Have you inherited family heirlooms that are a mystery? We might inherit Grandma’s china or Grandpa’s stopwatch and know something about their use and importance. Other items might challenge us to research them in an effort to understand more about our ancestors. I recently took Gena Philbert Ortega’s institute course, “Material Culture” and am now inspired to use the physical objects I’ve inherited to further my knowledge and understanding of their past.
At the end of the class, Gena asked us to share an item and what we learned. I decided to choose a small book that had been my great aunt Effie’s. After my mother passed away, we cleaned out her home and I found a beautiful little volume of BitterSweet by J. G. Holland, she had inherited. I brought it home and put it on my shelf but did nothing further with it until class. Using the historical research process Gena taught, I learned about BitterSweet and discovered much more about Effie in the process.
The Historical Research Process
I was fascinated to learn the historical research process is very similar to the genealogical research process. I used each step to research BitterSweet and presented my findings to my class members via a PowerPoint presentation at the end of the week.
Identify An Idea, Topic, Or Research Question
We learned that this needs to be a real question and achievable. It could entail discovering the history of an item, providing historical context, dating a photo or object, or verifying family lore. The first step is to thoroughly examine the object and ask questions. Looking at the book, I wrote these notes:
Item of interest: leather-bound book, cover hand-tooled and painted, “Effie” is handwritten on the front page; $ 1.50 has been erased. The title page has no publication date but does include the publisher, title, and author. Opposite the title page is an image of a castle.
BITTER-SWEET
A POEM
BY
J.G. HOLLAND
Author of
“The Bay Path,” “Titcomb’s Letters’ Etc
NEW YORK
HURST AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
I knew that Aunt Effie remained single her entire life and lived for a time in New York City. She was a teacher and librarian, and I hypothesized that BitterSweet must have been special to her somehow. I also inherited a trunk she had embellished with flowers and wondered if she had rebound the book and painted the design.
After examining BitterSweet, I compiled a list of questions and possibilities for research. This was a fun brainstorming session and I came up with the following.
When was the book published? Research various editions – eBay, Google Books
Where did Effie purchase it? NY or Utah? Review the timeline
What meaning did it have for her? Review Effie’s timeline
Why rebind it in leather? Research hobbies
What kind of leather is it? Research types of leather used in binding
What type of paint did she use? Research painting on leather
How did she do the etching? Research leather etching tools
What was the wallpaper pattern used – if it was wallpaper? Research wallpaper patterns – upload a photo
Was this book popular with the masses? Search newspapers
When was this particular edition published? Learn about the publishing company
How was this book received? Research newspaper reviews, life of J.G.Holland
How does the pattern fit with the trunk Effie also painted? Compare the colors and patterns
Conduct A Background Literature Review Using AI
The next step is to conduct a background literature review to see what has already been written on this item, topic, or question. I decided to start with the author, J. G. Holland, and learn when he wrote BitterSweet. Wikipedia had a thorough examination of his life from many sources and I learned that BitterSweet: A Poem was published in 1858 and was very popular.
I set up a project in the AI (Claude 3.5 Sonnet) and used it to summarize the Wikipedia article and provide a succinct timeline for Holland’s life.1 Next, I added the text of the 216-page poem and a 1940 editorial as project knowledge and asked for a summary of each.2 This saved me a huge amount of time and helped me get up to speed with the actual work.
AI (Claude) did a remarkable job of summarizing the text I provided but struggled when I asked it to give me a list of the various publications of BitterSweet. Next, I turned to Perplexity.AI to research Hurst and Company Publishers in New York. Perplexity can search the internet and provide sources, one of which was an article that discussed “Hurst’s Burnt Leather Edition of the Poets. 3 The featured book, Lucille, was in the same style as my copy of BitterSweet! I learned that this collection was:
Adapted for Presentation or Keepsake Purposes. Each volume artistically bound in durable ooze calf with HAND PAINTED FLORAL AND SCENIC EFFECTS and titles in burnt leather, silk markers, gold tops. Each volume neatly boxed. Price $2.00
Refine The Research Idea And Questions
The next step of the historical research process is to refine the research idea and questions. Armed with this new information, I decided upon the question:
Why did Effie collect this book and possibly rebind it herself?
I settled on this question because the picture of the castle seemed to be different paper than the text, and I wondered if the original binding had fallen apart and Effie used the leather cover in a new binding. I also wanted to learn more about her life away from Springville, Utah, and why BitterSweet might have been important to her.
Determine What Historical Methods Will Be Used
Next up was some research planning. During this step, we identify sources and methodology. I checked my information on Aunt Effie and discovered I was missing several censuses for her life – 1920, 1930, and 1940. Based on my knowledge that she had lived in New York City for a time, I guessed my research might take me to that location, but I needed a better starting point. The censuses would hopefully provide that.
I also decided to research the editions and availability of Bittersweet. Perhaps I could find a copy for sale on eBay or Etsy. Newspapers could give me information about this special publication.
Identify And Locate Primary And Secondary Data Sources
An important find was Effie’s obituary, which detailed her remarkable life as an educator and librarian. 4 I had no idea of many of her accomplishments and was excited to see that she taught at Friends Seminary in New York City, proving that the story I knew was accurate. The obituary also gave me insight into why she collected books. As a fellow teacher and book collector, I completely understand the desire!
My burning question was, where was she in those missing census years? I located her in 1920, in Springville, Utah, with her widowed mother and two brothers. She worked as a schoolteacher in a public school.5 By 1930, however, she was not living at home with her mother and I haven’t yet found her in that census. But in 1940, I hit gold! I found Effie lodging at the Gramercy Hotel in New York City. Her occupation was teaching in a private school.6 This meshed with the obituary’s reporting “She taught at Friends Seminary at New York City for many years, which is the oldest private school in the U.S.”
Mapping the Gramercy Hotel and Friends Seminary, I found they were only a few blocks apart, and Effie could easily have walked to school. I also learned that Friends Seminary has an archival and manuscript collection at Syracuse University, which I could pursue to learn more about her time there.
Next, I researched BitterSweet in historical newspapers and learned that between 1892 and 1916, there were numerous book listings in libraries, reviews and readings, and clearance sales. Since BitterSweet‘s original publication of 1858, numerous editions had been published and were circulating.
I still had not located an image of the edition Effie owned, so I turned to eBay and made some exciting discoveries. I found an undated edition with the exact title page published by Hurst and Company. An inscription gave a date of 1909, and it seemed reasonable that the publishers would use the same edition for the Burnt Leather series, just affixing a different cover. Interestingly, this book had a portrait of the author opposite the title page, different from the castle Effie’s BitterSweet edition had.
Continuing the search on eBay, I finally found a copy of BitterSweet that matched! The title page and contents were identical, but the picture opposite the title page was an artistic rendering of a New England scene to match the book. This likely was the original picture included in this special edition.
Evaluate The Authenticity And Accuracy Of Source Materials
Without physically examining the editions of Bittersweet on eBay, I could only use the photographs available. Luckily, there were enough that I felt confident in my conclusions. Comparing the covers I noticed the same etching design had been used with a possible stamp for the lettering. Since each cover was hand-worked, the slight variations made sense.
Analyze The Data And Develop A Narrative Exposition Of The Findings
As with all research, analyzing the data and writing up your findings is important. I did this in the way of my presentation slides and this blog post. As I created the presentation, I continued examining Effie’s copy of BitterSweet for clues – attempting to correlate everything I had learned. My original research question was, “Why did Effie save this book? Did she rebind it herself?” I concluded that she obtained her copy of BitterSweet much later than its original publication (perhaps 1909). The book had been rebound using the original leather cover but with an unrelated photo of a Scottish castle next to the title page. The sale price of $1.50 provided evidence that she purchased the rebound book. Effie may have used BitterSweet in her curriculum as a teacher at Friends Seminary.
Applying the historical research process to material culture is a perfect way to learn more about the man-made items in our possession. I have many more items that will benefit from this approach. It’s exciting to see that researching BitterSweet led me to learn not only about the book but also about Aunt Effie!
Best of luck in all your genealogical research!
Sources
- Claude.ai summary of “Josiah Gilbert Holland,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Gilbert_Holland : accessed 2 February 2025). (
- “Editorial,” The News Letter of the College English Association 2, no. 2 (1940) JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/44401791 : accessed January 29, 2025.
- Sidney F. Huttner, “The Lucille Project,” 2010 (http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/lucile/publishers/hurst/hurst12.htm : accessed 2 February 2025).
- “Former librarian, Effie Kelsey, succumbs at 87,” The Springville Herald, Thursday, 21 October 1976, p. 14, col. 4.; Newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com/image/282866853/ : accessed 29 January 20250.
- 1920 U.S. Census, Utah County, Utah, enumeration district (ED) 222, sheet 15 (stamped), p.15 (penned), dwelling 22, family 24, Salina Kelsey; digital image, “1920 United States Federal Census,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7884/ : accessed 29 January 2025).
- 1940 U.S. Census, New York County, New York, enumeration district (ED) 31-825, sheet 81B, Effie Kelsey; digital image, “1940 United States Federal Census,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2442/ : accessed 29 January 2025).
2 Comments
Leave your reply.