Podcast: Download (32.2MB)
Podcast: Download (32.2MB) A ton of information is embedded in historic photographs, especially when the images include artisans and handmade objects. In this episode of the Artisan Ancestors, I talk about my work identifying, organizing, and analyzing historic photograms. Focusing on my work with pictures of oak rod baskets from Southern Indiana, I share how [...]
Continue reading about Episode 27: Historic Photographs and Material Culture Research
Podcast: Download (29.3MB)
Podcast: Download (29.3MB) In this episode of Artisan Ancestors, I talk with Dr. Candace Greene, who directs the Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology or SIMA for he National Museum of Natural History, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution. She is an ethnologist at the Smithsonian and has an adjunct appointment with George Washington University [...]
I just finished making this video for the Indiana State Fair Master’s program. I was really inspired by Harold Stark’s story and his thoughts about making things as a memorial for those who taught him and shared information. If you go to the Indiana State Fair, please head over to the Pioneer Village and see [...]
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Podcast: Download (27.1MB)
Podcast: Download (27.1MB) An Emmy Award-winning archival image researcher, Rich Remsberg assists documentary film makers locate the necessary archival footage and still photos that they need to visually tell their stories. From scouring collection at the National Archive to tracking down rare one of a kind materials held in personal and family collections, he prides [...]
Continue reading about Episode 16: Found Images and Research Methods with Rich Remsberg
Podcast: Download (35.7MB)
Podcast: Download (35.7MB) Folklorist Tim Tangherlini employs a research approach he calls, “computational folkloristics” which uses data-mining to reveal new information, once thought lost to the past. He deploys computers to plot, compare, store and assist in the analysis of data from various archival holdings from around the world. His method places historical individuals [...]
Continue reading about Episode 15: Computational Folkloristics
Podcast: Download (27.0MB)
Podcast: Download (27.0MB) In this episode, I talk with Curt Witcher, the Senior Manager for Special Collections at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His work includes leading The Genealogy Center, which is a world-class research center for family and local history research.In this interview, Curt and I discuss general research strategies [...]
Continue reading about Episode 10: Genealogical Next Steps with Curt Witcher
Podcast: Download (26.7MB)
Podcast: Download (26.7MB) In this episode I talk with Brandt Zipp a young pottery scholar, who grew up around antique American stoneware in his family’s antique auction business, The Crocker Farm, Inc. Zipp shares his research findings, as well as his techniques for discovering important information about free African American artisans working in New York, [...]
Continue reading about Episode 9: Brandt Zipp’s Search for Forgotten African American Potters
Podcast: Download (28.1MB)
Podcast: Download (28.1MB) In this episode we talk with Sherrie Davidson a quilt research, who recently completed her book, the [amazon_link id="1551097680" target="_blank" ]Quilts of Prince Edward Island[/amazon_link]. We talk with her about the quilt survey and subsequent archival research she did to trace the origins and development of this traditional art. She shares how [...]
Continue reading about Episode 8: The Quilts of Prince Edward Island
I find pocket microscopes like the Carson MM-200 Pocket Microscope to be a necessary tool in my work with historical photographs. This inexpensive scope combined with the information and photo samples available at the www.graphicatlas.org, help me to identify historic photographic materials and processes. Being able to recognize a photographs support material, binding and surface [...]
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Jon Kay suggests using a simple hand held camera as a scanner to copy photographs and documents in this Artisan Ancestors Quick Tip # 2.
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In this post I share five digital tools that I use to edit and work with audio files, which I feel might be of interest to folks wanting to do oral interviews. I don’t use any of these tools to record interviews or my podcast, but I do use them to edit and work with [...]
Continue reading about 5 Great Digital Audio Tools For Interviews
Podcast: Download (26.8MB)
Podcast: Download (26.8MB) In this episode Jon Kay talks with Laurel Horton a folklorist and quilt and textile researcher. Horton has studied and made quilts since 1975. She recently published the book Mary Black’s Quilts: Memory and Meaning in Everyday Life, which blends historical and genealogical methods with a behavioral approach to material culture studies. [...]
Continue reading about Episode 7: Laurel Horton’s Textile Research
Podcast: Download (26.7MB)
Podcast: Download (26.7MB) In this episode, Jon Kay interviews Jennifer Core the folklorist and a founding researcher of the Tennessee Sampler Survey, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Tennessee’s needlework heritage. Jennifer’s research includes documenting Tennessee samplers made prior to 1900 and as of May 2010, she and her research partner Janet Hasson [...]
Continue reading about Episode 6: The Tennessee Sampler Survey
Podcast: Download (26.7MB)
Podcast: Download (26.7MB) In this episode we talk with historic preservationist John Staicer, who helped save the last 19th century saddletree factory in the United States. John not only helped place this vernacular treasure of Madison, Indiana on the National Register Historic District, but he and several other professionals and volunteers worked to maintain the [...]
Podcast: Download (14.2MB)
Podcast: Download (14.2MB) In this podcast, I talk with Ralph Lee Smith, who is an authority on the history of Appalachian or mountain dulcimer’s history. For nearly four decades he has research this distinctly American Instrument and its European antecedents. He is the author of two books on the topic: The Story of the Dulcimer [...]
Continue reading about Episode 4: Appalachian Dulcimer Traditions
Podcast: Download (27.4MB)
Podcast: Download (27.4MB) In this episode we meet with historical archaeologist Mike Strezewski and talk about his excavation of the Harmonist kiln site in New Harmony, Indiana. We will also meet with Tom Wintczak, a redware potter who made plates, strainers and pitchers, inspired from the broken shards and pieces from the excavation site. We [...]
Continue reading about Episode 2: Researching Harmonist Pottery
