A new direction

This week was a bit different, it saw a change in a new direction in my research, the main reason was due to a set meeting. Yesterday I had the meeting with my internship supervisor and my internship adviser and it was informative and helpful. My internship supervisor suggested that we go in a different direction with the research I have been gathering. It is not to say that the research I had already gathered was bad, not in the least, it is that I needed to gather a different type. The main articles and journals I had found were mainly about tombstone descriptions that were found and explaining the changes over time. The new direction of the research will be focusing on articles and journals that go into the process of mapping out and finding the tombstones and then describing what the iconography (the visual images and symbols used in a work of art or the study or interpretation on these) was and explaining it. I will be using the research I have gathered so far more as informative rather then a blue print. As for where that leaves me right now, I have a long list of new information that has been given to me that I will be sorting through throughout next week ( it was given to me today). These new articles will then be my new blueprint to work with. Although as I said before I will not be using most of the research I have gathered, but I will still be using two to three I have gathered because they will still be relevant to my internship. So now that I know of what kind of articles I need to be finding for my new blueprint the search should be easier. As I have talked about in my last blog I did find a sears catalog from 1902. The main reason that it was important that I find this is because, we want to see if Florida cemeteries bought any of the molds for headstones. Many of the headstones in Florida cemeteries seem to be similar size and shape. What would be interesting to find out is if Sears sold their headstone molds to be used by others. Florida cemetery headstones tend to only be made of either cement or garnet so it would not be a far stretch to say that they could have bought two to three molds. It will be something that I will be looking into throughout my internship process and maybe it will lead to something or maybe not, the point is to try. That is what makes this internship so valuable that it is more of the journey rather then the results. The main thing is to go through the process of gathering research and then putting your research into findings. Another thing that happened at the meeting is that me and my supervisor talked about me getting at least one book on Florida history, that way I understand what was going on when in Florida. It never would have occurred to me to get a book on Florida history.It does make sense since I will be looking at Central Florida tombstone iconography and the difference between rural and urban cemeteries to know what was going on at the time, so it will be something I will be gather in the coming week.