I stumbled upon a series of posts on a site call authorsreallives. It offers a 3 part series on the life of Troub (Helen Dore) Boylston.
Who Was Troub Boylston?
Boylston is best known to Laura Ingalls Wilder fans as a friend of Rose Wilder Lane. Lane had met Boylston in Europe and later moved her into Rocky Ridge.
Troub, as she was known to Wilder family, lived at Rocky Ridge for quite a while being one of the young writers that Rose helped mentor and seemed an appreciative protege during her time there. It was at Troub’s suggestion that Rose and Laura and Almanzo invested in the George Q. Palmer investment house that initially brought in great returns in the bubble that built up to the Black Friday market crash, but spectacularly failed in the aftermath causing the entire Wilder family to lose their collective shirts including quite a chunk of Laura and Almanzo’s retirement fund. After the dividends from these investments quit rolling in, Troub abandoned her place at Rocky Ridge trusting in what Rose referred to sourly as her luck to quickly land her a job in the east.
She later worked on and wrote both the Sue Barton nurse series and the Carol Page series about an actress with substantial help from other people.
Find the Series
Recently a 3 part article on her life was published on authorsreallives. Unfortunately, its links heavily refer to Wikipedia in the beginning of Part 3 (which I read first and double checked the most)and photos are used without source or attribution clicking on them leading to only to a version that was uploaded on the site. These are serious scholarly mis-steps belied by the scholarly tone of the article and the obvious wealth of research done from the other cited sources, from both online and print sources. The author even uses a comment from one of my blog posts which must have taken some serious digging. So please check it out and let me know what you think.
UPDATE November 2, 2015: I moved this up from the comments to make sure everyone can see it.
Thanks Sarah, I guess, for this mention of my work on Helen Dore Boylston’s life. It seems, however, that you don’t know that pictures/photographs published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, and thus no attribution is required.
Similarly, there is a big difference between linking and citing, and while citing Wikipedia would be problematic, there is no issue linking possibly unfamiliar names of places/people/organizations to relevant Wikipedia articles so that people can get easily get basic information about them if they choose. I call it being kind to readers of an internet blog…..
My Response:
Yes, images taken before 1924 are in the public domain, however that assumes you can make a scan or digital photograph of the original or a copy printed before 1924 either yourself or by someone who is allowed to make a copy. Digital copies are created works and the licenses are owned by the holding institution. The fees from use of such copies used to be a substantial income for museums, archives, and depositories. By using such images without getting proper positions and fees is in violation of copyright and licenses. Try to get them published at a mainstream publisher and you’ll see what I mean.
Linking to Wikipedia is associating your blog with a very questionable resource and serious researchers will respond accordingly.
Sarah S. Uthoff is the main force behind Trundlebed Tales striving to bring the History, Mystery, Magic and Imagination of Laura Ingalls Wilder and other greats of children’s literature and history to life for a new generation. Uthoff is a nationally known Laura Ingalls Wilder authority and has presented at five of the Wilder homesites, many conferences and numerous libraries, museums, and events around the Midwest. Attend one of her programs, schedule one yourself, watch her videos, listen to her podcast, and find her on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Academia.edu. Professionally she is a reference librarian at Kirkwood Community College and director of the Oxford (Iowa) Public Library.
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