#46 - 1 Year Anniversary

 Hello dear reader,

Sorry for being MIA last week. Real life has throw a few curveballs at me, so things may be a bit sporadic over the next few weeks. 

But this week is one year since I started the Long Arch Project and I wanted to reflect on the past year to think about where I started, to see where I am and where I hope to go over the next year. When I started, I wanted the Long Arch Project to be something to help me get back into doing history and research. I had a hard time in graduate school, emerging with a degree but having lost the passion I once had for history and art and research. Despite all the awful over the past 2 years, the pause on regular life that Covid-19 and Stay At Home gave us all, actually allowed me the breathing space I needed to find the passion and more importantly, the drive to get back into historical research again.

I think I have actually been rather successful in the endeavor over the past year! I have managed to post almost every week, with some weeks being difficult to get myself to write and other weeks that I intentionally did not post so as to focus on real world commitments. I hope over the next year I can try to write more, research more. I have been considering doing something like Sunday Shorts, where I could post quick notes on popular culture or timely topics. This would be a good way to address things like TV shows, artist exhibitions, book releases, etc. What do you think about that, dear reader?

I had hoped to use the Long Arch Project to help bridge the divide between professional historians and the general public. I wanted to make doing history and historical research less opaque and more accessible. I feel like I have been less successful in this aspect of the Project. Over the next year I may try to focus some posts on how to do research - how to find things in a library, or online, etc. I still believe learning to think critically is one of the best tools to use in research and in real life, and that's really the true secret to the thing.

I haven't made as much progress researching the Ryves Holt House and Lewes as I originally hoped to. But considering that Covid-19 has made it basically impossible to get into archives, I think I have made quite a bit of progress in learning about New Netherland, which is something at least. I have also started to build a relationship with the Lewes Historical Society. I hope over the next year that I can do some actual archival research on the RHH and Lewes. I'd like to see some of the earliest primary documents like land grants and any text describing the town in the 17th century. 

Now the Rensselaerville letters. I guess I haven't made too much progress in researching the history of the town of RVille. But golly gee have I made progress in other areas. I started out this Project with a dozen or so digital copies of letters and am currently sitting next to what is likely close to 1500 letters and papers. I have also built a relationship with an author who is actively writing on one of the RVille boys and he even sent me some more material. I hope over the next year I can continue to share excerpts from the letters and start thinking about how to arrange the letters. I want to do something with them, but maybe over the next year I can figure out what they could become. 

So, here's to another year of history and research and shenanigans. I hope, dear reader, that it remains something of interest and reaches those who, like me, love history and discovering new things.