Recently in New Content Category

A new website was recently added to the Through Our Parents' Eyes Architecture section: "The Blenman House: 1878 Victorian Territorial Architecture"

The Blenman House was constructed in 1878 by Charles Rivers Drake. It is thought to be the only example of San Francisco-style Victorian architecture built in Territorial-style adobe mud. While Drake used 20 inch thick adobe bricks for the home's exterior, it is the interior's wood detailing and leaded-glass skylights that distinguish it from any other homes in Tucson. Drake lived in the home until the late 1890s when he sold the home to Charles Blenman and relocated to Southern California.

Within this website we feature some spectacular QuickTime Virtual Realitiy (QTVR) panoramas of the lobby and six rooms that today carry the names of Charles Blenman's children. The QTVR panoramas were masterfully created by Gary Mackender of the UA's VR Annex.

In addition, one of the Blenman House's current owners, Jeff DiGregorio recorded a digital story about this historic building's early history. Jeff has researched the house, included it's original designer/owner Charles Rivers Drake. The digital story "The Blenman House: A Victorian Adobe Mansion in Tucson, Arizona" can be downloaded and viewed in QuickTime and iTunes.

Jack Weadock began working for the Arizona Daily Star in 1923. Over the years he worked as the sports editor, news reporter, city editor, managing editor, executive editor, and assistant publisher to William R. Mathews. Mathews wrote: "These various duties gave him unusually good oppor­tunity to talk with old-timers and learn about the pioneer days in Arizona of the 19th century." Weadock's weekly "Desert Notebook" column appeared on Mondays in the Star and it was from these columns that Dust of the Desert was published by D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc. in 1936. It was re-printed by Arizona Silouettes in 1963.

Through Our Parents' Eyes is able to provide a digital version of Dust of the Desert with the permission of Jack Weadock's daughter, Virginia Weadock Barleycorn.

Looking for something different? Check out Through Our Parents' Eyes newest site, The Hellbox. The Hellbox was the Tucson Press Club's annual publication accompanying its Gridiron Show. The Hellbox is quite a time piece - our first issue is from 1960 and our last is 1994.

Casey Ontiveros created the site. Let him know what you think. Read the info on the homepage to learn a little about the Tucson Press Club, its Gridiron Show and how we acquired these annuals.

Our thanks to Barbara Yarrow and the video production staff at Pima Community College's Community Campus for sending a DVD of R. Brooks Jeffery's excellent lecture, "An Architectural Legacy: Islamic Influences in the American Southwest." With Brooks' permission, QT streaming video of the lecture has been added to the Defining the Southwest's Architecture section. FYI, it is one hour and ten minutes long.

I am very please to pass along plans for a new website within Through Our Parents' Eyes about Tucson's Barrio Anita. Last Tuesday I Barrio Anita resident, Ramon Olivas at Oury Park, to discuss developing a website about the Barrio Anita. Ramon has been involved in a number Barrio Anita projects, including the enormous mural that overlooks Oury Park. Ramon passed along two booklets from Barrio Anita projects that collected family histories and engaged area youth in learning more about their heritage. Ramon has two more booklets to share and is going to talk to others in the neighborhood about participating. What I'd like to do is collect digital stories like the two currently on Through Our Parents' Eyes. These tend to be about two minutes of audio that is paced with a family's photos.

Here is an update on a website about the Tucson Press Club that would include issues of The Hellbox mentioned in my March 24th entry.

While exploring ways to present The Hellbox issues in the context of Tucson's unique Tucson Press Club (TPC) I discovered that James. F. Cooper, a columnist for the Tucson Citizen decades ago had published, posthumously, a book about the TPC called The Bar Is Open: The history of Tucson Press Club, 1944-1991. Having a digital copy of this book would be a great addition to the planned website and would be a useful addition to TOPE's e-books section.

I've written recently about some of the fascinating artifacts uncovered while developing websites from Patricia Stephenson's books Tom Marshall's Tucson and the University Neighborhood. The 1911 Balopticon Model C glass slide projector and the collection of lantern slides with prohibition and bird watching themes. Websites for both collections are being developed but can take a look at them by the following the links. FYI, Casey in the LTC's graphic design unit is revising the Tom Marshall website interface for these collections and I am hoping to find some in the Aububon Society to identify the content of each bird watching image.

This month, I began digitizing two other Louise and Tom Marshall artifacts. One is Louise Foucar Marshall's Histology. Louise's Histology dates back to 1899 when she was a botany student at the UA. As Patricia would say, her botany professor pointed out the window and told her, "There is your laboratory." Much to his surprise, she meticulously studied desert plants, documenting her work in her Histology and adding detailed sketches. Louise's Histology at some point over the past 107 years suffered some water damage but is still in good condition. I am scanning each page and saving them as 800 pixel high JPEG images and scanning each sketch as well. Interested? Here is a sample page and a sample sketch.