SOUL SEARCHING: Navigating the JMM Collections

A blog post by Senior Collections Manager Jobi Zink. To read more posts from Jobi, click here.

Part 3 of a 3 part series on using the JMM On-line Database

Let’s pretend that you’ve been convinced you to join the 21st century the social media craze. Now that you understand that #tbt stands for Throwback Thursday and means posting an old photo on your Facebook page so people write nostalgic messages, you want to find an image of your high school sweetheart. Since you’ve been following the “Once Upon a Time” feature on the JMM blog, you know that we have a ton of photographs from Jewish Maryland in the collection. You go directly to the JMM online database jmm.pastperfect-online.com and enter a keyword such as “sweetheart” and see what you find…

Unidentified couple being introduced at the AZA Sweetheart dance, 1964. 1995.128.001.026.004
Unidentified couple being introduced at the AZA Sweetheart dance, 1964. 1995.128.001.026.004

While it was a bit surprising that “sweetheart” actually yielded images, perhaps “dance” would’ve been a better choice, since you distinctly remember smiling for the camera at the spring formal.

A great TBT photo! Black and white photo of a Tau Beta Sigma sorority dance at Hotel Sterling. 1984.211.037
A great TBT photo! Black and white photo of a Tau Beta Sigma sorority dance at Hotel Sterling. 1984.211.037

If your sweetheart is from Maryland, you can try entering his or her name in the search box. If you don’t know if she would be catalogued as “Daisy Mae” or “Daisy Duke” “Daisy” will pull up all records with her maiden or married name… and possibly some pictures of pretty flowers. The People record should also indicate alternate names and associated records!

Daisy D. Carawan (Mrs. Barnett) is in the photograph of the 1937 graduating class of the Sinai Hospital School of Nursing. 2010.020.070
Daisy D. Carawan (Mrs. Barnett) is in the photograph of the 1937 graduating class of the Sinai Hospital School of Nursing. 2010.020.070

Finally, you find the perfect #TBT! You can right click and save image as on your desktop, then attach it to your Facebook page. While the photo should have a light watermark on it, please make sure you tag the Jewish Museum of Maryland in your caption and include the accession number (that long string of numbers starting with a 4-digit year). That what we know when someone has benefited from all our hard work (which always makes us smile!) and folks know where you found the photo—after all, they may be looking some #tbt pictures of their own.

#TBT in action
#TBT in action

Just a note of caution: If you “share” an image from the JMM Facebook or twitter, the accession number will be embedded into it. Be prepared to explain to your friends that although the photo is from 1903 and Jewish Museum accession number is 1994.111.3 (meaning that it was brought in to the museum collection in 1994)! You will impress everyone with your knowledge of the JMM and our numbering system!

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