Week 3 - Paperwork & More Scans
A new find in an envelope of headshots - Marian from the 70s getting ready for a Fiber Art show in Poland
Another week gone, and this one all too quick. Unfortunately this was quite a full blown week for me, not with the PhD, but with everything else. October is Charity accounts filing month and despite having little to do for the MKF this year, I am the trustee of another larger charity and joyfully their Chair of Finance & Compliance. So this week was eaten up by a lot of emails back and forth discussing risk and compliance and finance for them. I’m also in the process of creating a “Friends of the Foundation” scheme for the Bernat Klein Foundation.
The BKF is a few years ahead of where I’d like to be with this Foundation so working with them is always educative and helpful. Their patron is Mary Schoeser, so you can see how I was thought of. That and a very busy week working the day job kept me only able to accomplish a few things for the PhD, but at least it wasn’t a total wash.
I was able to read a book at least, but only one. I chose Fashion Before Plus-Size by Peters (pictured right) for two reasons: the first is that Marian’s fashion was often marketed and designed for the “mother of the bride” as her New York agent put it, and so getting an idea for the landscape and concepts of designing for bodies other than the rail-thin models on the runway felt useful. The second is that while my other library books are on 3 week auto-renew, this was a 7-day no-renew loan so I needed to dash through it.
It was very informative. I wasn’t able to read every word as a result of time, but I focussed on the chapters that I felt were the most useful. More than simply garments, the book also brings some fascinating attention to early 20th century concepts of fat and fat studies basics. The distinction between the “natural” body being only of bone and muscle, and the flesh/fat being like a garment means its easy for fashion designers to make bodies subject to fashion whims instead of figuring out how to cater for people of different sizes.
Less exciting than the reading was the paperwork. In order to research human subjects through the University, a student needs to apply for ethical approval to make sure they’re doing things rigorously and in compliance with laws about data protection or vulnerable people. This makes perfect sense when studying the effects of a cancer treatment or conducting a random sample study for psychological purposes, but when I just want to interview 20-30 people Marian knew and worked with, the word “overkill” comes to mind. A 13-page application form, with a comprehensive Data Management Plan, and then a 5 page information sheet with a consent and release form per interview, and that’s not even everything! It took all week to get it all written, and I’m completely certain it won’t be up to standard on the first try, so I’ll need to plan for a round of revisions. Joy.
Far more fun than paperwork was getting around to scanning some new images. You can see some highlights above. These two envelopes contained a bunch of headshots and other promotional materials from Marian’s earlier career, and it was like a little treasure trove to sift through. Obviously it’s only the tip of an iceberg but even running through these photos is instructive. On the backs of some photos are different versions of the business information, and it’s interesting to see it evolve from “Marian Clayden Wall Hangings” to “Clayden Inc” as time went on.
Finding information on other photographers who took portraits of Marian has been quite interesting as well. Marion Patterson was a quite well known photographer working with Ansel Adams, and Carolyn Caddes also had prominence in the same area. A family friend, Lars Speyer (who I remember lived deep in the Aptos hills and drove an old London cab around) took many pictures for Marian and Roger, and it was fun to see his name stuck to the back of plenty of these portraits.
The week ahead should be calmer and give me the chance to get back to some reading but I’ll try to get back to scanning in more photos because it’s just such fun.