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Gambling

A Sketch of 1854 New York Firemen, Sporting & Fancy

September 9, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

"Streets of New York" advertisement, 1869 (Harvard Theatre Collection)What follows is the essay “Esquisses a la Plume: Types du Bowery—le Pompier” [Pen Sketches: Bowery Types—The Fireman] by an anonymous French observer in the city of New York reprinted in George Goodrich Foster’s New York Naked (1854). It was annotated by John Warren.

The American fireman differs essentially from his French namesake. They have but a single point of correspondence, the common object of their mission. As to the  organization of their bodies and their individual physiology, there is radical difference. [Read more…] about A Sketch of 1854 New York Firemen, Sporting & Fancy

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Cultural History, Fires, French History, Gambling, Manhattan, New York City, Social History, Sports History, The Bowery, Vice

1850-1880s New York City: ‘Thirty Years in Gotham’ Columns Going Online

July 18, 2023 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Fanciful illustration of the inside of Harry Hill's saloonNew York Almanack friend Jerry Kuntz has been collecting and transcribing columns that appeared between 1880 and 1886 in the New York Sunday Mercury entitled “Thirty Years in Gotham.” The articles were published with the byline “by Harry Hill,” but were drafted by ghost writer Isaac George Reed.

Harry Hill, the proprietor of the most infamous dance hall in Manhattan from the 1850s through the 1880s, likely offered comments, notes, and suggestions on some of the articles. The columns covered topics dealing with the history of the city of New York: its institutions, characters, neighborhoods, social life, politics, disasters, sports, criminals, and more. [Read more…] about 1850-1880s New York City: ‘Thirty Years in Gotham’ Columns Going Online

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: boxing, Crime and Justice, Gambling, Genealogy, Journalism, Manhattan, New York City, Online Resources, Performing Arts, Political History, Social History, Sports History, Theatre, Vice

A Remarkable Saratoga Race Track Souvenir

July 13, 2023 by Bill Orzell 3 Comments

Photogravure reproduction of the William Dowling painting produced by the FA Ringler Company for the Saratoga Association in 1928 (Author’s collection)The New York Racing Association (NYRA) has four “giveaway” days planned for the 2023 Saratoga Racing season, which kicked-off today. This tradition, while the supply lasts, has been a standard at the Spa for decades. This year’s red and white swag includes a cooler jug, a T-shirt, a bucket hat and a tote bag.

Souvenirs date back to the earliest visitors at Saratoga Springs, wanting to return home with a tangible memento of their visit to the Spa, in the foothills of the Adirondacks. The Saratoga Association for the Improvement of the Breed of Horses early on recognized this desire of visitors, and devised of a plan for a valuable keepsake early in the twentieth century. [Read more…] about A Remarkable Saratoga Race Track Souvenir

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Gambling, Horses, illustrators, Material Culture, NYRA, painting, Saratoga County, Saratoga Race Course, Saratoga Springs, Social History, Sports History, Vice

The Ice Pick Murder of Gangster Walter Sage

July 2, 2023 by John Conway Leave a Comment

BigGangiMugshotsLate in the afternoon of Friday, June 21, 1940, a jury of 11 men and one woman delivered a verdict in one of the most famous trials ever conducted in Sullivan County Court. They found Irving “Big Gangi” Cohen not guilty in the ice pick murder of gangster Walter Sage nearly three years before. [Read more…] about The Ice Pick Murder of Gangster Walter Sage

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Crime and Justice, Fallsburg, Gambling, Sullivan County, Vice

An English Gambler, A Jewish Butcher & The History of Pastrami on Rye

May 16, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 4 Comments

Otto Frederick RohwedderThe term sandwich bread (loaf) started circulating in the United States during the 1930s. It followed a revolution in the manner the product was presented to customers, no longer homemade but mass produced. After a decade of trial and error, the bread slicing machine was introduced and soon widely used. The sandwich was about to conquer the American and European markets. Grabbing a sandwich came to symbolize the rush of an urban society. [Read more…] about An English Gambler, A Jewish Butcher & The History of Pastrami on Rye

Filed Under: Food, History, New York City Tagged With: baking, Culinary History, Gambling, German-American History, Immigration, Jewish History, Language, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City, Urban History

Secretariat’s Triple Crown at 50

March 9, 2023 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

Secretariat by Marshall P. Hawkins2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the racehorse Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989) winning the Triple Crown in 1973, a feat that had not been achieved since it was won by Citation in 1948.

Secretariat, also known as Big Red (a nickname shared with Man O’War), was the ninth winner of Triple Crown, setting and still holding record fastest time in all three races – the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes and the Preakness Stakes. He spent much of his career in New York State, and was notably beaten at Saratoga Race Course in 1973, but the only three races he ever lost were in New York State. [Read more…] about Secretariat’s Triple Crown at 50

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, New Exhibits, New York City Tagged With: Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park, Gambling, Hempstead, Horses, Long Island, Nassau County, National Museum of Racing, National Sporting Library & Museum, Pop Culture History, Queens, Saratoga County, Saratoga Race Course, Saratoga Springs, Sports History, Vice

Ben Brotherson’s Bank Scheme

February 1, 2023 by Dave Waite Leave a Comment

New York Herald, March 24, 1858Around 1800, Philip and Catharine Brotherson arrived in Blue Corners on the western edge of Charlton in Saratoga County. Over the next 40 years, their five children grew to maturity, the last being Benjamin Kissam Brotherson, born in 1819.

At the age of sixteen, Benjamin was hired as a clerk for the dry goods merchant James Winne in Albany, New York. During his time in Albany, he was known as an upstanding young man of good moral character. Three years later, in 1838, he moved to the city of New York and took a job at Union Bank, where he would work for the next twenty years. [Read more…] about Ben Brotherson’s Bank Scheme

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Charlton, Crime and Justice, Financial History, Gambling, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, Saratoga County, Saratoga County History Center, Saratoga County History Roundtable, Vice, Wall Street

An 1896 ‘Old Timers’ Boxing Event in New York City

January 26, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Professor Mike Donovan (on right) helping his son train in boxing, ca1910sThe following essay was published in the “The World Of Sport” column in The [Troy] Daily Times on December 15, 1896.

Pugilistic champions of other days and of the present time passed in rapid review before a crowd of 2,500 sports in the Broadway Athletic Club last night. There was a rare galaxy of them. [Read more…] about An 1896 ‘Old Timers’ Boxing Event in New York City

Filed Under: History, New York City, Recreation Tagged With: boxing, Gambling, Manhattan, New York City, Social History, Sports History, Vice

Racing Steamboats On The Hudson River

January 18, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

American Steamboats on the Hudson - Passing the Highlands (Library of Congress)The following texts are excerpts from various descriptions of racing steamboats on the Hudson River in 1830s, during the heyday of such speed trials.

“Racing On The Hudson,” Cortland Standard, September 25, 1909: “When steamboating was successfully established on the Hudson River it was natural that the owners and skippers of the various crafts that plied between New York and Albany should turn their attention to speed. Racing between boats of rival lines soon became a matter of almost daily occurrence. [Read more…] about Racing Steamboats On The Hudson River

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Albany, Engineering History, Gambling, Hudson River, Maritime History, New York City, Steamboating, Transportation History, Vice

The Capitol Region’s Race Course: Island Park

November 24, 2022 by Bill Orzell Leave a Comment

Island Park racing notice published in the Troy Daily TimesThe Hudson River in New York’s Capital Region has always been a vital transportation link, and it also provides a conduit to undertakings of the past. The area presently occupied by Interstate-787 and its connectors to NY-378 were constructed on what had been a cluster of islands in the Hudson River, near Menands, between Albany and Watervliet.

Even in the 1820s, the road here became noted for unofficial, and illegal, horse racing. [Read more…] about The Capitol Region’s Race Course: Island Park

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Erastus Corning, Gambling, Historic Racetracks Series, Horses, Hudson River, Menands, Sports History, Vice, Watervliet

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