Author: pom-alfonsoc

Hello everyone,

So today is my last day working as a CLIRWater CCEPS Fellow. For the past two days I have been working on my presentation displaying the work I’ve done this semester as well as continuing metadata for those Chaffey Letters. It might be a surprise, but my end of the semester presentation is going to be on… drum rolls please..

The Chaffey Letters!!

I’ve spent so much time with these letters and learning about the Chaffey Brothers, the Inland Empire and Ontario that I’m just waiting to burst with all that information.

Overall, I am thankful for the experience I have had at the library. I have always considered myself a history buff and while working with these documents I have enjoyed learning about the history of Southern California as well as the ability to work with archives. I’ve learned new skills, technical and job skills.

thanks for reading,

Alfonso

I’ve begun metadata on the Chaffey Letters, Book I! I’ve never been into video games much but I assume that the feeling of passing a level you tried over and over to pass is the same feeling I’ve felt these past two days. I suppose I should clarify what level one and two were, as well. 

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Inspired by Kiera’s blog about social media, I began to think of the Chaffey
brothers and their use of advertisement and marketing in order to
attract attention to their “Colony.” As we saw in a past blog of mine, the Chaffey
brothers had produced pamphlets about their “City that Charms.” They
truly created a sort of paradise area for people to come, to live and to
prosper. “It’s like Social Media, but old.” *said in a high pitched voice*
They really did have their own forms of social media, their own forms of
putting information out there. Nowadays if we have an idea we have an immediate outlet, but it wasn’t always that easy.
In the letter below one can see how
advertising was very important to the Chaffey brothers.

They had advertisements all around the area, and even in Canada. In another letter
you can see the amount of people from Canada interested in the Colony
the Chaffey Brothers created.

they really had a vision!

Until next time,
Alfonso

As of late I have been separating the Chaffey Letters Book I as well as the transcript for each of the letters. Chaffey Letters Book I is finished and is ready for metadata. The transcripts have opened my eyes to many insights about the Chaffey brothers. It’s very interesting to read what they had to say and understand more and more about them and their dream “colony” from 135 years ago. After I separate Chaffey Letters Book II as well I will be able to, one by one, work on metadata and let them go live on the Claremont Digital Library. We shall see how soon that day comes.

till then,

Alfonso

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The Chaffey brothers and their letters are still in my life and I see no separation from them anytime soon. I am still scanning the second Chaffey letters book but, as I have mentioned in a blog before, I also have access to the transcripts of the letters and have been using them to prepare for the Chaffey letters metadata. The transcripts help in understanding the purpose of each letter. If I am able to identify the main subjects of each letter I am able to tag those subjects when the sources go live. Similarly, if I can properly summarize each letter it makes those who may be looking for resources such as the Chaffey letters more easily accessible. Each letter will be separated so it may be quite a while until each of the letters from Book I and II will be in the Claremont Colleges Digital Library but it will happen, I promise you that!

As I read through these transcripts I continue to see the dreams of the Chaffey brothers in purchasing the land that is today known as the Inland Empire. Another CLIR CCEPS fellow had in the past, worked with a brochure style document that was advertising Ontario, CA, “The City That Charms.” As I discover more and more about the Chaffey brothers, I realize the almost utopia of an empire they wanted to build, dare I even say a sort of elite (or elitist) community. In modern day, it would most likely resemble a fancy gated community in a suburban neighborhood. In a letter dated February 28th, 1882 George Chaffey writes, “Our intention is to sell to our immediate friends and those recommended by them, hoping by this means to make a first class colony.” This one sentence brings up two interesting topics. The first involves the use of the word colony. The Chaffey brothers and most other historical/biographical information about the Chaffey brothers and the Inland Empire continuously use the word ‘colony,’ and it is interesting to ponder on why they might use the word, but that is for another time. The second is the obvious intent of the Chaffey brothers to build an empire of perfection, a place where “the aged may rest and the young grow strong.” That quote is from a page of the Ontario brochure (pictured below). It is incredibly more interesting that the Chaffey brothers found this land, mostly desert and lacking water sources, and saw beyond that. They saw possibility and they banked on that possibility.

In that same letter George Chaffey also writes, “There is no better land in the state, it all lies to the sun and the water right is perfect, we have however absolute control of the water. Thus avoiding any chance of dispute,” and in another dated September 10th, 1882 writes, “The land is very even of excellent quality. The elevation is above the Frost Belt, the situation commands a view of the valley. The water is pure mountain water which together with the healthy climate must make it all that can be desired for a home.” The Chaffey brothers may have found land that seemed by most undesirable but they looked further. They saw the landscape as a view to die for, they saw the mountains of Southern California as a source to build an irrigation haven, and saw the climate (“sunny California” as it is most known today) as more than desirable. Perhaps that is why we call it the Inland Empire.

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Hello all,

This week, just like Marissa, I learned about metadata and uploaded my very first item on to the Claremont Colleges Digital Library, California Water Documents. I must admit, for some odd reason, I had not completely thought through the idea that the scanning I do and all the metadata information I find and I identify would be directly placed on the big world-wide net for all to use. As I sat down Thursday afternoon in front of my computer with Tanya by my side looking at my very first uploaded document (titled Preliminary Report upon the American States Water Service Company of California and Bear Valley Utility Company and which you can find here *wink wink*: http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/cwd/id/4914) I could not help but feel slightly nervous and profoundly conscious of my scanned images (were they too uneven? were they all the same size? were they all rotated correctly?) and especially the metadata I had entered (was it all correct? was it all completely certified by the Library of Congress despite having gone through with Tanya to assure that it was? Is there more I should add? More that could be useful to someone looking up information on the business growth and water rates of a water-supply company from the 1800s??). The information must be precise, even the slightest errors such as an unneeded space or whether a letter is capitalized must be found and fixed. Those attention to detail skills are extremely necessary right now.

Simultaneously I felt a sense of accomplishment for having been responsible for providing this sort of information now accessible to so many people. I mentioned in some of my very first blog posts of how important and incredible it was to make these historical documents easily accessible to such a wide audience and this has just reinforced that feeling inside me. I must also admit that doing metadata allows a different yet deeper understanding of the documents I have been working with. Often in scanning so many pages in a day, sometimes up to 60, 80, or 100 pages, I begin to mechanically scan without taking time to read the page I am scanning let alone take the time to admire the page(s). But, five more documents uploaded (here’s the link to the Claremont College Digital Library, California Water Documents so you can check them out *wink wink wink*: http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/cwd) and I can conclude that metadata is a nice break from scanning as well as an opportunity for my relationship with these documents to deepen. I think I can officially say I have spent more time on this relationship than any other…

until next time!

-Alfonso

Hello,

For the last few blog entries I have been working on the Chaffey Letters, a book comprised of letters written by two brothers who I mentioned in my last blog, William and George Chaffey. If you’re from the Inland Empire you might know of the Chaffey Brothers, but I’m sure for many, including a SoCal student such as myself, you might be asking, Chaffey? Chaffey who? You might not know the Chaffey Brothers let alone their life’s work.

I found, after a bit of research, that the Canadian born brothers are known to have developed the cities we today know as Ontario, Upland and Etiwanda (among many). I must admit that it blew. my. mind. finding out that the letters I have been reading and scanning were written by two men known not only for developing these cities, but two brothers known as making Los Angeles the first “all-electricity-lit-city” as well as introducing irrigation and thus agriculture production (specifically, fruit-farming) to the Southern California desert aka the modern day Inland Empire. Understanding California as the number one agricultural producing state in the United States and that the entire state remains almost completely dependent on irrigation, it is profound to know that the Chaffey Brothers introduced irrigation to such a large area of Southern California. According to a website called Inside the Inland Empire, a website in part dedicated to the history of the Inland Empire, the Chaffey brothers are described as having started the Inland Empire Land Boom.

      (George Chaffey)                          (William Chaffey)

(photos from: http://www.ontarioheritage.org/history-of-ontario.html)

Purchasing the land in 1881, the Chaffey Brothers would, in a span of just four years, create the Etiwanda Water Company, the San Antonio Water Company, open Chaffey Jr. High and make an estimated 1 million dollars (both would die very, very wealthy). Today, the Chaffey Brothers have both a high school (Chaffey High School) and a community college (Chaffey College) named after them, as well as many cities both named by them and functioning in present day because of them.

Originally, before it was the Inland empire, much of the land was in the hands of a Captain by the name of Joseph Garcia. Before Captain Garcia and before European and Spanish colonization, the land belonged to American Indians Tongva, Serrano, and Cahuillia.

Since then, the Inland Empire became the major center of agriculture production in the late 1800s and early 1900s and then, as can be seen today, into a large residential, industrial and commercial area with an estimated 4 million people populating the area.

The more you know!

till next time,

Alfonso.

Hello,

I was recently able to look at the transcripts for the Chaffey Letters Book I and it turns out that all those beautiful pages actually said real stuff! In my last blog post I mentioned the sign off each letter had and found out that it indeed says, “Yours Truly, Chaffey Bros.”

The letters in this book are majority written by two brothers, Will Chaffey and George Chaffey (and sometimes an individual by the name of Wm. Henderson writes the letters, but a small portion). The dates for the letters range from 1882-1884. As I read through the transcript, I notice that the letters have different tones depending on the brother as well as the purpose of each letter. I have observed that many of the letters written by George Chaffey have a more serious and dominant tone in comparison to that of Will, who has written more letters with an apologetic tone. It’s an interesting game of good cop bad cop between the two and makes one ponder on the relationship between the two brothers. While Will Chaffey often writes letters when something has gone wrong on their end, George Chaffey is often blaming someone else for his problems or confronting someone else for their faults. In one letter, George Chaffey writes, “I think too that you might have had the courtesy to write explaining why you could or could not ship the mould board.” It’s odd, but pleasant to have a glimpse into the personal life of the Chaffey Bros through some of their letters. For example, I noticed some letters end with a personal message depending on the receiver. In one of the letters, writing to a person by the name of Jim, George ends the letter by stating that,

 “All well. Mrs. Chaffey and children have spent the summer at Santa
Barbara on the cost (sic) but complain of its being too cold there, and
want to get back to a warmer country.”

(below is the letter where this is written and the transcript for the letter)

It’s hard to believe that one was able to transcribe the original letter considering how difficult it was for me to decipher the words, but understanding what each of these letters say adds a whole new dimension to these documents. In my past blogs, I’ve talked about the aesthetic value, but the ability to understand the words written on these letters provides a whole heap of new character. The ability to distinguish by the language of the letters George Chaffey from Will Chaffey is both hilarious and, for a lack of a better word, awesome. For myself, it allows me to move towards looking at these letters through the lens of sociology and psychology. The letter pictured above in specific allows the familial workings/relations of this company to sink in; the reader of these documents may witness what could very much have been a mix of business and personal for the Chaffey Bros. Incredible that 130 years could pass, and a student such as myself take a peek inside the life of two brothers.

until next time,

Alfonso

Hello,

So, I’ve been working on the same piece for a while now (the
Chaffey Letters from the Ontario City Library that I mentioned in my last blog
post) and I’ve been thinking about the work we do by digitizing these
documents. The Chaffey Letters are composed of very thin and fragile paper that over time
have begun to rip and degrade. As you can see in the picture, the paper has
ripped in the sections that were written with ink. The ink was perhaps a very potent
and thick ink because it has smudged heavily, making the beautiful handwriting
a bit unreadable, but it is also the only parts on the paper that have ripped (it makes for quite an interesting image, aesthetically).

Some of the only words I have been able to distinguish have
been the sign off of almost each letter: “Yours Truly, Chaffey” the last word I
cannot completely distinguish. I, personally, think it looks as though it says “bro”
but considering these are documents from The Ontario Colony Land Company I
think I might be just a little off (just a little).

To continue what I first said, I have been thinking about
what digitizing does for sources like these and people who access them.

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Without
the work of the CLIRWater project and those alike, the fast-paced modern world
we live in would leave in the dust documents such as these. It may seem a bit
sad or odd to think that so many individuals do not access physical sources
like these, but expect their presence online. I like to believe that it is a
sort of compromise. We allow the people of the ever so quick internet to access hand-written, historical, archival, beautiful documents that have come to
shape today, but also we are giving new life to documents that are in many ways, dying. Although many are preserved and treated properly so as to assure that these documents stay intact and useful for year and years to come, they do not have the longevity as physical pieces in comparison to these documents as sources on the net (the internet). It is sort of resurrection. These very documents in specific have affected
the very area we students, employees, workers, etc. are in. Seems a bit corny,
but it does shed light on the special-ness of these documents and the importance to keep them around and accessible.

till next week,

Alfonso

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Recently I was asked whether I enjoyed working with aesthetically pleasing documents or written text. Immediately, I began thinking of all the written text I’ve been working with. Most recently, we received pieces from the Ontario City Library. The written text I’ve been working with have been, possibly surprisingly, quite beautiful. As you can see in the picture below, some of the emblems or stamps on these documents have their own aesthetic value. 

Also, very aesthetically pleasing were the hand writing of the texts.
Although I couldn’t read some of them, I could still admire the precision and beauty of the hand writing. It makes the piece seems very
personal, despite being government or company related documents.

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Continue reading “Aesthetics: The CLIR Water project”