So, I\u2019m going to try to keep this blog up every two weeks, in the way that I used to when I was working on the Davy letters full time some years ago. It\u2019s my first week as a short-term fellow in the Chemical Heritage Foundation, in Philadelphia, which is has a beautiful library in the historic part of the city. I\u2019m going to be here for 12 weeks and I have a lot to do! I\u2019ve got off to a good start today. I found a word that my co-editor hadn\u2019t managed to work out in a letter held here and the work that I did two weeks ago in the June Fullmer archive continues to bear fruit. We\u2019ve found about 20 new letters as a result and we\u2019re still checking out more.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve just arranged to go to the Morgan Library in New York too and I\u2019ve started now to be a bit more free in my searching for Davy material and to call up letters and diaries that mention him too. These kinds of sources have started to be valuable for working out where he was when and a number of persistent questions have been resolved over the past few weeks of this nature. I\u2019ve also determined to spend an hour or so a day reading from cover to cover a few key texts that I may have read years ago or that I\u2019ve just selected from for specific bits of information, such as the key Davy biographies. The library here is an excellent resource for all things Davy and it\u2019s also very comfortable and conducive to work. Being near the end of the project is quite a different experience: you know a bit more what you should be on the look-out for, and I\u2019m better, I think, at sifting through information to find exactly what I need (if it\u2019s there). Wish me luck! I\u2019ve got a lot to do here\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, I\u2019m going to try to keep this blog up every two weeks, in the way that I used to when I was working on the Davy letters full time some years ago. It\u2019s my first week as a short-term … Continue reading