jfcutter
Posts: 54
Joined: 10/27/2004
From: Beautiful Klamath Falls, Oregon
Status: offline
|
Thanks to you too Wayne for the compliment on the website. It has been a lot of work and personal expense (BLM allows me some work time for it only...and of course the server space) but worth it all.
I probably still have 1-2 years to complete it at the relatively slow rate I'm working on it. What you see is 3 years worth of real part-time work. I still have to do my regular job in range & wild horse management...but my co-workers have taken up some of the slack fortunately, and I thank them for it.
The thought of publishing some summary of what is on the website has been suggested quite a bit. It is a good thought, but I've been pushing it to the back of my mind and will until I "finish" the website. Then we'll see. By then I will most likely be retired and may pursue some publishing - either via a BLM publication or independently.
To my knowledge, the only other publication that closely approximates what I'm doing on the Historic Bottle Website was Olive Jones & Catherine Sullivan's 1989 "The Parks Canada - Glass Glossary" which is out of print and hard to acquire today. It is used widely by archaeologists but just about unknown in the collector world. However, it has much more limited information than the website and is somewhat directed towards systematic classification methods (measurements and the like).
To me the main "problem" with that book is that in the professional archy world, most all information must be referenced and tied back to some other reliable person publishing it. Speculation is OK, but only in small doses it seems - most things have to be tied to absolute or verifiable information which is not that abundant when dealing with bottles made 100-200 years ago where surviving records about them are limited or never existed.
I am not necessarily handcuffed by that standard, but I recognize the utility of it. If some bit of information is based on another reliable persons empirical or systematic analysis, then it is more legitimate. I try, however, to do my own analysis based on almost 40 years of looking at bottles (and the thoughts of others like the people that use Antique-Bottles.com), but I also refer to hundreds of different references - professional and avocational - in supporting my contentions about bottle dating (and typing). Many of the points I make are well known in the collector world (like tooled versus true applied lips), but not universally so and even less so in the archaeological world. Thus, the Historic Bottle Website.
(Remember, the justification for the BLM allowing me to do this website is that it be a tool for professional archaeologists inside the government, though of course the website is inevitably used more by collectors since there are many more collectors than there are archaeologists.)
Sorry that got so long...a little soapbox'n which can be fun at times. In any event, I think the BLM bottle website takes a huge leap forward in the amount of information presented and analyzed relative to the systematic dating (and typing) of historic bottles.
I only stuck the fishing picture in the message to prove that I'm not totally obsessed with bottles and the bottle website, but it's close. Incidently, the fish was released unharmed...a 24" Dolly V. (or P.).
Bill
< Message edited by jfcutter -- 1/10/2006 6:55:37 AM >
_____________________________
Bill Lindsey - Klamath Falls, OR.
Author of the BLM/SHA's "Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website"
http://www.sha.org/bottle/index.htm
(...and a collector of American mouth-blown bottles)
|
RE: Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information ... - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread