This is so interesting Liza! I hope someone preserves them for all posterity. I feel the loss of letters written, thinking of how we used them in the past to understand people and their lives. What will we leave for the future generations to help them understand us, when all we do and think vanishes?
Where do I get my news? I read a lot, enjoy receiving news and information this way. NYTimes, WaPo, SF Chronicle, local news via Berkeleyside and Berkeley Scanner, and several Substack writers: Robert Hubble, Robert Reich, HCR, Jay Kuo (Status Kuo), Joyce Vance, Simon Rosenberg, the Weather Channel. Interested to see how others put the world together . . .
My staff find it quaint that I keep paper copies of certain things in binders - and in manila folders in filing cabinets. But, then when someone asks a question about something that cannot be pulled up on a phone from google, and I emerge with a paper copy of a subdivision plat, or watershed map that's 3' x 4' in size, they are happy for the information, even if it is cumbersome.
There is a manufacturing plant built in 1883 about a mile from my home in Harvard, IL. The owner has all of the patent books for the thousands of patents that the company received over more than 100 years of operation. He has a special spot for them - there must be over 100 books. I wonder what will happen to them when he passes away?
Did the New Yorker throw out all of the binders? Or at least recycle them? :(
Yo, Donnelly, the Fairy tale v. Fox News is hilarious. The Taylor-Swift-Pentagon-Super-Bowl-deep-state-Biden conspiracy goes beyond fairies into the realm of hallucinogenics. Deliver us…
I love your musings Liza; I learn so much from you, so you are one of the places I get my news! I also read the NYTimes, WaPo, Joyce Vance, Heather Cox Richardson, and random other articles if there is something of interest. I used to read the local newspapers in the various places I have lived, but now I subscribe to independent outlets like CityBlock and the Reader in Chicago.
Those are precious binders! Liza - Is it possible that they are to be digitally preserved? (One of my son’s intern jobs when he was at college was scanning and uploading the photo library of a major newspaper in Philadelphia). (I assumed it was grant funded)
I do love the cartoon - horror fantasy if it’s Fox, no doubt. As for us, we do not watch them, having low idiot thresholds, but do watch major news networks (CBS largely) but also BBC for world news. (Also being dinosaurs subscribe to 3 newspaper.)
That's a good idea to digitally preserve them. Our daughter also had a job just out of college that was in a digital archive company, doing just that for companies, individuals. She worked on Helen Keller's letters! We watch CNN primiarily, and get the NYTimes paper (although I really only read it digially). And the Wapo, Newyorker...
That’s incredible - Helen Keller! Wow. And yes! The technology to scan, preserve, and share the contents of those binders is there. Having for a few years spent writing grant applications, this seems like it would be one of those projects that’s a natural. Art/history/humor/politics/nyer. I hope someone does it if not already in the works.
Same papers as you (wapo, nyt digital - except for Sunday nyt) but also Philadelphia’s Inquirer. We can’t wean ourselves from a life time habit..
You’d know better than I who (no comparison intenddd) you might partner with to accomplish that - I’d imagine CCNY or NYU might be interested partners to collaborate with to assist you in preserving those treasures. Just a thought
A good thought. If they let us have them (which is unlikely), that's a good suggestion. The NYPL has the Nyer's archives, I wonder if they would take them. But none of this is up to me!
The downside of our all on-line world is that something as simple as scrapbooking cartoons can require more curation effort. Paper is relatively inexpensive, relatively durable, easy to handle and store and simple to search when organized this way. Digital is essentially free, but surprisingly perishable and searches by visual memory of something you’ve seen isn’t as easy as flipping pages. The biggest problem is overcoming the lower degree of emotional attachment by curators of digital treasure compared to tangible tokens.
Lovely discussions. I spent years putting together a national history of what we would call "disability activism" today. I centered on 1850 - 1950 the very years most historians/writers have slighted or ignored.
But people with differences have been organizing since they began to meet in cities, sites of employment and schools--determined to build lives of equal rights. Helen Keller, was a brilliant socialist/freedom fighter. Many Deaf leaders fought wary employers to hire Deaf workers and many hearing educators to promote their beloved sign language.
All groups of peoples have come together and fought for rights and freedom--including Liza's beloved women illustrators!
OK. You made me LOL with this Fox News one. Very clever. As for the binders, too bad they can't get a volunteer or intern to continue creating the binders. Such a history of the art. I do hope they preserve them. I listen to the news on public radio, read news outlets, and watch only a smidgeon of TV news now and again, as it interferes with my digestion.
Ha! You and Mitt Romney and your binders of women! I love LOVE archive work, though I don't do it any more. Gotta tell you this story: while in NYC on business many years ago, I dropped into the Columbia Univ. archives. I was mainly looking to get for my wife Linda photos of Stephen Crane's 2nd-to-last girlfriend, Amy Leslie, who was a terrific soprano, decent enough actress, and later a drama critic -- she was also a couple of decades older than him, but she had a much better smile. ANYWAY, while I'm in there I see W., probably the most accomplished Crane historian. He was working on something else that day, and he asked what I was doing there; when I told him, he replied: "You're wasting your time. There are no pictures of Amy Leslie here." When I actually got my hands on therm, I made two copies, one for my beloved boss Linda, and one for W. He wasn't at his seat when I came by, but his stuff was still there, so I left the photocopies on the table for him. A stronger statement, I felt, them throwing them in his face. As for news sources, my wife and closest friends are all kind of news hounds, so I myself just track CNN during the day, the latest NY Times front page and opinion sections once a day, watch NBC Nightly News most of the time, and check out what my circle is sharing, and I also am on Twitter/X, where I often get news first. And most of the people I'm linked with don't make stuff up.
It used to be that respect was earned and everybody understood the transaction. But these days it feels like respect has become a dirty word. A lovely thoughtful post, Liza. Thank you.
We always find perspective and strength in learning about the strengths of others. My dad was suddenly paralyzed after serving in WWII combat and he relearned to walk--over 1 year. He said little kids with polio gave him strength. Leah Penniman of Soulfire Farm, NY, (You must go there this spring--smile) recounts how slaves, when leaving the continent, would hide rice in their hair: as a source of food and moral strength in the uncertain future. Read Wilkerson's "The Warmth of Other Suns," or Payne's "I've Got the Light of Freedom..." Black women and, yes, women who illustrated and saw the world anew--your wonderful artisitic leaders. Oh wait: look at your own work!!!! Smile.
Thanks for showing us the binders - I must admit to loving all NYer history!
So glad you enjoyed!
What a wonderful place to hangout. Hours. I love your Fox cartoon.
Thanks!
This is so interesting Liza! I hope someone preserves them for all posterity. I feel the loss of letters written, thinking of how we used them in the past to understand people and their lives. What will we leave for the future generations to help them understand us, when all we do and think vanishes?
I hear you. It will be all in emails....
Where do I get my news? I read a lot, enjoy receiving news and information this way. NYTimes, WaPo, SF Chronicle, local news via Berkeleyside and Berkeley Scanner, and several Substack writers: Robert Hubble, Robert Reich, HCR, Jay Kuo (Status Kuo), Joyce Vance, Simon Rosenberg, the Weather Channel. Interested to see how others put the world together . . .
My staff find it quaint that I keep paper copies of certain things in binders - and in manila folders in filing cabinets. But, then when someone asks a question about something that cannot be pulled up on a phone from google, and I emerge with a paper copy of a subdivision plat, or watershed map that's 3' x 4' in size, they are happy for the information, even if it is cumbersome.
There is a manufacturing plant built in 1883 about a mile from my home in Harvard, IL. The owner has all of the patent books for the thousands of patents that the company received over more than 100 years of operation. He has a special spot for them - there must be over 100 books. I wonder what will happen to them when he passes away?
Did the New Yorker throw out all of the binders? Or at least recycle them? :(
Lisa, that's so interesting. I don't think The New Yorker has thrown them out, I hope not!
Yo, Donnelly, the Fairy tale v. Fox News is hilarious. The Taylor-Swift-Pentagon-Super-Bowl-deep-state-Biden conspiracy goes beyond fairies into the realm of hallucinogenics. Deliver us…
Thanks Patrick. I know. Crazy times....
I love your musings Liza; I learn so much from you, so you are one of the places I get my news! I also read the NYTimes, WaPo, Joyce Vance, Heather Cox Richardson, and random other articles if there is something of interest. I used to read the local newspapers in the various places I have lived, but now I subscribe to independent outlets like CityBlock and the Reader in Chicago.
I'm honored! Thank you for putting me in that company.
I love the cartoon, but for a second, it made me feel a little bit sick, then I caught the humor and laughed. Amazing archives.
Those are precious binders! Liza - Is it possible that they are to be digitally preserved? (One of my son’s intern jobs when he was at college was scanning and uploading the photo library of a major newspaper in Philadelphia). (I assumed it was grant funded)
I do love the cartoon - horror fantasy if it’s Fox, no doubt. As for us, we do not watch them, having low idiot thresholds, but do watch major news networks (CBS largely) but also BBC for world news. (Also being dinosaurs subscribe to 3 newspaper.)
That's a good idea to digitally preserve them. Our daughter also had a job just out of college that was in a digital archive company, doing just that for companies, individuals. She worked on Helen Keller's letters! We watch CNN primiarily, and get the NYTimes paper (although I really only read it digially). And the Wapo, Newyorker...
That’s incredible - Helen Keller! Wow. And yes! The technology to scan, preserve, and share the contents of those binders is there. Having for a few years spent writing grant applications, this seems like it would be one of those projects that’s a natural. Art/history/humor/politics/nyer. I hope someone does it if not already in the works.
Same papers as you (wapo, nyt digital - except for Sunday nyt) but also Philadelphia’s Inquirer. We can’t wean ourselves from a life time habit..
Thanks, Patris. Michael and I sort of want to take the binders! We have a collection of New Yorker memorabilia....
You’d know better than I who (no comparison intenddd) you might partner with to accomplish that - I’d imagine CCNY or NYU might be interested partners to collaborate with to assist you in preserving those treasures. Just a thought
A good thought. If they let us have them (which is unlikely), that's a good suggestion. The NYPL has the Nyer's archives, I wonder if they would take them. But none of this is up to me!
The downside of our all on-line world is that something as simple as scrapbooking cartoons can require more curation effort. Paper is relatively inexpensive, relatively durable, easy to handle and store and simple to search when organized this way. Digital is essentially free, but surprisingly perishable and searches by visual memory of something you’ve seen isn’t as easy as flipping pages. The biggest problem is overcoming the lower degree of emotional attachment by curators of digital treasure compared to tangible tokens.
Lovely discussions. I spent years putting together a national history of what we would call "disability activism" today. I centered on 1850 - 1950 the very years most historians/writers have slighted or ignored.
But people with differences have been organizing since they began to meet in cities, sites of employment and schools--determined to build lives of equal rights. Helen Keller, was a brilliant socialist/freedom fighter. Many Deaf leaders fought wary employers to hire Deaf workers and many hearing educators to promote their beloved sign language.
All groups of peoples have come together and fought for rights and freedom--including Liza's beloved women illustrators!
Yes! Thank you, bob. So many keep trying, it gives us hope, right?
OK. You made me LOL with this Fox News one. Very clever. As for the binders, too bad they can't get a volunteer or intern to continue creating the binders. Such a history of the art. I do hope they preserve them. I listen to the news on public radio, read news outlets, and watch only a smidgeon of TV news now and again, as it interferes with my digestion.
Ha! You and Mitt Romney and your binders of women! I love LOVE archive work, though I don't do it any more. Gotta tell you this story: while in NYC on business many years ago, I dropped into the Columbia Univ. archives. I was mainly looking to get for my wife Linda photos of Stephen Crane's 2nd-to-last girlfriend, Amy Leslie, who was a terrific soprano, decent enough actress, and later a drama critic -- she was also a couple of decades older than him, but she had a much better smile. ANYWAY, while I'm in there I see W., probably the most accomplished Crane historian. He was working on something else that day, and he asked what I was doing there; when I told him, he replied: "You're wasting your time. There are no pictures of Amy Leslie here." When I actually got my hands on therm, I made two copies, one for my beloved boss Linda, and one for W. He wasn't at his seat when I came by, but his stuff was still there, so I left the photocopies on the table for him. A stronger statement, I felt, them throwing them in his face. As for news sources, my wife and closest friends are all kind of news hounds, so I myself just track CNN during the day, the latest NY Times front page and opinion sections once a day, watch NBC Nightly News most of the time, and check out what my circle is sharing, and I also am on Twitter/X, where I often get news first. And most of the people I'm linked with don't make stuff up.
what a great story, Chuck! You and your lovely wife sound like our dopplegangers...news obsessed and lovers of archival material.
It used to be that respect was earned and everybody understood the transaction. But these days it feels like respect has become a dirty word. A lovely thoughtful post, Liza. Thank you.
Thank you, D.L.
We always find perspective and strength in learning about the strengths of others. My dad was suddenly paralyzed after serving in WWII combat and he relearned to walk--over 1 year. He said little kids with polio gave him strength. Leah Penniman of Soulfire Farm, NY, (You must go there this spring--smile) recounts how slaves, when leaving the continent, would hide rice in their hair: as a source of food and moral strength in the uncertain future. Read Wilkerson's "The Warmth of Other Suns," or Payne's "I've Got the Light of Freedom..." Black women and, yes, women who illustrated and saw the world anew--your wonderful artisitic leaders. Oh wait: look at your own work!!!! Smile.
So true, bob. Thank you!
Your efforts inspire many.....
thank you, bob.