On December 2, 2021, Doc Chat glimpsed the subway of the 1970s through the eyes of one photographer.
A weekly series from NYPL's Center for Research in the Humanities, Doc Chat pairs an NYPL curator or specialist and a scholar to discuss evocative digitized items from the Library's collections and brainstorm innovative ways of teaching with them. In Episode Thirty-Nine, NYPL curator Julie Golia and Kim Phillips-Fein, Professor of History at New York University, explored a collection of evocative photographs of the New York City subway system in the 1970s by Alen MacWeeney, discussing what the images reveal about the city during a decade of crisis and transformation.
A transcript of this episode is available here.
Below are some handy links to materials and sources suggested in the episode.
Episode Thirty-Nine: Primary Sources
Julie and Kim examined the following images:
You can peruse all 43 images from this series on NYPL's Digital Collections.
Episode Thirty-Nine: Readings and Resources
Jeff Chang, Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation (St. Martin's Press, 2005).
Kim Phillips-Fein, Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics (Metropolitan Books, 2017).
Alen MacWeeney, Irish Travellers: Tinkers No More (New England College Press, 2007).
www.alenmacweeney.com (Alen MacWeeney's website)
Tony Silver and Henry Chaifant, Style Wars (documentary, 1983, 2004).
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Doc Chat episodes take place on Zoom every Thursday at 3:30 PM. Check out upcoming episodes on NYPL's calendar, and make sure you don't miss an episode by signing up for NYPL's Research newsletter, which will include links to register. A video of each episode will be posted on the Doc Chat Channel of NYPL's blog shortly after the program. There you can also explore videos and resources for past episodes. See you at the next Doc Chat!