Wednesday, June 10, 2015

American Jewish Archives

I've been corresponding (by email and phone) with a senior archivist at the American Jewish Archives.  I am giving them some of my work so others can use it.  Of course, I talk up Maier Zunder's scrapbook, send him some images.  They're interested.  Wanted 'the scans'.  Um, I am realizing that we really indulged in amateur archivism.  There aren't any scans; we took photos.  With my brother's tripod at a table in the center area of the Ethnic Heritage Center.  The images include our gloved fingers and sometimes rulers used to keep the documents flat.  Sometimes took more than one image of a page if articles were folded up or there was some document with more than one page.  Dennis concatenated the images into two big .pdf files which we put on a DVD for Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven.  And then the paper version in a binder with the German translations interspersed.

I called the archivist, he said he would like the paper version (!).  Surprised me.  I can do it, I can make a copy of the binder I have and make a copy for him.

Hmmm, they have some research fellowships and they consider independent scholars. Could be something for the future.  It could happen.

A picture of their reading room in Cincinnati.

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