ermir for nov. 10
The visit at the Brooklyn Historical Museum was informative. I am majoring in architecture and I was amazed by the maps they had at the Museum. When the curator showed us the historical atlases, I felt more comfortable than the rest of my fellow classmates and I jumped right in action, to figure out how the atlases worked, which they were not any different from sandborn. Some maps were in microfiche, and they were new to my vocabulary, something that I never knew about. For the first time in my life I got to use the microfiche scanner and the films. It looked very complicated at the first look but after you sat down in the chair and you start using it, you make it yours right away.
Another important feature they had in the museum were the records of lots and blocks of the city. They had dates from 17th century of landlords who bought or sold their properties. It was a great part of history because you would see and learn, how the legal letters where done back in the time. Also the values of the real estate of the time.
The BHS had more to offer but I am definitely going back to explore it more for this class and even for my future classes or projects.
That’s really neat that they have centuries-old information there on the real estate properties. I’m in the Camden class and did a project on Whitman’s “The First Spring Day on Chestnut Street” from his Specimen Days collection.
For research on Chestnut Street [actually in Philadelphia], I went to Temple University’s Urban Archives collection in Paley Library and found clippings of really old newspaper articles on all happenings related to Chestnut Street historically. It was quite worthwhile for relating the city to Whitman historically during Whitman’s years in Camden and around Philly. Hopefully, the BHS will be as useful for your Whitman work.
Comment by bmzreece — November 12, 2009 @ 2:15 pm
Thank you for the comment Brian!
I think BHS has a lot of very useful material. Whenever people propose to make a building Historical Landmark, to the City, they refer to the records of the BHS. Also Whitman lived and worked in known areas like Brooklyn Heights!
Comment by miri — November 12, 2009 @ 3:40 pm