Seeking Fortunes

Today was a weird one. Like last week, in my journey looking for that piece of paper that Bennett wrote working titles for Forced Into Glory, I kept getting derailed by trying to make sense of what was in each folder, because somehow now I'm both looking for that piece of paper and doing a more specific itemization of what I'm encountering in the folders. It's difficult to know what a lot of the manuscripts were because they were in bits and pieces. Bennett would use a lot of material for multiple projects, reworking speeches into magazine articles and then into books. And of course, he kept each draft of everything he wrote along with all the notes. Very few things are labelled, and a pile of papers in any given folder will start at some random page, end at another page, then next to it in the same folder there will be another pack of papers organized the same way. I was having to do a lot of scanning texts with my phone and then converting it to readable text, then copy/pasting it into Google to see if it pulls anything up. But the problem with doing that is that what I've scanned might be some early form of a book that has gone through many editions so that yes, that book might be partially online but only in a later edition. So then of course it wouldn't pull up what I'm looking for. But then sometimes it would! It was maddening.

I lamented about this to Kheir today and he quoted O Brother, Where Art Thou? when I shared how difficult this process was:

"You will find a fortune, though it will not be the one you seek."

 

This is true! I found out about the Harold Washington musical Bennett wrote last week while I was searching for the Forced Into Glory note. I agreed with him and laughed that it does seem like the type of thing that woud be really common with exploring someone's archive, especially an unprocessed archive.


But then what do you know! Buried in Box 23, folder 1 I found the note! Which was pretty ironic considering the discussion we'd just had, but still.

How about "Strong-armed Into Glory"? No?

Having completed that task (though what are we going to do with this now that we've found it?), I decided then that it was time to go through the boxes of media. Perhaps there would be a VHS tape or a DVD of that Harold Washington musical. I started with box 96 and after previewing what was on a few of the VHS tapes I realized that I think this box might actually not be stuff that belongs in the Bennett collection. I think it might actually be stuff that belongs to CSU.


BUT WHAT A TREASURE TROVE.


But not for the reasons you would think. Mostly because they are hilarious.


One VHS tape contains a documentary called “KING: A Filmed Record Montgomery to Memphis,” and it was labelled as such. It was clearly recorded off cable TV in like 1991 because after it ended there’s a screenshot that says “NEXT on CINEMAX: A Streetcar Named Desire."

That '80s font!

I think this is my favorite thing in this box (so far) because of how weird it is.

This tape that just says “Junk” on it in red over the itemization of the contents, which is hilarious. Why are we keeping it then? For what it’s worth, the itemization of the contents are correct.

Dearly beloved, what I did not also tell you is that the next part of the tape is Prince and his band performing, from the end of "Purple Rain," and then the tape ends. Did I mention there's no sound?

Another blank tape is about learning to use Photoshop 5.0. It’s called “Photoshop FUNDAMENTALS Tape One.”

There’s more than one tape of these 3 nerds? Yes please.

Indeed, the fortunes I found were not the ones I sought.


Kheir and I decided that this box was probably not worth continuuing to go thorugh for my purposes, but we did decide that it was worth looking at other boxes in the series (that's maybe boxes 97-101). We also had a excellently nerdy discussion about the costs and benefits of Post-Its being adhered to archival material, and the plethora of available stances one could choose to take. We also decided that a possible next step might be fleshing out the biographical material on the finding aid, based on the material I'm finding. We also decided that I would come in on Tuesday instead of Thursday next week because a photographer is coming in to photograph items in the Freeman exhibit. I said I could be there for him while Kheir has a staff meeting.



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Today's standards fulfilled as per the Society of American Archivists Curriculum:


Society of American Archivists Curriculum: A. CORE ARCHIVAL KNOWLEDGE, Student will prepare memorabilia for display with 1. Knowledge of Archival Material and Functions, b) Appraisal for Selection archival description, appraisal and labelling and Acquisition, g. Management and Administration (p. 5)

A. CORE ARCHIVAL KNOWLEDGE, 2. Knowledge of the Profession, c) Professional Ethics and Values (p. 7)