Abby Epplett, Historian

After enjoying an online program on train model expert and photographer Linn Westcott hosted by the Center for Railroad Photography & Art (CRP&A) back in July, I discovered that the organization had just launched a new collections management system using Odyssey Preservation Software created by History IT . As someone who maintains a database for my “real job” and met Odyssey representatives during NEMA Conference 2022 [ Day 1 , Day 2 , Day 3 ], not to mention that I really like trains, the webinar held on Tuesday, August 15, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. EDT was an ideal opportunity to learn more about several of my interests. CRP&A Executive Director Scott Lothes gave an introduction to the organization and its upcoming events, while Director of Archives & Collections Adrienne Evans and Reference & Digital Projects Archivist Erin Rose led the two-part demonstration and answered questions. Before the demo, Evans and Rose described the “long road” to selectin...

While putting the final touches on last week’s post, I realized I had yet to discuss The Lord of the Rings in the context of national epics and then concluded that this was an ideal time to do so. Tolkien himself was interested in national epics, both studying and creating them. During the talk “Lost Tales and Found Myths” at the Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference , Sonali Chunodkar mentioned Tolkien’s early attempt to create a national epic using the characters of Aelwine and Ing as creators of England, but he seemed to have realized this flavor of nationalism trended towards supporting colonialism and white supremacy, so he quickly dropped the idea.

Yesterday — Monday, October 30, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. — I watched the three-expert panel Bringing Phillis to Life hosted by Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) at their headquarters in Boston and streamed via Zoom. The talk focused on the life and work of Phillis Wheatley , a colonial American poet who was the third woman, first Black person, a first enslaved person in British North America to publish a book of poetry, called Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral . Each speaker presented for about ten minutes, followed by a twenty minute Q&A. Dr. Tara Bynum, professor at University of Iowa , recently published the book Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America . She spoke in a lyrical style describing surviving letters between Wheatley and her friend, Obour Tanner , another formerly enslaved Black woman who lived in Newport, RI. The letters were written between 1772 and 1779, and they are currently held by MHS , and the story of how they got there ...

During this week and next week, I am taking a brief break from the appendixes to create more illustrations for the people of Middle-earth. I will focus on Maiar, a Race of angel-like or god-like beings who traveled as invisible spirits or took a wide range of physical forms. While this term did not appear in The Lord of the Rings , many Maiar appeared in the text, and explanations of Maiar and their powers were given in The Silmarillion . Wizards and balrogs will appear this week, while Maiar symbolizing the environment and crafts will appear next week.

At last, I arrive at the final section of the appendixes. After a hundred and fifty pages of comparing Middle-earth history to real-world history, I have an even stronger grasp of how Tolkien used his expertise as a philologist and historian to build a fantasy world rooted in fact. This will serve as a solid foundation for future research as I move into the dialog portion of the text and reveal vignettes for the hypothetical animated musical.

During the early 19 th century, also known as the Regency era in Great Britain, clothing mimicked contemporary events in Europe, including revolutions and building empires. People were inspired by similar events in classical history such as Athenian democracy and the Roman Empire. Northwestern European scholars had long appropriated the history of the Mediterranean as their own past, but this was the first time the mythology had gone mainstream. The beginning of print culture , or the mass production of written documents including books, allowed the noble and merchant classes to own their own copies of The Odyssey and The Iliad , albeit with varying accuracy in translation, while the display of marble statues at public institutions like our old friend the British Museum allowed the general public to see how their favorite heroes may have looked. This interest in the ancient world continues today, as the so-called Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon have been on display in the m...

This essay is about flashbacks, one explanation for how humans perceive time and memory. Unlike some of my diatribes, the post is blessedly short for those of you without much spare time. Flashbacks have been used on stage and in film for over a century, but new techniques continue to appear. Medical professionals now use the term “flashback” to describe a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although not all experts agree if this is a required symptom for diagnosis. As for its connection to The Lord of the Rings , characters use flashbacks when attempting to recall what has happened to them or to people in their communities. Despite the presence of an actual timeline in “Appendix B: The Tale of Years” , the timeline in the dialogue portion is shaky. Characters frequently misremember the past, receive glimpses of the future, and even become confused about the current date in the present. My goal in the animated musical is to preserve these flashbacks while drawing ...

I have almost arrived at the dialogue portion of the books, but before I launch into the story, I will review the epigraph. The infamous poem, which begins with the line “Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky”, technically appears opposite the copyright page for each physical book in a three book set of The Lord of the Rings , after the Introduction by Peter S. Beagle but before the Forward by J.R.R. Tolkien . I don’t know why the book was set this way, as I would have placed the epigraph after the Prologue, but since the edition of the book I use was released the same year my parents were born, I was not around to set the publisher straight.