“Across Time and Place”

A tiny, topical exhibit, “Across Time and Place: Jewish Genealogy at the Newberry Library” mounted to coincide with an August Jewish genealogy conference at the Marriott. But its five small cases of ephemera are also meant to attract people to the library’s vast genealogy resources. For example, one vitrine holds Memoirs of American Jews, 1775–1865, open to a page where a man recounts a shark attack during the California Gold Rush. The label next to it mentions that memoirs are helpful in researching specific places, like this book’s mention of early San Francisco locations. Nearby pamphlets illuminate how the Newberry can be used as a tool in piecing together family genealogy or historical research.

These excessive labels could make the objects feel like a side note. But instead, the well-chosen, intimate items are innately compelling. An 1899 annual report from the Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans sits in one case, and it’s open to the on-goings of the orphanage. The colloquialisms on the densely printed page are little historical nuggets: “Allow me to say here a few words in regards to discipline,” and “I beg to mention that we have two girls now in the seventh grade.”

Whether or not you’re digging into family history, these intimate views into the past make this little exhibition satisfying.