Week Thirteen: "Clickbait"

Hello, reader! This week, you may notice that the Michael Gladden Jr. Digital Archive looks a bit different. This is because I purchased a domain for it at last! The primary reason I decided to self-fund the Michael Gladden Jr. Digital Archive is to have more storage. Admittedly, with the number of artifacts currently hosted on the website, I was running out of room to add more. With the free plan, I most likely would have been capped at 150 object pages. With my current domain plan, I can add around 500 individual artifact pages to the archive's collections! I look forward to the fact that I will be able to continue my work past the end of my internship this Spring semester, thankfully going forward with less anxiety over file size and not being able to fulfill my desired objectives. The plan I currently have is for one year, which gives me plenty of time to search for funding going forward in order to maintain the archive long-term and eventually expand.

"To Our Credit Customers" Store Receipt, c. 1924.

Other changes I made to the Michael Gladden Jr. Digital Archive this week are the additions of a short informational page on Marie Stapler Gladden, which is now linked to the corresponding section on the home page. In the future, I plan on linking more informational media to both Michael and Marie Gladden’s biographies to supplement the information provided. Alongside my work on Mrs. Gladden’s page, I also constructed an acknowledgments section to properly dedicate the archive to Ms. Boykin and list everyone who has helped support my work in the year I have worked on this project, championing Mr. Gladden’s life’s work in the process of helping me to preserve his legacy. Over on the Gladden Collection side of the website, I reached 120 object pages this week! Going through my existing scans from Gladden Binder #1, I focused on adding more to the Safekeeping Receipt Collection. New additions to the collection include a one-of-one message printed on the back of a standard M. Gladden Staple and Fancy Groceries receipt. The printed text addresses Mr. Gladden’s credit customers, whose receipts vary from the safekeeping receipts due to the presence of Mr. Gladden’s signature, “Paid in full” designation. For the sake of its historical value, I decided to include it in the safekeeping collection because it speaks to the trust between Mr. Gladden and his community, and his customers' commitment to honoring their debts to him.

Michael Gladden Jr.'s will, courtesy of Ms. Francina Boykin.

Last but not least, an exciting discovery was made this week of Michael Gladden Jr.’s last will and testament! Ms. Boykin texted me this week that she was going through a container containing William Gladden Jr.’s old photos from his time in the Navy during the Korean War. Rather unexpectedly, she found Mr. Gladden’s will underneath them! As you may be able to read in the photograph provided by Ms. Boykin, the will is partially written in Mr. Gladden’s hand and is dated to April 1st, 1948. The will notably names Mr. Gladden’s wife, Marie Stapler Gladden, to receive all of Mr. Gladden’s personal and real property. Mr. Gladden intended for Mrs. Gladden to support his mother, Elizabeth “Bessie” Gladden, his brother, William Gladden Sr., and his children. Unsurprisingly, Joseph Cauley, Mr. Gladden’s “friend and longtime helper,” is also mentioned. Though Mr. Cauley passed away in 1961, this artifact is truly a “testament” in all senses of the word to Mr. Gladden’s devotion to his loved ones. I look forward to scanning this artifact very soon. More to come next week, reader! See you next time!