Before Google (and Social Media) Reflection

This project was my first time using the MARBL, and honestly, I was intimidated. I am a shy person by nature, and I think one of the best things about Google is that it is independent--you can look queries up yourself from the convenience of your own home. Using archives for research meant that I had to go to the library and ask other people for help, which I hate to do. However, as a lover of old things, this experience ended up being almost magical to me.

Josephine Baker was a black icon, a civil rights activist and an entertainer who lived from 1906 to 1975. She was born in St. Louis as Freda Josephine McDonald, and lived on the streets, making a living by street-corner dancing. At age 15, she joined a vaudeville troupe, and performed in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance. However, in the US, she faced a lot of rejection due to her race, so at age 19 she moved to France, where she spent the remainder of her life. There, she became famous for erotic dancing, starred in the Folies Bergère, acted in films, and released some songs. During World War II, she was a prominent member of the French resistance movement, and after that, an avid supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. In her personal life, Baker was bisexual, but married four men in her lifetime (two of them before she was 16). She also had 12 children, two of which were biological, and the rest she adopted during the Civil Rights Movement. Going into this project, I did not know who Josephine Baker was, but from the brief research I did, I believe her to be a phenomenal woman.

For my project, I looked through a folder of Josephine's correspondence, specifically fan mail from Spring 1959. All the letters were in French, but I was able to understand the gist of what was happening, thanks to four years of French classes and Google Translate (not entirely a Google-free endeavor). It was harder for me to read the handwritten fan mail sent to Josephine, but I could for the most part comprehend the typed letters her husband at the time, Jo Bouillon, responded. Each one more or less began the same way: "Nous avons bien reçu votre gentille lettre et ma femme a été très touchée par tout ce que vous lui dites." "We recieved your kind letter and my wife was very touched by all that you said." I thought it was interesting how so many people reached out to Josephine, praising her "golden heart," and asking her for favors, like coming to visit a village of children, or help out a single mother in need. However, that is somewhat common today, with social media making celebrities more "accessible." Fan mail can take the form of Tweets and Instagram comments. What I thought was amazing was how Jo took the time to kindly reply to so many letters on his wife's behalf (because she was "continuellement en tournée" ("constantly on tour"). Sometimes Josephine herself would write back, apologizing for the delayed reply, as she led a busy life. This is a side to celebrities lives we don't often see or think about, especially with regards to celebrities in the 20th century.

What stuck out most to me about this experience was not just getting a "behind-the-scenes" look at what went on in a celebrity's life. It was also just the profound feelings of gingerly turning each page so not to ruin them, observing each stain and tear wondering what stories were behind them, and being able to touch these documents, knowing that Josephine and Jo once touched them as well,