Your Questions Answered
From:
Jo Morello
Question: I am researching the Kinetiscope
and Enos Rector's role in its invention. Specifically, I am trying to
locate one of Rector's early Kinetiscope's. Can you point me in the right
direction?
Answer: Dear Ms. Morello:
The only Rector I know who was associated with the kinetoscope and kinetography
was Enoch Rector. If he was supposed to be in Texas as part of his work
with and for Thomas Edison, your best source of information will be the
editors of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers. Email them from this
Webpage:
http://edison.rutgers.edu/contact.htm
Their knowledge on things Edisonian is encyclopedic.
Mary-Jo Kline
From: Tom
Fatsis
Question: I found your site through a literary search
engine. I am writing this letter to inquire about how I could become a
Martin Luther King historian. I wish to set up a web page (as a starting
point and expand there after) for educational and reference purposes to
display King's vision/philosophies, his struggles, his works, including
speeches and quotes, video feeds/pictures, timelines, major influences
such and Gandhi and Henry Thoreau, awards won, etc. I also wish to work
in conjunction with other civil rights historians and King dedicated facilities
down the road for joint projects and such. I will ask for the copyright
permission for his works, of course.
I live in Toronto, Canada, and I know that King's influence was primarily
focused in the United States. However, his vision and philosophies never
knew any borders. If there's any information you can provide me to help
lift my goal off the ground it would be greatly appreciated.
Answer: Dear Mr. Fatsis:
I think that your best source for advice and encouragement here will be
the editors of the Papers of Martin Luther King Institute at Stanford
University in Palo Alto, California. These scholars have been working
on King's papers (and publishing several volumes so far) for twenty years.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/index.htm
I think that you'll find the "Additional Resources" section
of their website a useful starting place for reading and the editors themselves
a good resource as your studies progress.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/additional_resources/
Good luck -- I think you'll have a wonderful time pursuing this project.
Mary-Jo Kline
Question: My name is Dr. Becky Lombard. I teach at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in the Music Department.
I am looking for a piano piece by Louis Gottschalk. I was told that it was played during the funeral procession for Lincoln. The person who mentioned this heard it introduced and played on public radio. They are lay folks, so I wonder if they heard the story correctly.
I did find, in his NOTES OF A PIANIST on page 284, a description of a gathering honoring Lincoln after his death at which he played UNION.
Can you help with this? Is there any citing of his music being played by someone else during the procession?
Do you have a large collection of materials of Gottschalk?
Thanks so much
Answer: Dear Becky:
Have you consulted this Website? I think you'll find their suggestions for recent biographies and other resources will be useful:
http://www.louismoreaugottschalk.com/
There were "funeral processions" in almost every city where the train carrying Lincoln's corpse from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Ill., stopped.
You might also email Public Radio -- they do a good job of keeping track of music played on their new broadcasts, and they may be able to help you pinpoint the reference that your friends heard.
The Gilder Lehrman Collection, unfortunately, does not specialize in American music.
Let me know if you have more questions.
Mary-Jo Kline
