Miss H. Returns

  Forgotten but not gone! I just happened to be wondering where my first attempt at blogging had gone, and this turned up. I’ve been thinking about how to put my thoughts on what I’ve been reading and working on and thought going back to this might be a possibility. A lot of dust has accumulated in my life and brain since the last time I “took up the pen” and I find myself disappearing down more rabbit holes these days.

Since 2004 I’ve retired from three different institutions, co-authored two books, published a lot of articles, managed a major grant to establish a curriculum on cultural heritage informatics, bailed a major public library out of a significant crisis and put a great collection back on its feet.  But I don’t like to brag. Also in 2005 I got married. I survived Covid but my husband did not. I have had both hips replaced and am facing a knee replacement in a few months. So now that you are up to date I hope you will stay tuned for further news and random thoughts and books, history, food and more. 

Happy New Year friends and readers

I'm looking over the new books I gave myself for Christmas and see quite a lot of pleasure-filled hours ahead of me. Too bad I have to go back to work! I've read the first couple of chapters of Snow in August and think it is going to a good read. Meanwhile I'm satisfying my "professional" interests by reading a historical novel called Shooting the Sun by Max Byrd. It is about an expedition that goes west in the early 1840s to try to take daguerreotypes of a total eclipse of the sun. And I've promised myself a re-read of an old favorite called Broome Stages (or Theatre Royal in the American editions) first published in 1931. It is a great theatrical family saga written by Winifred Ashton under the pseudonym Clemence Dane. In addition I've saved up a few newer titles including The Cloud Atlas (did you know there were two books by this name?), London Dust, Paris Requiem, and My Name Is Red. And that's only the top of the pile! Well, happy new year to all and happy reading. MissH.

Book club rides again

We overcame confusion, my car misbehaving and change of venue successfully and managed to convene at the Natick branch for our discussion of An Unfinished Life which we all enjoyed. The author has also written the screenplay for the forthcoming film which will have Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman in key roles. Carol presented us all with copies of Gilead: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson. Gilead was listed as one of the NYT's best books of the year. Read the Times review here. Next meeting will be at Priscilla's home on the 26th of January and the book will be Pete Hamill's Snow in August.

focus, focus

With the idea of making this a useful site for my friends and students I'm jumping back in with some notes about important websites for studying the history of photography. The first is the mammouth site maintained by Professor Robert Leggat. Dr. Leggat provides a bibliography and section on various aspects in photographic history up to 1920. He is a member of the Royal Photographic Society for many years. The RPS site is another good one to start with - take a look at the collections online - there are some amazing and not-too-familiar early photographs here. I have found some good information on the EdinPhoto home page despite the somewhat distracting graphics. Visitors to this site will find technical information about historic processes and helpful links as well. So stay tuned, more will be revealed. MsH

First Saturday class

Well, back to school at last. Thankfully we have a decent classroom this year, a reasonable size class and no technology hitches at all today.
I was remembering how I always got a "back-to-school" dress for my August birthday and how that dress ruined my summer, inevitably signalling the change of season and the return to educational tyranny. And now even when I'm the teacher there is something about the coming of my birthday that brings on depression. Maybe that's why August is always so trying. Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with the therapists all going on vacation!
Last night had an interesting encounter with the saleswoman at WaldenBooks...not one of my regular stops but I needed something to read while having my pedicure(!) I quickly selected an Anne Perry that I thought I might find readable (not liking her two Victorian series, this one is set in 1914 and seemed more promising) but the saleswoman took one look at me and started asking me what other kind of books I liked. It should come as no surprise that I left there with 5 books instead of one. She was very good and got my number quickly. Although I had already read a lot of the things she suggested she persevered and I was glad to have met her.
The horrible news today from one of my students was the announcement that Wordsworth has gone out of business. Too bad, that was a wonderful bookstore for many many years - must be at least 25 years that it has been in Cambridge. Alas I fear that Barnes and Noble and Amazon will continue to do in the small independents no matter how hard I try to support them. And to be fair, I do quite a lot of shopping at both of the culprits myself. Depressing thought. And so to bed...

Labor Day 2004

Had a lovely day in Newport yesterday. The weather was beautiful and even with crowds of people it remains a very special place. Tomorrow I start my leave and the writing project on cataloging photos. I intend to keep to a schedule as much as possible but still make it fun for myself. So tomorrow after making a number of calls and getting the workspace ready I will sit down and sort through all the articles I've gathered so far and then decide what needs to be done next. Probably won't make for interesting blogging but I've got to set a pace and also be able to prepare my classes. So that's all for tonight.

Anything new?

Well, no not much. Still trying to get the hang of this thing. Where is that HTML anyway? There are reports of 6-8 foot waves in Rhode Island so Dottie and Aldo and I are jumping in the car to go see for ourselves - a kind of weather voyeurism I guess. The idea of not going to the office for the next six weeks is still pretty cool but there are so many things I want to do before I go back that I'm afraid that nothing will get done. I listened to an audio of the first Nancy Drew last night - got about half way through it - pretty dated i'd say and what a "goody-two-shoes" ugh! First day of classes is also looming so I've got to buckle down and get reading lists together and all that jazz. Photographers as main characters in detective stories - now there's something to go back to...off to the waves.