My destination in New York City was the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) archives, housed in Queens.
After a hearty breakfast at a diner, I caught the 7 line and walked the two blocks from the station to The Fortress. The Fortress is the name of the facility where the JDC houses their archival collection.
I had high hopes that I would finish all of my research at the JDC during this trip. I accessed the archives in January but was not able to finish in the time I had.
When I arrived, I re-introduced myself to Peter, one of the men who works for the JDC at The Fortress. With a sinking heart, I observed his blank stare. He had had no idea that I was coming!
After assuring him that I had communicated with the archivist about my visit, I settled in to review some documents I had copied during my last visit and he tried to straighten out the mix-up. A few phone calls later and the error was traced to a misunderstanding on my part. While I had confirmed with the archivist that the dates I had requested were available and that it would be fine for me to visit then, I had not re-confirmed that I would be at The Fortress in the days immediately preceding my arrival.
I felt so foolish! It is very frustrating to think that you have arranged everything in a very timely and professional way only to realize, too late, that you overlooked something. I apologized profusely and told the JDC representative from their Manhattan office with whom I had been communicating that I could come back the next day, but she insisted that she would come out to pull files for me.
It was very nice of her to do so and I was very grateful and apologetic when she arrived. Setting to work with vigor, I thought my difficulties were behind me. It was not to be.
After handing in the list of files I needed, the woman who was helping me soon discovered that all files on topics beginning with the letters S and T were out for microfilming! Two of the files that I needed, on Tunisia and Tangiers, were included in this lot. My hopes that I would finish in the JDC archives this week were dashed.
But, it wasn't all bad news and mistakes in the archives. I took digital photographs of approximately 500 documents and discovered a rich file on internment camps in North Africa. I also took the opportunity to consolidate these photos into pdf files for easy reference.
I finished everything they had there today, but will need to come back for a day trip sometime in September to complete the work I need to do there.
I won't be going back tomorrow, so I will spend the day converting the rest of the photos to pdfs and working on other school projects.
Every trip to an archive is a learning experience!
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