Kid's Bubble-Blowing Toy, 1959. Photograph by Stan Wayman for LIFE magazine. ©Time Inc.

Seeing Is Believing

OBJECT. IMAGE. MEMORY.
“A photo album, a china set, a teddy bear—even the most quotidian of artifacts—all resonate with special poignancy when associated with stories of persecution and loss,” Julia M. Klein writes of a Skokie, IL, museum exhibition called “Stories of Survival.”

BLURRY IS BEAUTIFUL
Blurry photos are often the first to get deleted from your film scroll—but photographer Yan Palmer offers up another perspective.

FILM REVIEW
I finally found time to screen the 2012 documentary Stories We Tell, and I recommend it as much for the dramatic exploration of one family's narrative as for the questions it raises about the malleability of truth.

Life Stories, Listening & Telling

#THEGREATLISTEN
In its 15th year StoryCorps continues to “create a culture of listening that echoes across the nation.” Resources compiled for its annual Great Thanksgiving Listen include a Great Questions List and Interview Planning Worksheet.

“THE ROLLING NOW”
Sarah White of Madison–based First Person Productions shares a short essay she calls an experiment in “The Rolling Now,” a structural technique described as "like rocking back and forth between past and present."

A LIVING TRIBUTE
The new National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus, Ohio, which opened October 27, highlights personal stories of veterans from all branches of the military to inspire, honor, and connect.

CONFESSIONAL STORYTELLING
“I used to reassure prospective clients that they could simply leave out any personal stories that were too difficult to tell, says Massachusetts–based personal historian Nancy West. “But the more people share with me, the more I begin to think that nothing is too difficult for clients to share, once they become comfortable with the process.”

...and a Few More Links

The earliest memory in the first person testimonies of The HistoryMakers dates to the 1700s.
Kickstart your family history project with this November 14 webinar from archivist Margot Note.
In The Library of Congress’s new National Screening Room you can watch hundreds of hours of cinematic history for free, with films from 1890-1999.
Town & Country: “From Gates to Rockefeller, Wealthy Families Hire Personal Historians to Preserve Their Legacy”

Short Takes

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These are the five children of my British grandparents, Mary Ellen and William Martin. My mother was the baby of the family and was always referred to as 'our Winifred'. The eldest, William, was the young boy who passed away after developing pneumonia, but I knew the others well. My Uncle Vincent, the rather dour looking little fellow at left, was the most fun-loving man who kept us laughing constantly. It was his daughter, my cousin Sarah, who visited us on Denman last month. My Aunt Mary Gwendolen was such a wonderful person, as was Uncle Frank at right. As young boys, Frank and Vincent were always getting the cane at school for being late. They would stop to climb trees, play by the canal and run through fields. We stayed with all of them during several visits to England over the years. Their amazing tales of childhood always delighted me to no end. #family #leeds #relatives #mother #aunt #uncles

A post shared by Barbara Priestley (@barb.priestley) on Oct 21, 2018 at 12:33pm PDT

Boyd Matheson: The binding stories found in family Bibles https://t.co/YuedzzxyPX
— Kathy Smith (@LibertyKathy) October 18, 2018

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I admit that I am not as good at organizing my own family history items and memorabilia as I am at managing my clients'. 😔 These tags were shuttled from box to box over the years after my mother then my grandmother died, and somehow I always assumed they were my grandfather's military dog tags. One day recently, while on a cleaning binge, I realized that they in fact belonged to my mom and uncle—neither of whom was ever in the military. So I did some digging and learned that they are Civil Defense Identification Tags—metal ID tags issued to students by their schools during World War II. New York City’s public school system was the first to issue the identification tags in February 1952, spending $159,000 to provide them to 2.5 million students—my mother and uncle clearly among them. We tend to think of childhood in the fifties as being carefree and innocent, but with the advent of the Cold War and Russia's nuclear arms, there was also a sense of fear that pervaded American life. My mother told me about the "duck and cover" drills they did at her school, but seeing these tags makes me wonder how "real" it all was to her... * * * ** * * * * * * * * * #familyhistory #civilidentificationtags #dogtags #dogtag #nycschools #nyc #1950s #fifties #nostalgia #ww2 #WWII #coldwar #familyrelic #tellyourstory #lifestories #legacy #kidsdogtags #siblings #waryears #duckandcover #1951 #1952

A post shared by Modern Heirloom Books (@modernheirloom) on Oct 4, 2018 at 5:14am PDT

It's not too late to sign up for our fall writing workshop, Fridays at 5:30pm! Visit our website or the link below for more details and to enroll. We hope to see you there! https://t.co/kcdoxjvIEV
— The Grief Diaries (@thegriefdiaries) October 24, 2018

So, Major Harold Claridge, from the New Zealand Royal Engineers - decades after you left this place for war, your grandson came home and rediscovered your history. You’ll never be forgotten pic.twitter.com/baKyZiELtt
— James Longman (@JamesAALongman) October 29, 2018

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