#john stack

The Digital Visitor: What we know and what we should measure John Stack, Science Museum Group

TaNC: Heritage Connector (John Stack) & Deep Discoveries (Lora Angelova)

Heritage Connector explores three technologies (AI, Linked Open Data & Knowledge Graphs) that together have the potential to provide a step change in access and discoverability, research and public engagement by augmenting traditional catalogue data and associated keyword search through generation of a vast number of interlinked resources and content.  Early findings around the complexities and technical challenges of applying artificial intelligence techniques to cultural heritage collection catalogues will be shared. 

Managing digital in a time of accelerating change John Stack, Science Museum Group RLUK Digital Shift Forum

RLUK’s Digital Shift Forum brings together colleagues from across the information, research, cultural and heritage communities, and third and commercial sectors, to discuss the future of the digital shift in collections, services, and audiences. The series aims to promote cross-sector discussion and debate, to enable knowledge exchange, and inspire collaborative endeavour across sectors and communities, for the benefit of RLUK members and the wider research and information management communities. 

Friday lunchtime lecture: Opening up the Science Museum Open Data Institute 

Museum collection catalogues are a perpetual work in progress. Over the years, they have evolved from straight-up inventory management to online publications with digitised images for all to see.

In early 2017 the Science Museum Group relaunched its online collection of digitised objects, under a Creative Commons licence via a public API. The museum hopes that the open data will be used in many ways. Researchers might use it to explore the collection using computation analysis, software programmers might use it to explore new interfaces and discovery tools for the collection, and creatives might use the data and images in their work.

This lecture will present the outcomes from a hack day held in February to bring together technologists, designers and creatives to experiment with how this open data could be used. The hack day was run as part of the museum’s Digital Lab initiative, supported by Samsung.

About the speakers John Stack is Digital Director of the Science Museum Group. He joined the group in 2015 and is responsible for setting and delivering the group’s digital strategy. Prior to joining the Science Museum Group, he was Head of Digital at Tate for ten years.

Dave Patten is Head of New Media at the Science Museum. He manages all aspects of new media from conceptual design to prototyping and production. He has a background in electronics and computer science, and has worked at the Science Museum for over 30 years.

Foundation Projects: Heritage Connector, Persistent Identifiers & Provisional Semantics

John Stack, “Machine Learning and Cultural Heritage: What Is It Good Enough For?”

Note: my research on women in brewing is ongoing, I’m writing a book, and these posts may be out of date. Please contact me at [email protected] if you have questions about women brewing in Oregon. ~Aug 3, 2021

I was feeling pretty proud of myself after the Wetterer / Kiefer posts, feeling like newspapers, combined with info from the Brewed in the Pacific NW and American Breweries books and my beagle nosed intuition I could pretty much do anything. 

I decided my next research subject would be a challenge, because clearly, I was up to it. 

Not to give away the ending, but challenges aren't always overcome.

When I first pulled out my copy of the Donald Bull, Manfred Friedrich, Robert Gottschalk American Breweries (1984) book I scanned all the entries for "Mrs" or a “feminine” sounding name. I was beside myself when I saw a reference to Mrs. F Kastner in Baker City.

Kastner & Lachner 1874-1877

N. Kastner 1877-1879

Mrs. F Kastner 1879-1880

John Stack 1880-1882

Kastner & Schlickeisen 1882-1884

I grabbed the 1976 Register of United States Breweries, 1876-1976 (also by Bull and Friedrich), which is a slightly more detailed review of breweries in America and I found that she is listed as the owner for the business when it closed.  

What did the Meier & Meier Brewed in the Pacific NW book say about Kastner?

Louis Kastner was working for FC Sel's brewery in Canyon City, a center for mining and trade. He decided to go into business on his own and secured a partner in Joseph Lachner; they called their business the Kastner & Lachner Brewery when it opened in 1872. Meier and Meier write that Kastner was outgoing and well-liked in the community, and he enjoyed having the only brewery in the district. In 1874, Henry Rust put a damper on that joy when he opened his own brewery, the Pacific Brewery. Competition was legendary, probably made more dramatic as the years and retellings have passed. 

In 1880, Kastner changed the name to City Brewery. The great ad war charged until 1885, when Kastner sold to Julius Lachs and William Widman (not what the 1984 American Breweries info says). Kastner moved to San Diego as an agent for the PDX based US Brewing Company, but he tired of California and eventually returned -- to be brew master for his old rival Henry Rust. As for his brewery, Lachs and Widman operated for 2 years and then closed up shop.

So no mention of the "Mrs."

Not one to be discouraged by an omission of info or the fact that I didn't have a first name for Mrs. Kastner, I decided to forge ahead.

But before forging, I decided to request the 1995 updated version of American Breweries, which presumably would include some new information. And so I waited for the Interlibrary Loan loan to arrive.

No, this isn’t what the courier van looks like, but I do love these pictures of forests and the CCC! This is “Forest Service truck at Oakridge Civilian Conservation Camp F25, Co. 943, Willamette National Forest, 1934″ 

Turned out that new information was less information. 

Undeterred I turned to the newspapers.

I found an 1873 note about building improvements http://bit.ly/2DLFE5x and another about serving "towns and mining camps."

Bedrock democrat., June 04, 1873, p3

And then in 1875, Louis Kastner went to Germany to get his "frau." This was it, I was certain that this was it. 

Bedrock democrat., May 05, 1875, p3  

Wait for it!

It wasn't. Nothing more about a wife. 

Later that year, Kastner dissolved his partnership with JM Lachner (Bedrock democrat, November 24, 1875, p3) and then in 1877 it seemed like Kastner was expanding as ground was broken on brewery.

The Eugene City guard., April 28, 1877, p1

Nothing about Mrs. Kastner. And really nothing more at all about the brewery save a reference in the 1881 Pacific Coast Directory to the Louis Kastner City Brewery. This directory does give us a sense of the variety of businesses in Baker City at the time. 

In 1898 a fire happened at the brewery in Baker City. Anything to do with Kastner? I don't know, but it doesn't seem like it. 

In 1902, E. Siber is reputed to be selling beer made in a modern plant (The Sumpter miner, July 23, 1902, p4) and in 1905 the East Oregonian reported that the brewery in Baker City is growing (October 06, 1905, p7). 

From the dates, I assume this isn't the Kastner brewery but Henry Rust’s. 

So what of his wife? Why is there a Mrs. mentioned as the owner in this one source for this one year. It's a bit of a mystery.

I checked the 1884 Sanborn maps for Baker City, and found a well-developed facility on the corner of Washington & Front. This was Rust's Pacific Brewery.

And on that same map, just on the edge of the Chinese Quarters there is a note for a "Small Brewery" on the corner of Auburn and Resort St.

What does this tell us? Probably not a lot, except that despite the competition between Rust and Kastner reported in the Brewed in the Pacific Northwest book, by 1884 there just isn't much to note about the Kastner brewery.

And what does that tell us about Mrs. Kastner? The frau who was fetched from Germany?

The Early Oregonian Search turned up nothing, so my next step has to be a call and visit to the Baker County Records office to see if there are any clues in probate records, census records, or any other vital statistics.

Sigh.

Sometimes even Wonder Woman's tiara slips or the beagle loses a scent and has to take a break.