He Walked Out of 1940 and into the Library

June 21, 2013

Our senior director of Collections asked me once about
some of my gee whiz? moments here, which got me to thinking about the
interesting people I?ve encountered in my work. We?re always excited to share
our collections with book publishers, documentary producers and the public.

Last year, I really enjoyed being able to share photographs with the BBC
Scotland for a documentary they produced about Alexander Gardner, the Scottish
immigrant famed as one of the principal photographers of our Civil War. Books and
documentaries enable us to share history on a grand scale, but there are also
some small, almost private moments that I?ve been privileged to experience.

Many years ago, an elderly man came into the library and said he had seen a
picture of himself on the wall of a local restaurant; he wanted copies for his
children. After some searching, I found it. In the photograph, he was just
walking down the street with a small box in his hand. It turned out that he was
a jewelry engraver and was carrying something away from a store to his studio.
As I talked with him about the photograph I wondered what it felt like to find
oneself in the historical society. Over the years I?ve encountered a lot of
people who find themselves here in one way or another. I know I did.
_________________________________

Suzanne Hahn is director of reference services for the IHS Collections and Library. She loves helping people find the information they seek and is perhaps the only librarian ever to get shushed for laughing too loud in a library.

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