A Tale of Two Book Streets
What would a public digital humanities project look like if we superimpose two trans-Atlantic cultural realities, bringing the past and the present into conversation?
From the 1890s to the 1960s, six blocks in New York City, from Union Square to Astor Place in Manhattan, sprawled with dozens of bookstores selling second-hand books. With gentrification, apartment complexes replaced the stores, and Book Row was displaced into the historic realm. The only bookstore that survives today is the Strand, which had to relocate.
Across the Atlantic, in India’s Kolkata city, is the 900m long street called College Street, fondly nicknamed Boi Para (Colony of Books). As the largest book market in India, and the second largest in the world, College Street has resolutely remained a cultural icon of the city.
