How to tame an opossum…and other childhood preoccupations through the Barnard children’s letters

Processing collections according to updated archival standards gives RBML archivists the opportunity to discover anew our collections. In this post, Processing Archivist Celeste Brewer offers us insights into the practice of children writing letters during the Civil War-era. Historians typically foreground the writings and papers of “Great Men,” but as Celeste notes, paying attention to […]

Read More…

Researching Poor Children and Society: The New York Juvenile Asylum Records

Catherine Carson Ricciardi Archivist Since the New York Juvenile Asylum (NYJA) records were processed two years ago, the RBML has received many inquiries.  In handling these queries, I’ve become quite familiar with this collection and its wealth of information. While many inquiries come from genealogists, the records also provide primary source material for historians interested […]

Read More…