Week 8 - Detestable Desecration?

There is not much to report on this week. Lisa and I continued to go through the files we grabbed last time we were at the site, documenting them to help make an inventory for the collection. Since Lisa made the really cool document for sorting our information, I have also been working to transfer the information I wrote down about my initial file folders into her format.

We plan to meet next week on Monday to get more file folders and discuss the quantities and necessities of the items we put on that list with Patrick.

Other than the basics, we have also been planning for the Internship Showcase coming up in August. We both chose time slots that work for us - our current idea is to discuss how we came up with making an inventory, our current methodology, some interesting tidbits we have read, and hopefully tie it all to public history in the end. We will start fleshing out the presentation on Monday! 

The files this week were full of interesting stuff: 

One was completely full of newspaper articles and clippings that Laumer had accumulated - all about the Ransom Clark exhumation and his role in it. Laumer also had clippings of "to the Editor" articles, some of which criticized his desire to disinter Clark's body just to finalize a very minute historical detail. It also includes Laumer's response.

Articles containing criticism of Laumer's push for exhumation

This particular issue of sanctity and grave desecration is an issue very common to public history - one not very easily boiled down. 

Other interesting finds include a cut-out road map from 1964 to Clark's grave site: 

And very warm correspondence between Laumer and a woman named Lois Flynn who lent him her heated garage during the December exhumation: