Prior to my sister’s request I was talking to my webmasters about changing the format of my blog and website. In fact over the past few days I had been working with them on improvements, enhancements, and changes.

I originally planned the website to be in three or four sections–Capturing the Soul was about looking at photographs beyond the conceptions and stories to sense how they touch you. Exploring family photos was about storing and archiving photos and writing a family history.  The final section, William Henry Jackson’s San Diego is about my master’s thesis on William Henry Jackson’s Photographs of San Diego.

As I began to write my blog my cousins began responding and asking for more.  To their children the family history is something they know little of.  Although the photos were taken at family events they were rarely shared so the images were new to everyone.

To please my cousins — I love positive feedback — I wrote a lot about the family. In doing so I was straying from my original intent which was to be a more general site about looking at family photos.  I have a number of stories that I want to share.  After hearing from D’s wife G I wanted to share stories about him.  I didn’t because as I thought about writing on one story I realized that if it and the related story about his father were publicly seen they would be funny, but embarrassing.

So I’ve been editing my stories in my desire not to offend.  Sometimes I haven’t written because I couldn’t send the story out to the world at large.  Web searches change everything.  I want Search Engine Optimization for my website, but I don’t want it about my personal life.  I’ve worried about people getting hold of names and dates.  Identity theft is a big problem.

I realized that my changing the format of my website and blog is the right thing to do.  I will continue to have a general blog about looking at photos or about life in general.  I’m also going to add a private site for the family only. I want this site to be interactive. I want feedback from the family and changes and modifications as they come up. To my family I’ll let you know the information once I get it running after Re’s bar mitzvah.

Henry G. Peabody Collection

To the rest of the world, I’m working on getting William Henry Jackson’s San Diego up on the site. This site may also contain work by other photographers of the period.  In a Google search totday I found another reference to my thesis.  This time it was on the Henry G. Peabody Collection at the Huntington Library page of the Online Archive of California website. Peabody was Jackson’s partner in the Detroit Publishing Company and had photographed a number of the CA images in the Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

Working on WHJ Webpage

After writing my last post I began to prepare to get my thesis up on this site. Today I scanned the text pages.  I may even have the attribution list up this weekend.  I need to scan images, the slowdown being in organizing them.

To become psyched to to all of this I did a Google image search on William Henry Jackson to get an idea of what is on the web. I found a wonderful website http://www.photochrom.com/ that is a gallery of Willliam Henry Jackson’s Photochrom post cards. There are histories of the Photochrom process, the Detroit Publilshing Company, and Williiam Henry Jackson, as well as  images of what is available for sale.

Cathedral Rock Near San Diego

One of the images that is available to purchase is #53064 of Cathedral Rock Near San Diego.

The Original Version

It is the same image as Jackson’s 011107 San Diego Cal Cathedral Rock La Jolla, Copyright 1899 Detroit Publlishing Co. This is a sepia toned photo.

I’m including another version.  This one I created on PhotoShop Elements. I removed the color creating a greytone so that it would look like a black & white.As you can see, each has it’s own feel and look.

Unfortunately you can’t go to the La Jolla Cove to rephotograph this image. Cathedral Rock is no longer there.

Today I got an email from Paul Clark. He collects William Henry Jackson images, primarily of Yosemite. He is also an Ansel Adams expert and collector.

Paul found me through a Google search. In January, while I was still working for ReadHowYouWant I got an email that he sent to info@readhowyouwant.com “Subject: Looking for Rosanne Goodwin–Author of Thesis on William Henry Jackson, 1982″.  It’s a good thing that he sent the email when he did because three weeks later my stint with RHYW ended and I would have never gotten the email.

His first email said  “I am a researcher-collector-writer on/of Ansel Adams & Yosemite.  This has led me to researching the pioneer western photographer William Henry Jackson.  At the Colorado Historical Society, Denver, CO I discovered a 1982 thesis on WHJ by a Rosanne Goodwin and I would like to make contact with her through this post if possible.  Thank You!  –Paul P. Clark”

I hadn’t heard from Paul since January. He lives in Japan and he and his wife headed off to Hawaii for a vacation. I was surprised to hear from him again.  Paul had found an image on eBay and wanted background information. He had read my thesis and knew that a big part of it was the attribution list for the Detroit Publishing Company images of California.

I was able to supply him with the information I had — I don’t have images of all the California photos.  I only copied the San Diego images.

I am planning on getting my thesis up on this website. I want to include more photos than I had in the thesis. I plan on scanning the negatives (I used a Bronica ETR-S 2 1/4 camera.) and reformatting it – working digitally is very different from typing it on an IBM Selectric and printing contact sheets to mount onto the pages.  Perhaps I’ll make it available for sale Print on Demand.

Hopefully I’ll be able to start working on it before my new job begins in July.