While intensive programs such as Discover D.C. can provide a crash course in local history to large groups, on a more regular basis the Society’s Research Services Librarian, Laura Barry, works with individual professors to craft library orientations and research sessions that explore topics tied to specific syllabi.
This year the Society has welcomed several individual classes from George Washington University, American University, and the University of the District of Columbia, focusing on topics as wide-ranging as alley dwellings, Home Rule, Civil War hospitals, gentrification, and more.
On October 2, for example, first-years taking The George Washington University Professor Chrispher Sten’s “Writing on Washington” freshman seminar visited the Society. Having read Frederick Douglass and Walt Whitman’s work in class, the students delved into materials that illustrated how slavery and later the Civil War shaped the landscape of D.C.
The students read a letter from a Union soldier to his father about his time stationed at a hospital on Meridian Hill. They remarked that reading a novel for class was one thing, but seeing the archival evidence – such a ca. 1917 photograph of the former slave market in the 3100 block of O Street NW – made what they were learning come alive.
As part of these sessions, volunteer docents such as Canden Schwantes Arciniega and Nancy Schwartz provide guided tours to the Window to Washington exhibit, engaging the students in the evolution District’s built environment and sharing the stories behind the paintings, maps, photographs and other articles on display.
The visits, which require considerable staff resources to develop, also encourage students to cultivate an awareness of the nature of – and benefits of working with – special collections. By working with first-year students like Professor Sten’s class, the Society hopes to foster lifelong learning through hands-on research and access to unique resources, as well as promote the Kiplinger Research Library as a resource throughout the entire college experience.
