History, Natural History & the Arts
The city of New Rochelle has a relevant place in the founding history of the United States. It was here that in 1689 a small community of French Protestant refugees would settle.
Known as Huguenots, they exercised considerable influence on America’s course towards self-determination. George Washington descended from a Huguenot refugee on his mother’s side. [Read more…] about Huguenots & New Rochelle’s Spirit of Liberty
Nineteenth century critics constructed an image of the artist as masculine, ignoring the fact that women were very much part of the bohemian subculture. In literary and pictorial representations, the figure of the “grisette” was consistently associated with the Latin Quarter.
The term refers to a group of independent young women who frequented Parisian cafés, posed as artist’s models, and provided additional sexual favors. The most enduring grisette is Mimi in Henri Murger’s “Scènes de la vie de Bohème,” the source for Puccini’s opera La bohème. [Read more…] about Queens of Bohemia: Laura Keene, Ada Clare & Adah Isaacs Menken
It’s likely that the early farmers, millers, colliers, lumberers and teamsters helped spread the word of the springs and waterfalls on the Poesten Kill, but it was the early artists and travelers whose record remains. One of the first depictions of the beauties of the Poesten Kill High Falls was an engraving made in Paris in 1817. As the 19th century wore on, changing attitudes about nature combined with regional guides and maps led to increase in American travel for travels sake. [Read more…] about ‘Wild, Picturesque and Beautiful’: Mount Ida, Poestenkill Falls and Troy’s Prospect Park
The history of the modern private press can be said to have started in early 1891 with William Morris’s foundation of the Kelmscott Press at 16 Upper Mall, Hammersmith, and the publication of his own work The Story of the Glittering Plain.
There had been forerunners of course. Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill Press, established in June 1757, set a precedent by producing splendid books, pamphlets, and ephemera, but it was Morris who succeeded in establishing a cost-effective press for high quality publications. His initiative gave birth to a host of similar undertakings. He initiated the Private Press Movement which was closely associated with the rise of modernist ideas. Morris also had a remarkable following in New York. [Read more…] about Nancy Cunard, Modernism and the Private Press Movement
The Frick Collection has announced what the museum is calling the largest and most significant gift of drawings and pastels in its history, thanks to the generosity of Elizabeth “Betty” and Jean-Marie Eveillard.
Over the past forty-five years, the Eveillards have assembled an outstanding collection of European works on paper, ranging in date from the end of the fifteenth century to the twentieth century and representing artists working in France, Britain, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. acquisitions. [Read more…] about Frick Announces Major Gift of Drawings and Pastels
In cities with growing populations and increased prosperity during the eighteen and nineteenth centuries, the demand for amusement venues rose dramatically. Leisure became an economic factor and show biz took off with a bang.
Urban pleasure gardens were recreational spaces that featured landscaped grounds, lights, fountains, grottos, music, and theater. Offering a variety of entertainments, they were open day and night. [Read more…] about Niblo’s Garden, Yiddish Broadway and the American Musical
The Margaret Reaney Memorial Library is a fixture in the Erie Canal-side community of St. Johnsville, Montgomery County, NY. The Library contains a museum which features a wide array of art in a very fine collection.
An outdoor sculpture display in the north garden is listed in the Library’s catalog as “Nude Female and Lion” by Roland Hinton Perry. The bronze was cast in 1898 by Jno. Williams, Inc. foundry which was located on West 26th Street in Manhattan. [Read more…] about St. Johnsville’s Lion in Love Sculpture: A Piece of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Upstate
One of the first crops to emerge from the ground in New York State is asparagus (scientific name: asparagus officinalis). The vegetable is an integral part of America’s colonial history. It must have been a taste of nostalgia that prompted New Netherland settlers to try and cultivate asparagus in unfamiliar surroundings. [Read more…] about Asparagus Officinalis: A Spear of Transatlantic History
The study of art may be perceived as trivial, yet for many it can be a cathartic pastime, and still others are clever enough to earn a living from it. An investigation under this topic which can be greatly refined is sculpture. The three dimensional medium is so broad that it allows many areas of awareness, and also permits the student multiple personal preferences.
The Empire State is a great repository of sculpture, and our colleges and universities hold much of this collection and provide instruction as well. One fine example would be Syracuse University, which holds a vast assemblage of art through several centuries. The collection at Syracuse University includes the papers of Laura Gardin Fraser and her husband James Earle Fraser. This couple produced some very notable art work; however, their names are not widely recognized. [Read more…] about Ars gratia Artis: The Fraser Collection at Syracuse University
An epitaph (from the Greek: “on the gravestone”) is a text that remembers the dead. The earliest known epitaphs were written by ancient Egyptian scholars and inscribed upon individual sarcophagi and stone coffins. The Greeks introduced epitaphs in verse to which the Romans added morbid curses intended to ward off grave robbers.
The nineteenth century was obsessed with these literary curiosities. Countless epigraph anthologies were published that, more often than not, contained mostly doggerel rhymes and poor tomb jokes. [Read more…] about Literature & Immortality: Booksellers, Copyrights and Epitaphs