Opening the Pocket Doors: A Room of (Our) Own

If you were to go up to the third floor of 128 Pierrepont and walk to the doors that read “Gina Ingoglia Weiner Gallery” and peer through the windows, you would see a room that currently holds a portion of the Center for Brooklyn History’s collections in neat rows of archival boxes. But this room was not always utilized for storage; prior to a storage room, it was used as an exhibit gallery for the Brooklyn Historical Society. It housed many exhibits throughout its time (one of the last, and my personal favorite, was “On the (Queer) Waterfront: The Factories, Freaks, Sailors, & Sex Workers of Brooklyn”). However, exhibits were also not the intended purpose of this room either. Initially it was the Director’s Room, where the Director of the Long Island Historical Society (as it was originally called) had a large, private office.  

I find that the various purposes of this particular room illustrate how the institution has grown and changed over time. As the Director’s Room, it was decorated lavishly, with a fireplace and myriad of framed paintings of older white men, the same demographic that utilized the room throughout its tenure as the Long Island Historical Society. It was also private, intended only to be utilized with permission and invitation. When the institution transitioned into the Brooklyn Historical Society and the primary focus shifted towards creating inclusive exhibits representing a wide array of the history of Brooklynites, the room was opened up to the general public for the first time. Now, it still functions for the public, just in a different way. As the Center for Brooklyn History, we house collections of both the former Brooklyn Historical Society and the Brooklyn Collection. With the merger of these collections, we needed more onsite space so that patrons could have access to materials in one location. The repurpose of the former Director’s Room means that we are able to keep more of the materials onsite to allow for easier access for patrons.  

The Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Archive Project is generously funded by the Leon Levy Foundation. 

Big thanks to CBH Historian, Dominique Jean-Louis, and Special Collections and Outreach Librarian, Kevina Tidwell, for their assistance and encouragement in creating this post!

Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We welcome appointments to research our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. In the meantime, please visit our resources page to search our collections. Questions? Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.