Casey's Patch Collection

The Eastern States Exposition, or "The Big E"

A few days ago, my native Bay Stater roommate Ashley suggested that we go to the annual Eastern States Exposition. Affectionately known as "The Big E," this fair is held in West Springfield, Massachusetts and was founded in 1916. Every year, all of the New England States bring their best artisans and food to The Big E for visitors to experience and enjoy.

We started the walking tour of the "Avenue of States" with New Hampshire. In the New Hampshire building we saw artisan wood-carvers, basket-weaving, and stenciling. The Connecticut folks brought wonderful exhibits of their natural resources and industries, as well as some delicious tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad. The Vermont building was my favorite and featured vendors with maple syrup and maple candies, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and apple pies. Maine, of course, had lobster rolls and fresh blueberries, and also had some excellent exhibits featuring their state parks. Massachusetts had several agricultural and horticultural exhibits and delicious cranberry vendors. Artisans from Rhode Island brought their beautiful jewelry and other hand-crafted items and artwork.

After the fair, Ashley's parents cooked an amazing dinner for Ashley, Melissa (my other roommate), and me. Overall it was a wonderful day, and I recommend The Big E to all of my new friends in New England!

 

Vicksburg National Military Park

The 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the "bloodiest day in American History," is approaching and will occur next week on September 17. Although this patch is not specifically commemorative of the Battle of Antietam, I thought that it was an appropriate time to reflect on the Civil War and specifically the extreme amount of loss that was suffered by the American people during the war. I acquired this patch after visiting the Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Mississippi on my 18th birthday.

The siege of Vicksburg began on May 18, 1863 and lasted until July 4, 1863, taking place over a period of one and a half months.  During that time an estimated 19,233 Union and Confederate casualties were suffered. The Battle of Antietam lasted one day.  On that September day in 1862, an estimated 23,100 casualties were suffered on both sides. During the entire Civil War, the United States and the Confederacy lost an estimated 750,000 men, roughly 2.5 percent of the entire U.S. population. If the U.S. suffered that percentage of loss of its population today, we would lose 7.5 million citizens.

I keep using the word "estimated" because during the Civil War there was no way to keep track of the number of soldiers killed on or off of the battlefield. Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard University and author of This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War sheds light on how the Civil War ultimately redefined the federal government's obligation to those who sacrifice their lives for its survival. Before the Civil War, there was no battlefield ambulance system, no dog tags, no military cemeteries, no Memorial Day.  

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE will broadcast a documentary on September 18th, Death and the Civil War, based off of Faust's book. I highly recommend tuning in.

 

Louisiana State University

Today I'm posting a patch that to me represents my other home in this world - Louisiana State University, and specifically the School of Library and Information Science at LSU.  I spent two years studying in my master's program at LSU, and I call it home because in the program I met everyone in this world who means everything to me.  I met my very best friends and mentor in SLIS.  

I moved to Baton Rouge after working for a year in Jackson, Mississippi after I graduated with my BA in History from the University of Southern Mississippi.  At that time, I was only moving two hours from home, and I could have never imagined ever moving 1,500 miles from home.  It was a difficult move for me because I knew no one in Baton Rouge and I was stepping into territory that I knew nothing about.  To be honest, I sort of fell into SLIS as a career choice - I had no idea what information professionals really did.  It just seemed like it could be a good fit, and indeed it was.

While in SLIS, I decided to focus my coursework in archives, and specifically access, outreach, and instruction in archival settings.  And as you all know, I'm not actually even working in an archive in my new job at 'GBH, but I feel that everything I learned in SLIS influences the decisions I make in my job everyday.  It's definitely relevant to everything we learn in SLIS, and the work I am doing is so awesome and I am so happy to be doing it.  

Outside of my coursework in SLIS, I will always have fond memories of spending time with my dog Romsey at the dog park in Baton Rouge, enjoying Cajun cuisine and going to festivals across Louisiana with my friends, tailgating at LSU football games, and working for the Archival Training Collaborative.  And as I try to think back about everything I loved about living in Baton Rouge, there isn't anything or anyone not somehow related to the SLIS life, or "SLife" for those who know the "SLanguage," that comes to mind.

My friend and current president of the LSU chapter of the Society of American Archivists gave me a vase on graduation day that I have sitting on my windowsill.  The words that she painted on it could never be more true about my life at LSU: "Home is not where you live but where they understand you." 

 

 

Waltham, Massachusetts, affectionately known as "Watch City"

Today I'm posting a patch that was recently given to me by a new friend, Eric Boutin, fellow MLIS extraordinaire, whom I met soon after I moved to Massachusetts.  For the first three months of my time here in Massachusetts, I resided in a quaint little city about 10 miles outside of Boston called Waltham. 

Waltham is known by many in the area as "The Birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution," and the curators at the Museum of Industry and Innovation in Waltham really helped to make that claim a reality for me.  During the Industrial Revolution, Waltham was home to Francis Cabot Lowell's Boston Manufacturing Company, which became known as the Waltham-Lowell Industrial system.  Waltham is known as "Watch City," because the Waltham Watch Company was the first to ever produce a watch on an assembly line, even before the Swiss! 

Waltham also has a rich culture.  It's situated along the Charles River and this summer I went to the Waltham River Festival and often saw live music on the Common on Thursdays.  Every week there's a farmer's market near the Waltham Common, and I only had to walk a few blocks from my apartment to get a coffee at the best coffee shop in the Boston Metro area, Cafe on the Common.  Visitors often visit Waltham on the weekends to have dinner at one of the many excellent restaurants on the historic Moody Street, named after one of Waltham's most notable residents, Paul Moody, inventor of the cotton loom.

Waltham also has an excellent trivia scene, and I'll go ahead and brag that my friends and I won 1st place six times this summer.  We also owned the dance floor at the Skellig's 80s night with our fabulous Cajun Shuffle.  A lot of my friends that I met in Waltham are graduate students at Brandeis University, an historically Jewish research university located in the city.

I'm very glad that I got to spend my first summer in Massachusetts in the great city of Waltham.  It certainly has a hometown feel that reminded me much of my own hometown of Monticello, Mississippi.  I would like to think I've done a lot of traveling on my weekends here in New England since I arrived, but as Henry David Thoreau said about his Concord, I would say that much of my travels in New England so far have been in Waltham.