Pop culture reviews, archives, libraries, genealogy, history, and blogs on hiatus
This week I'll be writing about the same topics as always, with a focus on archives-related stories, interns at the Library of Congress, and more.
Good evening everyone! I hope you all had a productive week. On Tuesday, I published a post examining a washed-up rock star/librarian in Phineas and Ferb, named Swampy, one of my favorite animated series, noting how Swampy fulfills the librarian as failure stereotype. On Wednesday, I examined a so-called “archival reserve” in the webcomic Meau, noting how libraries and archives are sadly, and unfortunately, confused yet again in this comic. And, on Friday, I put my blog reviewing genealogy and family history in pop culture on hiatus. While I could review something like this, to give an example, my luck seems to have run out when it comes to finding family history and genealogy themes in pop culture. In the coming weeks, I’ll be putting other blogs on hiatus as well, so I can refocus my efforts, so I’m not stretching my time and resources too thin. With that, let me begin this newsletter.
There is surprisingly a lot of news about archives this week, more than I usually come across. For one, the Archives of the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic donated their records to UCSF, a Cinematec storage facility in São Paulo, Brazil, preserving films from Brazil’s cinema, caught fire, damaging (and destroying) many priceless films permanently. Some blamed budget cuts and negligence by the country’s government as a reason for the fire. The latter is because Bolsonaro, a fascist in a suit, dismantled the country’s Ministry of Culture two years ago, stopped paying the staff of Cinematec, and ended the contract with a foundation which oversaw Cinematec. As a result, these actions led to “a lapse in care for the large film archive.” On July 27, NARA announced that due to the rise of COVID-19 cases in Missouri, the Truman Presidential Library is closing and will only re-open if health conditions improve. One day before, David Ferriero, the head of NARA, wrote about how the Federal Records Center in Colorado sits on indigenous land, specifically the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations, continuing a series of posts noting the indigenous land that NARA buildings sit on. In the past week, lawmakers called for the backlog of about “500,000 unprocessed veteran requests for records at the National Personnel Records Center” to be cleared by NARA and there were sessions about awareness, advocacy, and outreach for specific SAA sections. Additionally, the July/August edition of Archival Outlook was released. It includes articles on transcribing Spanish-language letters, custodial partnerships, archival accessioning, retaining archivists who have disabilities, and many other important topics. It was also interesting to read about the gaps in oral histories, the limits of PDFs as ways to send records through email, classified UK Ministry of Defense documents found at a bus stop, of all places, and comments from a fellow archivist reminding patrons to not be rude to those “doing their jobs & from whom you need something.” The pandemic is not an excuse to be rude to workers.
That brings me to libraries. There were posts about: people trying to stop defunding of the Niles-Maine District Library and the value of school librarians. One librarian even questioned whether the ALA will begin fully investing “in fighting racism and supporting librarians of color.” Realistically, this will not happen unless ALA members push for it. The ALA serves those who are the majority of the profession: White female librarians. That is clear without a doubt. Others rightly argued, among other points, that “grad school work experiences & internships…always self-select for privilege,” and Jennifer Snoek-Brown wrote yet another review. She asked whether a reel librarian, played by Benedict Wong, will return in the film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and it seems that he will. So, that’s cool.
Best of all, the Library of Congress had all sorts of posts this week. Some focused on mundane things like bill alerts or summer reading projects, while others interviewed interns! This included Samantha Mendoza who is working on transcribing Spanish legal documents, Sarah Lundy who is working in the Preservation Services Division, and others, like Arnold Bhebhe working on preservation science, Darshai Hollie helping conserve documents, and Cienna Benn working on the papers of a distinguished Black female opera and concert soprano named Jessye Norman. Last but not least is a post by April Hathcock who I have talked about before. She talks about, in a post from 2016, the power of naming, and noting that even changes by the Library of Congress to use terms like “noncitizen” and “unauthorized immigration” is still problematic. She further notes that the established order tries to “reconstruct the way we name, organize, and identify ourselves,” with the power to name being something that those “with privilege are always hard-pressed to cede.” She then noted that those on the margins continue to rebel, resist, and fight that, insisting on their own names, trying to, as she puts it, “wrest that power away from those who would deny us.” Once again, a solid post and argument from Hathcock, as always.
Now, let me talk a little about genealogy. Last week, when my post about my slave-trading ancestor was published, I received a flurry of comments on Twitter, even more than I expected. One person I didn’t mention in last week’s newsletter was Charles C. Andrews, a bibliophile and genealogist. He said that he enjoyed the post because he worked in the ocean trade for many years, noting he worked with a colleague whose ancestor was the captain of a Rhode Island captain who carried enslaved people. He added that shippers still “do a cost-profit analysis…and pay a fine” to disregard the law, if they can still make a profit. I just thought I’d share that before moving on with the rest of my newsletter.
Again, there was yet another review of that new book about Elizabeth Packard, The Woman They Could Not Silence. Other than this, some wrote about using FamilySearch resources effectively, how indigenous people had to be granted the right to citizenship even though they were born in the U.S. (pretty messed up if you think about it), online historical newspaper collections, and using FamilySearch trees. The same could be said about a post highlighting differences between a vital record and headstone, another noting how far ancestors moved, and a final one answering how Ancestry’s API adds in hints for incorrect facts. Finally, there’s a post about young Irish women emigrating “independently without the support of a husband or brother,” starting in the 19th century, allowing them to make their own decisions. One of those Irish women may have been my ancestor, Margaret Bibby, if she came on her own from Ireland.
Then, there are articles about history. One of these noted the problems with saying the storming of the Capitol makes the U.S. “like a banana republic,” as that term is being used without historical context. In sum, the term only makes sense, historically, when applied to U.S. intervention in Latin America. Another article explained what people should do with captured Nazi flags, saying it depends on the context of the flag, and noting that no matter what you do with a flag, anything is better than raising it on a flag pole. In an analysis piece earlier this week by historian Thomas Blake Earle, he explains how U.S. imperialism made surfing into an Olympic sport. Now, while I found the letter from the American Historical Association on COVID-19 vaccination rates in Louisiana and Cliveden reenactments reconsidering use of weapons in light of gun violence as important, it is far more important to note that the Americans with Disabilities Act is entering its fourth decade!
Otherwise, Smithsonian magazine had articles on many topics. This includes researchers uncovering the origins of watermelons, introducing a Galapagos tortoise which has been lost for over a century, photos from the first pride marches, unearthing of a grave containing over 40 enslaved people at a 18th-century plantation on the Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius, how climate change may have driven war in Sudan over 13,000 years ago, and summary of the history of beaches going from something feared to a “place of respite and vacation,” with beaches under threat, having meaning, not being something that is blank and lifeless.
There are a few topics which don’t fit within the above paragraphs of this newsletter, which are loosely organized by subject (archives, libraries, genealogy, and history). April Hathcock noted in 2016 that if you are a person with privilege and you’d like to learn, then look it up, with the hard part being, first “…doing something about what you learn,” and secondly “making real change in the way you relate to marginalized people in your world.” That includes, in her view, being a good ally, give marginalized folks a break, educating fellow privileged people, explaining the basics, remembering that marginalized people aren’t here for “our education or edification.” The latter is especially something that some people tend to forget.
On a different subject, connecting to what I said in my July 18 newsletter about Cuba, is that the Cold War is over. In any case, reading about how American athletes, like Simon Biles, are praising Russian athletes, and vice versa, is great to see. Anyway, Smithsonian magazine had a number of fascinating articles on a journey to the northernmost tree in Alaska, softer side of sabercats, observing moths, and how to watch the Perseids meteor shower, an event which will peak, according to the article, between August 11 and August 13. So, get out your telescopes, binoculars, and phones, people! On a worrisome note, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization released a report showing the acceleration of climate change, while the Rijksmuseum has a new exhibit confronting the role of the Netherlands in the transatlantic slave trade. In fact, during the so-called “Dutch Golden Age” in the 1600s, as the article notes, “many of the republic’s wealthiest residents made their fortunes through the enslavement, sale and exploitation of African people.” None of this should surprise anyone.
While I could go more into depth about critical race theory, the audiobook industry squirming through a “cultural debate on representation and casting,” and correcting a mistake in a children’s book with a trans female protagonist by using a sharpie, I’d rather focus on illustrations from The Nib. This includes absurd “etiquette” rules for women re-entering society as a way of making a point about people trying to go back to their supposedly “normal” lives with the claimed “end” of the pandemic, comic stories about science, upcoming cultural war battles, criticizing those who embrace awfulness by looking the “bright side” of exploitation, and the spread of the pandemic at the summer Olympics. Other illustrations lampoon the ridiculous and sexist rules for clothes Olympic athletes have to wear, efforts to prepare for a pandemic which lead to failure, and the privilege of Tucker Carlson which he hides from his viewers.
That’s all for this week! Until next time. Hope you all have a good week ahead.
- Burkely