On August 23, 1937 a physician checked out Charles Zimmy at the Albany Yacht Club, which was located at the bottom of State Street hill. The doc’s approval having been given, some young men from Albany applied a thick layer of grease to Zimmy’s body, he lit a cigar, and hopped off a pier into the water of the Hudson River. As he bobbled a bit in the water, he lost his cigar. That wasn’t a problem, though, as there was a supply of 200 aboard the Penguin, a 50-foot boat which would shadow him as he made his way south towards New York City. The cigars, Zimmy told a reporter, were as much a necessity as the watertight goggles he wore during his swim.
According to an article in the Times-Union on August 24, Zimmy anticipated losing about 80 pounds during the challenge, which he thought would require him to swim the equivalent of 200 miles – more than the actual distance from Albany to Manhattan – because tides would sometimes push him back upstream, through water he’d already swum. He’d be swimming day and night, catching sleep an hour at a time while floating on his back. [Read more…] about Charles Zimmy’s 1937 Swim from Albany to Manhattan
The East Hampton Historical Society has announced a new exhibit, “150 Years of Parties & Picnics in East Hampton.”
A new exhibit, “100 Years of Photographs from Morris Studio: 1892-1992” is set open on Saturday, August 18th at Rogers Mansion, 17 Meeting House Lane, Southampton, NY. A free opening reception will be held from 4 to 6 pm, refreshments will be served.
Jason M. Barr’s book Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan’s Skylines (Oxford University Press, 2016) is now available in paperback.
The East Hampton Historical Society, the new stewards of the Thomas & Mary Nimmo Moran Studio, have announced an Opening Celebration to be held on the evening of Friday, July 6, 2018.
We caught the 7 am ferry from New London CT to Orient Point for a day on eastern Long Island (which was part of Connecticut for most of the 17th-century and was economically and cultural connected into the 19th).
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has recently designated the Central Harlem – West 130-132nd Streets a Historic District. This mid-block historic district represents Central Harlem’s residential architecture, and the social, cultural, and political life of its African American population in the 20th century.
A “Radical Routes Tour” focusing on Harlem’s Women Activists has been set for Saturday, June 9 at 10:30 am, beginning at the Museum of the City of New York.