Photo op! Me "hard at work" on a letter. The binders next to and below the fax machine contain the 400-450 letters and letter fragments -- color-coded, numbered, and placed in mylar protectors -- written by Marie Bloch and her mother between 1884 and 1888. Marie, seen with her future husband on the photograph to my right, was at the time working as a governess in the home of relatives, a German-Jewish merchant family in Constantinople. Her mother, Regine, was in Pforzheim, Germany, where the family was involved in the jewelry trade. Marie emigrated to the United States in 1906.

You can also see part of my large collection of reference materials and dictionaries, including a 17-volume 1897 Meyers Konversations-Lexikon and an 1899 Andrees Handatlas. In this photograph, I am dictating my translation with Dragon Systems Naturally Speaking. This allows me to use my hands to rove around the letter with the magnifier. Letters are propped up on my dictionary.

Clearly, some people see my work differently: Mini Translator??!!