Thursday, October 13, 2011

Chapmen's Scrapbook

I will be writing my research paper on the founding families of Winter Park and the events they encountered while building this community. One of the primary sources I will be using to complete my paper is the Oliver E. Chapman’s scrapbook that is currently in the Rollins Archives in the Olin Library. During his years in Florida, Chapmen collected newspaper articles and clippings of what he thought was relevant news. This scrapbook is a treasure trove of information; it gives the reader insight of what events Chapmen found relevant in his day and how these event where shaping Winter Park as a community. Some of the pages include notes in Chapmen’s handwriting commenting on the newspaper clippings, giving his own opinions on the news of the day. With this source I can gain insight of what happened during the 1880s and then what Chapmen might have done to advance the community into what it is today.

1 comment:

  1. Scrapbooks are a classic primary source. They are both instructive, but sometime can be frustrating. You want to make sure that you balance the kind of information in the scrapbook with information from other newspaper (besides the one in the scrapbook), letters, and traditional histories.

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