11 Aug. 91

From: Ivan Ficken, CDR, USNR
To : Henry Vadnais
Charles Haberlein

Subj: George Carroll/ADM. Quackenbush materials

On 13/14 July, 1991 a review of the LCDR. Carroll/ADM.Quackenbush photography materials was made which included the reading of sections of LCDR. Carroll's manuscript (tentatively titled "Eyes of the Navy—A History of Naval Photography") bythree separate officers within the reserve unit. A consensus was reached that the amount of time necessary to edit, re-research and rewrite the Carroll manuscript would be unmanageably long and not cost effective, given the probable size of the intended audience. Nevertheless, correspondence between the author, Gerald Pulley (the present owner of the Carroll material) and other researchers and photographers mates, indicates a distinct audience intensely interest in the materials and having the story of Naval Photographer Mates told.

After several discussions with Henry Vadnais, Chuck Haberlein and Ivan Ficken of the Historical Center's Naval Reserve unit, asolution appeared workable that would improve the Historical Centers's abilities to make the History of Naval Photography material available to interested parties and permit its reserve unit to accept a project capable of expeditious completion withthe expenditure of a justifiable amount of time.

LCDR. Carroll proposed eighteen chapters, outline finished,bringing the history up to 1960. Thirteen of the eighteen chapters appear to have been completed. Jerry Pulley believes that he can construct the five missing chapters with the aid of Carroll's documents and materials. Mr. Pulley also would like to update the history to about 1980.

Chapters one through four are already typed in double spaceformat of sufficient letter quality to enable them to be easilyscanned and recorded on computer disk.

Chapters five through six are typed in a double column format with poor quality type that, with scanning each column, should enable it to be retrieved on disk in reformatted paragraphs identical to chapters one through four more efficiently than retyping the material.

Chapters seven through thirteen are in long hand only and need transcription onto a word processing disk which will be accomplished by Ivan Ficken during two weeks of active duty training starting 26 August and/or at home between monthly reserve drills.

Once the manuscript is available in its entirety on wordprocessing disk, copies can be made available to anyone furnishing a blank disk upon which it can be recorded.

Availability to interested parties is anticipated to be accomplished by

1 Jerry Pulley, who currently holds the position of National President of the Photographer's Mates Chiefs

Advertising the manuscript's existence and availability at the annual chief's roundups.

2. A short article in one or more journals most likely to reach past and present photographers mates.

3. Squib announcements in various Naval publications likely to reach interested parties.

Because the thrust of this transcription and publicizing effort is to change the character of the History of Photography collection into a more active research resource than it holds at present, a better inventory of the material is needed to facilitate researcher access. Time permitting, an inventory/cataloging of the material will be completed during the two week active duty training by Ivan Ficken.

The ADM. Quackenbush materials, though having no direct relationship with the Carroll manuscript, are held in the same file cabinet. Logically, any researcher having an interest in one set of materials would also have an interest in the other. Thus holding the materials together seems appropriate. It also underscores the importance of doing an inventory or locator file.

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26 Aug. 1991

From: Ivan Ficken, CDR, USNR
To Charles Haberlein

Subj: Memorandum of Understanding regarding Carroll collection

Management/completion of the George Carroll "History of NavalPhotography" collection is anticipated to proceed in three phases:

1. Transcription of manuscript onto 5©1/4" disk format.

2. Organizing/cataloging the LCDR. Carroll & ADM. Quackenbush collections in a manner that permits greater, and easier access to interested researchers.

3. Getting the word out to interested researchers via notices or articles in Pull Together and other appropriate publications.

Phase l will be initiated (if not completed) during the 26 Aug.to 6 Sept. training duty to gain familiarity with desired formatting. Completion of phase one can be done off-site or during weekend reserve drills.

Phase 2 will be initiated during the training duty to allow as much day to day contact with NHC staff to direct the effort.

Phase 3 will be initiated once phases 1 and 2 are finished and will, at a minimum, include drafting of notices of availability of the manuscript and collection to interested parties which would appear in appropriate publications. Depending on the amount of time consumed in the earlier phases and the time demands of competing projects, other articles specifically on the history of Naval photography may be written for publication. These would be more informative in their own right rather than merely expository of the existence of the manuscript and collection.

Transcription of one or more of chapters seven through thirteen plus scanning chapters five and six should provide sufficientword processing experience with WP that additional chapters can be transcribed off-site or on drill weekends when NHC staff are not available.

* EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
The following manuscript has not been "edited" in a publisher's sense of the word. Multiple opinions within Naval Reserve Historical Center Unit, Detachment 206 and the Naval Historical Center itself concurred that a true editing effort would involve such an intensive overhaul of the text as to not justify the time necessary to do it. Counter balancing this, there unquestionably exists an enthusiastic audience for the material. Just how large that audience is could not be determined until the manuscript became available in at least a readable and distributable form.

Thus, the compromise that was reached consisted of an editing designed only to correct spelling and grammatical errors, with little being done in the way of producing a more readable text. In some cases, the convoluted nature of George Carroll's writing style, though perhaps technically or grammatically sound, was nearly incomprehensible and portions of the text had to be re-written. E.g. A sentence length of 22 typewritten lines exceeds most readers' ability to maintain a coherent train of thought throughout and needed to be dissected and repackaged into idea segments small enough to digest.

Reasonable efforts were made to verify spelling accuracy of geographic names (using atlases and the general index to Samuel Morrison's History of United States Naval Operations in World War II), equipment and personal names, but there were limits to ones time and sources of authority. In a number of instances Carroll's own spelling of a name or term varied from his previous usage and if the accurate spelling was unverifiable, both spellings were retained "as was" in the original manuscript. Anyone receiving this material who finds erroneous usage is invited to point out the error to the Photographic Section of the Naval Historical Center, prefereably citing the authority by which accuracy can be verified. Where doubt existed in spelling or what was being said, all efforts were made to resolve it in favor of leaving it as close as possible to Carroll's original usage, consistent with it being understandable to a reader.

The future of the manuscript remains in doubt. If a sufficiently large and broad audience exists, it may well be worth someone's effort to do a more professional editing job with an eye toward eventually publishing the material. The last five chapters, out of Carroll's original 18 planned, remain unwritten and those take the subject up to only 1960.

Chapters I through IV were electronically scanned from a typewritten text transcribed by CAPT. Renee Jones, a member of a VTU unit that predated the establishment of NR Historical Center D206. I did not proofread CAPT. Jones' transcription against the original holographic manuscript but spot checking a few points in the transcription indicates that virtually no changes and editing were done in the transcription. Chapters V and VI were electronically scanned from a text typewritten by Carroll and which one can only assume represented his final editing of these chapters. The remaining chapters VII through XIII were transcribed from Carroll's original holographic manuscript, and I accept personal responsibility for any errors and ommissions in the transcribing.

Carroll's chapter summaries follow, including the five (XIV through XVIII) that remain unwritten. Documents and perhaps oral histories relating to these unwritten chapters are in the Naval Historical Center's holdings and await an interested author in reviewing them as sources for finishing the unwritten portions of the manuscript.

The article entitled "Airship," is included as an addendum to chapter VII even though it apparantly was not intended by Carroll to be included as part of that chapter. But because it relates to the subject of chapter VII and had already received a more professional editing for publication, its dramatic nature was felt to justify its inclusion as an example of the potential other portions of the manuscript hold for publication if subjected to a professional editing.Ivan Ficken CDR. USNR12 January 1992