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Hi! Maelle and Josh thought it would be fun if I introduced myself and wrote a running commentary thread on the Dracula project I am working on. My name is Samantha but I prefer Sam and I go by they/them pronouns aaaand I am excited to be interning (paid) with Beehive Books.
I’m mostly vegan and my favorite musician is Sibylle Baeir. A fact about myself that you might find weird but I don’t care is that I love to make up indexes for books that don’t already have them. Coolest hobby ever, I know. 
Everything is content amirite?
Everything is content amirite?
Also Maelle told me to WRITE WHATEVER I WANTED in this thread so you all are my witnesses in case I get fired… but yolo let’s Real World: Beehive this shit!
I have a background in Archival Studies so I am going to be processing all of the Stoker documents so they can be recorded and photographed to be included in their forthcoming DRACULA: The Evidence project
So let me set the mood. Did you know the Beehive offices are in a spooky ass church tower? Well, they are. And with the new social distancing protocols I’m often up here… alone ...at night… sifting through photos and documents about vampires.
THIS IS FINE.
THIS IS FINE.
...to be continued? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beehivebooks/dracula-the-evidence-hardcover-edition?ref=7x0e4i
So what is a day in an archival internship at Beehive like?
Usually I start by opening one of the five boxes that house all of the Stoker artifacts and Harker papers. I’ve read Dracula before, I think.
Usually I start by opening one of the five boxes that house all of the Stoker artifacts and Harker papers. I’ve read Dracula before, I think.
Well, at least I’ve seen the Winona Ryder 
movie. And to be honest… I don’t remember any of this stuff in the movie?
movie. And to be honest… I don’t remember any of this stuff in the movie?
Also when I said I was totally alone in the office that wasn’t quite accurate. And as an archivist, you would think that specificity ran in my veins but it's just that...I don’t see the other intern Randolph too much?
I was introduced when I started but I think he is devoting all his time to translating the shorthand in one large journal? There are more small cubby holes and side offices in this church tower than I thought there were at first.
I’m sure he’s in one of those with the journal. Anyway, Randolph if you’re reading this what should we order for dinner want to go halvsies?
What else? Well at the risk of spoiling Beehive’s classy image, for some reason there are lots of flies in the windowsills? I thought they all died off or hibernated for the winter. I had to brush at least three of them off the top of the file boxes.
YOU SAID POST WHATEVER I WANT MAELLE! 
Just another moment in the glamorous life of an archival print professional. And speaking of being an archivist I’ve definitely cataloged some wild stuff for collections,
Tijuana Bibles, alphabetized a collection of diner menus from the last 100 years for the University of Michigan...but this is the first time I’ve catalogued...jars of dirt.
One of the boxes is full of them, some empty some full, as well as several very old looking test tubey-vial sort of things that most definitely made a sloshing sound when I picked up the leather case they were wrapped in.
I just texted Maelle about them and still haven’t heard back. I guess I'm extra glad I always wear gloves when sorting but Maelle...Josh what the heck are these?
OK! LET'S GO! BEEHIVE ARCHIVAL INTERNSHIP EXTRAVAGANZA ROUND TWO!
Sorry, coffee kicking in. I'm cross-posting these to the instas so you can check those out or just scroll up to get up to speed. I'm Sam and I'm cataloging the Stoker papers and livetweeting it.
Sorry, coffee kicking in. I'm cross-posting these to the instas so you can check those out or just scroll up to get up to speed. I'm Sam and I'm cataloging the Stoker papers and livetweeting it.
So I’ve started going through the second box and this stuff is rad. Photos of death certificates, maps, telegrams, old records. I was expecting research notes and ephemera from Bram Stoker’s work on the novel,
but this includes shots of original correspondence from the Harkers, Lucy, Van Helsing, etc… were these characters based on real people? Are these props? I’m not entirely sure what I’m looking at. Help an intern out twitter hive mind!
There's a lot to go through in this box so I can see it being a long day and even longer night. But I've got coffee and all of YOU to keep me company! Also how haunted do these boxes look? Haunted AF right?
Okay here is something weird/interesting. So I've never really been someone who “takes their work home with them” mentally that is.
I of course always take files and spreadsheets home because why would I pull an all-nighter in a library when I can be on my couch with Swales purring on my feet. I usually leave the archives at the archive.
btw Swales is my cat/life partner/disapproving aunt.
But yeah I’ve been having "work dreams" lately. And not the kind of stress work dreams I’ve had in the past about endless shifts, being late for work, and supervisors with gaping spiraling mouths. I have just been dreaming… about Dracula?
At least I think that is what they are about? It wasn’t until the third or fourth night of these dreams that I realized I had seen one of the buildings in my dream in a research photo. Like that's weird right?
Okay where was I...oh yeah dreams. Funny because as I was writing this thread I NODDED OFF. 
In the dream there is a small stone hut in the distance across a rocky field with dying yellow grass spreading out from the rocks like spreading bruises on the earth.
I am always walking across the field barefoot and I can feel dew from the grass coating my feet with bits of dead dried grass. It is cold and I can't tell what time of day it is.
The sky is a dirty brownish yellow as if hazed from smoke but I don’t see any fires around me. Every time I have this dream I am closer to the stone hut.
It’s like one of those houses you’d see on PBS or the BBC and have words like Quaint and Moor and Bleak attached to it.
It’s like one of those houses you’d see on PBS or the BBC and have words like Quaint and Moor and Bleak attached to it.
The roof has a thick layer of sod heaped on it and the grass that grows scraggly hanging from the eaves isn’t much better than the dead stuff surrounding it.
The walls aren’t stone like I first thought but instead long weathered grey boards
The walls aren’t stone like I first thought but instead long weathered grey boards
and as I get closer I can see that what had looked like a dark hole of a door actually has a dirty cloth hung across it that sways in and out like it is breathing… aaaand that’s where I woke up last.
If it wasn’t for the photo I actually would have been worried about how weird it was to have this sort of freaky continuing dream but it just has to be that the image stuck in my mind from working here at Beehive. Right?
I mean this has never happened with the materials from any of my other archival projects. My dreams are usually intensely and satisfyingly boring but what else could it be?
ANYWHO. Moral of this very meandering tweet dispatch...dreams, dreams are weird...
Oh God. Something crazy happened and I honestly don't know if I should even tweet it.
I fell asleep for like two seconds and when I woke up one of the jars was broken. I'm guessing I'm about to get fired.
I fell asleep for like two seconds and when I woke up one of the jars was broken. I'm guessing I'm about to get fired.
The soil (or whatever it is) is all over the floor but it's also spread all over the doorways. Maybe someone was trying to steal it but dropped them on the way out? But why would anyone want to steal old dirt...it’s not even THAT OLD.
It had to be an animal right? Maybe a bird or a squirrel? The doors were all still locked so maybe there is a hole in one of the upper tower windows. I can see gaps up in the rafters.
This is fucked up. I’ve never lost or had archival materials ruined before. I emailed AND texted Josh to see if I should report this or something but still no answer. An animal….had to be… Josh if you’re reading this you need to come into the office.
Okay...deep Breath Sam...I can fix this.
Soooo no word from the bosses? I slept here last night waiting to hear back. And am having a late start but don’t worry, my neighbor has a copy of my apartment key and will feed Swales.
He’ll shun me for a bit like he does anytime I take a trip but he always forgives me...especially when I break out the good wet food. EMOJI
I’m not going to lie. Last night was weird and scary...but I'm still here.
Also I need to go wash my hands before I start in on this new batch. TMI I know but i still have some of that old dirt beneath my fingernails I guess from cleaning up yesterday.
I could have sworn I scrubbed them out already but yeah they’re dirty and CLEAN HANDS SHARP EYES is the motto of all archivist...a motto i just made up but still a motto :P
The stuff in these boxes is wild. Maelle and Josh are still not replying, so I’m not entirely sure of what my “best practices” are here, so I’m just continuing through the boxes in order. . I just need to figure out the timeline of these documents.
Also I’m worried about anything happening to the rest of the archive. I need them to be safe. I NEED to understand them.
Okay one thing that also still kinda freaking me out is… that dirt. I know i swept it all up and put it in a couple of coffee mugs but someone.. poured the dirt back out last night… and only around the doorway that leads out back to the old churchyard.
i can’t pretend like a bird or a squirrel did that.
Maybe Randolph did it? I can’t even tell if he’s here. I keep hearing rustling around and creaking in the tower rooms, you can hear every noise and footstep in this office… the tower is like an echo tube.
Maybe Randolph did it? I can’t even tell if he’s here. I keep hearing rustling around and creaking in the tower rooms, you can hear every noise and footstep in this office… the tower is like an echo tube.
But that would be like a “please fire me thing” for him to do? Why would he do that?
Okay moving on and trying to focus on what’s important… this work. My Archive. I’ve never had such a weird but fascinating project before!
After the first two boxes of archival photographs… and the jars of dirt and HOPEFULLY NOT VIALS OF BLOOD BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE A PROBLEM box I opened the fourth box and IT HAD THE ACTUAL DOCUMENTS IN IT?
As an archivist I’m fucking appalled. This non-climate-controlled office is not how you store documents this old!
I’m sure whomever put them haphazardly in a cardboard box didn’t wear gloves, there is no chain of possession records attached.
I’m sure whomever put them haphazardly in a cardboard box didn’t wear gloves, there is no chain of possession records attached.
Appalling….but also exciting. If these are primary source documents...hmmm….
How did Beehive get these artifacts?
I must have been extremely tired when I looked at the photographs of the main Harker journal the first time because now that I’m looking at the documents themselves, I can read them?
I could have sworn they were in shorthand but nope totally legible if period-specific English. I need to get my eyes checked again… too many all-nighters and small print does not the body do good… or something like that
See...the Queen’s English.
Old handwriting like this is both a joy and pain as an archivist.
On one hand it's so personal and feels like the person is whispering across hundreds of years directly into your ear and if you just stay still enough you can hear them breathing like they are standing behind you as you peer into their lives..
but on the other hand…well I’ll have to wait and see...
It’s a bit annoying that Beehive doesn’t have a record player but there are records in this archive. So far i haven’t found transcripts for what is on the records beyond the labeling but hopefully in the next box.
Maybe I should go home and get mine? No I can’t leave my archive alone for that long.
There is a key in the archive. Like an actual “ made of metal and opens a lock” key not a translation or map key like you might expect. But it’s beautiful and I can’t help but think it must be important right? I’m going to carry it with me in case there are any more break-ins.
My key now archives!
Randolph is back. He doesn’t look...great? I was going to go upstairs and find him to ask about the dirt in the doorway (how fucking weird has this job become that that’s a sentence I just typed) But when I went to do that I realized he was sitting at the table across from me.
I hadn’t even heard him sit down, I must have been way down the tunnel vision hyperfocus hole.
I awkwardly waited for him to say something.
I awkwardly waited for him to say something.
He had this really weird smile on his face and his eyes were focusing just past where I’m sitting like he was looking at something behind me instead of right at me.
And I’m used to men pulling this sort of power trip stuff...i work in archival academia after all but what was really weird was that he had two big black flies on his face.
One was sitting on the top of his ear and was doing that thing where they rub their legs together and then touch their wings like they’ve misplaced their little fly house keys and the other one...
and I shit you not I swear i saw the other fly crawl up from under his chin and walk right across his open eyeball.
He didn’t even flinch.
So yeah i didn't know what to do with that besides pretend like he didn't have flies walking out of his mouth and shit?
He didn’t even flinch.
So yeah i didn't know what to do with that besides pretend like he didn't have flies walking out of his mouth and shit?
I was about to ask him about the dirt and where he had been for the last day or so when he cocked his head to the side and his eyes focused on my like he was seeing me for the first time since sitting down.
and I’m paraphrasing here because dude is weirding me out he asked me if I “understood” the archive yet and if I had seen a key.
Well i definitely wasn’t going to hand any part of my archive much less that key over to Mr. Randolph “i let flies walk on my eyes” Whatever His Last Name Is.
so i told him that
Well not in so many words but I know ...I know I said something...and he said something back.
so i told him that
Well not in so many words but I know ...I know I said something...and he said something back.
But here is where...where I don’t know what the fuck happened because I remember the tones of his voice...but not the words...and I remember his eyes again.
but I must have been passing out because they felt like the way you hear a buzzing sound but it was just those eyes looking at me.
My blood sugar must have crashed or maybe I’m getting worn down from the little sleep and weird bullshit but the next thing I remember is that he wasn’t sitting in front of me anymore. He was gone.
I stood up and the room tilted and my vision did that green fuzzy thing for a second like when you stand up too fast after giving plasma or coming out from anesthesia at the dentist.
And when it cleared it was just in time to see him disappearing up the staircase to the church tower carrying Box Five.
I of course went after him because wtf dude.
I of course went after him because wtf dude.
And I saw him for a moment up there in the stairwell as I looked up but once I got up to the top floor...he wasn’t there.
There is only one staircase.
So Randolph either went out a window and crawled down the outside of the tower (impossible) flew off into the sky out those same windows (also impossible)
orrr...I am starting to hallucinate whole conversations and subsequent chase montages with archival interns (unfortunately maybe possible?)
Now i’m sitting here with my four remaining boxes, listening to the rain still going full blast outside.
I’m looking at the picture of the barn again.
I don’t know what to do.
I’m looking at the picture of the barn again.
I don’t know what to do.
(i don't even know what the point of this thread is anymore...to promote the fucking kickstarter? well here is the fucking link to that i guess https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beehivebooks/dracula-the-evidence-hardcover-edition?ref=7x0e4i
maybe i’m still writing this because I’m an archivist and we like to leave accurate records..and I need to know what this key goes to...and yes I wrote a bunch of cusses ON TWITTER Beehive will at least have to answer a text or email to fire me...so there.)
I can’t remember if I told you about the flies.
Not the flies buzzing through Randolph's open mouth...no...not his mouth...his eyes...the other flies, the flies that have been gathering.
I didn’t notice at first but it’s been getting darker in here. It’s been rainy and cloudy outside so I thought it was that.
The normal well of light that is in the middle of the office from all the tower windows dimming, their inverse borders growing, but it wasn’t that... it was the flies.
I’m not explaining this very well. Sorry once I get started on an archive project it’s like it’s always running in the background of my mind...living rent free while I do all the human talky breathy eaty stuff. But I noticed the flies because of the crows.
The first one smashed into one of the tower windows this morning. And while it didn’t break, the window did explode...into hundreds of flies. They swarmed angrily while the crow flapped on the windowsill but once it regained its sense and flew away they began to return.
A black glistening blanket that slowly filled the window till the pinpricks of light just winked out.
All the windows are like this.
I can feel their mass thrumming through the windows. I fucking swear there is a cadence...a rhythm to it...I can almost make it out. I just need to listen harder…
A crow got into the office. We’ve been looking at each other for awhile now.
I know I’m writing these tweets for a reason.
There’s someone...someone asked me to...did I get my archive from them...it’s all so wet...soft mud welling up between my toes, slipping through my fingers when I try and get a handful to show...to show...you?
THERE IS SO MUCH PAPER IN THIS OFFICE. Which is good the office also has too many windows, too many eyes looking in...or was it out? I can close the eyes though close his eyes its good to have paper paper can cover the eyes
I didn’t write this journal...I didn’t I know I didn’t I know I didn’t i know I didn’t I know I didn’t didnt didnt dsintdkf tdidmnt i did not
I know exactly what the journal has been saying this whole time. It was right there...if it was a snake it would have bit me…
I was right the key IS important
I was right the key IS important
So close, it’s all so close now...i can taste it in the air it is a sour rusty tang that clings to my clothes...I can almost follow it like in a cartoon...
... the smell’s fingers caressing my neck, slithering up first one nostril then the other, filling the wet cage of my mouth....so close I can hear them...
Wait, I think the rain is stopping I can hear myself think again. Now I’ll see if can...hold that thought Sam...someone’s at the door...I need to answer it
