"This episode all began because of my decade long
love affair with New York. I had always known that there were some letters
somewhere and last Autumn, went on a brief search via Mac, Rose, Enid
and Bill (see Family Tree)
to locate the letters in that wonderful old cigar box. Rebecca
happened to be coming to Redfern every week or so at that stage, helping
Elaine and sometimes sharing a ride home to East Kurrajong. Rebecca also
had a wonderful new computer and scanner. I transcribed all of the letters
although she helped with some difficult handwriting as well as having
a go at transcribing herself briefly if I recall, but only to find out
how tedious and time consuming it could be (try it out if you like!)."
Sam Calder
(grandson):
"My involvement
in this project began mid 2002 when my cousin Andrew asked me (and others)
if we would like to receive email transcriptions of these letters. I said
"Yes please". For years I had been in possession of some felt
pennants Harry had collected on this trip and I was eager to find out
more about the story behind them.
"The surreal experience of reading email transcriptions
of letters originally delivered by sea, while fantastic, lacked something,
and I realised that I would really like to see the photos and (of course)
the postcards. The folder containing the original letters and cards made
its way to me via my mother (Rosemary). I planned to preserve the postcards
by scanning them (even though I suspected Rebecca had already done this).
"I had no plans to do this web version but, on seeing
the first 'Hotel Whitcomb' letter I had the idea that it would be nice
to scan the letterheads as well as the photos and postcards.... And then
I thought "what the heck". And this is the result.
"Andrew has done the most laborious part of this
conversion to the web (the transcription) so my heartfelt thanks to him
- I would not have even contemplated it. These web pages would not have
existed without his dedication."
