Today was the first day the Woodson was open after our Christmas break. It’s great to be back, but we’ve received an almost overwhelming amount of material in the last few weeks and it’s very, very crazy. Very crazy. Crazy enough that you’d notice the difference. I also have several talks coming up fast that I have to get ready for. So I’m even busier than usual, but in a good way. Lots of new stuff to come.

But for today, I’m going back again to the map from the 1937 Owl:

This time I’m thinking about “Lovett’s Lake”–complete with the Queen Mary–just in front of the Administration Building. It’s not hard to  figure out what this is all about. Here’s a very early photo of this general spot, which I included as part of my dramatic “Drainage Series” from last year. It was taken in 1913 after a not particularly hard rain:

You can see the basic problem, but this picture really only hints at the kind of epic puddle that this landscape could produce when coupled with a good rain. Here’s a photo taken in the 1920s that illustrates what I mean:

Now that’s a puddle worthy of our respect.