About Watson’s Tin Box
Watson’s Tin Box of Ellicott City, a scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars, is a literary society focused on the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Watson’s Tin Box was founded in 1990 and holds monthly dinner meetings, at which approximately 20 to 30 Tin Box members discuss a Sherlock Holmes story. At most gatherings, a member presents a scholarly paper or some other type of presentation, or entertainment that raises issues, elucidates various facts, or finds some diversion or amusement relating to one or more stories. Tin Box members include educators, students, published authors, health care professionals, tradespeople, business people, government employees, and retirees.
Watson’s Tin Box members are committed to encouraging others, especially children and young people, to read the Sherlock Holmes stories for entertainment as well as for historical and literary pursuits. One presentation made by the group at Howard County Library is “Sherlock Holmes as Cultural Icon,” during which the point is made that even those who never read a Sherlock Holmes story know his name and recognize the silhouette or figure of the man in a deerstalker cap with a pipe or a magnifying glass. As critical thinking and light-hearted fun have always been hallmarks of Sherlockian literary societies, Watson’s Tin Box attempts to present the character behind the icon through education and entertainment.
To that end, Watson’s Tin Box has enjoyed a collaboration with Howard County Library since 2003. Tin Box members have provided Sherlock Holmes-related items for displays at all six Howard County Library branches, presented children’s events for the Summer Reading Club, co-hosted (with Howard County Library) “Dinner and a Mystery with Sherlock Holmes” for adults, assisted with “solve-a-mystery” lock-ins for middle schoolers, and in the 2008/2009 school year Watson’s Tin Box celebrates the fifth annual Sherlock Holmes Essay Contest for Howard County seventh grade students.
Funding for Watson’s Tin Box educational programs is provided by Watson’s Tin Box members.
For more information about Watson’s Tin Box, visit watsonstinbox.org.