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German-American History

Manhattan’s Great Art Dealers: Some History

January 4, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Mary Mason Jones’ marble mansionManhattan’s 57th Street, the world’s “most expensive” street, was laid out and opened in 1857 as the city of New York expanded northward.

With the Hudson and East Rivers on either end, the area was until then largely uninhabited and clustered with small factories and workshops. As late as the 1860s, the area east of Central Park was a shantytown with up to 5,000 squatters.

Half a century later it was Manhattan’s cultural heart and an intercontinental meeting place of artists, collectors and dealers. [Read more…] about Manhattan’s Great Art Dealers: Some History

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Art History, French History, German-American History, Immigration, Impressionism, Manhattan, modernism, Museum of Modern Art, Museums, New York City, painting, spanish history

Mayonnaise, Hollandaise, Huguenots and Nostalgia: A Culinary History

December 20, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

Advertising piece for Richard Hellmann's Blue Ribbon Mayonnaise, 1926What and where a person eats, suggests togetherness with one community and dis-identification with another and is therefore a factor that affects all migrant communities. Consumption conveys an idea of public identity.

Food can also serve as a psychological stimulus by unlocking emotional childhood reminiscences. Such experiences have frequently been expressed creatively. There are, for example, the uncooked wrinkled French prunes for Tolstoy’s Ivan Il’ich or the famous “petites madeleines” for Marcel Proust’s Swann that recapture vivid images of early years. [Read more…] about Mayonnaise, Hollandaise, Huguenots and Nostalgia: A Culinary History

Filed Under: Food, History, New York City Tagged With: Culinary History, French History, German-American History, Huguenots, Immigration, Long Island City, Manhattan, Netherlands, New York City, Queens

William Henry Arlt’s Painting ‘Flowers’ Being Conserved

December 15, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Flowers, William H. Arlt, 1949The Historical Society of Woodstock‘s goal of conserving works in need of care in its fine art collection received a boost this month when the Historical Society was awarded a grant of $2,750 to conserve an important floral still life on paper by William Henry Arlt (1868-1952).

The grant, from New York State Council on the Arts and the Greater Hudson Heritage Network’s Conservation Grant Program, will be used to conserve the gouache which dates from 1949. [Read more…] about William Henry Arlt’s Painting ‘Flowers’ Being Conserved

Filed Under: Arts, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: art, Fiber Arts - Textiles, German-American History, Historic Preservation, Historical Society of Woodstock, Ulster County, Woodstock

Culture War, Transatlantic Migration & The Wreck of the SS Deutschland

December 6, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 3 Comments

An 1875 caricature of Bismarck and Pope Pius IX playing a game of chess symbolizing the Kulturkampf (Culture War)Following the mid-nineteenth century revolution in steamship building, transatlantic passenger transport became a profitable enterprise. Travel went global, giving rise to an intercontinental “travel industry.”

Commercial oceanic transportation boomed. Bremen-based NDL (Norddeutscher Lloyd) and Hamburg-based HAPAG (Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Aktiengesellschaft) became the largest shipping companies in the world. [Read more…] about Culture War, Transatlantic Migration & The Wreck of the SS Deutschland

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Atlantic Ocean, Catholicism, Cultural History, German-American History, Immigration, Nativism, Poetry, Religious History, Shipwrecks, Steamboating

Werner Brewery of Saratoga County: Some History

November 20, 2022 by Dave Waite 1 Comment

Werner brewery and farm in HalfmoonToday there are at least two breweries along the Route 9 corridor in Eastern Saratoga County, each offering their own brand of unique microbrews. Looking back in county history, we find that the commercial production of ale can trace its roots to well before the Civil War, with one of the earliest being the Werner family brewery in the town of Halfmoon. [Read more…] about Werner Brewery of Saratoga County: Some History

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: beer, German-American History, Halfmoon, Industrial History, Mechanicville, Medical History, Patent Medicine, Saratoga County, Saratoga County History Center, Saratoga County History Roundtable

Never Before Seen Kristallnacht Photos Shine Light On Fascism

November 11, 2022 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

page from a rare album featuring photos taken by Nazi photographers during the November PogromA recently discovered photo album donated to Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, includes rare, never-before-seen photos of “Kristallnacht,” on the night of November 9, 1938.

During that night Nazis and their supporters ransacked and demolished Jewish homes, hospitals and schools; destroyed 267 synagogues; damaged or destroyed more than 7,000 Jewish businesses; and arrested and sent to concentration camps some 30,000 Jewish men. [Read more…] about Never Before Seen Kristallnacht Photos Shine Light On Fascism

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Crime and Justice, Documentary, German-American History, Jewish History, Photography, World War Two

Learning To Be A Leatherman: A Leather Business Memoir (Podcast)

November 4, 2022 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians podcast, Rod Correll discusses his memoir Learning to Be a Leatherman: A Rite of Passage (Troy Book Makers, 2022). Correll lived in the leather business for 50 years, from childhood up to when he left the business in the 1980s. [Read more…] about Learning To Be A Leatherman: A Leather Business Memoir (Podcast)

Filed Under: History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: Fashion History, Fulton County, German-American History, Gloversville, Industrial History, Labor History, Podcasts

When Manhattan Spoke German: Lüchow’s, Würzburger & Little Germany

November 2, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 6 Comments

Lüchow’s in April 1896Since it foundation, German settlers had been present in New Amsterdam (Peter Minuit was a native of Wesel am Rhein), but the significant arrival of German-speaking migrants took place towards the middle of the nineteenth century. By 1840 more than 24,000 of them had made New York their home.

In the next two decades, when large parts of the territory were plunged into deep socio-political and economic problems, another hundred thousand Germans crossed the Atlantic turning New York into the world’s third-largest German-speaking city, after Berlin and Vienna. [Read more…] about When Manhattan Spoke German: Lüchow’s, Würzburger & Little Germany

Filed Under: Arts, Food, History, New York City Tagged With: beer, Culinary History, Cultural History, German-American History, Immigration, Lower East Side, Manhattan, Nativism, New York City, Performing Arts, Prohibition, World War One

Bayreuth & New York; Wagner & Bernstein

October 10, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

Richard Wagner’s villa in BayreuthIn 1943 Henry Alexander Murray, a psychologist at Harvard University, was commissioned by William Joseph Donovan (“Wild Bill Donovan”) – founding father of the CIA – to prepare an investigative report on behalf of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Designated as the “Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler,” it became a ground-breaking study in the fields of offender profiling and political psychology. The inquiry into the malignant and narcissistic personality of the Führer was an effort to understand the “charismatic” nature of his leadership and an attempt to “predict” patterns of his behavior and actions. [Read more…] about Bayreuth & New York; Wagner & Bernstein

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: German-American History, Jewish History, LGBTQ, Military History, Music, Musical History, Performing Arts, Psychology, Theatre, World War Two

Hulda of Bohemia: The Accused Witch of Sleepy Hollow

October 10, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Hulda GravestoneEach fall, tens of thousands of people from around the world flock to Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County, New York to visit the burial ground made famous in Washington Irving’s 1819 tale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. In Irving’s tale of “the Headless Horseman,” a German soldier is said to return to the grave-site, in search of his head that was lost during America’s Revolutionary War. [Read more…] about Hulda of Bohemia: The Accused Witch of Sleepy Hollow

Filed Under: Events, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: American Revolution, Cemeteries, German-American History, Halloween, Literature, Mount Pleasant, Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving, Westchester County, Witch Trials

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