BHS: The Experience

Brooklyn Historic Society lies on the corner of Pierrepont Street and Clinton Street in Brooklyn. As you reach it, you can see the architectural history of the building.  You can tell it’s a landmark, with its brick walls and arches over every door and high windows.  As I enter the Brooklyn Historic Society (BHS) its interior gave me the sense of its history. It has very high ceilings and a large staircase. After following the procedures to enter the library at BHS, I sat at a table with some other classmates of mine and I can see from my seat beautiful wood framing all around.  Large bookcases and columns that look as though they held up the ceilings. Two levels filled with books and boxes holding documents.  Everyone was split into groups according to the table you sat at.  My group had the opportunity to read a letter from a women name Lucille (Lucy) Kolkin to her husband Alfred (away at war) during World War II, supervised by my English professor, Professor Gold. The letter was written on August 06, 1944, 4 pages long. Before reading Lucy’s letter, Professor Gold had asked everyone in my group, “What questions come to mind, just by looking at this letter?”  One question that came to my mind was, “Why she using this stationary?” You could see that on the tops of each page, Lucy had cross out a name and wrote hers. I had then thought, “Maybe Lucy couldn’t afford stationary.” Another student had said, “Maybe it was around at the time and she didn’t want to lose her thought.”  Another thing I notice was that Lucy wrote her name on the tops of each page in print, while the rest of the letter was in cursive. Everyone took turns reading the letter.  Its hard to read someone else’s hand-writing but we used the context and together we figured out what was written. One student and I had the chance to touch the letter to flip the page, while it was our turn to read.  In the letter, Lucy tells Alfred (as she calls him, Al or Butch) that she filled out an application for a job in another Navy shipyard in California. (She worked at a Navy shipyard in Brooklyn.)  She talked about it being 150 miles from San Francisco, so she’ll be with him on the weekends. At this point, what came to mind was that Lucy is independent. She thought about getting a job before moving away, even with her husband. But Lucy still asked for Alfred’s opinion on it.  Lucy then went on to say “You should see Shelia now butch. Wotta baby!” I quickly wrote down in my notes, “whose Shelia?”  After reading the letter, Professor Gold had told the group to write down what we felt after reading the letter. I wrote that I felt like I was listening to a normal husband and wife having conservation about their day, like they would in person after work or during dinner. One kid said he felt as though he was intruding into someone personal conversation. At that time I told Professor Gold, “Its weird that we someone’s letter, you can image 100 years from now someone in the future can read over our conversations, emails and messages.”