Our class went to visit the Brooklyn Historical Society last Tuesday. Although the library was closed that day our tour guide was eager to help in any way she could. Our goal here was to gather as much information as we possibly could about a specific address that we chose, that relates to a place Walt Whitman may have been throughout his lifetime. Some of these address incorporated a specific place along with a number attached. The other addresses, including mine only had the cross streets and the avenues, making it a much more difficult task. There were both positive and negative aspects in dealing with my research.
On the positive side, our tour guide was an essential asset in helping all the confused students who never been introduced to a place like this, find the addresses. At the Historical Society, we came across a room full of atlases, land conveyances, directories, scrapbooks and regular books that revealed a lot of information about the past, dating back from 1699 to 1960. It seemed so unusual that there was a place like this so close to my school that showed various ways of obtaining information about the past. We take so much for granted, especially now, and do not take the time out to explore what our city has to offer. Even having a lot of resources at hand, I struggled most of the time finding useful information about my address.
My address was left without a number so I was unable to find any information throughout the two hours we were at the Historical Society. I looked through the atlases first and found the possible cross streets of my address. Then, I tried to look at the directories and scrapbooks and I did not find any helpful information. This was why the process of finding the data about my specific address was unsuccessful for that day.
Overall, this field trip to the Brooklyn Historical Society was not very successful. It helps a lot if you have a lot of information to work with even before you start research. Since I was lacking part of the key information that needed to be gathered, my experience of trying to find the actual location did not go well. It became frustrating after I looked several times at the directories, and atlases. As soon as I was on the verge of discovering something new about this address, there was no more time left to record my findings. Well maybe next time.