#archivesyouarehere

[pogphotoarchives]

Women displaying map of New Mexico during Coronado Cuarto Centennial celebration, New Mexico Photographer: Harold Walter Date: 1940 Negative Number 051112

[fordlibrarymuseum]

This month’s Archives Hashtag Party celebrates cartography! The United States and Canada share the longest international border in the world, which isn’t very far from the Ford Library and Museum here in Michigan. For #ArchivesYouAreHere we’re highlighting geographic-themed gifts from Canada to the U.S. during the Ford administration.

President Ford had his first in-person meeting with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada at the White House on December 4, 1974. One of the gifts Prime Minister Trudeau presented was this copy of The National Atlas of Canada.

This certificate that accompanied the atlas notes that it was given “with all good wishes and in the expectation that a good neighbor will share Canadians’ pride in their country’s ever-changing profile.”

Prime Minister Trudeau was not the only Canadian official that President Ford met with during his time in office. Ambassador Jack Hamilton Warren presented this historical representation of the U.S. and Canada, "A New And Correct Map Of The British Colonies In North America," to the President along with his diplomatic credentials on July 14, 1975.

This map depicting parts of the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada had been published in 1794. President Ford sent a letter to Ambassador Warren thanking him for it, noting, “Our two nations share a common heritage and as a native of the State of Michigan, I have personally experienced the strong bonds of friendship uniting our peoples. Your framed gift will serve as a lasting reminder of this spirit of goodwill, and I deeply appreciate your thoughtfulness.”

The countries’ shared border served as the centerpiece for Canada’s Bicentennial present to the United States, a book entitled Between Friends/Entre Amis. Prime Minister Trudeau presented it to President Ford in the Rose Garden on June 16, 1976.

President Ford, holding the book Between Friends/Entre Amis, and Prime Minister Trudeau at the presentation ceremony, 6/16/1976 (White House Photograph B0244-12)

Between Friends/Entre Amis featured photographs taken on both sides of the international border. “People usually think of boundaries as dividing people,” Prime Minister Trudeau said in his remarks at the presentation. “In this case, we will see in pictures what everyone knows on your side and on our side of the boundary – that these boundaries don't divide us; they bring us together.”

Photographer and editor of Between Friends/Entre Amis Lorraine Monk looks through the book with President Ford and Prime Minister Trudeau in the Rose Garden, 6/16/1976 (White House Photograph B0244-17)

Lorraine Monk, a Canadian photographer known for her work chronicling life and culture in her country, edited the book. She attended the presentation as well and pointed out some of the images to President Ford and Prime Minister Trudeau.

[riversidearchives]

#ArchivesYouAreHere

“Los Angeles topographic sheet” c. 1904, Well survey for Los Angeles by Water Department of the City of Los Angeles Superintendent William Mulholland 

File Unit: Los Angeles County. Series: Hydrographic Survey Sheets, ca. 1894 - ca. 1934. Record Group 57: Records of the U.S. Geological Survey, 1839-1008. (National Archives Identifier 24746939).

[bmaatuga]

This 1930 scene in our Winthrop Family Home Movie Collection has always fascinated us. It was shot somewhere in #NYC and is part of a reel shot from a car driving all over the city.  What we really love on the reel is the few seconds of this bagel seller. The babushka, the wicker pram, the bagels stacked on sticks. It’s just got a poignant beauty to it.  But where was it filmed?  Since today is an #ArchivesHashtagDay, with the theme #ArchivesYouAreHere, we thought we’d answer that question at last, after getting help from colleagues in New York.

The home movie in question can be watched here: https://bmac.libs.uga.edu/pawtucket2/index.php/Detail/objects/39245  This scene shows up at 36:58 for just a few seconds.  So we see the men in the image driving around lower Manhattan, we see the Manhattan Bridge, and the area now known as DUMBO.

The location clues are: water, tugboats, a sign on the building that says something Steamboat Company and Coney Island and something, I passed the scene along to consulting archivist and friend, Susan Woodland, longtime resident of New York, who once worked very close to this area.  She recognized the building on the left as the old fire station on the pier at the corner of Battery Park, and says the building is still there. She adds, “The boats from Ellis Island would have left people off around there, and office workers from Wall Street would have been having lunch in the park, or perhaps grabbing a bagel before work? I wish there were much, much more footage of the bagel seller.” Me, too!

With this more pinpointed information, I found some older images of that pier online. This one shows someone else selling food from a cart, and the buildings are more elaborately decorated.

The Museum of the City of New York has even more photos: https://collections.mcny.org/CS.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UP1GROJE17V&SMLS=1&RW=1536&RH=722

This one from The New York Landmarks Conservancy gives a wonderful bird’s-eye view of the area:

An employee there confirmed that the building on the middle of this photo is the Iron Steamboat Company with service to Coney Island and Rockaway. It is “...today’s Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park, and consists of landfill taken from the World Trade Center site when Port Authority constructed the first building in the 1970s. The current waterfront does not reflect the configuration of the waterfront in the 1930s.  This area was also significantly reconfigured with the construction of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.”  She also very helpfully referred me to a book that gives some history of that boat service, Around Manhattan Island and Other Tales of Maritime NY Illustrated Edition by Brian J. Cudahay. It’s available online and I was able to read it full text thanks to the UGA Libraries.

The Mystic Seaport Museum has photographs documenting fire damage to the Iron Steamboat Company building in the 1920s, and its demolition in the 1960s.

You can see the area as it looks now, thanks to Google Maps:  https://goo.gl/maps/GcpVczbXzez1gLDA9  The pier building has been renovated into a restaurant, bar, and shops. The Gotham To Go website has terrific photos of the Pier A from all around and, even better, from above, and briefly tells its history: https://gothamtogo.com/a-look-back-at-the-renovation-of-historic-pier-a-in-battery-park-city/

It’s pretty glitzy now, but we still love the 1930 view, preserved on film in our archives. We are there! 

[riversidearchives]

#ArchivesYouAreHere

“Map Showing the Location of the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino and Town of Chino”, c.1891, Artesian Well Survey for Mr. Richard Gird. 

File Unit: San Bernardino County. Series: Hydrographic Survey Sheets, ca. 1894- ca. 1934. Record Group 57: Records of the U.S. Geological Survey, 1839-2008. (National Archives Identifier 24746954).

[riversidearchives]

#ArchivesYouAreHere

Figure 1 - View of Taurus-Littrow From Hi-Gate + 7 Seconds (End of Pitch Transient), 08/31/1972. From the Apollo 17 Mission.

Series: Astronaut Geology Education Files, ca. 1962 ca. 1975.  Record Group 57: Records of the U.S. Geological Survey, 1839-2008.  (National Archives Identifier 12012050).  

[steamship-historical-society]

We couldn't let the #ArchivesHashtagParty last only one day when there are so many fascinating ship history examples for #archivesyouarehere! This is an example of a ship cutaway, featuring the SS United States from a United States Lines brochure. Click the link in our bio and search "cutaway" to see other great examples that have been digitized. (Don't forget to check the box to only return items with images!) Image: Broadside cutaway illustration of the United States Lines ocean liner UNITED STATES, c.1952, Stephen Barrett Chase Collection, SSHSA Archives. (at The Steamship Historical Society of America) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMQCyLynC5A/?igshid=ntojjiyevj8v

[steamship-historical-society]

This month's #ArchivesHashtagParty with @usnatarchives is #archivesyouarehere! Have a look at these navigational tools from our collection. These objects are shared by the family of Helen and Henry Posner, Jr. and stewarded by SSHSA. We use these objects in our STEAM education program to teach students how to use visual thinking strategies for museum objects. You can view the lesson for grades K-12 and see more navigation equipment from the archives here: https://shiphistory.org/2017/09/26/visual-thinking-for-navigation-objects/ or click the link in our bio for lessons Check out our Virtual Museum exhibit for the Posner Collection that features more than just navigation equipment! This growing collection of paintings, half-models, and maritime artwork by noteworthy artists from the 19th and 20th centuries features new curatorial interpretation researched by SSHSA Board Member James Shuttleworth. https://www.sshsa.org/posner.html Images: Portable Ship’s Compass, Thaxter & Son. Victorian, mahogany case with hinged canted lid and glass brass bezel. This lifts to reveal compass within. Brass fittings, hinges, and bale handle. Pelorus, Bell metal and brass pelorus, a ship's navigational instrument, manufactured by Lionel in New York. (at The Steamship Historical Society of America) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMNBhKNnQ66/?igshid=ts7dz2h2nasn