Re: AIS: HIST: REF: Early Checklists

Anner has acccurately summerized the situation with the 1949 and 1939 Check Lists.
Another issue is that since those Check Lists and at several other times the way, and the amount of, and criteria for the information listed in a Check List entry has varied dramatically. The way information is interpreted in the 1939 Check List is really arcane. Bold letters, italics all have their individual meaning aside from the words themselves.
I am not an expert on the older checklists, more just a functionary that gets information from the Registrar and makes it available on the website. That has its own set of problems as well.
Another issue pertains to how hybridizer's names are entered. For instance: Schreiner, Schreiner's, Schreiners, Robert Schreiner, R. Schreiner, B. Schreiner, Granted some of this can be mitigated by the way you search, but other names are problematic (Married name vs maiden name for instance.
Mike Lowe (AIS Registrar) is slowly working through the existing database correcting things and will eventually get to the 1949 and 1939 lists.
I have always thought (hoped) that HIPS might be able to put together a project to help Mike in this regard. 


John



On Aug 1, 2007, at 9:43 AM, ChatOWhitehall@aol.com wrote:


In a message dated 8/1/2007 12:19:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
richter@eecs.berkeley.edu writes:
John, are there any plans for entering those checklists at some point?
I'd say that before the 1949 Check List got entered anywhere for wider public distribution, use, it needs to be cleaned up. Or a revised edition presented, which probably makes more sense. You'd want both to be available since the 
original is a primary document.
It was cobbled together in post-WWII conditions from incomplete materials, and while one is grateful for the efforts of those dedicated persons who did they best they could, it is known to be full of material that should be 
amplified and clarified by those in the know.
One area that is particularly vexatious is the matter of which cultivars were, and were not, not introduced. As introduction did not get noted for a lot 
of things, one must not draw too many conclusions about this from that
document. I thought someone was working on this project, but I have not heard anything about it recently, and I won't mention names for obvious reasons.
As for the 1939CL, it too has some errors, clerical, interpretive, and, frankly, other. Some of these are being clarified as researchers revisit some of the issues for which it is a major source. I was rather surprised at what sorts of very strange things I discovered when I worked on check list analysis 
issues  for my book on the Rev. C. S. Harrison.
I don't feel that in pointing out that the two older checklists are flawed 
one is being disagreeable or disloyal to AIS, but merely frank.
I'm working on a check list of selected bearded cultivars introduced to trade prior to 1940 and parties who are aware of specific errors in the 1939 Check List are invited, and, indeed, encouraged, to send that information to me 
privately.

Cordially,

Anner Whitehead
Richmond VA USA
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John                | "There be dragons here"
                         |  Annotation used by ancient cartographers
                         |  to indicate the edge of the known world.

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