The pass-keys of knowledge

Since I have been ever so gently goaded into responding to Chris's post with his hints relating to my decided opinions about the pass key knowledge I feel it my duty to entertain his musings. He is correct in his statement regarding my understanding of the pass keys. Permit me to explain my dear reader. I have been addicted no less to research and all the principles there of for far to long. It is a decided sickness which I have grown to understand as no less than terminal. I find no greater pleasure than becoming lost in a sea or papers, books, and textiles, all the while drowning in acid free archival material. Those, dear reader are the elements that combine to form the sought after pass keys of knowledge. For as many items of historical importance I have been allowed to look at, evidently blessed if you will, with some fleeting bit of sainthood or the like, I have been denied access to just as many and indeed certainly more than I can now account for. Who is it then that hold the pass keys to knowledge? Why should the effects of a bygone era be locked away accessible to only those so blessed by some nameless authority. Please don't read into my verbage, I'm not anti-establishment or even very liberal in my opinions, but I do see the attempt to limit access to historical collections as intrinsically wrong. We claim so frequently that our children have no appreciation of history, no understanding of its value, or no desire to seek out a path of learning. Well, I don't see what there is to misunderstand. When the effects of our past are so locked away that only the sanctified can gaze upon them an appreciation can't be fostered. Now I'll be one of the first to tell you to put gloves on before you dare to put your fingers on antique garments or other textiles, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be studied, looked at, and or handled depending on their condition. A history text is merely that a dry compilation of writings and edits from textbook authors and publishers, and it will always pail in comparison to seeing the original item in question, or at the very least a similar item. If I were to play devil's advocate for a moment I might yet say that it is impossible for everyone to ever see the originals or that the originals are to delicate to ever be seen by the average researcher. Well, I can tell you this, our antique store has been likened to a museum as I mentioned earlier and I'm proud of that, but what it also means is that it must be a museum where you can touch the items in question (gloves will be provided for use with garments and textiles) because I don't think there is any better way to learn about a subject than by being able to come as close as you can to it. For it is only thanks to study that we have questions and only thanks to questions that we have answers and only thanks to those answers that we have more questions. I invite you to come to our shoppe, bring your questions and hopefully leave with more of them than you walked in with. The pass keys of knowledge aren't the property of PhD's, or archivists, or curators, or education directors, or teachers, they can be found in just as easily in your hands as in mine. So next time your denied entry into a special collections room or are told that you can't see an image held in the hands of some historical society, don't be discouraged in your research, just seek another avenue, you'll find it eventually. As for now, I can't offer you the pass key, but I can offer you a series of study images from our textile collection at http://oldtruckantiques.dotphoto.com/

Jen