I was going to post a picture of some library managers doing a role-play at a training session, but I opened my flickr account and there was this amazing photograph, courtesy of the Library of Congress' flickr stream. Lady Constance is fascinating - I found the following excerpt in "Every Woman's Encyclopedia":
A daughter of the late Earl of Cromartie and sister of the present Countess of Cromartie-who succeeded to the title on the death of her father, there being no heir to the peerage-lady Constance has earned the reputation of being the most unconventional and daring personage in smart society. She has carried everything before her as a swimmer; has explored parts of India in which no other white woman has trod; has lassoed cattle in Texas; started the fashion among women of wearing a kilt for shooting and fishing in the Highlands, and of riding astride in Rotten Row, while, at the beginning of 1910, she appeared at the Palace Theatre, London, in a series of the classical dances made popular by Miss Maud Allan. Lady Constance married Sir Edward Stewart-richardson in 1904, part of their honeymoon being spent in Somaliland-for Sir Edward is very fond of big-game hunting. The bride's unconventional costume was a soldier's grey flannel shirt, open at the throat, with sleeves rolled up, khaki trousers, and a cowboy's hat. Lady Constance, who is now thirty years of age, has two sons, and lives for the greater part of the year at Pitfour Castle, Perthshire.
According to an abstract of a NYT article, in 1913 she was called to account for her scandalous dance costume and suggestive poses. I'm not sure how scandalous this pose is, but she does look like a woman who flouts convention.
Stumbling upon these pictures, in my photostream, without having to go to a library site - what the LOC has done is to put its collections (which are, in point of fact, public collections) where the public already is, so the public can discover them.
Which is the point of Library 2.0, I think.
1 comment:
Hoping we can start streaming lots of cool Sac Room stuff before long, too!
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