Take a look: We’re adding a new page to the site, This Week in History. Admittedly, history takes something of a front seat at Ashton Indexing, and over the years we’ve been collecting all kinds of historical trivia. Go on over to This Week in History and see what we’re remembering this week.
Coming soon: A new index of Justin Smith Morrill, Father of the Land Grant Colleges by Coy F. Cross II (Michigan State University Press, 1999). Morrill authored the act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Lincoln in 1862, enabling states to establish ‘Agricultural and Mechanical’ (A&M) colleges, as well as most of the various state universities, using funds derived from the granting and sale of public (Federal) lands. This act opened up higher education to virtually any student who was qualified to attend college, thereby transforming American higher education forever. The current edition of Cross has a names index; we are working on a thorough name and subject index. As it happens, 2012 was the 150th anniversary of the passage of this Act and was celebrated across the nation, notably in Morrill’s hometown of Strafford, Vermont. His Gothic Revival house, which he designed, is a National Historic Landmark and a Vermont State Historic Site, open for tours Wednesday through Sunday (and Monday holidays), 11:00 to 5:00 from Memorial Day to Columbus Day. If you are in the area it is worth a visit. Website: http://www.morrillhomestead.org/
Recently we attended the Fall meeting of the New England chapter of ASI in Burlington, MA. Details will follow shortly.
Read Chuck Ashton’s “Profile of Tim Brookes” in Key Words: We recently had the opportunity to interview author and professor Tim Brookes for an article in Key Words (the Bulletin of the American Society for Indexing). English-born Brookes is the highly engaging founder of the Champlain College (Vermont) Publishing Initiative, guitarist and guitar builder, trans-continental hitchhiker (four times), protector of endangered alphabets, woodcarver and erstwhile NPR commentator.  In the article he discusses indexes, indexing and indexers from an author’s point of view, and shares his opinion of the future of publishing and indexing in the age of e-books and the internet.
The article appeared in the January-March 2012 issue of Key Words (Vol. 20, p. 28). You can download a .pdf of the article here: A Profile of Tim Brookes
You can see the full issue of Key Words here: http://www.asindexing.org/files/kw/KW2012_01-03.pdf
Or contact us at info@AshtonIndexing.com to receive a copy by e-mail.
Index to Tunbridge Cooks 1761-2011 now available: To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of Tunbridge, Vermont, the Tunbridge Historical Society published Tunbridge Cooks 1761-2011, both a cookbook and a compilation of the histories of several local families. It was published without an index.
Ashton Indexing crafted a post-publication index to Tunbridge Cooks, indexing not only the recipes but also the historical information. Read the cookbook but then read the index; it is freely available for personal, non-commercial use on the ‘Recent Projects’ page of this website.
Charles H. Ashton, MS
Ashton Indexing
Member, American Society for Indexing