I dont think we are going to have any trouble reaching 1000, even with Mr. Morrison's distracting retracted defamatory detractions.
Sorry guys, but I tried to thoroughly set out the way I see it, and I just dont have time to completely address every disagreement, especially since almost all the ground has been covered repeatedly. I will try to touch on the high points as time permits.
I am somewhat disappointed that we've fallen right back into a piecemeal discussion going in a million different directions, although I guess i am not surprised.
I don't see anyone minimizing or discounting those reports that Macdonald and Whigam visited Merion East. It's simply that they are not only vague, they are reports that are most minimal.
1. TEPaul, with all due respect you minimize the reports even in these two sentences. They weren't just reports that M&W visited, they are reports that they visited, pronounced the site fit, aided the committee, and were of great assistance to the committee. You also dismiss them as vague and minimal even though these may well very be the only contemporaneous accounts we have.
2. You also speculate that Wilson would have credited MacDonald had CBM done anything specific in the design. I understand your reasoning, but think you may be reading far too much into what you see as an omission. After all, ou have pointed out in the past that this report does not go into a description of the initial design of Merion at all, so I think it unreasonable to expect Wilson to have covered CBM's role in the design. Don't you even have an example of him editing out something because it was veering too far away from the topic?
Plus, by attaching special significance to the absence of a Wilson statement, you ignore the affirmative statements of Tillinghast, Travis, and Lesley.
As this thread demonstrates, it always precarious to place special significance on the absence of information. For example, Wilson apparently doesn't cover anything about what he specifically learned in Europe either, but I am sure you would be uncomfortable if I cited this omission to support a conclusion that Wilson learned nothing in Europe.
As for the significance you place on the use of the "our" in this 1915 report, I think you are stretching more than a bit. First, I am not sure he is referring to. Second, it was the committee's problem no matter who helped with the design.
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As far as I can tell,
these two points (the "our problem" point, and the 'Wilson didnt specifically mention it' point) are the only evidence you have that CBM was NOT significantly involved in the design.
I don't think these two points even come close to invalidating the information I posted above.