NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY

I couldn't help but feel a connection to Nick's post on the New York Historical Society as I harkened back to my own frantic dash to 170 Central Park West the other day. Rising from the subway stairs just minutes before class was supposed to start, I had to sprint down 77th Street from Broadway in my winter coat and scarf. I could feel the sweat accumulating in the insulation of my coat and a cramp quickly forming on the left side of my abdomen, but I decided it was worth it for the sake of learning, or for the sake of not being marked absent. Luckily I made it to the Historical Society just in time to stamp my signature on the attendance sheet. Although I found the presentation given by the two excited young librarians interesting, I wasn't completely convinced that it was worth the sweat stains I had created in my new shirt. Pitty stains aside, I was really engaged by a couple of the items laid out for us on the table, especially the book listing all the people who had died of yellow fever. I found this book to be creepy, intriguing, and almost humorous in the way they had the book laid out. It was simply a book filled with pages and pages of dead people's names. No explanation of who they were or what they had accomplished in their lives or anything. Just lists of names. I'm sure there was an introduction in the first couple pages of the book, which I didn't look at, but I'm curious to see how it explains the purpose of its content. Would it have read something like, "If you're looking for baby names, we've got the book for you!" or "Always wondered if your neighbor really died of yellow fever? Well now you can look up their name in this edition of YELLOW FEVER, the EPIDEMIC! Great topic of gossip for your next dinner party." I can't imagine what would happen if a book like that came out today. I have a feeling "SARS AND THE DECEASED: A FULL LIST OF NAMES" would not review well.

I wonder what books and ephemera people in the future will be curiously looking at when we're long gone. This class has made me appreciate history in a new way. It's exciting.