Their racial views were only one aspect of what they thought they were doing.
EAH: Before your immersion in history and curating?
I‘m still horrified by the very concept of the Klan and the stuff still gives me the willies, but I‘ve come to understand more widely what forces gave rise to this sort of group. Real contact with the actual documents of history widens your perspective. I think historical material has been a major source of inspiration for my poetry though I haven‘t written any poems about the Klan just yet.
GL: For 25 years, I was a literature professor at a half dozen universities around the States. The last ten years I taught at The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) where I taught some advanced literature and creative writing courses, and a lot of basic courses in composition. I also taught the History of American Technology for many years, which fueled my interest in scientists. RIT has long had something called The Athenaeum, a life-long learning center for those over 50 who want to enrich their lives with teaching and learning.
I enjoy working with archives. We have some 40,000 pieces of historical paper and 5,500 historical books, all of which I am trying to get into a computer catalog system designed for us last year. In addition to the archive, we have a 4story museum with about 10,000 square feet of exhibit space, 25,000 objects, and over 12 acres with gardens. Like most historical societies, we struggle for financial survival, but it‘s great fun seeing people‘s reactions to the collection. Kids‘ are the best, because they see things with fresh eyes.
After 20 years of teaching in colleges, not always getting the courses I wanted to teach, I gravitated toward The Athenaeum, which allowed me to teach whatever I chose. I‘ve been teaching there for the last 13 years. Since I‘m retired, I split my time between being a poet and being curator at the Valentown Museum. In both capacities, I‘ve given a lot of speeches in my day. The trick, of course, is to learn your material so well that you can give the talk totally without notes in your hand. Then, you can watch the audience and respond instantly to their every mood. The result is that your talk conforms to their expectations and everyone has a good time. That results in repeat invitations and rave reviews. It really is simple once you understand the fundamentals. EAH: Good advice. I believe the writer‘s most useful tool is his or her observation. But it‘s not just what he sees that matters, as it‘s his thinking process that translates this awareness into conceptual language and abstract communication. What‘s your take on this?
―Archives‖ by E. A. Hanninen, 2009