User talk:Barren Islander

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Hello, Barren Islander, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful:


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Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or, and a volunteer should respond shortly. Again, welcome! —C.Fred (talk) 12:04, 22 April 2018 (UTC)

Source for your recent changes
Greetings! You recently removed content from Barren Island, Brooklyn, stating that a source was incorrect. Could you please provide, either here or at Talk:Barren Island, Brooklyn, a link to the correction in the New York Times or the other source you used for verification? Thank you. —C.Fred (talk) 12:04, 22 April 2018 (UTC)

Barren Island
Hello, I'm new to Wikipedia and unsure if I'm responding to C. Fred's question in the proper place, so please let me know if I'm not! I stated that I removed the reference to Jane Shaw taking the job at Barren Island after 91 applicants had rejected it. I just completed a history master's thesis on Barren Island and have thoroughly reviewed thousands of newspaper articles about it, which is how I came across this error. Shaw took the job on Barren Island in 1918 after being recruited by a NYC Board of Education member (“Missionary Found for Barren Island,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 10, 1918, 51). I have seen no evidence that she was not the first choice for the job: she was a highly regarded teacher on the Lower East Side and the Board of Ed was happy to have her. However, conditions for teachers on the island were difficult and even though she was very successful, she still had trouble retaining teachers. In 1931, Mildred Sauerbrunn, having subbed on the island for a while, took a job there teaching kindergarten after 91 applicants had rejected it (“91 Reject Chance of School Position on Barren Island,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 10, 1931, 15). Somehow the latter episode was conflated with Jane Shaw's hiring in the 2000 NYT article that was originally cited to support the statement that it was Shaw who took her job after 91 people rejected it. As a side note, it was Mildred Sauerbrunn who did the census enumeration in 1930 that Shaw demanded after the U.S. Census Bureau had not bothered to count the Barren Islanders. Barren Islander (talk) 12:17, 22 April 2018 (UTC)