I was recently asked if I had a connection to the Ninth Regiment. Short version is no, I do not. Additionally, I'm about as far from a history buff as one could get. So how did I get involved?
How I got involved is proof that small acts of kindness sometimes really do open doors that one never knew existed. Charlie Sibley, a gentleman who installed our air conditioning a few years ago, told me about an old photo that he had of one of his ancestors. I offered to scan and restore it for him, not knowing that it was Col. Cahill or even that Cahill was anyone of importance.
Charlie gave the restoration to Bob Larkin, who called me to ask if I wouldn't mind doing a few restorations. My business was just starting and since I was still trying to figure out how to structure it, I volunteered to help out in any way that I could. Seemed like a good cause and good experience to practice my restoration skills.
One thing turned to another and as Bob showed me the images, it became really obvious that they needed much more than just restorations, since most of the pictures were of the men after they had been promoted and had aged. So, what started as restorations quickly turned into make-overs, body transplants and major clothing adjustments. Challenging considering that our source images ran the gamut from tiny pixelated thumbnails to high resolution Goshen photos, and not everyone was situated correctly, so we had to warp a lot of transplanted bodies to make them match the positions of the heads... Getting everything to blend enough to look realistic for the etchings was challenging. That was just the portraits.
The bottom panels were literally blank slates. Bob had some definite ideas about pictures that he wanted to use, but really gave me a lot of freedom in how to compose and blend the images into the scenes. Most of the men in those pictures needed uniform adjustments as well, because the re-enactors weren't always performing the roles that their ranks would have dictated in the Goshen pictures. Hours and hours went into a lot of different layout drafts for those scenes, and then more hours went into removing (or adding) rank insignias from kepis and uniforms for each of the men pictured. We had to warp a lot of those insignias to fit on rounded sleeves or drapes on uniforms as our source images weren't shaped to fit on our soldier's uniforms...
Tom Callinan was instrumental in making sure that everyone had the correct patch, buttons correctly placed, kepis correctly marked... I am in awe of his knowledge and attention to the very smallest of details. The historical accuracy of all of the images is completely because of his expertise.
The regimental seal is a whole another story...
(And I've loved every minute of it!)
Now I've found myself developing the layout and design of both the exhibition and dedication booklets. That seemed to be a reasonable thing to offer because I had all of the source images and I was anxious to learn how to use InDesign... What better way to learn a new program than to actually use it...?
Developing this website began as a single page to describe my role in creating the artwork that was to be used as a template for Stacy Mathieu to hand etch onto the granite centerpiece... but as my involvement has grown, so has my interest... (It was only logical to add all of those interesting tidbits to my web page...)
One day, I realized that my "Vicksburg Page" was about two miles long and it was time to break it up... Oh dear, now I have a whole website dedicated to this monument that, by the way, is actually bigger than my business site!
... (and I'm still loving every minute of it!)
Robert Larkin of Cheshire, CT
is the driving force behind the creation of this historical monument. He and the Connecticut Ninth Regiment Volunteer Committee had spent many years working and laying the groundwork for this project long before I became involved, navigating through the governmental requirements, raising money, raising awareness...
Without the Committee... and especially Bob, who tirelessly motivated all of us to partake in this most amazing experience, Connecticut would remain unrepresented in this wonderful National Park.
I think it's safe to say that, although the evolution of this historical monument is the result of a group effort spanning nearly eight years, it would not be happening today, were it not for Robert Larkin....Private John Marlow, of Company C, would be so proud...!
