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How people did research before the Web
By adamg on Tue, 06/27/2017 - 11:22am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can figure out who these people are, where they are and what they're doing. See it larger.
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Comments
Suffolk County Registry of Deeds?
My guess is that these are lawyers or real estate people doing a title search.
The Munsters' house?
The Munsters' house?
Filing the stenographic
Filing the stenographic records of the city council?
New employees of the
New employees of the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds digging through the basement archives looking for Babe Ruth's deed.
I dunno, but I bet it smelled
I dunno, but I bet it smelled pretty musty.
Top shelf does say DEEDS.
Top shelf does say DEEDS.
Updating index at the Register?
Moving out of an old courthouse or city hall?
Are they archivists?
Perhaps doing an inventory of the Deeds for the Archives Department.
DEEDS
My first thought was cataloging records before the move from Old City Hall to the new one. But the word "DEEDS" is at the top of one of the bookshelves, and deeds would be held by the county.
Someone on Twitter said it looks like a young Marty Walsh, but I highly doubt Marty's ever done archival research.
Marty W
FWIW, in 2002 then Rep. Walsh briefly suggested he was interested in becoming Suffolk County Reg of Deeds, and was offered the job by Bill Galvin, only to turn down the offer. Source: Dorchester Reporter Editorial 1/8/14
But not him in this photo...
Just saw the solution posted on Twitter.
Some basement somewhere
I can't tell you where.. but I think the photo isn't as old as we think. I'm guessing its a black and white photo from 1985ish. Mid-80s. The women's clothes and the fact that she is wearing rolled up jeans says this has to be from the 1960s on. Her hairstyle makes me think mid-80s..
The Answer
Thanks for playing, folks!
This photo shows Northeastern students in the basement of Boston's Old City Hall in 1964. The students were assisting in a survey of the city's records that was run by the city's Administrative Services Department. We know that one of the students in this photo is Warren Davis, but aren't sure who the other student is. The records that you see on the shelf behind them are tax assessing lists. Those records currently live at the City Archives.
The Brooke opened in ~1999
The Brooke opened in ~1999-2000. Where else was the Suffolk Registry of Deeds located in the ~40 years before that?
Looks like they might have been indexing/packing prior to a move. Probably to a new courthouse.
Doing some googling - the pre-1800 volumes are at the Massachusetts Archives (listed as fragile). Deposited 1999, which is around the time the Brooke opened. It wouldn't be entirely surprising if those ancient books were in some cellar/attic/back room before '99.