Flailing through the Archives

I just started my internship at the Carnegie Public Library Oliver Room as the lone processing intern, under the direction of Greg Priore. It was pretty quiet last week, but next week there is a researcher coming in, while I’ll be in the midst of finishing the processing of a collection.

I’m currently working on the Department of Public Works for the City of Allegheny Files from 1890ish to 1913. Most of the files are concerned with the running of the Carnegie Free Library which was later made into a regular Pittsburgh library system library in 1956.

I’m loving every minute of it. And it’s because you can see glimpses of stories. Not the whole story, but bits and pieces. Reoccurring names of librarians and clerks, knowing where they lived and what they were paid.  It makes them tangible in a sense.

Which brings me to the other thing: Everyone should read “Into the Tunnel.” It’s one of the best books of it’s type. It’s not long, it’s not terribly dense, but it is haunting in its description of the details of Marion Samuel’s life before she died at Auschwitz-Birkenau. She has a prize named after her and was virtually anonymous until this book. Based on documentation about her parents and relatives and some school records, this is a touching and sparse account of one young girl’s life in Nazi Germany.

Stories like this are part of the reason I started being interested in Archives in the first place. Real stories are often more interesting.