This profile is part of a series of interviews chronicling the experiences of researchers who use The New York Public Library's collections for the development of their work. This Working from Home edition focuses on how researchers, due to the challenges created by the global public health crisis of COVID-19, continue to use the NYPL’s resources remotely for the development of their work during the Library’s temporary closure.

Dirk Smillie is a former Senior Writer at Forbes magazine, was Chief Content Officer at Guggenheim Partners and is the author of Falwell Inc. (St. Martin's). He was a Coro Fellow in public policy and co-authored numerous studies of the press and the presidency at the Media Studies Center, Columbia University.

What research are you working on?

A biography of Harry Guggenheim.

What resources are you using for your research?

Since working at home I've come to rely more on JSTOR and ProQuest (which has texts and historical collections that I have not been able to find elsewhere).

What tabs do you currently have open on your computer? 

Zoom, NYPL, New York Times historical archives, Ancestry [ed. note: access to these last two resources have been temporarily expanded to NYPL cardholders working from home].

Have you discovered a great online resource you've never used before? 

Readex (made available by the NYPL), for early American newspapers. Just when you think you've covered everything in a historical period, you'll find a newspaper account you never imagined existed. The Digital Video Image Repository at MIRC has searchable historical footage that can sometimes yield great surprises.

What's your working from home setup?

I have a giant bulletin board with 16 sheets of paper, each delineating a chapter and the elements within it. The chapter content flows back and forth between these imaginary borders. It's a good way for me to visually judge the best landing spots for elements within the narrative. I have one laptop just for my NYPL sources and JPGs of documents that I need to expand. At King's College Library, Cambridge, for example, I got access to John Maynard Keynes' personal appointment diaries and photographed pages within them. His writing is difficult to read, so I enlarged those files on one screen and transcribed them on a second laptop.

What research tools could you not live without?

Access to the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library has been fundamental to my research. Also, the 75 books (and counting) I've amassed to research every character and historical period in each chapter. They cover histories of mining, the Cuban revolution, aeronautics, publishing, Anne Lindbergh's diaries, the Gilded Age, philanthropy, the space race, international art, horseracing, and Wall Street.

What's your favorite distraction or snack when working from home?

I live in a woodsy corner of Manhattan and get visited each evening by a flying squirrel, who comes into my kitchen and devours the pile of sunflower seeds I leave on the window sill. My teenage daughter is a master bread baker so when a boule is coming out of the oven, all writing must stop for this.

Are you using NYPL Library collections to research from home? We’d love to hear about your work! Not familiar with our online collections? Whether you'd like a quick introduction to our newspapers, journals, or e-books, or if you need help with something more specific, our online consultations take advantage of screen-sharing technology so we can show you exactly how and where to find things and recommend titles relevant to your work.

Just let us know what you need help with and we'll be in touch to schedule a time.