Notes finished-- now the Dated Notebooks

I have finished posting the 14 existing volumes of CSP's notes (Volume 10 being missing), and have started on the 9 dated notebooks. These are memo-sized pads, written in pencil, apparently more hastily that the carefully penned Notes volumes. I have started with number 7, written in 1942, because it takes up where Notes Volume 15 stopped.

These are not easy to read, but with practice I am now understanding about 90% of it. CSP is mainly interested in the war: his entry for 10-14-42 starts with "42 weeks of war." This is a recurring heading; I imagine at some point in 1943 it would have been too much effort to calculate; I wonder if he had ideas about how long it was going to last? As I scan these little books, I read bits here and there, but I haven't read them carefully yet. They seem easier to read on the website, enlarged a bit, than the originals, and perhaps I'll get through them some day, after I complete scanning the most important documents.

I was born just before the end of WW II, and in my earliest years, the war was a reverberating presence, always in the background, a huge, dramatic event that I missed completely. It is interesting to read CSP's view of these events, and to try to feel his reactions: fear, suspense and obsessive interest.

I reduced the size of his signature that appears at the top of each page and reorganized the heading so it takes up less screen-space. The new signature graphic needs a bit of cleaning in Photoshop. I'll try to do that before we leave this Sunday.

Completing CSP's Notes

Since my last post, I have scanned and posted volumes 11 through 14; these are hand-written and cover the years from March, 1938 to October, 1941. It is interesting to read CSP's reactions to events in Europe and Asia, as war approaches and begins. The missing Volume 10 leaves a gap in the navigation buttons for the web page http://meotod.com/csp/csp.php?v=1&p=0&s=10. I'm pessimistic that Vol 10 will ever show up, but stranger things have happened. I have already started the final volume, number fifteen, and just scanned the entry for Pearl Harbor.

Notes Vol 9, etc.

Today I added Notes Volume 9, from 1937, one page of the introduction (the remaining are badly exposed so I will reshoot them,) and a letter CSP wrote around 1912 apparently to one or more of his children. I also added another pair of previous page, next page arrows just below the image, so one doesn't have to scroll up to click one.

Petty Family Photo 1939 not 1941

Very soon after I posted images of my Petty photos, Bill Petty wrote me with a date correction for the photo I thought was taken in 1941. Because he wasn't in the photo, it must have been before 1940; Phyllis is a little baby, so 1939. Because of the way people were dressed, in short-sleeves and long, he believes it was taken at Thanksgiving. He put numbers on a copy of the photo and made a list of the 16 names. I made the image smaller and put it and the list on the page of photos at http://meotod.com/csp/csp-photos.php. Thanks, Bill!

Tragedy in the life of CSP

In this exchange of email, Will Petty and I discuss a passage he read in CSP's Notes:


Mon 8/30/2010 8:20 pm

Hi Lawrence,

I enjoyed spending some time with the CS Petty notebooks you've put up. When I came across the following, I found myself curious about the circumstances of his life:

"As I look over the pages of my life I am pleasantly surprised to find how good my luck has been. Through unseen and unforetold circumstances not a few of my dreams have come true. If I could live my life over I don't see how I could make it more satisfactory than it is at present; yet so strange are the twists of fate that tragedy has been the outstanding factor directing my destiny."

Do we know what tragedies he was referring to?

Best regards, and thanks for putting the notebooks on line,

Will Petty
Dorset, England

Mon 8/30/2010 10:57 pm

Hi, Will--

No, I don’t really know what tragedies CSP was referring to, though I know of two tragedies that surely would have marked him. There may have been more, and perhaps my older cousins know.

The first was the death of his grandfather Jesse Weissinger, by murder during a robbery in Alabama, I think in the 1870's or '80's. CSP was a boy at the time; death of a loved one is bad enough, but by murder is particularly traumatic. I have the details of this (where, when) in a document that your grandmother Germaine prepared, that at the moment is 6 floors down in my studio.

The second is the death of his first wife, Mary Nicholas, a few days after the birth of his daughter, Mary Claire, in 1902. Presumably her death was a result of child-birth; since CSP was a physician, it must have been particularly agonizing that his art was not adequate to save his wife. I am almost certain this is part of what he was referring to. Looking at the photos of Mary Nicholas & second wife, Florence Sturges, on the Cousins Website, I have come to have a lot of respect for CSP's taste in women-- they both seem quite beautiful.

In his Notes he is really parsimonious with personal details, and in the earlier volumes, there are no dates nor references to events; this changes later, particularly with the New Deal and WW II. I remember feeling a bit of a shock when he mentions his second wife Florence once in a later volume. I am thinking of adding a chronology to the website, and, after the Reunion, perhaps, a biography; we are supposed to do some reminiscing. As the youngest child of CSP's youngest child, I knew him the least. He died when I was 10 years old; his heart had gotten much worse a little before I was born. I remember him always in pajamas & usually in bed.

A couple of questions for you: do you remember where you saw this passage? I remember reading it, but not where. Also, could I have your permission to put this exchange in the blog?

Best,

Larry Johnson (Lawrence is OK, too)

Mon 8/30/2010 11:16 pm
( WP to LSJ )

Of course you can put the exchange in the blog.

I found the quotation around page 17 (give or take a few) of the final typed volume [ VII ].


Mon 8/30/2010 10:57 pm
( LSJ to WP)

And CSP's father died when he was 2, in 1873. (Jesse Weissinger [died] in 1881 when he [CSP] was 10). I was just looking at the family photos section of the Cousins Website.

Mon 8/30/2010 11:37 PM
( WP to LSJ )

Since his father died so early, I wonder if Jesse Weissinger was a surrogate father figure to CSP at the time he also died.

Tue 8/31/2010 12:13 AM
( LSJ to WP )

Yeah, after I sent the last email, I started thinking about that, too. I hope someone in Oklahoma will have something to say about this.

Photos are on the site; and some enhancements

I have just uploaded two photos of CSP, daguerreotypes of his parents, James and Adriana, and the Petty family in 1917 and 1941 (dates approximate.) You can see small and full-size images and download high resolution versions, too.

Following my son Eban's suggestions, I have added some controls in the Notes section, that enable one to enlarge the images of the pages.

I rearranged the menu so pages that don't exist yet are in italics.

Last week, I fixed some glitches in the tables and refined the colors.

Next, I'll return to photographing the Notes, volumes 9 and 10-15 and putting them on the site.

Next Steps

I copied the images and php pages for the website onto meotod.com yesterday & sent an email to the cousins group, receiving some nice positive replies. I need to make some minor cosmetic fixes to the php pages-- the CSP signature image is repeating so I have to change that; the next page and previous page links on Notes should not be on the far left and far right; the text on the home page should not be more than 900 pixels wide, and the background color on the catalog page is not right.


Bill Petty has requested I publish the family photos; small in number, they'll take little time, so I'll do them next. The question is should I use the scanner or the digital camera? Probably the scanner. After that, I'll upload the images of the handwritten pages of introduction to the Notes, and continue shooting and uploading images of the remaining handwritten volumes-- 9 through 15.

The Notes being complete, I'll perhaps turn to the dated notebooks, three of which continue past the end of the Notes in 1942 to 1945.