What an exciting week it's been! And it's only Tuesday! Last week I finished up two of the tour entry drafts for my research subjects, Fred Weeks and Jessie Branch. I also worked with my intern to edit his draft on Sam Salisbury. Later this week, I'll be doing the same with his draft on Gertrude Sweet. While I was hoping to get more writing done for the additional two drafts I want to finish before the end of the semester, I was interrupted in the most wonderful way! I've been digging more into the research on the Wilmott family this week and I've been extremely fortunate in finding a fellow local historian who has been working on the case as well. I met with her today at the Sanford Museum where she is a curatorial assistant and had SO MUCH FUN talking through what we know with her. Though she and I have a lot of the same core documents, our research directions are different and very complimentary. She's focused on Catherine Cavanaugh Wilmott and was the individual who located her unmarked gravesite in Powell's Cemetery. We both agreed that it was completely tragic that both her husbands are buried with their second wives in Greenwood with lovely memorials while she is nearly forgotten.
We brain stormed ideas for our now combined research efforts and I have several new avenues to explore. She also graciously shared everything she had collected with me which was wonderful! I'm looking forward to going through it all. She also gave me information for getting in touch with two relatives that are interested in the history of the family, so I'm going to pursue that in the hopes of setting up an oral history interview with one or both of them.
Here are few pictures from the Sanford Museum. It's such a nice little museum that I had no idea existed! The fire equipment is interesting because I found out that the victim in the Wilmott murder case was a volunteer firefighter in Sanford before his death.
Later this week, I'm hoping to head out the Orlando Fire Museum because one of the figures in the story, William "Billy" H. Smith, Catherine's second husband, was an Orlando firefighter at the turn of the century and the museum has at least one image of him that I would like to see. This would be another wonderful opportunity for local cross-promotion as well, so I'm hoping to build a relationship with them while I'm there.
Finally, on Friday, I should be meeting with my supervisor and hopefully that means I'll be signing my contract soon? Fingers crossed!
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