After a long hiatus the ASL Archivist is back on top of things and fresh posts are scheduled. Images lost in a back-up failure are being rescanned & reattached to their assigned posts. Two dozens invitations have been issued to students & friends of Professor Lawson requesting brief essays for the “Tributes” section. A few responses have been positive and even fewer have been negative, but by and large my invitations go unanswered.

After a long wait, a biography of Professor Lawson has been posted. It is almost entirely excerpted from two sources: Twenty Years of the Frederic W. Goudy Award and a tribute written by Howard Hansen ’67 for R.I.T.’s University Magazine. It is to my delight that Professor Herbert H. Johnson, Professor Lawson’s former student, colleague, and a former Cary Professor himself, has agreed to write a proper biography of Alexander S. Lawson especially for the Lawson Archive, something I am very much looking forward to posting in the future.

This “Archivist Note” signals a reboot of sorts. This week both “The Composing Room” and “Typographically Speaking” repost either initial throat-clearing/introducing the new editor articles. Then begins the long, chronological march to the end of each of their runs with “The Composing Room” appearing on Wednesdays and “Typographically Speaking” appearing on Fridays, that is, until the end of October 2011 when they will move to Mondays & Thursdays respectively.) To anyone doing the math that means you can expect fresh “The Composing Room” posts until 28 April 2014 and fresh “Typographically Speaking” posts until 28 August 2014. Yes, I have my work cut out for me.

Other treats await as well. Occasional posts will interrupt the week as smaller bits of writing are uncovered & typed up for posting. After those final posts the archivist’s notes will be removed and the entire blog will be redated so the archive drop-down menu will function as a finding aid.

As ever, I see my role as a facilitator and I do my best to transcribe the original articles (inconsistent editorial styles & all) into this digital format. If any spelling errors are found, please alert me through the contact page. With the level of this technology there is no need for any typos to go uncorrected.

The ASL Archivist