As I am sure you are all aware, the motto of Liberia is “The
Love of Liberty Brought Us Here.” With
this as my inspiration, and acknowledging that studying Liberia will bring me
to a wide variety of seemingly random and disconnected research sites (taking Bloomington,
Indiana, the site of my first archival visit, as an example), I have titled
this new blog “The Love of Research Brought Me Here…Wait, Where am I??” Over the next few years, as my graduate work
brings me to different places around the United States, Liberia, and the world,
I hope to document my experiences (both those in and out of the formal research
process), here. Thank you for joining me
on what promises to be an exciting and hopefully rewarding journey :)
As I alluded to above, I kicked off this summer with a trip
to the thriving metropolis of Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University
and its Liberian Collections, probably the largest extant collection of older
Liberian documents. Although that
research trip ended before I could create this blog (I tell you, figuring out a
name for the darn thing is the hardest part!), I wanted to share a couple of
the highlights to kick things off:
After 11 hours of driving with virtually no stops, The
Silver Bullet (my ’93 Volvo sedan) and I arrived in Bloomington, IN, only to
suddenly have all the lights on the dashboard flash at me and the car sputter
instead of starting back up once I stopped it in the America’s Best Value Inn
parking lot. I guess Bullet and I had
bitten off more than we could chew going between 80 and 90 the whole way, but
it had felt pretty good and we were excited to get there! The next morning things started up just fine,
only to go dreadfully wrong when I stopped to get gas and The Silver Bullet
told me enough was enough, dying at the pump.
After waiting about half an hour, and becoming officially late for my 8 AM
meeting with the archivist, a very nice man in a mechanic outfit helped me
out. He had been waiting for the gas
station to open with me for about 10 minutes and had heard me asking around for
someone with jumper cables (no, I don’t own any – and I know, I should get
some). Even though he was late starting
his drive up to Indianapolis in this old 70’s Lincoln Towncar he was fixing up
(having been delayed by the fact that his girlfriend, who was supposed to drive
with him and bring him back once he dropped the car, had not come home the
night before – when I asked if we should be worried about her he told me that
she had probably run off with another man…ouch… if anyone knows what you should
say back to that, let me know because I had nothing!), he offered to drive back
to his garage around the corner and grab his cables and come jump start my car. While the jumper cables were doing their
thing, he lamented that he probably needed all the good karma he could get that
day and that he just couldn’t understand why someone you love would hurt you
so. I didn’t have an answer for him on
that one either :(
After a quick stop at the local Volvo dealership to drop off
my car, I was on my way to the archive and just a little over an hour late! I had only three days to spend in the
archive, so I had to get cracking immediately.
The majority of the collection I was looking at was collected by Svend
E. Holsoe, a scholar of Liberia who managed to get copies (there’s a good story
behind that, ask if you’re interested) of a lot of Liberian documents back
before they were destroyed in the civil war so now they are the only remaining
copies. Pouring over someone else’s
research notes makes you really want to take detailed and legible ones of your
own, let me tell you! – Or at least it did for me… but on second thought, that’s
probably just me haha. It was really interesting to sort of see into the
processes of his mind with how he gathered things and organized all the materials. He had organized records of each ship that
came across from the US to Liberia (and when I say “ship” I really should be
more specific as I’m trying to learn all the different types of vessels and
what it means to have a “barque” versus a “schooner” arrive… things which
probably top the list of what I thought I’d never care about but now do!) and
copies of missionary records that were all really helpful and I wish I had had
more time there – which only means I have to arrange to go back! The staff there was so helpful and I have to
give a huge shout out to Megan MacDonald and Verlon Stone for their amazing
help and support to make my trip as easy as possible.
Before I knew it, my three days were up and it was time to
pick my car up from the Volvo dealership (which had less than stellar service,
I’m just going to admit it, we could have done a much better job at Farrell
Volvo) and be on my way! Thankfully (for
both myself and The Silver Bullet), on the way back I only had to drive about four
hours the first night to get to Michigan City where I stayed with the wonderful
Jess Arnett and her new husband Skyler! I also got to meet her mom who was in town
from Alaska for the wedding, a huge treat!
The next day I finished the drive home (a quick eight hours) and was
ready to get on the plane the next morning to start my 2+ month journey –
Massachusetts for Naima and Kyle’s wedding, South Africa for Winter School, and
Liberia for pre-dissertation research! (You have no idea how hard it was to
pack for so many different events and climates…)
I’m in Cape Town, South Africa now and I’ll hopefully write
my first post about this trip tomorrow, but in the meantime, I need to be
getting to bed as it is almost midnight here and it’s already proving to be a
whirlwind trip!
Can't wait for your updatesď
ReplyDelete