Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

The social life of information has a story about how the smell of certain archives contained metadata for a certain researcher (read the book - I don't remember the details.)

OK, this may seem like an odd thing to say, but...

This post, more than just about anything I've read in the last few months, fills me with real hope.

I find the simple fact of this extraordinary archive uplifting.

Man that is just TOO weird. This afternoon during lunch, I was flipping through the TV channels, and AMC I think it was, was just starting the 1955 color cinemascope movie "The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell"....

The very opening scene is very long aisle either side of which is file cabinet after file cabinet... and one drawer is open. The camera moves in and the file is Billy Mitchell's.

Then I come here to JOHO tonight and what do I see, almost the same image! Very strange!

Yes, I read somewhere that the name, Mussolini, is actually based on the Arabic word for a fabric.

PS--oops, sorry, on second recollection, I think it was Persian. My bad.

OK, here it is. The claim is that his family, way back when, was involved in textile trade with the East. Why all this...pfff. I was born a defective encyclopedia. BW

Mousseline de Soie

Fibre: Silk. Weave: Plain. Characteristics: It is silk muslin. Sheer, open, and lightweight. It is something like chiffon but with a crisp finish produced by sizing. It does not wear well and it does not launder. Uses: Evening wear, and bridal wear. Trimmings. Also used in millinery as a backing.

Can I be a baby and request the info on the pictures be called "captions" instead of "metadata?"

Dear MetaBaby,

Captions are just one type of metadata the sleeves contain. There are also cross-ref numbers, etc.

So, you may call the captions captions, and you may even deny that they're metadata on the grounds that photos are not data. And I'll agree with you. But I have to draw the metaline metasomewhere!

I, too, am excited about the very existence of

the Bettman Archive.....and may appear uneducated

but what plans or strategies or fundings exist to

MAKE CERTAIN these images/records are never lost?

I hope there are plans...anyone want/see the need

for funding? It seems obvious that we need

computer copying and replication of this massive

"rosetta stone" of our and the world's history.

If there is a need I'd certainly hope we don't

look to the US government for it......simply be-

cause I'd hate to see ALL THIS in the impersonal

hands of bureaucrats.

Thanks for the invitation for ideas/comments.

I have a metal printing plate of a picture of a man selling textiles and brooms from the side of a horse drawn wagon. on the bottom it says the bettman archives. can you give me any information about this item or direct me to where i can find out more information about the printing plates they used. thank you-

In one of my books calls ­«Drafting Fundamentals» 1967, there`is a picture of a drafting room circa 19th century and it's from the Bettman Archive. Can you lead me to a web site where I can the same replica.

REgarding the photo of Mussolini, I would say that he was an Italian ruler and not holding "Sword of Islam". Am I correct?

Mussolini, after being girded with the "Sword of Islam"