Today I joined the Scowrers and Molly Maguires of San Francisco scion meeting online. The meeting opened started by announcing that it was the 80th anniversary of the scion - quite remarkable, and it was noted that this scion is possibly "oldest scion west of the Mississippi". As the opening slide celebrating this achievement mentions, the Scowrers and Molly Maguires was the first scion to admit women to full and equal membership!
The presentation for the meeting was by Jim Hawkins, who spoke about John Bennett Shaw and the new life he created in New Mexico from 1970 to his death in 1994. The presentation included the debut of a 13-minute video Jim had created from photos, music tracks and sound bites of John Bennett Shaw to provide an overview of this life. Jim created and operates the website of www.johnbennettshaw.com as a tribute to Shaw's importance as a Sherlockian collector, educator, scionist (??), and so much more.
This presentation coincided with the recent publication of the 2023 Baker Street Journal Christmas Annual in memory of John Bennett Shaw, written by Jim Hawkins. The Christmas Annual features stories from members of the Shaw family and associates who worked with him in various settings. More information on this issue can be found at: bakerstreetirregulars.com/2024/02/17/bsj-2023-christmas-annual
Of special interest was a brief video tour by John Bennett Shaw of his Santa Fe library recorded in 1991. The entire video ran for about 30 minutes and is available on Youtube and embedded below. Jim Hawkins played approximately 4 minutes of video starting at the 13th minute in the video, which can be accessed here at Jim's Youtube channel: youtu.be/K2rgyu2zYio?si=nAFWOUl_NqdZZtR- . While the video cannot be embedded in my blog post, I've taken a few stills here to get an impression of it.
Thanks for the support and the shout-out about today's meeting of the Scowrers and Molly Maguires in San Francisco. I enjoyed sharing John with these folks, a few of whom had met John and Dorothy and had visited them in Santa Fe. I'm glad you were able to be present virtually at the meeting.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jim - I hope you like the post!!
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