Canadian Mysteries

Forgot to post last week. I processed raw jpg, pdf and docx files from Lyle to create xml files for RewardPoster, ParryHaddington, ErebusMusterRoll, FitzjamesSabineJune1845, FitzjamesSabineJuly1845, AdmiraltyBoatsSupplied, McClintockSchwatka, LadyFranklinPalmerston, CrozierRoss, LondonNews1854 and added the xml files to the en1Transcribe folder in the svn repository and the jpg files to the source folder on the dev site.

The month of December was devoted to the following activities: -Refining the corpus of documents, selecting 30 additional textual documents for the Franklin mystery web site, and inputting of metadata and submission of the texts for transcription. Apart from the Eber oral histories to be researched, 9-13 January, only six or seven documents remain to be processed and these will be submitted by 6 January. -Assembling of 75 additional images for the web sites, including 25 from the artifact collection at the National Maritime Museum and 50 from Parks Canada`s Underwater Archaeology collection of Franklin search photographs. -Completing a draft of all essays for different components of the web site. -Submitting a request for permission and the waiving of fees for the use of 34 images from the National Maritime Museum, including the 25 photographs of artifacts. -Seeking and securing permission from the Canadian Museum of History to reproduce excerpts from the Dorothy Eber Encounters on the Passage collection of oral histories with Inuit regarding the Franklin expedition. Summary: To date, 73 textual documents totalling about 65,000 words have been submitted for transcription, and the remaining 6 or 7 documents comprising about 7,000 words will be submitted by 6 January 2014. The draft essays comprise 11,000 words. Owing to uncertainty as to whether the taped interviews with Franklin experts will need to be transcribed and translated into French, I have kept the word totals for the documents and essays to about 83,000 words, less than the projected 90,000 words. As well, we don’t know yet the number of excerpts from Inuit oral histories in the Dorothy Eber collection that should be included and the projected word totals. Further, the annotations on the Parks Canada images will generate some additional texts to be translated. I should be able to establish the numbers precisely following my trip to Ottawa, 9-16 January. As requested by the executive director, I have identified 75 additional Franklin-related images to complement the 52 identified to date. These include the images of Franklin artifacts at the National Maritime Museum and another 50 Parks Canada photos of the search for the ships. This makes a total of about 125 images selected for the Franklin mystery web site. January will be devoted to entering the metadata for all selected images and the small number of remaining texts, carrying out interviews with Franklin experts in Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver; researching the Eber tapes at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, transcribing excerpts from the Eber tapes and submitting them with metadata for processing, and editing the essays in collaboration with Peter Gossage, co-research director. Following review by the team this month, all documents and essays will be submitted by 31 January and licensing agreements submitted for the remaining images selected for the web site. Lyle Dick Research Director The Franklin Mystery 2 January 2014

Most of the month of November was devoted to the following tasks: 1. Completing the identification of key Franklin Mystery documents from the United Kingdom research for transcription. These included several key pieces of correspondence from Sir John Franklin, Lady Franklin, and Captains Francis Crozier and James Fitzjames, among others. They provide significant documentation on the background to the expedition, including recruitment, provisioning, planning, and lobbying by Franklin for the command of the party, the scientific research and other objectives for the expedition as revealed in the British Admiralty's correspondence, the ships' voyage up to the last contact with the expedition in Greenland in late summer 1845, and clues as to Franklin's actual objectives for the party and his expedition's route following its disappearance, among other intriguing historical issues. 2. Setting up interviews for the Interpretations section of the web site with Jonathan Moore, Ryan Harris, and Tom Zagon of Ottawa, and Dorothy Eber of Montreal, which I plan to carry out in mid-January 2014. 3. Preparing an elaborated site plan following the approval of the Franklin site plan in early November, including proposed documents and word counts, which was submitted to the GUMICH directors in late November. The current estimate of words submitted for transcription is approximately 66,000 words, and documents comprising another 15,000 are under consideration for the documentary collection. Approximately another 10,000 will be consumed by the contextual and synthesis essays, leaving about 9,000 words to address any remaining gaps that may be identified over the next month or so. December will be devoted to completing the selection of Franklin documents for transcription with my research associate Peter Gossage, copying the documents, preparing the associated metadata documentation and submitting the package to Stewart Arneil for his IT assistance prior to the assignment of the material to the transcribers. By 15 December I also intend to prepare the draft biographical sketches of the individuals identified as dramatis personae, and preparing the draft essays for the Context section of the Mystery. At the request of GUMICH I will also seek to increase significantly the corpus of images collected for the Franklin Mystery and to work out with Stewart a suitable metadata format for the different categories of images. Lyle Dick, 2 December 2013

Workflow for file submitted by LD to ready for transcription and markup. Posted here in case someone else needs to know where these files are.

1 Docx file

1.1) put file(s) into appropriate subfolder of local Franklin/sourceFiles/fromLyle/ (not used any further)
1.2) copy file(s) into Franklin/sourceFiles/toProcess
1.3) rename file(s) as necessary, file name before extension should be identical with value for filenameroot element e.g. FranklinLives
- camelBack
- multiple images get _n appended to end of image filename
1.4) open and edit docx file in word processor
- delete all instances of OPTIONAL and REQUIRED
- replace all instances of [[ with < and of ]] with >
- edit value of filenameroot element as needed
- tidy up any obvious syntax or typo screwups
- copy entire text to clipboard
1.5) save docx file (e.g. FranklinLives.docx)

2 create and populate xml file

2.1) open in oXygen appropriate template from local Franklin/templates folder
2.2) copy text from clipboard after bottom of template file
2.3) save file into local Franklin/svnrepo/data/text/en1Transcribe folder using filenameroot and "_en.xml" e.g. FranklinLives_en.xml
2.3) edit xml to get valid metadata content
- integrate pasted elements into template, delete any elements that are optional and empty; result should be a file whose metadata validates
- if docx file contains body text, move it into body element (won't validate)
- if docx file contains no body text, put instructions in for transcriber where image or pdf file(s) is/are to use for transcription
- if doc has no related documents, delete relatedDocumentList element
- if doc has related documents, insert a relatedDocument element with contents of appropriate filenameroot for each related document
result will be document with invalid body, but valid everything else
2.4) save xml file
2.5) svn add the xml file

3 jpg/pdf files

3.1) if there are any jpg/pdf files associated with this document, rename them with same filenameroot as xml file, followed by "_n" e.g. FranklinLives_1.jpg FranklinLives_2.jpg for 2 jpgs associated with FranklinLives
3.2) upload any jpg/pdf files to the source folder in the mystery1/www-dev/source folder
3.3) move any image/pdf files to the local Franklin/canMysDevSite/source folder

4) archive docx file

4.1) move the docx file to the local Franklin/sourceFiles/sentToTranscribe folder

Result is
- document(s) from Lyle in local Franklin/sourceFiles/fromLyle/
- local folder Franklin/sourceFiles/toProcess contains no files
- renamed normalized docx file in local Franklin/sourceFiles/sentToTranscribe
- xml file in local Franklin/svnrepo/data/text/en1Transcribe folder
- xml file added to svn repo and committed to repository
- jpg/pdf file(s) uploaded to mystery1/www-dev/source on unix.uvic.ca
- jpg/pdf files(s) moved to local Franklin/canMysDevSite/source folder
- any files on my local machine are backed up to my account on the hcmc backup server (rutabaga)

Since the last report on 13 September my principal activities have included the following: 1. Carrying out four weeks' research at four archival repositories in England, specifically, the National Archives at Kew, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, the Royal Geographical Society in London, and the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. 2. Carrying out the first interview for the interpretations section of the Franklin mystery, on 24 September in London with Professor Andrew Lambert of King's College London, author of the recent biography Franklin: Tragic Hero of Polar Navigation. 3. Participating in two teleconferences of the Franklin project team (17 October and 31 October) and teleconference of the core team on 25 October, both to report on research findings and to refine the draft site plan for the Mystery. 4. Revising the site plan in line with the direction of the other team members for the 31 October meeting. The revised site plan received strong support at the latter meeting. 5. Participating, on 29 October, in a teleconference with Ruth Sandwell and Roland case to address the planning requirements for the MysteryQuests, and follow-up on Ruth's plan outline. The National Archives research focussed on Admiralty collections including ADM 187/7, the principal Franklin collection; ADM 199, containing the reports and correspondence of John Rae relating to his search expedition; ADM 200, containing extensive correspondence on Rae's findings and reactions of Lady Jane Franklin and others relating to the award to the discoverer of the fate of the Franklin expedition, and ADM BJ3 18, comprising correspondence of Franklin and Edward Sabine concerning the expedition. Other collections examined included correspondence between Sabine and James Fitzjames, captain of the Erebus, who was in charge of magnetic observations for the Franklin expedition, which yielded valuable insights into the objectives of the Franklin expedition, At the National Maritime Museum, I have consulted several outstanding collections, especially the Admiral Francis Leopold McClintock collection, which is housed there on loan from the owners in Ireland. Owing to the agreement with the owners, no materials from this collection can be electronically copied so I have taken copious handwritten notes for transcription. It includes a fascinating series of letters from McClintock and Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society seeking to refute John Rae's interpretations of cannibalism by the Franklin party. Among other documents I have copied several diaries and journals of lower ranking officers or ordinary seamen serving on arctic expeditions in the franklin era, which should give students insights into work and daily life aboard the ships and the challenges of overwintering and sledging in the severe weather and ice conditions of the Arctic. One terrific find was the set of letters of James Fitzjames, one of Franklin's two ship captains, which Fitzjames wrote aboard the Erebus in the spring and summer of 1845, ending with the last transfer of letters when the ships stopped at Greenland en route to the arctic archipelago. They provide fascinating observations on other officers including Franklin, detail on shipboard life, and comments on unruly behaviour by crew members, among other interesting commentary. The materials copied at the Royal Geographical Society included important correspondence between Sir John Franklin and Lady Franklin following the departure of the expedition in 1845, documents in the Captain Ommaney collection relating to shipboard routines for ordinary sailors, and ephemera such as a 1850 poster offering the 20,000 pound reward for the Franklin Search. I researched and copied many valuable documents at the Scott Polar research Institute, including correspondence between Franklin and Lady Franklin in the months leading up to his last expedition, letters from Franklin and Captain Crozier following the departure of the Franklin expedition, and letters documenting Lady Franklin's indefatigable efforts to promote the search and her observations of where the party might have sailed based on her discussions with her husband. They are fascinating and very useful materials for our purposes. Overall, I took about 1500 camera exposures of documents, in addition to my handwritten notes, scanned copies and photocopies of documents obtained during the trip. Overall, the research generated a great deal of interesting and original material for the Mystery, including materials that do not appear in other treatments of the Franklin story. I feel confident that we will develop a first-class mystery with elements that students, researchers and interested members of the public will not find anywhere else. I also feel that we have an excellent site plan that will serve us well in the months ahead. The thoughtful comments of the research directors, general team, and executive director Merna Forster have been greatly appreciated throughout. The next two months will be devoted to organizing and editing the research materials and images in collaboration with research associate Peter Gossage, and entering the metadata n collaboration with Stewart Arniel. Lyle Dick Research Director 31 October 2013

Since the last report on 13 September my principal activities have included the following: 1. Carrying out four weeks' research at four archival repositories in England, specifically, the National Archives at Kew, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, the Royal Geographical Society in London, and the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. 2. Carrying out the first interview for the interpretations section of the Franklin mystery, on 24 September in London with Professor Andrew Lambert of King's College London, author of the recent biography Franklin: Tragic Hero of Polar Navigation. 3. Participating in two teleconferences of the Franklin project team (17 October and 31 October) and teleconference of the core team on 25 October, both to report on research findings and to refine the draft site plan for the Mystery. 4. Revising the site plan in line with the direction of the other team members for the 31 October meeting. The revised site plan received strong support at the latter meeting. 5. Participating, on 29 October, in a teleconference with Ruth Sandwell and Roland case to address the planning requirements for the MysteryQuests, and follow-up on Ruth's plan outline. The National Archives research focussed on Admiralty collections including ADM 187/7, the principal Franklin collection; ADM 199, containing the reports and correspondence of John Rae relating to his search expedition; ADM 200, containing extensive correspondence on Rae's findings and reactions of Lady Jane Franklin and others relating to the award to the discoverer of the fate of the Franklin expedition, and ADM BJ3 18, comprising correspondence of Franklin and Edward Sabine concerning the expedition. Other collections examined included correspondence between Sabine and James Fitzjames, captain of the Erebus, who was in charge of magnetic observations for the Franklin expedition, which yielded valuable insights into the objectives of the Franklin expedition, At the National Maritime Museum, I have consulted several outstanding collections, especially the Admiral Francis Leopold McClintock collection, which is housed there on loan from the owners in Ireland. Owing to the agreement with the owners, no materials from this collection can be electronically copied so I have taken copious handwritten notes for transcription. It includes a fascinating series of letters from McClintock and Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society seeking to refute John Rae's interpretations of cannibalism by the Franklin party. Among other documents I have copied several diaries and journals of lower ranking officers or ordinary seamen serving on arctic expeditions in the franklin era, which should give students insights into work and daily life aboard the ships and the challenges of overwintering and sledging in the severe weather and ice conditions of the Arctic. One terrific find was the set of letters of James Fitzjames, one of Franklin's two ship captains, which Fitzjames wrote aboard the Erebus in the spring and summer of 1845, ending with the last transfer of letters when the ships stopped at Greenland en route to the arctic archipelago. They provide fascinating observations on other officers including Franklin, detail on shipboard life, and comments on unruly behaviour by crew members, among other interesting commentary. The materials copied at the Royal Geographical Society included important correspondence between Sir John Franklin and Lady Franklin following the departure of the expedition in 1845, documents in the Captain Ommaney collection relating to shipboard routines for ordinary sailors, and ephemera such as a 1850 poster offering the 20,000 pound reward for the Franklin Search. I researched and copied many valuable documents at the Scott Polar research Institute, including correspondence between Franklin and Lady Franklin in the months leading up to his last expedition, letters from Franklin and Captain Crozier following the departure of the Franklin expedition, and letters documenting Lady Franklin's indefatigable efforts to promote the search and her observations of where the party might have sailed based on her discussions with her husband. They are fascinating and very useful materials for our purposes. Overall, I took about 1500 camera exposures of documents, in addition to my handwritten notes, scanned copies and photocopies of documents obtained during the trip. Overall, the research generated a great deal of interesting and original material for the Mystery, including materials that do not appear in other treatments of the Franklin story. I feel confident that we will develop a first-class mystery with elements that students, researchers and interested members of the public will not find anywhere else. I also feel that we have an excellent site plan that will serve us well in the months ahead. The thoughtful comments of the research directors, general team, and executive director Merna Forster have been greatly appreciated throughout. The next two months will be devoted to organizing and editing the research materials and images in collaboration with research associate Peter Gossage, and entering the metadata n collaboration with Stewart Arniel. Lyle Dick Research Director 31 October 2013

I devoted the month of August to the research trip at Library and Archives Canada, 5-13 August, and organizing research materials following the trip, preparing documents for the Franklin Mystery, including developing transcriptions of documents not readily converted to usable pdf formats; and preparing the metadata. I also developed a draft site plan for discussion by the Franklin Mystery team at the 10 September teleconference. The research in Ottawa was productive and generated numerous documents and images not otherwise available for the Franklin Mystery. These included the journal of Lieutenant William Hobson, who led a sledging excursion with the McClintock expedition that found significant evidence of Franklin’s party on King William Island, including the sole surviving paper record left behind by Franklin’s men in 1859s. Other valuable materials included the original sketches and comprehensive map prepared by Heinrich Klutschak, a member of Frederick Schwatka’s American overland expedition in 1878-80 in search of evidence of the fate of Franklin and his companions. Klutschak’s sketches document a wide range of activities and material culture of the Netsilik of that era, the Inuit who both served as guides and provided much of the eye-witness testimony recorded by this and other expeditions. I also copied various photographs and maps from various collections at LAC, including an outstanding annotated map of the vicinity of King William Island by Richard Julius Cyriax, which consolidated all the major evidentiary finds of Franklin search parties up to ca. 1960. While in Ottawa I also met with Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology team and shared research data and images with them to benefit of both projects. Both Ryan Harris and Jonathan Moore have agreed to be interviewed for the Interpretations portions of the web site. They also suggested enlisting the participation of Tom Zagon, who prepared the ice climatology study for Parks Canada's search for Franklin's ships. In all about 40 documents have been prepared and submitted for transcription and /or translation. These included 15 documents focussing on oral histories by explorers with Inuit witnesses of either members of Franklin’s party or of significant evidence of the presence of the Franklin expedition on King William Island or its ships in adjacent waters. The period 13 September to 15 October 2013 will devoted to research of original Franklin materials in the United Kingdom, which will be reported upon at the next team teleconference on 17 October 2013. Lyle Dick

participated in conference call for Franklin team.
site design discussion to be conducted by sub-committee by email and possibly phone.
mention of including line-by-line transcript of audio files
reported briefly on status of document flow, metadata and processing
I need to
- go through files from LD and make sure they're useable
- review notes on setup for SVN then implement and start setting up users
- talk with MF and JL about hiring of transcribers etc.

Received about 40 files from LD, some are docx containing only metadata, some are docx containing metadata and content, some are pdf of multiple page docs, some are jpgs of single or double pages. Will confirm from LD if these are representative, then figure out if they're useable. We have no example yet of an image, metadata and content for any one document.

Got report that the user name "thomson" and password no longer authenticated successfully. I recall that if using concocted usernames, the authentication system actually checks against real netlink ids before the local password file, regardless of the specification in the .htpasswd file. So, if someone creates a netlink account with the same value as the concocted username, that value is checked against the real netlink account's password and not the concocted password. Apparently someone created the netlink account 'thomson' over the summer. I have created a new concocted username 'tomthomson' and the same password as was used before which authenticates successfully. As netlinks are limited to 8 characters, there should never be a conflict with 'tomthomson' which is 10 characters long