Artifacts

[OscarMadison]

Have you ever come across something that represented an earlier time in your academic or professional discipline or a piece of local history? I'm not talking about things labeled as "collectables" but bits of the material issue from people in our shared pasts by dint of geography, vocation, or even more personal connections.

Exhibit A: I found this 4-disc set at a local Goodwill a few years ago. Candied Yam Jackson was a Yale College Radio personality who was originally from Wartrace, TN. Even though I have been told he was a fixture on WSM, I can't find documentation of it beyond some sources identifying him as a character and raconteur. His biggest claim to fame is being the originator of the phrase, "Screw the pooch," which was co-opted by a classmate, John Rawlings, who went on to work on the NASA Mercury Program.

 

[Batman]

We do a magazine every year that's filled with takeout pieces centered around a theme. The past couple of years have focused on local nuggets from the town's 200-year history. In doing the research I dived into our paper's archives and found some really old papers that are basically No. 1 of 1 at this point.
One was the paper from when JFK was shot. A couple others were anniversary editions from the 1920s, 50s and 60s that looked back on the town's history to that point. It was weird reading the one from the 1920s. They referenced things that happened in the 70s and 80s, like we would today talking about the 1970s and 80s, but then I realized they meant the 1870s and 1880s.

 

[Driftwood]

As a historian - and I don't mean someone who is a history geek; I actually have the title Historian - every little seemingly insignificant scrap of anything holds wonder to me.

 

[swingline]

A friend of mine found full-color front pages of the Titanic sinking and several others. Illinois historical society wanted him to donate them. He said **** that, kept them and had them framed.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

I have a Palm Pilot buried in a closet somewhere.

 

[FileNotFound]

I have in my possession the last dummy sheet drawn at my last newspaper before we went to pagination (because I did that page) and the pneumatic tube in which it was sent to the composing room.

 

[Driftwood]

I used to be bad about keeping everything under the sun, but over the last couple of years I have discarded a bunch of that stuff.
I kept every press pass I ever got. I had boxes of them upstairs.
I finally decided that no one would ever really be interested in the fact that I covered the 1999 state wrestling tournament, so I tossed that stuff.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Someplace I have a box full of my numbers at road races, with the dates, times and splits written on most of them. Maybe I'll look for them, if only to rediscover that yes, I was once fairly fast for an amateur (35:34 10K PR).

Still have a couple football programs from college, one of which I just checked and it was from a game the late Ray Guy played in. I like looking at the advertisements and checking out the prices, and how many of the advertisers are still in business.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I volunteer as an archive assistant at a small-town museum. Some years back we were digitally cataloguing the museum's holdings, and I got to examine items that belonged to a 19th-century congressman. In the pile were invitations to the inaugural balls for Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland. They were pristine, still in original envelopes.
Also among the belongings was a small notebook. Apparently the congressman took his young daughter on a tour of the nation's capital, and she recorded her observations. She noted that they visited the Washington Monument, IIRC, along with the chambers in the Capitol. And then, she wrote, "we visited the White House and had a nice chat with President Harrison." That tickled me quite a bit, that the president could find time to talk to the daughter of a not particularly prominent congressman (although he was, like Harrison, a Republican).

 

[Songbird]

A friend of mine found full-color front pages of the Titanic sinking and several others. Illinois historical society wanted him to donate them. He said **** that, kept them and had them framed.

On the XC drive to LA last year I stayed in McLean Texas, panhandle.

McLean has a pretty cool museum about itself. A British businessman began the town.

Not long afterward he took a little boat ride and never came home to McLean.

 

[ChrisLong]

My college journalism textbooks are on the bottom shelf.

 

[Driftwood]

Someplace I have a box full of my numbers at road races, with the dates, times and splits written on most of them. Maybe I'll look for them, if only to rediscover that yes, I was once fairly fast for an amateur (35:34 10K PR).

Still have a couple football programs from college, one of which I just checked and it was from a game the late Ray Guy played in. I like looking at the advertisements and checking out the prices, and how many of the advertisers are still in business.

Yep. I had boxes of race bibs from 5Ks with times written on them. They went when the press passes did.
I do still have my marathon bib and one from a bike race I won that was important to me.
All the random charity race stuff got tossed.

 

[garrow]

At my first newspaper stop, a fellow reporter told me she was off to interview Wavy Gravy. I had no idea who that was. "You know, from the Woodstock movie? The "we must be in heaven man?" That's him."

I instantly knew who she was talking about and always wished I could have tagged along.

 

[da man]

I used to have tons of stuff that I’d kept from my past — yearbooks, bound editions of my college paper, bobbleheads from various events, commemorative Coke bottles from the first game in the Georgia Dome and the Carolina Panthers’ first game, my old clips, etc. All of it got left behind when I got divorced and moved out of the house and got a smaller place. I suspect the ex has long since tossed them.

I think I still have my credentials from the Super Bowls and NBA Finals I covered, but I’m not sure where they are.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

At my first newspaper stop, a fellow reporter told me she was off to interview Wavy Gravy. I had no idea who that was. "You know, from the Woodstock movie? The "we must be in heaven man?" That's him."

I instantly knew who she was talking about and always wished I could have tagged along.

Amazing that that guy is still alive at age 86.

 

[Batman]

I used to have tons of stuff that I’d kept from my past — yearbooks, bound editions of my college paper, bobbleheads from various events, commemorative Coke bottles from the first game in the Georgia Dome and the Carolina Panthers’ first game, my old clips, etc. All of it got left behind when I got divorced and moved out of the house and got a smaller place. I suspect the ex has long since tossed them.

I think I still have my credentials from the Super Bowls and NBA Finals I covered, but I’m not sure where they are.

When we moved offices a few years ago I salvaged some old media guides from the late 90s that might have some collectible value, like one from Tennessee with Peyton Manning on the cover, and some old NFL guides. One of these days I'll put them on eBay and maybe make some dinner money, but they've gotten relocated to another box and another corner of the house and I haven't ever gotten to it.

 

[playthrough]

When we moved offices a few years ago I salvaged some old media guides from the late 90s that might have some collectible value, like one from Tennessee with Peyton Manning on the cover, and some old NFL guides. One of these days I'll put them on eBay and maybe make some dinner money, but they've gotten relocated to another box and another corner of the house and I haven't ever gotten to it.

During bowl season, turn on a game and do the eBay thing. That's one of my holiday traditions. The farther away I've gotten from a few old jobs, the easier it's been to sell stuff. I'd rather have golf ball money than all of it collecting dust.

 

[cyclingwriter2]

I volunteer as an archive assistant at a small-town museum. Some years back we were digitally cataloguing the museum's holdings, and I got to examine items that belonged to a 19th-century congressman. In the pile were invitations to the inaugural balls for Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland. They were pristine, still in original envelopes.
Also among the belongings was a small notebook. Apparently the congressman took his young daughter on a tour of the nation's capital, and she recorded her observations. She noted that they visited the Washington Monument, IIRC, along with the chambers in the Capitol. And then, she wrote, "we visited the White House and had a nice chat with President Harrison." That tickled me quite a bit, that the president could find time to talk to the daughter of a not particularly prominent congressman (although he was, like Harrison, a Republican).

“I survived the William Henry Harrison Inauguration Speech” would have been a helluva shirt to wear.

 

[Driftwood]

When we moved offices a few years ago I salvaged some old media guides from the late 90s that might have some collectible value, like one from Tennessee with Peyton Manning on the cover, and some old NFL guides. One of these days I'll put them on eBay and maybe make some dinner money, but they've gotten relocated to another box and another corner of the house and I haven't ever gotten to it.

I've got a crap ton of old NASCAR and NHRA media guides. Seems I can't even give them away.

 

[OscarMadison]

I have a book of theatrical essays about Joan of Arc that belonged to Clara Hieronymus and am still trying to get my paws on a book signed by Fred Russell. A friend of mine found one, went into a bidding war on my behalf, lost, called the person who won a bunch of names, then found out they were related. Welcome to Tennessee.

In addition to that, have a signed wood chip decorated by Norris Hall and a doodle by Jerry Lawler that some wet behind the ears Philistine who had just been hired by the art department at Memphis State insisted be thrown away. Also own some jars of knapped flint from excavations of 11 to 15k year old habitation sites. They were not sufficiently diagnostic to be kept by the antiquities wonks and for some reason people are thrilled to get them. Okay, I was pretty excited when I dug them up. I'll quit trying to be too cool for the room.