New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Jewish History

Never Before Seen Kristallnacht Photos Shine Light On Fascism

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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

Bayreuth & New York; Wagner & Bernstein

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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

Comic Book Artist Jack Binder & Fort William Henry History

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figures created by Jack BinderWhat might Lake George have looked like 265 years ago, on the eve of the French attack on Fort William Henry?

That’s the focus of the display in the entryway to the Fort museum and historical attraction. It includes three figures – an American provincial, a British regular and a ranger, all created by the late Jack Binder for the reconstructed fort, which opened to the public in 1955. [Read more…] about Comic Book Artist Jack Binder & Fort William Henry History

Julien Levy & Art at the Heart of Manhattan

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Berenice Abbot’s portrait of Julien Levy in ParisThe late 1920s and 1930s were crucial years in New York’s rise as an international artistic center. Cultural contacts between Europe and the United States multiplied. American artists who had studied in Paris returned with fresh ambitions; dollar rich patrons were willing to finance new initiatives; the First World War had unsettled European artists and gallerists, many of whom settled in New York. They were joined by others who fled the Nazi threat. Manhattan was turning into a Mecca of modernism where a multi-national cohort of artists, dealers and investors mixed and mingled.

By our standards the art world was relatively small. At any one time in that epoch, there were probably fewer than fifteen galleries active in New York with only a handful concentrating on contemporary art. A pioneering role was played by Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery on Fifth Avenue. Operational since 1905, the gallery introduced the Parisian avant-garde to an American audience. In modernist Manhattan, Stieglitz was the Godfather. [Read more…] about Julien Levy & Art at the Heart of Manhattan

The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton

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ben franklins world podcastIn this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Andrew Porwancher, the Wick Cary Associate Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma and the Ernest May Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center, joins Liz Covart to investigate the Jewish world and upbringing of Alexander Hamilton using details from his book, The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton (Princeton, 2021). [Read more…] about The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton

The 1962 Catskills High View House Fire

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Liberty Supervisor William E. PearsonEarly in the morning on Friday, July 13th, 1962 fire was discovered in one of the buildings at Hankin’s High View House, just outside Liberty, Sullivan County, NY in the Catskills. Firefighters were on the scene within minutes and were able to contain the blaze, while hotel staff and ambulance personnel attended to the injured, but before it was over five people would be dead and one of the heroes of the tragedy would be in jail, charged with multiple counts of first degree murder.

In the aftermath, local officials would try in vain to tighten the fire laws governing small hotels. [Read more…] about The 1962 Catskills High View House Fire

Borscht Belt Tattler: Sha-wan-ga Lodge, 1923-1972

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Borscht Belt Tattler PodcastOn this week’s episode of The Borscht Belt Tattler podcast, Gary Dan talks about the former Sha-wan-ga Lodge, his family’s Catskills hotel which operated from 1923-1972 in the hamlet of High View, Mamakating, Sullivan County, NY.

Dan talks about how it all started, his memories growing up there, life after the hotel closed, and the tribute webpage he started with his late father Abby Dan which is contributing to the legacy of the Borscht Belt. [Read more…] about Borscht Belt Tattler: Sha-wan-ga Lodge, 1923-1972

Bankers and Brush Makers: What’s in a Name?

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Banker and philanthropist Felix Moritz Warburg was born in January 1871 in Hamburg. In 1895 he married Frieda Schiff, the only daughter of the New York financier Jacob Schiff. In 1908 the couple had a six-story mansion built in a French Gothic Revival style on Fifth Avenue. Felix died in October 1937 and was buried in Salem Fields Cemetery, Brooklyn. Seven years later his widow donated their estate as a permanent home for New York’s Jewish Museum.

The source and context of the topographic Warburg surname throws light on complex historical patterns of migration. [Read more…] about Bankers and Brush Makers: What’s in a Name?

Wilhelm Grosz: The Red Sails of Forced Migration

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Wilhelm Grosz towards the end of his life courtesy The Wilhelm Grosz EstateOne of the top-grossing American films of 1940 was the western Santa Fe Trail, the seventh Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland collaboration. The story concerns John Brown’s campaign against slavery just before the outbreak of the Civil War. Starting out on an acting career, young Ronald Reagan appeared in the story line as George Armstrong Custer. [Read more…] about Wilhelm Grosz: The Red Sails of Forced Migration

Architect Adolf Loos and the American Legacy in Vienna

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Golden Arch at Louis Sullivan’s Transportation Building at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition A chronology of cultural interactions between Europe and the United States tends to be a narrative about identity formation. It concerns the transfer of the American artist from a pilgrim to the shrines of European achievement to an active participant in redefining the boundaries of art and literature.

European modernism was the spontaneous expression of gifted but rebellious youngsters. It was rooted in urban settings and the post-war influx of young American writers fleeing the puritanical spirit at home added energy to the avant-garde. The presence of African-American performers and musicians boosted the raucous mood amongst the cosmopolitan mix of artists in Paris and Berlin.

Modernism had started with joyful artistic irreverence, it suffered in the trenches and, under the repression of the 1930s, was forced to seek asylum in New York. As war in Europe became inevitable, most cultural exiles returned to America, bringing with them a bounty of experience to fructify the cultural landscape at home (the term “lost generation” is a misnomer).

Such an account however obscures the fact that young and curious visitors to the United States – unlike their elders who resented the prospect of “Americanization” – returned home inspired by what they had experienced whilst questioning Europe’s haughty pretension of cultural superiority. [Read more…] about Architect Adolf Loos and the American Legacy in Vienna