This Fall: the Jefferson Market Archive!

By Corinne Neary

From the archives – a child’s drawing of the library from the 40th Anniversary of the library!

This upcoming Fall is a highly anticipated time for us at Jefferson Market Library, as something we’ve been working towards will be coming to fruition. As regular readers will know, we have an extensive archive, one that has exponentially grown in the past couple of years as we unearthed some previously unseen files, and have had them professionally organized, or “archived” as we say. 

For some time now, these archives have been safely stored in archival boxes, awaiting their forever home. In the next few months, that home, a specially designed archives cabinet, will be constructed in our basement. Not only will it be beautiful, the cabinet will keep our archives safe, super organized (at the library, this is something we love) and most importantly, publicly accessible! 

To celebrate this development, we are working on a September exhibit which will showcase some lesser-known items from the archive, and we hope it will get people excited about using the archives for their own research. We have lots of information about the building before its current life as a library, as well as during the renovations, the library and garden in past decades, and a bit of neighborhood ephemera. 

For now, we thought we’d dip into some archival reader favorites: Jefferson Market Library reference questions from the past! This time, August of 1972. What were library users asking librarians about in the dog days of summer, 53 years ago? Here’s a sampling: 

• Is pilsner beer 12 percent alcohol?
• Pictures of Carmen Miranda
• Divorce laws
• How to make perfumes
• Definition of “Camp”
• Migrant labor
• History of Ouija board
• How to make various cocktails
• Termite control
• Where was Nathan Hale done in?
• Pictures of a crow
• Colleges in New York that offer phys. ed. curriculum

These reference questions were recorded in books by librarians after every patron interaction, and what you see above is exactly how they were jotted down. Stay tuned for more archive news, and as always, please check our website for upcoming programs!