Are We Not Men? (& Women?)

At 07:05 26-01-98 -0600, Brett <danjo(a)xnet.com> wrote: Me too. Hi Brett, An historian isn't always in it for the money IMHO. Often professional historians who work at museums, schools, libraries, etc. get paid towards the middle to low end of a typical salary range, depending upon the geographic region (unless those institutions are very well endowed financially). They are in it for the love of history: the challenge to learn more, to preserve history (artifacts and lore) and the belief that they help today's and future observers learn about and understand the past, whatever that specific subject matter may be. They are enthusiastic about their work. Then, on the other hand, some historians are known to be "paid authorities" or whatever and consider it just a job they intend to get paid for. An amateur historian, of which most of us reading this probably could consider themselves and if you may permit me to speak for you, is in it also for love of history for much of the same reasons as the enthusiastic paid historians I mentioned above. A collector could be an historian too, but may be defined as a more financially broke historian because of, simply, collecting artifacts! 8^) I fall in the range of being an historian and collector, e.g., I have a sometimes burning interest to learn more and document a thing or subject matter if it really piques my interest plus I have a considerable collection of equipment, mostly early radio receivers (broadcast, military, commercial), test equipment, parts and documentation. I also have a modest collection of classic computers with prime interest in the non-home type machines (for example: DG Nova 1200, IBM 9370, Heath H8 and H11, HP 250/30, HP 9000 stuff, Teletype equipment, etc., etc.) My paper library takes up a whole extra bedroom, mostly radio related material. And yes, Sam, this subject of discussing the term "computer historian" _is_ on topic ;-) Regards, Chris -- -- Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian Jamestown, NY USA Member of Antique Wireless Association URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/