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Serendipity is like the crack cocaine of research. It gives you a lasting high.
I remember well the first time I came to understand the term. It was 25 years ago. I was in graduate school, studying journalism at the University of Missouri. For a science writing class I had arranged to interview several researchers on campus who were studying different aspects of cystic fibrosis. It’s an insidious disease in which a faulty gene and its protein product cause the body to produce a tick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and impedes proper digestion. A pediatrician was working to improve clinical observations; a pair of biochemists hoped to develop a reliable diagnostic test for the disease; another researcher was studying glandular secretions in a rat model.
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I’m not the only one with a fixation on Eliza Scidmore. After I began researching her I met two other women equally fascinated by her remarkable life. Washington writer Ann McClellan learned a lot about Eliza while writing The Cherry Blossom Festival, published in 2005 as a souvenir book for the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Hearing about my project, a colleague in the Women’s History Discussion Group at the Library of Congress put me in touch with Ann, a friend of hers. Then earlier this year I met Andrea Zimmerman, soon after the launch of her children’s book Eliza’s Cherry…
Read MoreLast week I received an e-mail from a Japanese friend that made my day. The message had a photo attached. When I opened it, there was a picture of Eliza Scidmore’s gravesite in Yokohama! I knew from my reading that Scidmore was interred at the Foreign General Cemetery. But here was physical evidence of it — a key landmark. Because of Scidmore’s long ties to Japan, I’ll have to do some research there to investigate various strands of her life. In the meantime, I’m grateful to Miho Kinnas for serving as my eyes abroad. Miho and I met as writing…
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