Re: Early Friday FunnyI got depressed in the early 1990s when I told a co-worker my age that the town I lived in (i.e. Greenbelt, MD) had a WPA stone mural at the elementary school and my co-worker looked at me blankly and said, "What's a WPA?" So, I guess, in retrospect, that that's not too bad, that he didn't know about an organization that was fifty-sixty years young and maybe he was not interested in or had not studied modern American history, but, at the time, I was pretty surprised by his lack of knowledge.
I am reminded of another story of a similar nature from the time when I was talking with a person who worked at the Congressional Research Service. I asked him what his most unusual reference request was that came from a member of Congress. He told me that it was from a congressman (or maybe from a member of his/her staff) who wanted to know what Abraham Lincoln did during his retirement (?!). THE CRS person swore to me that this had really happened but that he could not tell me who it was that asked him this for reasons of confidentiality, which makes sense. Imagine the fall-out if it got out that Congressman X didn't know/remember that Lincoln had been assassinated.....
Aaron T. Kornblum, Archivist
Western Jewish History Center
Judah L. Magnes Museum
2911 Russell Street
Berkeley, CA 94705
Email: [log in to unmask]
Tel: 510 549 6950 x356
Fax: 510 849 3673
http://www.magnes.org (Judah L. Magnes Museum webpage)
http://magnes.org/collections/wjhc.html (Western's webpage)
Please visit the Western Jewish History Center and the Judah L. Magnes Museum online to see a listing and description of our current exhibitions and public programs!
----- Original Message -----
From: Bart Ryckbosch
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 8:32 AM
Subject: Re: Early Friday Funny
I recently received a telephone request form a patron wondering if we had any "archives of prehistoric artists". I pointed out (admittedly with a grin on my face) that archival holdings of papers by prehistoric artists tend to be scarce, since they would by definition predate the written word. Dead silence on the other end for a minute. Of course some books in the library on the subject of the Venus of Willendorf, cave paintings in Lascaux and Altamira, etc. more than covered what the patron was looking for and everyone was happy in the end. First time for everything;-)
Bart
I recently asked a group of 5 or so work study students if they know who Dan Quayle is and got only blank, deer-in-the-headlights stares from all of them.
--Maria
--
signature Maria L. Morelli
Archivist
Boston University
Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center
771 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
Phone: (617) 353-3696
Fax: (617) 353-2838
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--
Bart H. Ryckbosch
Archivist
The Art Institute of Chicago
111 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60603
Tel:(312)443-4777
Fax:(312)443-0849
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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org.
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