Life in the Cube will be interesting as we work on developing the museum. I think I will get some cubist art and hang it about as I go through my blue cubist period. HAH!
Anyway research commences and advances at all phases of my work. I have taken up a gradual project to go through the paper of each of the early governors of “Oregon.” Frankly this is very rewarding as many were involved in Indian affairs, treaties, wars etc. I have encountered stories, place names, and information that connects many other accounts that we did not have previously. I am thinking that this is a problem in the practice of “history”. A substantial problem as I am encountering numerous unknown and unexplored information sources in areas that would be obvious for any previous researcher or otherwise scholar to find this information. I am surprised at the depth of the systematic lack of knowledge.
I have also instituted a new way to organize my information. As I take scans of the letters into PDF format I am saving them into a folder that is the repository of information from a specific archive. However, I am also taking these letters, re-labeling them by year-month-day and placing them in a folder by a specific author. Therefore, I am able to line up all of the letter in chronological order, and the computer file system does this for me. I can then follow thoughts and action over several years. So regardless of whether the letters are from Oregon, Connecticut or Washington,DC I have them all reorganized back together. It is so much easier to read them in order.