Page 523 - Demo
P. 523


                                    Pandemic517Our wills had a provision for our Studio Indiana business records, all my photographic negatives, and various related items, to go the Ball State University Archives, where our Healthy House records were already stored. Since speaking with the Lilly Library about accepting our postcard and cover collections (eventually), we%u2019d been making notes about other changes in our wills, and decided to make the bulk of the Ball State donation now %u2014 before our demise. While the photographic materials were reasonably safe and secure in our home, Ball State had a much better humidityand temperature-controlled facility that was more conducive to long-term storage.We had a stack of 9\left over from the days when we regularly shipped books to wholesale customers, and we filled about 30 of them with binders of photographic negatives and work prints, business and darkroom records, reference materials, maps we%u2019d marked up in our travels, ephemera, and some of Lynn%u2019s art materials and records. It completely filled our car, and when I delivered it the Ball State Archivists said they were excited about cataloging it all.Many people would%u2019ve felt sad in getting rid of so much equipment, books, and photographs. It certainly represented a significant part of our lives, but we weren%u2019t the least bit sad. In fact, we were quite enthused that other people would derive enjoyment and use from that which had given us so much satisfaction in the past.%u2022%u2022%u2022%u2022%u2022About mid-way through the pandemic, we presented Ghost Barns to three different publishers that specialized in Indiana books, and all three quickly turned us down. We also offered it royalty-free to two non-profit organizations so they could publish it themselves and use it as a special premium to increase funding and donations. The first turned us down right away. The second expressed serious interest, but strung us along for a year before backing out. While the Covid economy certainly wasn%u2019t conducive for any of them to consider publishing our book, we also knew they simply didn%u2019t share our vision about how important the project was. So, we set it aside %u2014 once again.
                                
   517   518   519   520   521   522   523   524   525   526   527