Watchin’ the Detectives
This week, I watched two episodes of The History Detectives on PBS. It’s a show where the hosts investigate people’s questions to get to the bottom of some baffling matter. The shows I watched included segments about verifying whether a house in Firestone Park in Ohio really is a Sears mail order house, if a house in Salem really did belong to an accused witch from the late 1600s, and if a sailing ship harbored runaway slaves. What I find particularly refreshing–and also quite interesting–is that the program shows their hosts and experts using archives, libraries, and other sources of the written word to find the answers, as well as consulting with experts. The show reinforces the value of printed information and respositories storing such information, as well as the value of primary source material. No Internet searches here–at least not yet. (And, yes, in several of the shots of them using archives and handling archival material, they are wearing gloves.)
July 17th, 2003 at 4:52 pm
I take back my earlier comment about librarian action figures…I want a series of History Detective action figures with gloves and Paige boxes and other archival research accessories.
I have been so excited about this show. Thank goodness for PBS!