History, Natural History & the Arts
Thirty-one quarries dotted the limestone belt that stretches from end-to-end along the northern third of Schoharie County, NY.
Before the introduction of concrete in the early 1900s, these quarries supplied millions of tons of cut and finished stone to projects like the Brooklyn Bridge, the expanding NYS Barge Canal System, and hundreds of homes and prominent buildings meant to last for centuries. [Read more…] about Farming With Dynamite: The Stone Boom in Schoharie County
Nestled within New York City’s sprawling Chinatown is a little, one block street named Mosco. It is the last remnant of Cross Street (later Park Street) which originally ran from Lafayette Street on the west to Mott Street on the east in the first half of the 19th century.
The telescoping of Cross Street into Park Street and finally, into Mosco Street would normally be considered a sad diminution of a once proud thoroughfare were it not for the little street that remains in its wake. [Read more…] about Chinatown’s Mosco Street: A Last Remnant of the Five Points
On April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson declared America’s entrance into the First World War and initiated a nation-wide drive to strengthen the armed forces. It was decided that the commemorations of Patriots’ Day on April 19 should coincide with a “Wake up America Day” of recruitment. Every city hosted its own parties and spectacles.
In New York City, festivities were organized with decorated floats, patriotic banners and a grand vaudeville at Carnegie Hall starring Will Rogers, Ethel Barrymore, and others. James Montgomery Flagg designed the posters announcing the event. Fifth Avenue hosted a parade, whilst Army and Navy planes dropped pamphlets encouraging the crowd to summon the “Spirit of 1776.” [Read more…] about The First World War & New York City
Over time, there have been numerous taverns and pubs in England that carried the name of Hole-in-the-Wall. It has been suggested that the name is a biblical reference to Ezekiel 8:7: “And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.”
There is, in other words, an access to every secret which no man can seal off – there is “a crack in everything.” [Read more…] about Roguery & Mythmaking: Criminal Biographies From Claude Duval to Herbert Asbury
The Bronx United Drumline set the party atmosphere for a celebration of 50 years of Roberto Clemente State Park in the Bronx.
Roberto Clemente State Park is a 25-acre waterfront park located along the Harlem River. The park offers a variety of recreational and cultural activities year-round for youth, adults, senior citizens and the physically challenged. [Read more…] about Roberto Clemente State Park Celebrates Golden Anniversary
Although a few arrived in the 150 years before to exploit the region’s natural resources, French-speaking Canadians began settling in New York in larger numbers during and after the American Revolution (many as refugees from English power in Canada). [Read more…] about French Canadians in Northern New York: A Primer
The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) has committed to constructing new residential buildings at Belmont Park in Hempstead, Nassau County, and Saratoga Race Course designed to provide additional housing options for the backstretch workers’ community.
These projects are part of NYRA’s multi-year, $40 million campaign to modernize and improve backstretch housing and facilities at Belmont and Saratoga. [Read more…] about New Backstretch Housing Planned For Saratoga, Belmont
Historians have long assumed that immigration to the United States was free from regulation until anti-Asian racism on the West Coast triggered the introduction of federal laws to restrict Chinese immigration in the 1880s. Studies of European immigration and government control on the East Coast have, meanwhile, focused on Ellis Island, which opened in 1892. [Read more…] about Expelling the Poor: The Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy
Most people have heard of the musical Mangione brothers – Jazz artists Chuck and Gap of Rochester, New York. But there was also an interesting uncle – a writer, who was quite famous in his day. I first encountered Jerre Mangione while transcribing his handwritten letters to Jack Conroy, author of The Disinherited. [Read more…] about The Many Mangiones of Rochester
On November 2, 1820, the city of New York‘s Chamber of Commerce placed an advertisement in the Commercial Advertiser and other newspapers inviting merchant clerks to meet in Tontine Coffee House at 82 Wall Street and discuss forming of an organization that would be similar to Boston’s Mercantile Library (founded earlier that same year).
Nearly two hundred and fifty young men responded to the notice and joined the meeting which led to the creation of Manhattan’s Mercantile Library Association. [Read more…] about 1820s Literary Rivalry: Manhattan Versus Boston