New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

James S. Kaplan

James S. Kaplan is a tax, estate and guardianship lawyer who is a founding partner of the midtown New York law firm of Greenberg & Kaplan, a walking tour historian of New York Neighborhoods, and a Co-founder and past President of the LMHA. He is also a former Vice President and long-term Board member of the Temple of Universal Judaism.

4th of July in New York City: Recent History and 2023 Plans

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july 4th in new york cityFrom the end of the Revolution until the 1960s, Fourth of July celebrations in the city of New York were a major annual events. (You can read about that history here.)

During the 1970s, the most important July 4th event in New York City became the previously established Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island. The highly publicized event proved to be a huge success, but lacked historical context or political meaning. [Read more…] about 4th of July in New York City: Recent History and 2023 Plans

A History of New York City’s July 4th Celebrations

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The Manner in which the American Colonies Declared Themselves Independent of the King of England, throughout the Different Provinces, on July 4, 1776, by Noble (engraver), after Hamilton (painter), for Edward Barnard’s The New, Comprehensive, Impartial and Complete History of England… (London, 1783).Throughout the United States there are traditional Fourth of July parades and backyard barbecues, but in New York City the history of July 4th celebrations have been somewhat different. Although July 4th would appear to be a apolitical patriotic holiday, early July 4th celebrations in the city of New York were anything but nonpartisan. [Read more…] about A History of New York City’s July 4th Celebrations

The Seligmans, Philip Payton & Harlem’s Black-Jewish Alliance

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Joseph SeligmanAround the time of the Civil War Joseph and Jesse Seligman were the most prominent Jewish businessmen on Wall Street – financiers of the Northern effort in the Civil War and close associates of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.

Every summer in the 1870s they would bring their families with a retinue of servants to stay at the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY among the most prominent resorts in the United States. In 1879 however, the new manager of the hotel, Judge Henry Hitlon, announced a new policy — henceforth no Jewish people would be allowed to stay there. [Read more…] about The Seligmans, Philip Payton & Harlem’s Black-Jewish Alliance

The Marquis de Lafayette: A Short Biography

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George Washington and Lafayette at Mount Vernon, 1784 by Rossiter and Mignot, 18592024 will mark the 200th anniversary of the return of the Marquis de Lafayette (Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette) to America. In 1824, almost 50 years after the start of the American Revolution, the 68-year-old Lafayette was invited by President James Monroe, an old Revolutionary War comrade and lifelong friend, to tour the United States.

Lafayette’s visit was one the major events of the early 19th century. It had the effect of unifying a country sometime fractured by electoral discord and reminding Americans of their hard won democracy. [Read more…] about The Marquis de Lafayette: A Short Biography

Why Not? The Return of Lafayette’s Hermoine in 2024

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hermoine leaving franceIn 1992, the shipyard at Rochefort France where the Hermione – the ship that brought Lafayette to America – had been constructed in 1780 was apparently in decline.

Several local entrepreneurs conceived of the idea that a replica of the Hermione should be built and sailed to the United States as a goodwill gesture. It was hoped that the project would perhaps improve the local economy and also remind Americans of the important historical ties between the United States and France. [Read more…] about Why Not? The Return of Lafayette’s Hermoine in 2024

Wall Street History: The Great Depression & A New Deal For Working People

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out of work men during the Great Depression (retouched)In 1933, during Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s first year as President, the Democrats launched a number of New Deal social welfare and economic recovery efforts to combat the Great Depression.

Among the more popular and successful of these was the creation of the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), jobs programs which were modeled on similar programs in New York State. [Read more…] about Wall Street History: The Great Depression & A New Deal For Working People

The First Great Reset: Wall St, the Great Depression & the Pecora Commission

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Crowd at New York's American Union Bank during a bank run early in the Great Depression (ca 1931)Initially many thought the severe Wall Street crash of October 1929 was a temporary phenomenon and like many subsequent crashes (i.e. 1987, 2008) the stock market would recover in a few months or years.

Unfortunately, this did not prove to be the case. After some upward spurts, stocks on the New York Stock Exchange continued to fall for the next three years and economic conditions throughout the country continued to worsen, so that by 1932 the market closed at 41, a drop of 89% over its 1929 high of 381. Employment in Wall Street firms plummeted, as the once heady activity evaporated and the Great Depression took hold.

The response would require a great reset between Wall Street and working Americans. [Read more…] about The First Great Reset: Wall St, the Great Depression & the Pecora Commission

Wall Street History: Individual Investors & The Crash of 1929

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Gasoline Marketing Territories of the Standard Oil companies in 1918The break-up of Standard Oil and other monopolies during the Trust-busting Era, created somewhat greater competition, but did not significantly impact Wall Street, or its major players. For example, after the success of the Justice Department in the 1911 Supreme Court Case United States v. Standard Oil (in which the Court ruled that Standard Oil of New Jersey violated the Sherman Antitrust Act), the company was ordered broken into 34 ostensibly independent companies. *

The stock in each of these companies was distributed to Standard Oil Company shareholders (principally the Rockefeller family) and each company had separate boards of directors and separate management, but by and large they continued to operate on separate floors of the same building — 26 Broadway in Manhattan. [Read more…] about Wall Street History: Individual Investors & The Crash of 1929

Trust Busting: William Jennings Bryan & Theodore Roosevelt

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Corner of Wall Street and Broad Street in New York City, ca 1900 (Library of Congress)As control of the American economy became increasingly centralized in trusts located on Wall Street after the Civil War, and the wealth of men like J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller grew exponentially, there developed an increasing backlash against such concentrations of wealth. In the 1880s, through an investigation by a committee of the New York State Legislature, Americans became aware that Standard Oil secretly controlled a number of supposedly competing oil companies. By 1910 almost 90% of the world’s oil supply was controlled from the company’s headquarters at 26 Broadway in Manhattan. [Read more…] about Trust Busting: William Jennings Bryan & Theodore Roosevelt

Wall Street History: Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Gould, and Morgan

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SA Mitchell Junior’s 1866 map of the city of New YorkThe period after the Civil War was one of significant economic and technological expansion in the nation and one in which corporations headquartered in Lower Manhattan and Wall Street would obtain a significant hegemony over the American economy.

This was a time in which individual entrepreneurs were running private businesses located on Wall Street. Men such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan were major figures in the country and attained economic power and wealth on a scale previously unknown in United States history.

Much of their wealth was derived exploiting natural resources and technological innovations (notably steam engines, railroads, and oil). It was also largely dependent on the economy’s western expansion and African-American and immigrant labor. These men, who some call “Titans of Industry” and others “Robber Barons,” generally consolidated independent businesses into national enterprises, large monopolies, and multinational corporations. Many of these were headquartered in Lower Manhattan. [Read more…] about Wall Street History: Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Gould, and Morgan