Some historical points related to Watson's Tin Box

I've been going through a few activities to capture some documents and history from the early years of Watson's Tin Box of Ellicott City MD. I'm currently Gasogene, but that will come to an end in the New Year after about 2 years. 

As I mentioned in my summary of our August meeting, that I would ask our wonderful speaker Kem if he would record his talk. 

Kem White received his first copy of "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" as a 16th birthday present during the first Nixon administration. He has been an avid Sherlockian ever since. Kem was Gasogene I of Watson's Tin Box and is one of the scion's founding members along with Paul Churchill, Steve and Mary Clarkson, and Rod McCaslin. He is Napoleon 187 in the Six Napoleons of Baltimore. Kem has participated in many "Saturdays with Sherlock Holmes" at Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library, including the very first in 1980. Kem has lived in Howard County for more than 45 years and recently retired from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory where, to the best of his knowledge, he was the only Sherlockian on staff.

Kem's talk was titled "The Early Years of Watson's Tin Box." Kem describes the origins of how WTB was founded, how Kem came to be the first Gasogene (they drew straws!), found the right venue, why we meet on Mondays (it was the quietest night at restaurants), and so much more.

You can access Kem's presentation at this link:

https://youtu.be/Eresx9Gw48w?si=FuX6nYMMSc5lx-zl

A particularly touching moment in the talk was this quote from Steve Clarkson - there is no lesser Sherlockian - I love this quote. 

In the video following Kem's talk, I read out a document I recently scanned. It's a letter sent from Paul Churchill (Vernet) to Steve Clarkson as the new scion was formulated. The letter is folded with a wax seal.

THE GAME'S AFOOT

Persons intrigued by and devoted to the Sherlock Holmes canon who may be interested in the formation of a club of like-minded individuals are encouraged to write to Vernet, c/o Churchill, 9211 Smith Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21234. The club, as yet unnamed, would be open to adult applicants regardless of gender, race, creed or national or-igin. Although members are sought primarily from the Central Maryland region, all potential applicants are encouraged to write and state their interests, intentions, and preferences for monthly meeting times and dates.

Meețings will consist of a social gathering and dinner, followed by a spirited discussion of one of the sixty sacred writings which will have been previously announced. The era of gaslamps, Victorian London, hansom cabs, and steam power will live again.

- Emile Horace Vernet

And this response from Ateve Clarkson is included:

August 2, 1989

M. Vernet: I write in haste to advise that notice of our conspiracy has been duly mailed to The Times, The Courier, The Post-Dispatch, and the Howard County Sun. Be advised that our clique (cabal?) henceforth is known as a 'society', not 'club'. More follows, in Porlock's code. P.S. advise when annotated is at hand. Your humble servant, Morse Hudson.

A search at sites like newspapers.com have not yet revealed any examples of advertisements yet - but I'll keep searching! 

I've also been working with quite a few past members to create a list of presentations given at WTB meetings since inceptions. To achieve this, I looked through the Gasogene email list (which goes back to around 2014 with quite a few gaps), and also asked all prior living Gasogenes whether they had records or memory of the presentations during their tenure. Special thanks for former Gasogenes and members with records to date - Dana Richards, Jaime Mahoney, Andy Solberg, Pat Ruth, Evelyn Herzog, Karen Wilson and Brent Morris. Peter Blau also has some records so the list may expand.

The talks: Over time, programming and announcements for WTB meetings varied. In the first decade or so, meeting announcements were sent by physical mail, and upcoming presentations were rarely announced for each month’s meeting, and in many cases the presentations on record were sourced from meeting summaries following the meeting ("thanks to X for presenting on Y"). By the year 2000, many members received an email announcement, and upcoming presentations were more regularly announced, but there remain a number of gaps in the records. 

About 449 meetings have taken place since the first official meeting in March 1990. Kem White confirmed to me that a scholarly talk was not a routine part of meeting agendas in the early years, so the number of meetings with talks may be quite a bit lower. So far, we've collected almost 200 talks!! I have some work to do with other papers, and the search will continue!

Of the subset of data I have to date, the three most regular speakers are: 
Andrew Solberg — 12
Deborah Clark — 12
Dana Richards — 10

I a confident these numbers will evolve as extra presentations are identified!

Across the years, talks have covered an impressively broad range of Sherlockian scholarship, from readings of individual Canon stories, characters, textual commentary, and Conan Doyle himself to explorations of Victorian history, culture, science, crime, fashion, food, music, and social customs. There is also a strong tradition of looking at Holmes beyond the Canon, including films, television, novels & pastiches, food, games, podcasts, and even connections to subjects such as Star Trek.

Finally, I've been trying to identify other records that can be digitized for posterity, and for members to see.

Early quizes and Mycroft quizes up till around 2010 had been collected in a folder by Beth Austin, which Greg Ruby now has. Greg has lent the folder to me, and I'm scanning all the materials, which I hope will be online some day. Along with the quizzes are some other material from the annual Mycroft day such as menus and meeting reports:

One fun item I found came from the meeting report for the SECOND Mycroft meeting in 1992, giving us a little insight into Paul's active development of evidence boxes:

Gasogene II Paul Churchill is still at work putting together a poor-man's version of a museum. To date he has acquired a gasogene, a tantalus, an 1881 copy of the Times, Inverness cape and deerstalker, some Swan vestas, various hats, a violin, an 1878 Scott revolver, a couple of period syringes, some coins and stamps of the time, the brass box from the Five Orange pips, several letters from the cases, the silver cigarette case and the note to Watson, the actual blue carbuncle and the tag from the goose, the box with the sliding lid cmoplete with parchment ritual, wooden peg, twine, brass key and discoloured metal discs, a Persian slipper, coal scuttle, a tarnished cylinder with the handwritten account of the Gloria Scott, a snuff box with a giant amethyst in the centre of the lid, a signet ring with brilliant, a yellow cardboard box of honeydew tobacco filled with rock salt and two disgusting objects, a piece of cardboard on which is written V.V. 341 (hard to read because of some severe staining), the note Jabez Wilson found affixed to the door, and a bottle marked Radix Pedis Diaboli. He also has three leaves from a copper beech tree. 

Delightful.