Writing and Research or both

I spent last week writing about Eslanda Goode Robeson. Wow. There is so much written about her as she was Paul Robeson's wife. That is the good news. The bad news is that everything conflicts with everything else. It is as if everyone has his or her own interpretation of her life. I guess I am writing another interpretation but some things should be facts and should agree. At least that is what I think as a scientific researcher, but that does not seem to be so. The one fact that I am talking about is when she graduated from Columbia University and when she entered for that matter. Some say she spent two years at the University of Illinois and then went to Columbia and some say she left the U of Illinois in her senior years. I have seen graduation dates from Colombia that range for 1914 to 1920! I have seen a graduation photo of her wearing an academic gown that looks like that of a PhD and not a BS, but maybe they wore those types of gowns early in the 20th Century at Columbia. She does have a PhD in Anthropology from Hartford Seminary.

Therefore, I guess I will try to solve this problem by checking with the Columbia University archives and yearbooks if they have this information. My Oxford University editors might ask me these questions so I might as well get the answers now.

Also photos. So far, there is only one photo that I will have to pay for from a newspaper. I hope to get permission to use other photos for little or no money. I am doing this as I go along so I do not have to do it at the last minutes. I may have more photos then will be printed in the book but I can use them for website that will be an addition to the book. I think I am writing for the website as what I write is long but it will be up to the editors to shorten the writing for the book.

I have been asked to do a short version of one of my women for church. I think I will write about Eslanda Robeson because of her connection to the United Church of Christ via her grandfather and there is the New Jersey connection with her husband. This will be my Black History month speech at church.

You should see my office now. Since there is so much written about Essie Robeson I have papers and books strewn around everywhere. I sit the middle of this mess and either type or ponder which version to use.

There is a budding Writers group here in the Hillsborough Library. I went out to the meeting last Thursday. Only three of us showed up and the organizer of the group did not show. So the three of us introduced ourselves. One woman writes romance novels and has published many; the other woman is a science writer for Pharma for a living and wants to start writing poetry. She brought a poem for us to review. We do not know yet what this group is going to do because the leader did not show up, but it was nice meeting those two women. My monthly lunch with the Princeton Research Forum people was canceled due to the snowstorm. That was to be Thursday also.

Well that is where I am now.

No one has answered my Black History Month quiz yet. Did I stump you?

Jeannette

Black History Month 1. African American Women in Science

I write three blogs off and on. This month I will put the same information in all three blogs, because it is Black History Month and I want to convey some information to the public.


As you know I am writing a book about the history of African Amercan women chemists so I am going to give you a quiz.

Ok. Its up to you to tell me who they are and what they did. That's a hint they are all deceased. The people who read this blog should not have a problem with this quiz.

Good Luck
Jeannette

MLK Day

Well today was supposed to be a day of service.  I chose not to go anywhere as writing this book is a service.

Since I seem to like to do research rather than write, I did some more research.  I looked up Dr Quentin Deming, Dr. Marie Daly first research partner.  I found out that at 90 he is still living!  At least he was in October when he signed the physician petition to Obama about health care. He lives in New Hampshire. I will try to call him and ask if I can do a taped interview about his work with Dr. Daly. I will see what he remembers.

I also e-mailed Dr. Lane again about the ACS taking up Dr. Daly. I e-mailed Dr. Malcolm about the video tape again giving her a copy of her seconding nomination of Dr. Daly for the Garvan medal. She mentioned the video in that nomination. Janet Bryant the new ACS women chemist committee chair said they would help with the search.

Next, I will write about Josephine Silane Yates. She is the first African American woman to head a science department.

Jeannette

MLK Day

Friday of Week II

Well guess what? I finally started writing and it was not painful at all. Thursday I spent the day procrastinating by looking for some information about Dr. Marie Daly that I had all along. I started the article about Dr. Daly when I wrote. The people who reviewed my book proposal wanted me to gear the story to young women so I started by setting up a scenario in which they would be living in the early part of the twentieth century and be a young Negro girl. I hope I did it right. Then I attached the segment that I had written about Dr. Daly for "African National Biography" I have been told that I could site myself. I changed the segment by adding more information. This segment about Dr. Daly is long, but that is OK, as I have decided for all the segments in the book I would make them longer than the final version. This way I will get all the pertinent information into the segment and we can edit it down to the right length. To me this makes sense since it would be harder to add more information than to delete it.

In some segments, I may be adding information because I will write and add more info as I do more research.

I feel good now as the weight of starting to write is off my shoulders. I was going to go to Washington DC on Wednesday to a meeting at the American Chemical Society, but since I was not able to write last week because the dog was sick I do not think I can waste the time. Writing some of the other segments will be harder because they have yet to be written. I did not write about all the women who are going to be in the book for African American National Biography.

Jeannette

Week 2 Day 1

Well I still have not written anything but I did make progress. My editor sent me the booklet for authors.  It turns out his former assistant did not send me the the most recent information about that so I was looking for a glossy photo.  The most recent information says a high resolution scanned photo will do.
 I sent the photos of Dr. Marie Daly to the archivist at Einstein College of Medicine.  The archivist sent back the high resolution photos that I can use for the book.  Now I have to make sure I have permission to use them.  I have the name of the photographer that I will credit.  I guess I have to send a form to the archivist although she said it was OK since they did not take the pictures.
I also contacted the alumni association person at Einstein for information as to how to contact students and mentees of Dr. Daly.  Dr. Daly was part of a program to get more minorities to study to become doctors called the King-Kennedy program.  I have a photo of her with some of the students in that program.
The rest of the day was spent contacting two other women who will be in the book because their oral histories are ready for their review.  I needed to get them to send it to me and the person at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in charge of the women in science oral history program.
The dog is better but still not eating well.
Jeannette

Friday of week 1

Yesterday was bad as my dog is sick and I spent time taking her to the vet and worrying about her.
Today I got back to business.  I am still working on Dr. Daly.  I managed to recive an e-mail from the archivist at Einstein College of Medicine wher Dr. Daly worked.  I am in the process of getting photos for the book.  I will also contact the alumni association to find former students of hers.
Saturday is the day I chose to catch up on housework and work on the American Chemical Society volunteer work.
Jeannette