On Wednesday, we will be traveling to the Brooklyn Historical Society to look at some of the archived materials in their collections. Please meet promptly at 11:30 or prior inside the Adams Street entrance to City Tech (near the entrance to the bookstore). We will leave from there and travel the short distance to the Brooklyn Historical Society at 128 Pierrepont Street at Clinton Street.
Before our visit to the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS), every student in our class needs to complete a survey. You can find the survey here. Follow the instructions on the site. If you have any questions or problems, please get in touch with me. You’ll do another survey at the end of the semester. It’s all to gauge how much you’ve learned at BHS.
To prepare, think about the following two questions:
Q: How does the “big guy” in “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” attempt to know Brooklyn?
Q: How have you gotten to know Brooklyn?
When we’re at BHS, I’ll ask you to think about getting to know Brooklyn:
Q: How can we get to know Brooklyn and Wolfe’s story through the archival materials at BHS?
You will work in groups to examine the materials at one of six stations.
Be prepared to photograph each piece and its citation–your phone’s camera is fine.
In your groups, you will discuss what you’re looking at, trying to identify elements from the story in your materials and to piece together an understanding of the area you’re looking at.
Your group will then share what you have discussed by presenting for 3-5 minutes total on some aspects of the following topics:
- What did you look at?
- What do you know about Brooklyn from each piece you didn’t know before?
- How does it represent aspects of “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn,” if it does? How is it different?
- What more do you want to know?
Each person needs to speak!
