Subject was located in three separate outdoor settings during the May–June observation period. Subject made no attempt to alter route or appearance. Wind and light conditions noted on plate margins. Subject continues to refuse photographic sittings indoors and prefers to be observed during walks between archives and residence. The following plates are filed under FR-0612 OUTDOOR SURVEY.

PLATE B-1FR-1

field exposure 1, mid-light

PLATE B-2FR-2

field exposure 2, mid-light

PLATE B-3FR-3

field exposure 3, mid-light

Note from agent: subject carries a single folder and a clothbound notebook. Observed muttering of place-names: Westmoreland, Trelawny, St. Ann. Recommend that further outdoor observation be limited; subject is unlikely to alter his routes and the documentary value of additional open-air plates is now low.

Inspector entered subject's working room with permission. Room contains: one long table, two glass-fronted cabinets, several boxes of photocopied estate papers, three card indexes (slip-cards, hand-written), a small wooden box marked T71/910–T71/920, and a glass jar of pencils worn to short stubs. No chairs in the room are matched. Subject states he prefers the table because it allows him to lay out compensation files alongside parish registers and attorney letters at the same time.

PLATE C-1INT-1

working table, day 1

PLATE C-2INT-2

working table, day 2

Subject keeps two notebooks open simultaneously. The first contains a name index. The second contains marginal arguments: places where the index is suspected to be wrong. Subject volunteered that “the second notebook is the real one,” and asked the inspector not to record the names listed there. Compliance noted.

Subject was recorded in five separate sittings, on consecutive afternoons, at the long table in the working room. Subject preferred a single chair, faced east, and refused tea. The following plates are filed in order of recording. Subject answered questions slowly; long pauses removed from transcript by request.

PLATE D-1SIT-1

sitting 1

PLATE D-2SIT-2

sitting 2

PLATE D-3SIT-3

sitting 3

PLATE D-4SIT-4

sitting 4

PLATE D-5SIT-5

sitting 5

Subject attended a small book signing for his monograph Following Names: Compensation Files and the Long Tail of the British Caribbean (University of Otago Press). Audience approximately thirty. Subject signed copies without inscriptions and declined to read aloud. Photographs were permitted at the press table only.

PLATE E-1PR-1

press table, plate 1

PLATE E-2PR-2

press table, plate 2

Quoted, on the record: “The book is not a conclusion. It is a record of what was followable, by me, with the records I had, on the days I had them.” Press liaison notes that this remark was made twice, identically, suggesting it has been prepared in advance.

Subject delivered three guest lectures in the spring term: Plantation Records and the Limits of Restitution (October 12), Reading the T71 Series Against Itself (November 02), and Compensation, Naming, Forgetting (November 21). All three were recorded from the back of the hall. Subject did not use slides. Subject read from a small black notebook.

PLATE F-1LEC-1

lecture 1, back of hall

PLATE F-2LEC-2

lecture 2, back of hall

PLATE F-3LEC-3

lecture 3, back of hall

Excerpt, AR-1118.02 (November 02): “The T71 series was assembled to settle compensation. It was not assembled to remember. If you read it for memory you have to read it slowly, against itself, and you have to be willing to file a name and then unfile it when the next document arrives. Most names in this series get filed and unfiled several times before they settle. Some never settle. Both outcomes are legitimate, and neither is satisfying.”

Subject attended fourteen recorded professional gatherings across the year, including the Australasian Archival Conference (Adelaide), the Caribbean Plantation History Roundtable (Bridgetown, by remote), the New Zealand Historical Association annual meeting (Christchurch), the Legacies of British Slavery year-end review (London, by remote), and several smaller departmental seminars in Dunedin and Wellington. Subject did not present at all of them. Subject did not decline a single invitation.

P-1EV-1

gathering 1

P-2EV-2

gathering 2

P-3EV-3

gathering 3

P-4EV-4

gathering 4

P-5EV-5

gathering 5

P-6EV-6

gathering 6

P-7EV-7

gathering 7

P-8EV-8

gathering 8

P-9EV-9

gathering 9

P-10EV-10

gathering 10

P-11EV-11

gathering 11

P-12EV-12

gathering 12

P-13EV-13

gathering 13

P-14EV-14

gathering 14

Subject is observed in conversation more often than presenting. Subject takes notes on the inside cover of his programme rather than on standard conference paper. Three colleagues independently report that subject is “the person you want to send a difficult name to.”

Subject's working principle, recorded verbatim: “The archive is not for satisfaction. The archive is for the next person who arrives, with a slightly different question, and a slightly better light.”