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Art History

America’s First Christmas Card & An Early Albany Department Store

December 10, 2020 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

America's First Christmas Card, Designed and printed by Richard H. Pease for his "Pease's Great Variety Store in the Temple of Fancy" c.1851. Image courtesy of Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections.Before F. W. Woolworths’, Whitney’s, or even Myer’s department store, there was Pease’s Great Variety Store, located in the Temple of Fancy at 516 and 518 Broadway in Albany, NY.

As with other fancy goods stores, Pease’s catered to the middle and upper middle class selling highly decorated goods like ceramics, prints, furniture and other decorative household items that progressively thinking people might have wanted to purchase. [Read more…] about America’s First Christmas Card & An Early Albany Department Store

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, New Exhibits Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Albany Institute For History and Art, Art History, Christmas, Cultural History, Holidays, Instagram, Pop Culture History

Harlem’s “Black Beauty” Mills; London’s Josephine Baker

December 7, 2020 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

Bassanos portrait of Lord KitchenerBorn in 1799, Clemente Bassano (the family name originates from the Veneto region of Italy) settled in London and started his career as a fishmonger in Soho. By 1825 he ran a warehouse from Jermyn Street, St James’s, importing almonds, oil, capers, and macaroni.

His daughter Louise was an opera singer who toured with Franz Liszt on his London visit in 1840/1. Her brother Alessandro became a high society photographer with a studio in Regent Street. His portrait of Horatio Kitchener was used during the First World War for an iconic recruitment poster. [Read more…] about Harlem’s “Black Beauty” Mills; London’s Josephine Baker

Filed Under: Arts, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: art, Art History, Black History, Dance, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, Performing Arts, Theatre, Women, womens history

A Master Thief, Irish Hostess, English Duchess, and the Origins Pan Am

November 29, 2020 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

Sydney Pagets image of the struggle between Sherlock Holmes and Professor MoriartyIn his stories Arthur Conan Doyle used the leitmotif that misdeeds are not impulsive acts of random individuals. They are machinations of a subtle criminal mind. Enter Professor James Moriarty, a figure with a phenomenal mathematical brain whose hereditary criminal tendencies were rendered deadly by his mental powers. [Read more…] about A Master Thief, Irish Hostess, English Duchess, and the Origins Pan Am

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: art, Art History, Crime and Justice, Cultural History, Transportation History

Utica Sculptor Henry DiSpirito

November 20, 2020 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

The Historians LogoOn this episode of The Historians Podcast, Ashley Hopkins-Benton recounts the life of sculptor and stone worker Henry DiSpirito, who became artist in residence at Utica College. Hopkins-Benton is author of Breathing Life Into Stone: The Sculpture of Henry DiSpirito.  She is also a senior historian and curator of social history at the New York State Museum in Albany. [Read more…] about Utica Sculptor Henry DiSpirito

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, Western NY Tagged With: art, Art History, Podcasts, Utica

A Modern Art Historian’s Hanoverian Inspiration

October 26, 2020 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Alexander Dorner’s Landes museum Hanover 1928 On November 8th, 1929, ten days after the Black Tuesday stock market crash, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) opened its doors to the public.

The idea of establishing an institution devoted to the collection and display of contemporary art was controversial. Artists feared that creativity would become institutionalized. If paintings and sculptures were taken out of the living environment, the museum would merely serve as a mausoleum or dumping ground.

As modernists defined art in terms of continuous movement and change (innovation was the new permanency), the idea of a “museum of modern art” seemed an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. It needed clarification. [Read more…] about A Modern Art Historian’s Hanoverian Inspiration

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: art, Art History, Museum of Modern Art, New York City

Early Images of the Adirondacks: Science, Art, Tourism

October 22, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

View of Caldwell, Lake George, by William Tolman CarltonThe first Europeans to see the Adirondack landscape of Northern New York came to explore, to document important military operations and fortifications, or to create maps and scientifically accurate images of the terrain, flora, and fauna.

These early illustrations filled practical needs rather than aesthetic ones.  In 1818, the Adirondacks was still a mysterious “wild, barren tract…covered with almost impenetrable Bogs, Marshes & Ponds, and the uplands with Rocks and evergreens.” [Read more…] about Early Images of the Adirondacks: Science, Art, Tourism

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Museum, Adirondacks, Art History, Early America, Instagram, Maps, Museums-Archives-Historic Sites, Natural History, Tourism

The Saxophone: Born In Belgium, Raised In The USA

October 18, 2020 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

bronze statue of Adolphe SaxSince the saxophone was invented and patented by a young man from French-speaking Dinant, in Belgium’s Walloon Region, American musicians have paid credit to the instrument by producing memorable performances which include John Coltrane’s “Love Supreme,” Dino Soldo’s smooth jazz solos, or Clarence Clemons’s relentless drive.

Over time, the sax has found its way into almost every genre of music with one exception. The saxophone is not part of the orchestral repertoire. It was and remains a rogue instrument. [Read more…] about The Saxophone: Born In Belgium, Raised In The USA

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: art, Art History, Military History, Music, New York City

Portraying Presidents: A Sketch of Cultural History

October 12, 2020 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Penn Station around the time of its opening in 1910 courtesy Library of CongressBeginning with George Washington, it has been a custom for the President of the United States to have an official portrait sculpted or painted during his time in office.

From the beginning artists were faced with conflicting demands of aesthetics, the need to evoke the significance of the nation’s highest office, and the personal inclination of the sitter (varying from modesty to pomposity). How to reconcile such different strands in a work of art? [Read more…] about Portraying Presidents: A Sketch of Cultural History

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: art, Art History, Cultural History, George Washington, Political History

Audio Technology, Trademarks and A Terrier Named Nipper

September 28, 2020 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and ArtThe Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, at Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, was founded in 1859 by inventor and industrialist Peter Cooper, a progressive member of New York’s Board of Aldermen.

The initiative was inspired by the state-sponsored École Polytechnique in Paris (founded in 1794). Cooper’s ideal was to create an institution that would be open to all, and independent of race, religion, sex, or social status. The history of the gramophone is associated with two of Cooper’s former students who overcame hardship through education. [Read more…] about Audio Technology, Trademarks and A Terrier Named Nipper

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Art History, Manhattan, Music

The Armory Show: An Arsenal of Creative Freedom

August 11, 2020 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

International Exhibition of Modern Art event flierThe year was 1911, a new decade had just started. In spite of sharp social divisions and mass immigration, New York was bustling. The scientific revolution was making an impact, radically altering the nineteenth century vision of the world.

New technology changed the face of the metropolis.  The Woolworth Building had been completed, making it the tallest building in town. Electric trains pulled out of the Grand Central Terminal; in the streets horse-drawn carriages were being replaced by automobiles.

It was a period of unbridled patriotism; a golden age for producers of flags and buntings (in April 1908 Emma Goldman had given her fiery San Francisco lecture on the ‘menace’ of patriotism).

New York was waking-up and starting to fulfill its potential. It was a place of new developments and initiatives. Modern was the buzzword. That year a group of artists came together aiming to organize a grand exhibition that would reflect this new confidence. [Read more…] about The Armory Show: An Arsenal of Creative Freedom

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: art, Art History, Cultural History, New York City

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