FIT: History and Influential People

Search for books, ebooks, articles, and more

    Search using the name of the person you are researching (e.g. David Dubinsky, Jay Baker)

• Make sure you have the correct, complete, and varying forms of a person’s name when you are searching for information. For example, the woman commonly referred to on campus as “Katie Murphy” was formally known as  “Katherine Murphy" or “Katherine Murphy Grout”. 
   
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  If you are researching a team, group, or couple, try looking for information on the people both together and separately (e.g. “Jay Baker”, as well as “Jay and Patty Baker”).

• Don't forget about middle names or initials; "Fred Pomerantz" will find you some articles, but "Fred P. Pomerantz" will find additional articles.
  
  
• Especially if a person you're researching has a fairly common name, adding a few extra words to your search
  (such as Joyce Brown Fashion Institute of Technology, or Shirley Goodman Fashion Institute of Technology)  may make your search easier and your results more accurate.
   
• Search the FIT website for inside scoops on "our" people, but  supplement that info with other outside sources like newspapers and magazines (through OneSearch and /or Library databases) 
   
• Once you have some basic information about a person, continue from there. For example if the person is known for having worked at a company or founding an organization, look for information on that company or organization.
   
• Google Books may help you "look inside a book". It can work as an index to the millions of books that Google has scanned. Sometimes, you can see the whole book online, but more often you'll just find out if a topic you're looking for is covered in a book that you might not have considered. If you do find something useful, you can check OneSearch to see if the FIT Library has the book, or ask us for more ideas

  Google Books also has some magazines online such as New York Magazine and Newsweek. Like the books included, sometimes you can find the whole issue and article just a click away, and sometimes you have to keep going a little more to get the information you want.

• BONUS TIP: As you look through articles, think about different reasons why spaces and programs might be named for people.

  • Sometime it's done to honor or remember people or to commemorate a specific event or achievement. What is the person known for? Do they have a specific connection to FIT, NYC, the fashion and related industries?

  • Sometimes, there's money involved. Whose money, the person being honored or others? Does someone with an FIT connection want to honor a relative, friend or colleague?

  • Over the years, some reasons are more common than at other times. There are other reasons, too and often more than one factor is at play.

  • Here's an example of how and why another college chose some of its building names.

Good for short entries, essays, or articles about people. Current FIT user name and password required to use these databases

Use OneSearch  or specific Databases to find articles from newspapers and magazines and entries from online reference books (encyclopedias, handbooks, etc). You can look for recent articles as well as older articles and obituaries (which often contain good overviews of a person's life and legacy):