A Sneak Peek Inside The Long Island Collection

In the coming months, the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection is hosting a series of themed pop-up mini exhibits, running on select Thursdays from 4 to 7 p.m.

The series begins Thursday, March 28, with “Men’s Lives/Long Island Fishermen Project” featuring rarely seen and nonreproducible photographs from the Men’s Lives Photo Archive/Long Island Fishermen Project. The exhibit also includes oral histories collected as part of the Maritime Folklife Oral History Collection and items from the East Hampton Town Baymen’s Association files.

Subsequent exhibits are: May 16 — Gardiner’s Island; July 18 — The Culper Spy Ring; September 19 — Whaling; December 5 — Home Sweet Home.

“Just as you may walk into a gourmet cheese shop, and know you like cheese but not really know what to get, we have a lot of people who come into the Long Island Collection who are interested in local history, but don’t really have a clear handle on what they would like to see or how to go about connecting with some of the really special materials we have here,” said Head of the Long Island Collection Andrea Meyer. “The goal is that by creating something more informal than a full exhibit, we can interact with our visitors more.

“We’ve designed this series of pop-up exhibits to highlight items related to some of the most popular topics that people often ask about but may find it to be a little overwhelming to try to sift through on their own, and we’re hoping this will encourage people to come back and explore a little bit more, once they understand the range of materials we have here,” she added. “My hope is that getting a taste of the range of materials we have, people will come back looking to see more of these items; whether they’re interested in the note about the birth of his daughter in Lion Gardiner’s 1599 bible, or they’re interested in oral histories and videos of the fishing community working with haul seine nets.”

The new drop-in mini exhibits will be on display in The Long Island Collection at the East Hampton Library from 4 to 7 p.m. only, on the dates noted above. No sign-up is required. The community is welcome to drop-in and interact with Long Island Collection staff, who will be on hand to share information and answer questions about the topics and the items on view.

For more information visit easthamptonlibrary.org or contact andrea@easthamptonlibrary.org or call 631-324-0222 ext. 4. East Hampton Library is at 159 Main Street in East Hampton.