While I know, dear reader, that you are anxiously awaiting more tantalizing details about the exciting stories that I’ve been working on as of late, I simply have too much to report this week to go into any significant particulars. In addition to working in the Greenwood office and on-site this past week, I’ve also begun work on the poster that I’ll be presenting at the Florida Historical Society Annual Meeting and Symposium next month. I was able to discuss the poster with my supervisor and she approved my talking about the tour. So, I plan to include information on Greenwood’s history (perhaps a timeline?) but also discuss the goals of the digital tour and the methods that I’ve used so far in the development. I also plan to make my poster interactive by enabling visitors to access the previous proof of concept tour and a new development survey. In this new survey, I want to ask a few specific questions that will help inform the entry narratives and approaches. I would also like to solicit ideas for another direction that I would like to propose to Greenwood to foster a greater sense of community involvement with Greenwood as a physical site. I'll share some of my ideas on that next week.
On the research front, I’ve started working on Mayor William Jewell, Orlando’s nineteenth mayor. One of former cemetery sexton Don Price’s favorite stories to tell during walking tours involved Mayor Jewell. Click here to read a news clipping of the story from 1953. It is indeed humorous! However, as has been the case with most of the stories I’ve researched, there is so much more under the surface! Drama, intrigue, and possibly even scandal! More work will be required to sort out all the details on Mayor Jewell, but he will certainly make an excellent addition to the tour.
I mentioned last week that I would be conducting a lot of “boots on the ground” work in the coming weeks and that has certainly been the case! Last week, I visited the Greenwood Cemetery office to go through the files held there and I also did a quick drive-through on my way out. I encountered some rather interesting interactions with the public in the cemetery! My supervisor tells me that “things get weird” around Halloween, so I plan to start doing weekly drive-throughs with a better camera to capture the various goings on I notice. Here are two images that show the Week’s mausoleum which had some flowers left (though there is also evidence that someone had tried to break in in the recent past) and an "offering" made by visitors to the Wilmott mausoleum (a dead fish and a candle).
I think these interactions are excellent evidence that the public wants, and perhaps needs, a way to involve themselves with the cemetery. It would be worth investigating ways to create positive outlets for these kinds of visitors that will discourage any potentially destructive interactions.
This week, I’ll be visiting the Orange County Regional History Center research library (once again!) and I’m extremely excited that my supervisor has arranged an extended visit for me at the City of Orlando Archives Records Warehouse! This archive holds all the records I’ve been needing to get my hands on and hopefully some I didn’t even know I needed! To prepare, I’ve been making a large list of important dates and topics in my research so far so I can see what I can find.
I should also report that in addition to the weekly check-in meetings with my undergraduate intern, I will be starting regular in-person meetings at the Greenwood Cemetery office with my supervisor to keep her up to date on the tour development process. Since I’ve been running things rather autonomously, this might be a bit of an adjustment, but thankfully, my supervisor is so wonderfully supportive that I think it will be helpful to hear her feelings on the work more regularly.
That's all for now! Back to work!
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