Managing History: Introduction and Book Summary

My name is Curtis Adams, I am Temple University Graduate Student in my first semester in the history program. I enjoy researching collecting and investigating art and historical documents etc. Over the last ten years I have passionately been investigating a rare plate dated 1513 by Albrecht Durer. From this research I hope to make some important contribute to history. With the help of Professor Bruggeman and working closely with my classmates (team), I hope to learn a lot from this class.
The book "Fundraising The Dead," by Sheila Connolly was published in the year 2010 by The Berkley Publishing Group. This was a very well written book, that involved a mystery at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The central character was named Eleanor (Nell) Pratt, who became an amateur detective and solved two crimes. The first was the theft of historical artifacts worth thousands of dollars and the second the murder of her colleague Alfred Findley. Findley was the Director of Cataloging, he was murdered during the night of the Historical Society's fund raiser. She was alerted by board member Marty Terwilliger, after she noticed some rare historical documents missing (Terwilliger Collection). This began Nell's search for answers. Her first contact Findley, informed her that he noticed documents missing, but was fearful to tell what occurred believing he would be accused of the thefts.
The next day after the fund raiser she found him dead in a pool of blood. This lead her down a road for the truth, which exposed her secret lover Charles Elliot Worthington, the Society's president as the culprit. He was assisted by Doris, who was obsessed by Worthington. With clever thinking Nell was able to trick Doris into admitting guilt. after Doris snaps at her and Marty. After all the loose ends were tied up, she went to the Society's meeting and was placed as interim president. This was a well written book, that was based around the management of artifacts, the importance of cataloging etc.
The following week's reading talk about Nell Pratt's new position at "The Henry Ford, America's Greatest History Attraction, fulfilling the position of its Director of Development-Major & Planning Giving. The second reading. The first article deals with Historical Society's probe into possible thefts from a frequent visitor. Barry H. Landau and an accomplice Jason Savedoff. These arrest launched the Historical Society of Pennsylvania into a massive investigation of its collection. The last article was put out by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in an effort to fill a vacancy by the death of Alfred Findly on June 8, 2011.