McConnell Mansion

These are the formal and family parlors in the McConnell Mansion in Moscow, ID.

Formal Parlor 1

Formal Parlor 2

Formal Parlor Bookshelf

Formal Parlor 3

Family Parlor 1

Family Parlor 2

Family Parlor 3

Family Parlor 4

Google Books

For those of you who don't know Google has been scanning books and creating snippets available online for some time now.  This seemed like an innocuous practice until copyright got in the way.  As usual with digital projects copyright likes to rear its ugly head and try to stop great projects.  Now, I understand copyright protects the author's time and investment into their product.  Copyright is great for people who did the work and can get credit, accolades and cash they deserve.  A group of authors bound together to stop the practice of scanning books and making them accessible online.

By now you can probably tell where my bias is, since this is my soapbox I'll come out and say it.  I'm all for making more things available and searchable online.  Apparently U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin agrees with me.  He ultimately dismissed the lawsuit by by the authors which will lead to the future of Google Books project as we know it.

So in conclusion I would like to thank Google for the Google Books project and to U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin (above) for allowing Google Books to continue.

If anybody out there is a published author and has a different opinion about this issue I'd love to hear the other side to better understand the issue.  I believe this is a landmark case for copyright law and I believe it will be interesting to see how this affects other industries.

Topography

Working in an engineering office I find many new tools that I didn't know existed.  Today I found the USGS Topography map tool.  Using this tool you can look up current and historical topography maps anywhere in the U.S.  It's a great tool for looking at not only the topography but also the layout of roads from a particular era, and comparing how the roads changed over time.  This could be a very powerful tool for looking at the growth of cities, towns and unincorporated areas in the 20th Century.  The search is pretty intuitive, I started with only filling out the state field, Washington, and received over 4,000 hits.  I then ran a search for Poulsbo and received only 5 hits, so it pays to be exact and have an area you'd like to look at in mind.  Have a look and see you city in a different way.

Bonus feature: on the more recent maps they also contain aerial photography.

British Library Digital Archives

Recently I listened to a podcast which was a symposium hosted by the British Library explaining various points of view on digital archival methods and practices.  While the podcast sound quality was poor, it opened my eyes to the British Library's take on digital archives.  Having worked at the Washington State Digital Archives, I was interested to hear another take on digital archiving.

For some background for those of you, like me, who have no idea what the British Library is doing.  The British Library and their partners: the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales, the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford, the University Library at Cambridge and the Library of Trinity College in Dublin, have been authorized to capture what they are calling the U.K. web.  To be certain this is websites with the .uk suffix. However this effort is not limited to .uk websites but includes e-books, e-journals, e-everything published within the U.K.  I found this video, which was their grand event on 4.6.13 to kick-off the digital archival experience. 

The purpose of this is to create a historical record of web activity for future scholars to get an idea of life in the early information age (assuming this is the beginning of the information age and we don't blow ourselves up).  This effort varies greatly from the Washington State Digital Archives in that the Digital Archives does not focus on websites and e-books but is focused on public records.  The Washington Digital Archives is an online, searchable archive that anybody with web access can use.  The Washington Digital Archives also has a reading room where users can come into the Digital Archive and access the archive from public workstations, this method of access rarely gets used. 

The British Library and their partners are planning on preserving these records to be used in a reading room of sorts with computers which have specialized access to the collection.  The libraries are treating the archived websites, ebooks and other materials as any other copyrighted material in their collection, which is why they do not have a web access to this archive, the user must use them in the library similar to the way you use a paper archive.  The project started with a list of 100 Websites to be archived.  If you read down the list, some of the choices are interesting however they seem to portray life in 2013, which was the point.

If you are interested in following the progress of the British Libraries in their efforts, you can follow the project on Twitter using the #digitaluniverse hashtag.  I know I will be watching their continued efforts and will be interested with their findings and results.

Return of the Four-Leggeds Revised

Museums can be scarry places.  To make the museum more inviting, the Northwest museums of Arts and Culture (or the MAC) installed the sculpture series, The Return of the Four-Leggeds.  These sculptures are an exhibition, permanently on display outside of the museum and in the amphitheater.

Before entering the museum take a few moments to think about these statues.  How many individual sculptures can you find for this work of art?  What do the sculptures seem to be doing?  Why do you think these sculptures are so active? 

The Return of the Four-Leggeds is a collection of bronze sculptures was created by New York artist, Tom Otterness and was installed in 2003.  Tom Otterness interpreted this work as:

“The Animal people have come with a contract to buy back the world from the Two-Leggeds.  The Weasel is negotiating while the Salmon prepare the way to return to the river.  The Marmot is already in the amphitheater, munching on small change.”

These statues present a fun an inviting look into social commentary as well as simply being pleasing to the eye.   Take a moment, relax and reflect on The Return of the Four-Leggeds.

The MAC Revised

The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, otherwise known as the MAC has changed a lot over the years.  The organization began as the Eastern Washington Historical Society in 1916.  The most notable donation to this society was the Campbell House in 1924, which is open and available for tours.    In the 1960s the Cheney-Cowles museum was opened to exhibit the growing collections the historical society had collected.  The Cowles family, who owns the Cowles Publishing Company, which owns the Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, sponsored the Cheney-Cowles Museum.  The Spokesman-Review was bought by the W.H. Cowles in 1893 and is currently in the 4th generation of Cowles family ownership.  In 2001 the Eastern Washington Historical Society opened a new exhibition hall and changed the name to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.

Today the MAC is open Wednesday through Saturday to the public as well as tours of the Campbell House.  The MAC has three main exhibition halls the museum.  Admission to the MAC is $7 for adults, however admission is free during the 'First Friday' events, hosted on the first Friday of the month from 5-8PM, and BeGin events on the second Friday of every month from 6-8PM.

The MAC also operates The Joel E. Ferris Research Library and Archives to house all of its collections.  These archives are accessible Wednesday through Friday 12-5PM, advanced notice is requested.

The Campbell House Revised Again

Amasa B. Campbell was sent by wealthy Ohio speculators to investigate mining opportunities in the west in 1878.  In 1892 Mr. Campbell made the front page of the Lawrence Daily Journal when he was caught in the midst of a mining dispute between unioned and non-union miners.  Mr. Campbell and his business partner John Finch were ultimately very successful in founding the Standard and Mammoth mines in the vicinity of Wallace, Idaho.  These mines became so successful that by 1903, they sold the mines for $3,000,000 to a joint venture backed by the Rockefeller and the Gould families.



The Campbell House was built in 1898 and constructed for $30,000, although estimates for the house and the custom furnishings place the home at a total cost of $70,000.  The Campbell House was home for Mr. Amasa B. Campbell, his wife Grace and their daughter, Helen.  Renowned architect Kirtland K Cutter designed not only the architecture but the furnishings as well.  One of the interior highlights of the home is the renowned gold reception room, which Cutter borrowed from the rococo French style.  Life in the Campbell home was rigid, with social cues and interactions being paramount.  To be invited to dinner at the Campbells was no small feat, the elite would dine formally, their meals prepared and served by servants, the men and women dressed in evening gowns and black ties accordingly.  No house of this stature would be complete without a game room.  The game room simply belonged to the men, who used the room to play cards and billiards, the game room was the 19th century equivalent of a modern man cave.  

The house been restored from 1984-2001 by the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, who aimed to restore it as best they could.  Unfortunately the original furniture was sold and the MAC has done its best to use photographs and accounts of the home to re-create the furnishings.  In 1924 W.W. Powell (formerly Helen Campbell) donated the house to the Eastern Washington Historical Society, who is now known as the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.  Guided tours of the house are available and are included in your entrance fee to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, inquire at the admissions desk.