The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced the launch of William Bache’s Silhouettes Album, a microsite featuring new research and digitized images for 1,800 cut-paper silhouettes by Anglo-American artist William Bache. In addition to presenting portraits of famous figures like Thomas Jefferson and Martha Washington, the digital project restores the identity of previously unknown individuals rarely encountered in Federal-era portraiture—from traveling entertainers to tavern keepers and dance instructors.

Funded by Getty through its Paper Project initiative, the digital platform features hi-res images, a biography and interactive timeline of Bache’s life, conservation reports and more for this important example of one of the most affordable forms of portraiture in early U.S. history.

In 2008, Smithsonian conservators discovered the fragile papers of the Bache album contained arsenic and could not be safely handled or displayed without special precautions. The National Portrait Gallery used Getty’s support to overcome these limitations by fully digitizing the entire volume. Robyn Asleson, the lead curator and curator of prints and drawings at the National Portrait Gallery, also completed extensive research that confirms the identities of hundreds of sitters in New Orleans and generates a new understanding of traveling portrait artists at the turn of the 19th century.

“Although the Portrait Gallery has owned this album of silhouettes for over 20 years, it took the support of the Getty and the digital resources that are now available to finally unlock its secrets,” Asleson said. “Digging deeply into the circumstances of the album has shed fascinating new light on the artistic practice of William Bache and has yielded a few surprises, such as his extraordinary mobility in pursuit of new markets and his extensive use of advertising to promote himself.”

Asleson and research assistant Elizabeth Isaacson scanned through Ancestry.com, digitized newspapers, history books, baptismal records, wills and other legal documents to unveil the identity of sitters, including many of Afro Caribbean descent for whom no other likeness is known to exist. Users of the microsite can now “flip” through pages of the album and click on high-res images of each portrait to learn the sitter’s full name, lifespan or years active and the date their portrait was created.  

Another major discovery came when Asleson expanded her research to Spanish-language materials, which verified Bache worked in Cuba producing portraits in the largely untapped market. The revelation revealed that approximately 1,000 silhouettes in the album were made in the Caribbean, from Catholic priests wearing birettas to sitters of African heritage. 

You can read more in an article in the artdependence.com web site at: https://www.artdependence.com/articles/smithsonian-s-national-portrait-gallery-reveals-identities-of-hundreds-of-people-in-early-19th-century-portrait-album/ 

Was your ancestor’s silhouette included? Probably not. After all, 1,800 is a lot of people although only a fraction of the millions who lived in the United States and Cuba at that time. Still, you won’t know for sure until you check the site out. You might find a very pleasant surprise.

The following is a press release written by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration:

Today, we published new federal regulations with standards for digitizing permanent federal records. The regulations are in 36 CFR 1236, Subpart E. These regulations will go into effect on June 5, 2023.

The regulations establish standards for digitizing permanent paper records and photographic prints. They do not contain standards for digitizing film records at this time. 

When agencies follow these standards, they may transfer the digitized records to NARA and destroy the source records. However, destruction is dependent on agencies having an approved records schedule to authorize disposition. 

We will be issuing a new GRS 4.5 that covers digitizing records. The GRS and regulations will work in tandem. The regulations provide guidance on how to digitize permanent records so the digitized records can be transferred to NARA. The GRS provides disposition authority to destroy the source records. 

We have developed a website to provide information about digitizing federal records. We are developing additional products and training resources to help agencies implement NARA’s digitization standards for permanent records. As we develop those, we will add them to this page.

We recognize that these regulations will have a significant impact on how agencies manage their records. We expect there will have many questions as people become familiar with these new requirements. Please be on the lookout for a future invite to join an upcoming webinar to discuss these new digitization regulations in greater detail. In the meantime, if you need further information, please contact rmstandards@nara.gov.

In case you are not aware of the meaning, see: https://nypost.com/2023/05/04/a-complete-guide-to-stars-wars-day-may-the-4th-be-with-you/ 

The following is a press release written by the Maine Department of Education:

The Maine DOE is accepting applications for a pilot program with the American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society.  Help students think like a historian and learn how to trace families back in time. Receive inquiry-based lessons that incorporate authentic methodologies used by professional genealogists. Lessons guide students through the process of conducting family history research, and students will hone their research skills using primary sources and case studies from local Native American and African American history. Go beyond family trees and help students make real-world, personal connections to history.

Lesson Plans that Support Students to:

Case Studies

Inclusive Teaching Strategies

This pilot begins with an in-person workshop in June.  During the 2023-2024 school year, the American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society will provide two virtual sessions to support teachers using these resources in their classrooms.  Additionally, the DOE will conduct a monthly virtual PLC to provide a space for teachers to collaborate.

In-person workshop	Virtual Follow-Up Sessions	Virtual PLC
Date: Monday, June 26, 2023 Time: 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM Location: Maine DOE, Augusta, ME	Date: October & March Time: TBD Location: Zoom	Date: Once a month beginning in November Time: TBD Location: Zoom

For more information about this program, please contact Jaime Beal, Maine DOE Interdisciplinary Instruction Specialist.

The following announcement was written by TheGenealogist:

TheGenealogist has added 56,924 new individuals to their War Memorial collection, bringing the total number of fully searchable War Memorial Records on TheGenealogist to over 665,000.

These fully searchable records have been transcribed and their location plotted to allow subscribers to find the names of ancestors that paid the ultimate sacrifice.

War Memorials come in various types. Photos ⓒ Mark Herber

These War Memorials, from the UK and abroad, can provide us with useful details about our ancestors revealing organisations and places that they had belonged to. 

    • War Memorials can divulge links to a community, village, town etc

    • Workplace memorials can tell us where they had worked before the conflict 

    • Organisation monuments and plaques honour past members that fell

    • Former pupils and staff of a school or university are remembered at the institution

    • Names in a church, or other places of worship, tell us about religious affiliation

This release includes images from war memorials of a variety of shapes and sizes and have been fully transcribed. Covering the war dead from various conflicts including the Boer War, the First World War and World War II an ancestor’s inclusion on a memorial can be profoundly moving to find, especially as so many of the war dead will have no actual grave for us to visit. 

Hertfordshire Records and Maps

Also released this week are over 33,000 Lloyd George Domesday Survey records for the Hitchen area of Hertfordshire where we find the occupation and ownership records of people from across the social strata. These link through to highly detailed contemporary maps to show exactly where your ancestor lived. You can then see how the area changed over time with TheGenealogist’s powerful MapExplorer. 

These newly released records include the childhood home of the King’s beloved grandmother.

Discover More

To find out more about both of these releases, you can read TheGenealogist’s Featured Article: The Queen Mother’s childhood home and the Australian Hero killed on the streets before her coronation. https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/the-queen-mothers-childhood-home-and-the-australian-hero-killed-on-the-streets-before-her-coronation-1695/ 

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections. 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

A federal appeals panel has determined investment giant Blackstone can’t be sued under an Illinois genetic information law over allegations of improperly accessing data without consent solely because it acquired Ancestry.com.

Blackstone reportedly spent $4.7 billion to purchase the popular genealogy website in December 2020. The following July, plaintiffs Carolyn Bridges and Raymond Cunningham filed a class action complaint, alleging Blackstone violated the Genetic Information Privacy Act. Blackstone removed the complaint to federal court the Southern District of Illinois, where U.S. District Judge David Dugan dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim.

The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion on the matter May 1. Judge David Hamilton wrote the opinion; Judges Michael Scudder and Doris Pryor concurred.

According to the panel, Illinois lawmakers enacted GIPA in 1998 to regulate genetic testing data in commercial and medical settings. It said the operative clause for purposes of the class action is a provision that no person or company “may disclose or be compelled to disclose the identity of any person upon whom a genetic test is performed or the results of a genetic test in a manner that permits identification of the subject of the test.”

The plaintiffs based their allegations on the saliva sample genetic sequencing kits purchased from Ancestry before the Blackstone acquisition. They said Ancestry paired their tests with personal information, like email and home addresses, and alleged Blackstone’s control acquisition purchase compelled Ancestry to disclose that protected information.

Hamilton said Judge Dugan’s dismissal stemmed from a determination the complaint lacked adequate allegations of compulsory disclosure and, even if he had decided there was such a disclosure, the complaint didn’t overcome the company’s position the data in question was anonymized.

You can read more in an article by Scott Holland published in the Cook County Record web site at: https://tinyurl.com/4f4nrbjb.

NOTE: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, I have written often about Chromebooks, the low-cost computers that can perform most all tasks that standard Windows and Macintosh systens can perform.  They are excellent "second computers" for use when traveling, for use by adolescents and even younger children, for gifts to senior citizens and other non-computer-literate adults, and for many other uses also.

ChromeOS is common on Chromebooks, but is it right for you? Or do you already have a Chromebook and want to learn more about its capabilities? A new article by Tyler Lacoma takes a look at everything that makes ChromeOS unique. The article is at: https://www.androidpolice.com/google-chrome-os-in-depth-guide/

Also, Google offers a Chromebook tutorial where you can learn more and pick up additional tricks at https://www.google.com/chromebook/.

Comment: I just bookmarked both of those web addresses on my Chromebooks so that I can refer to therm at any later date. You might do the same.

Additional Comment: If you are thinking of purchasing a new Chromebook, you might want to look at the soon-to-be released new military-grade heavy-duty Chromebook from Asus at 

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/13/22229159/asus-chromebook-cx9-br1100-price-release-date-specs. Not only is it rugged, it is also much higher-powered than other Chromebooks. Pricing isn’t mention in that article but, with those specs, you can be assured that it won’t be cheap!

NOTE: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, I find it interesting. Also, genealogists often are "book people."

According to an article in Slashdot.org (at https://tinyurl.com/478h7rcd):

"Fake Books Are a Real Home Decor Trend 

"If it looks like a book, feels like a book and stacks like a book, then there's still a good chance it may not be a book. From a report:

Fake books come in several different forms: once-real books that are hollowed out, fabric backdrops with images of books printed onto them, empty boxlike objects with faux titles and authors or sometimes just a facade of spines along a bookshelf. Already the norm for film sets and commercial spaces, fake books are becoming popular fixtures in homes. While some people are going all in and covering entire walls in fake books, others are aghast at the thought that someone would think to decorate with a book that isn't real. "I will never use fake books," said Jeanie Engelbach, an interior designer and organizer in New York City. "It just registers as pretentious, and it creates the illusion that you are either better read or smarter than you really are."

Ms. Engelbach said she has frequently used books as decor, at times styling clients' bookcases with aesthetics taking priority over function, which is a typical interior-design practice. 

"At Books by the Foot -- a company that sells, as its name suggests, books by the foot -- one can purchase books by color (options include 'luscious creams,' 'vintage cabernet' and 'rainbow ombre'), by subject ('well-read art' or 'gardening'), wrapped books (covered in linen or rose gold) and more. The tomes are all 'rescue books,' ones that would otherwise be discarded or recycled for paper pulp, said Charles Roberts, the president of Books by the Foot's parent company, Wonder Book. During the pandemic lockdown in 2020, remote work created increased demand for the company's services. While it mostly specializes in the sale of real books, the company has also dabbled in the world of faux ones."

If you want to purchase some "books by the foot,"" go to https://boothandwilliams.com/all-shops/color-by-the-foot/.

I think I will pass.

May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month.

The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America's history and are instrumental in its future success.

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month is a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. A rather broad term, Asian/Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).

Like most commemorative months, Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month originated with Congress. In 1977 Reps. Frank Horton of New York introduced House Joint Resolution 540 to proclaim the first ten days in May as Pacific/Asian American Heritage Week. In the same year, Senator Daniel Inouye introduced a similar resolution, Senate Joint Resolution 72. Neither of these resolutions passed, so in June 1978, Rep. Horton introduced House Joint Resolution 1007. This resolution proposed that the President should “proclaim a week, which is to include the seventh and tenth of the month, during the first ten days in May of 1979 as ‘Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week.’” This joint resolution was passed by the House and then the Senate and was signed by President Jimmy Carter on October 5, 1978 to become Public Law 95-419 (PDF, 158kb). This law amended the original language of the bill and directed the President to issue a proclamation for the “7 day period beginning on May 4, 1979 as ‘Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week.’” During the next decade, presidents passed annual proclamations for Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week until 1990 when Congress passed Public Law 101-283 (PDF, 166kb) which expanded the observance to a month for 1990. Then in 1992, Congress passed Public Law 102-450 (PDF, 285kb) which annually designated May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month.

The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.

This site presents only a sample of the digital and physical holdings related to Asian/Pacific heritage available from the Library of Congress and other participating agencies.

Executive and Legislative Documents

The Law Library of Congress has compiled guides to commemorative observations, including a comprehensive inventory of the Public Laws, Presidential Proclamations and congressional resolutions related to Asian/Pacific Heritage Month.

About the Site

The Web portal at https://asianpacificheritage.gov/about/ is a collaborative project of the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The contents of this site highlight only a small portion of the physical and digital holdings of the participating partners.