Behind the Scenes: Reflecting on a Career While Continuing to Explore the Collections

The following is an interview with Barbara Orbach Natanson, former Head of the Prints & Photographs Reading Room. Melissa: Can you tell us about your background, and what roles you played at the Library of Congress before you retired this past December? McKee Ranch, hay meadows, irrigation, Silverthorne, Colorado. Photo by Howard W. Marshall, 1980. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1991031_hm_04/. Barbara Orbach shown at right, with Vera McKee, holding recording equipment. Barbara: I first came to the Library of Congress in 1980 to do an internship in the Archive of Folk Song and got the opportunity to continue with some fieldwork in Colorado for the American Folklife Center. Both provided good grounding for completing Master’s degrees in Folklore and in Library Science at UCLA.…