Each third Monday of the month, the Watson's Tin Box of Ellicott City scion meets - usually in person. But for July 21, we decided to roll back the clock to COVID days, and host a virtual meeting. It was a risk, but the meeting worked out well, and we'll definitely consider hosting one or two meetings a year that way.
We had a great turnout for the meeting - up to forty attendees at any point. We opened up the Zoom room half an hour early to allow people to re-connect, and people from afar were clearly pleased that they could re-connect with the scion following the remote meetings of 2020-22. We had attendees from right across the US, Edith Pounden was there from Canada, and even Bill Barnes from Australia!
The story of the meeting was The Final Problem, and as we hosted a virtual meeting, we could invite a speaker from.... ANYWHERE. And that's what we did, with Burt Wolder making a wonderful presentation.
I prepared some slides (because it's Zoom!) and these captured the meeting agenda, and some history of the scion:
The Tin Box shown at right is a still from the movie 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes', but I did show the Gasogene 'Tin Box' to our members also. The slides below show some of the background and history of the scion, and the Evidence Boxes that are an important part of our scion's identity.
I also shared the exciting news that both issues of Irene's Cabinet, and information on the contents of every Evidence Box, are available on our web site. After a hiatus, the scion is preparing a new issue of Irene's Cabinet as a tribute to the founding editor Beth Austin, who sadly passed away in 2020.
We then proceeded to the toast, where Liane Luini toasted "The Woman", using a toast created by Deborah Belchis, and published in Irene's Cabinet (Volume 9, 2011 page 39):
This was followed by Tom Fahres delivering the traditional Haiku related to the story of the month:
No shabby cabby
Black cloak with red tipped collar
Mycroft has the reins
We then moved on to the story. First, the Evidence Box for The Final Problem. Rather than hold items up for the camera, but we decided to look at some items from the DIGITAL version of the Evidence Box for this story, which can be accessed on our site.
Here are the items I decided to highlight for everyone on slides - a nice range of examples:
As always, amazing imagination and creativity from Paul Churchill. The shards of brick, for example. It would never occur to me if I was reading the story and looking for items, that the remains of the shattered brick were a physical item. Remarkable.
And so to the discussion of the story:
As a starting point, I shared a few points. One was the illustration by Paget ('the death of Sherlock Holmes') - truly iconic - that was something of a plot-spoiler for anyone flicking through the story when they opened it in the Strand. The center illustration was a wise response from 'To-day' magazine upon Holmes' death. Newnes says "Great Scott! Doyle, is he dead?" to which 'The Corpse' (Holmes) replies "It's all right, guv'nor' ; the doctor knows what to do when you want me'". Furthermore, 'The Adventures of Picklock Holmes' in 'Punch' for the same date was the final story - and my recent blog post transcribes their prescient observation that Holmes may well return!
The group discussion focused on the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty. We explored questions about Watson's reliability as a narrator, whether Watson ever actually saw Moriarty (was it all in Holmes' head?), and the implications of Holmes's actions in Europe. The participants debated whether Holmes's flight from Moriarty ruined a police sting operation - as Moriarty chased Holmes out of England and out of their jurisdiction. We also discussed the narrative technique used by Conan Doyle, and the possibility of Moriarty's escape. Certainly when I first read the Canon I kept waiting for Moriarty to turn up again - after all, Holmes did!
We also dropped "the game" briefly and discussed the real-life inspiration for the setting in Switzerland and the narrative choices made by Arthur Conan Doyle. We wondered whether Doyle drew from his own experiences with his wife's illness and the town of Davos - for the fake patient that decoyed Watson back to the hotel. The conversation also touched on the mention of an air gun in the story and its potential significance for future plot-lines. Surely Doyle planned a future story - amazing really to think of it - by mentioning the air gun in this story.
Frederick Dorr Steele's Illustration Legacy
Finally, Burt Wolder BSI presented a comprehensive overview of Frederick Dorr Steele's life and work, highlighting his contributions to illustration and his iconic depictions of Sherlock Holmes. Steele's innovative use of color and his ability to bring characters to life through illustration were emphasized. Burt also discussed Steele's connections to other artists of the time and his influence on the visual representation of Holmes in America.
Burt ended his presentation describing Steele's legacy, and ongoing efforts to honor his work through the Frederic Dorr Steele Memorial, where you can learn more.
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