Archival Investigations with Jenny

When Jenny the archivist for Parson's came to our Seminar class, she discussed firstly what archives were and how to identify primary sources.  Primary sources consist of the following:

• digital/ PDFs
• albums/ photos
• sketches/ garments
• notes

These can be found through a database or a collection at different places both tangible or in online form. There are many places that have archives in these forms, this includes:

• Business'/corporate
• Universities
• City of New York
• Federal Government
• Brooklyn Public Library- Brooklyn Collection
• Brooklyn College
• Interdependent Community Archives - interference archive
• Brooklyn Historical Museum

Jenny was helpful in giving us places to look at that worked with our final project in studio and seminar.  My group looked at a photo album that carried photos of visual displays on 5th Avenue for a department store. We noted the dates that took course over a year, and did enough investigation to find that the curator changed the displays every two weeks on a Tuesday. We also interpreted that these photos came from around the "Mad Men" era, and displayed only women which we suspected was the store's intention to attract females to buy the latest trends. I was surprised to find that archives were as interesting as they were! It allows you to act as a mini detective and interpret the stories of people and their cultures until you have enough pieces to answer your intended question. If I were able to choose a topic of interest in archives, I would choose a topic of mystery and murder. Perhaps, of how many dead bodies have been unidentified and found in NYC apartment buildings when new tenants move in. It sounds creepy, as well as intriguing!