence with some of the West Coast’s most prominent politicians. His untimely death, at the age of 56, marked the end of an generation of newsmen unafraid to relentlessly champion the values of the common man."
And yet there is so much more that I want to mention and discuss. Though there is never enough space to talk about what an interesting man he is.
But that's not why I'm hopeless. The finishing of the Dana project means moving on to his mother, Mattie. From a feminist point of view, she's the far more interesting character. Here's some of her firsts: She was a Methodist preacher before they had forms for female preachers, and had to cross out "he" and write "she".
She was the president of the Oregon WCTU. She was the first female juror in Oregon.
And her collection is significantly smaller than her son's.
And yet.
All of her stuff has been pre "oreganized" by someone. I put organized in quotes, because it's not a system I understand or care for. And there are photocopies of everything! Multiples! Unlike Dana, some one's already been here, and I feel odd throwing that all out the window, but I need to buck up and do it. It's hard to assert your historical authority (to a dead woman, to boot) when you are going up against some one who has a personal understanding of the whole collection. It's funny how I have no problem arguing my point amongst my fellow student historians, but now, I can't seem to take charge.
Or maybe it's just kinda dull and gray outside, and I really just don't have much motivation.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Delayed Schedule
Blogging will resume once I'm finished with finals. I'll probably double post...so make sure you scroll down!
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