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FW: history and vinegar



Received this on another list and thought it would be of interest to some...

Michael C. Miller
Special Collections Librarian
Dallas Public Library, Texas/Dallas History & Archives
1515 Young St.
Dallas TX 75201
(214)670-1440
mmiller@lib.ci.dallas.tx.us

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." Isaac Asimov, Foundation.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard W. Oram [SMTP:roram@mail.utexas.edu]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 8:43 AM
> To:   Multiple recipients of list
> Subject:      history and vinegar
>
> Yesterday's Fresh Air radio program (carried on many NPR stations)
> featured Paul Duguid, co-author of  The Social Life of Information
> (2000).  Duguid is a historian at the Xerox PARC who provided an
> excellent example of the enduring value of the original artifact in a
> digital age.  He was once seated in an archives next to a man who was
> pulling  18thC letters out of a document case and sniffing them.
> When  Duguid asked what he was doing, the researcher replied that he
> was a medical historian looking for traces of vinegar used as
> disinfectant on letters sent from India, and that his nose permitted
> him to trace the spread of a particular disease across the
> subcontinent.  As Duguid pointed out, you can't do that with a
> digital surrogate!
>
> You can hear a Real Audio broadcast of the show at
>
> http://www.whyy.org/freshair/fara.html
>
> Richard Oram
> --
>
>
>
> Richard W. Oram
> Librarian
> Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
> University of Texas at Austin
> PO Box 7219
> Austin, TX 78731-7219
> (512) 471-9119; fax (512) 471-2899

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