NY Historical Society of Worthy Individuals

From the beginning of this class, I have to say that your (Professor Howard) obsession and near- idolization of librarians has made a strange impression on me. Mainly, because I never really realized the work that went into being a librarian, beyond knowing which aisle to go to for comedy and which for non-fiction, and therefore never gave them the respect they deserved (in my mind) . From the second you said you had a degree in "Library Sciences" I realized there was something I was missing. Now, after hearing the archival work and labor that goes into the life of a librarian, specifically someone who works at an institution as concerned with preserving the present and past as much as the New York Historical Society, I feel guilty for the lack of credit I have given them. Recently, as I go through my daily life and am constantly buying and throwing things away, I keep finding myself wondering which of these everyday items would be useful to save, maybe even preserve? What things that we use and take for granted will be able to give future generations insight into the lives of people in 2008. It's a really interesting and non-American (where everything is always concerned with the next thing to come) mindset to have, and I feel as though it would drive me insane to have to seriously consider these things for a profession.

The thing that really stood out to me about our visit to the NY Historical Society was the obsession with the wealthy citizens over the normal ones. It seemed as though it was far more important for historians of the time to record and report on the elite of society rather than the impoverished or even middle class. The two most obnoxious books that I can recall were the "Who's Who in America," essentially a list of people of some sort of stature in society in the early to mid-1900s, and the class favorite list of Wealth in New York, which actually listed off the net-worths of the richest people of the time. I was disgusted and fascinated by these collections in the best possible way.