History, Natural History & the Arts
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Charles J. LaRocca’s new novel The Red Badge to Gettysburg: An Episode of the American Civil War (2021) is a sequel to Stephen Crane’s classic novel, The Red Badge of Courage, based on the actions of the 124th NYSV, the famed “Orange Blossoms” from Orange County, New York. [Read more…] about New Civil War Novel Based On 124th NY Volunteers
Pictures of street hawkers with their trade shouts recorded in captions of poetry or prose are known as “Cries.” They first appeared in Paris around 1500. This early creation of an urban iconography included socially marginal people such as vagrants, beggars, prostitutes, and others.
Fifty years later, these images were established as a stylistic category across Europe. Eventually, they would make their way to New York. [Read more…] about Urban Cries: Street Hawkers’ Shouts in New York & London
Although much remains unclear about the origins of Cockney rhyming slang, there is a consensus that it stems from London’s East End, dates back to the 1840s, and is alive and thriving. One slang expression reads “on one’s tod,” meaning: on one’s own; all alone. The phrase is a shortened version of the original “on one’s Tod Sloan.”
In full, these four words offer a multi-colored mosaic of socio-cultural events involving Manhattan, London, and Paris. [Read more…] about Slang, Stirrups, Paris in the 20s, and the Invention of the Bloody Mary
In the third episode of the podcast series Legends and Lore of the Empire State, A New York Minute In History explores the inspirations behind Washington Irving’s Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820). [Read more…] about The Inspiration Behind Ichabod Crane And The Headless Horseman (Podacst)
The Empire State Center for the Book has decided to postpone its annual event honoring inductees to the New York State Writers Hall of Fame due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The group said the decision was made in consultation with its co-sponsor and collaborator the New York State Writers Institute at the State University at Albany. Organizers say it will be the first time in 11 years the induction ceremony has not taken place. [Read more…] about NYS Writers Hall of Fame Induction Postponed
On March 25, 1833, the celebrated Shakespearian actor Edmund Kean collapsed on stage at London’s Covent Garden while playing the role of Othello. He died shortly thereafter.
Sixteen days later, New York-born Ira Frederick Aldridge – known as the ‘Negro Tragedian’ – was asked to replace him as the Moor. His chequered career in England coincided with the final push towards the abolition of the slave trade there. [Read more…] about New York’s Black Othello, Ira Aldridge
In the first edition of his Dictionary of the English Language (1755) the term lexicographer is defined by Samuel Johnson as a ‘harmless drudge that busies himself in … detailing the signification of words’. A dunce, in other words. Really?
Rogue’s Lexicon
Born in New York, George Washington Matsell was the son of an immigrant family from Helhoughton (near Fakenham), Norfolk. His father ran a bookshop on Broadway. Following in his footsteps, George opened up his own premises on Chatham Street, Manhattan (renamed Park Row in 1886). A man of words (in 1866 he acquired ownership of the National Police Gazette), he also took an interest in matters of law and order. He became a magistrate in 1840 and was appointed the first Commissioner of the New York City Police Department after its formation in 1844. [Read more…] about Words From Underground: Madness and the OED
“Whether Binghamton appreciates good music and other cultural programs was a matter of dispute today.” This observation in The Binghamton Press on May 3, 1946 arose when the newspaper interviewed residents about an upcoming music festival.
If the newspaper had conducted the same interview when Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and Hazel Scott presented their “cultural programs” one year earlier, there would not have been many negative responses. As the Second World War drew to a close, the city welcomed three iconic African American artists. [Read more…] about Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and Hazel Scott in 1940s Binghamton
Daniel Defoe’s The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (1722) is the story of the notorious life and ultimate repentance of a woman who lived much of her adult life as a prostitute and thief. Set in London, the novel reflects immigrant urban life. It’s a tale told by a woman who does not reveal her real name, but to fellow streetwalkers she is known as Moll Flanders.
She was just six months old when her mother was imprisoned for stealing three pieces of fine “Holland” (imported Dutch fabric) from a draper in Cheapside. The baby was “sold” and spent time in the company of “gypsies” before running off as a child ending up in Colchester. The story starts amid the textile industry of Colchester and Norwich, noted for its refugees from the Low Countries. [Read more…] about Moll Flanders in Manhattan (Daniel Defoe and Martin Scorcese)
This week on The Historians Podcast, Marta McDowell discusses her book about a 19th century American poet, Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life. McDowell was gardener-in-residence last year at the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. [Read more…] about Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life