SW054 Author and Historian Shares Techniques to Research the Seminole Wars from Home

The internet and on-site library visits helped John and Mary Lou Missall research their book on the life of an officer who served in the Second Seminole War. Chris Kimball promoted that book on his Youtube Channel. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has led civil authorities to close down many facilities as a public health measure. One of the casualties has been libraries. How do you conduct research when the facilities with the research information are closed? 

In the first of several episodes, author and historian Chris Kimball, author of books on the battles of the Seminole Wars, people in the Seminole Wars, and newspapers covering the war, explains how to use one's keyboard to access the internet and its wealth of resources. He explains reliable sources to consult. Next week he will discuss some of what he found from using such resources, and later he will share anecdotes about people and events of the Seminole Wars that he discovered in the course of his research. These fascinating stories and tidbits add color to our understanding of the war and help to personalize the war when one may look at it in an abstract and impersonal fashion. To find these, one must start with solid sources and the internet and on-site in libraries are two means to start the knowledge quest. 

Chris Kimball is also a Seminole living-history reenactor. 

 

The State Library is the RA Gray Library in Tallahassee (above). A look at the stacks on the shelves is below. 

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida. 

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