21st cent.

Finding what you want: a few tips for readers

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / Leave a comment

Sometimes a blog is like a labyrinth…

JCH Bonniwell family Bible, MS inscription “John” and drawing of a Labyrinth, First […] Concordance, sig. A1 verso (detail)

I’m looking forward to blogging more regularly, and I hope you enjoy the upcoming posts. But I’ve been publishing Clark House Historian for almost ten years (!), and I know it can be hard to navigate the blog and find the particular historical information, photos, maps and other images that you might be looking for. Today’s post has a few tips to help you make your way through the twists and turns of the Clark House Historian information labyrinth.

Tip No. 1: Click the links!

If you’d like to view a larger, clearer version of almost any image on the blog: click the image (or, sometimes, the link in the caption), and a new full-size image will open in a new window. Other links (highlighted in the blog’s signature minty-green color) will connect you with related blog posts and online sources for further information.

And by the way, you can read the blog on your phone and open and zoom in on the photos, drawings, maps and other images. But I create the CHH posts on a device with a good-sized screen, and I recommend viewing on the largest screen that you can.

Finally, and most importantly, be sure to click the Continue reading—> link, typically found after the first image and paragraph or two. There is a lot more to be found “below the fold.”

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Saving Stuff

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 2 Comments

I’ve been preoccupied with all sorts of archival work lately, and I thought I’d pass along a few preservation tips for those of you that might have some “stuff” that you’d like to protect and save for the future.

Know your archival plastics!

Do you have photographs, artwork, manuscripts, letters, coins or currency that you’d like to preserve for years to come? Perhaps you’d like to enclose those items in a protective plastic enclosure, so that they may be viewed and handled with minimal damage? That’s a fine idea, but you should know that when it comes to archival storage, there are good plastics, and (very) bad plastics. With that in mind, I thought I’d share this helpful infographic, hoping that some of you may find it useful.

As always, feel free to click the image for a clearer, downloadable and/or printable version of the image.

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Caption Contest: Holiday Edition 2023

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 10 Comments

Ho! Ho! Ho! — a little nonsense for the end of the year

I found a photo. It needs a better caption. Something funny, and perhaps seasonal, too?

Highsmith, Carol M, photographer, “Santa and Mrs. Claus milk a cow. Why, we’re not exactly sure.” c. 1980-2010. Library of Congress

Send your entry (or entries, as many as you like!) to me via the blog’s “Leave a Reply | Write a Comment…” space. I’ll publish all the comments (let’s keep it clean and non-partisan) and I’ll pick a winner.1 Go to it, history lovers!

Needless to say, this photograph is—to the best of my knowledge—not related in any way to the Jonathan Clark House Museum, its board, staff, or volunteers. Except that it has a cow. And a barn. As did the Clark family back in the 1840s-1850s.

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Finis, 2022

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 1 Comment

[The Bible,] Geneva version, published by Christopher Barker, London, circa 1580-1588. Collection of the Jonathan Clark House, photo credit: Reed Perkins, 2022.

What a year!

Finis. The End. Today is December 31, the last day of a long and eventful 2022. I’m not up to the task of summarizing all the highs and lows of the past year. I’ll leave that to others.

But I thought recalling one special summer day at the Clark House might make a nice valediction at the close of the old year and the beginning of the new. And for me, without question, the best day for the Clark House this year was July 23, 2022, the day we celebrated the generous donation of the historic Bonniwell family Bible and papers.

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