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Long Island

Robert Moses: The Man New Yorkers Love to Hate

November 14, 2022 by Chris Kretz Leave a Comment

long island history project logoRobert Moses is the man many New Yorkers love to hate. This is in no small part due to his own hubris and the impact he had on the people living in the path of his massive construction projects. Add to that Robert Caro’s hard hitting 1974 biography The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (Vintage Book, 1975) and you’ve got a reputation that is hard to live down. [Read more…] about Robert Moses: The Man New Yorkers Love to Hate

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Engineering History, Environmental History, Long Island, Nassau County, New York City, Podcasts, Political History, Robert Moses, Suffolk County, Transportation History, Urban History

Death By Fire And Ice: The Steamboat Lexington Calamity

November 13, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Death by Fire and Ice The Steamboat Lexington CalamityIn January 1840 the steamboat Lexington left Manhattan bound for Stonington, Connecticut, at four o’clock in the afternoon on a bitterly cold day carrying an estimated one hundred forty-seven passengers and crew and a cargo of, among other things, baled cotton.

After making her way up an ice-encrusted East River and into Long Island Sound, she caught fire off Eaton’s Neck on Long Island’s north shore at approximately seven o’clock. The fire quickly ignited the cotton stowed on board. [Read more…] about Death By Fire And Ice: The Steamboat Lexington Calamity

Filed Under: Books, History, New York City Tagged With: Cornelius Vanderbilt, Long Island, Long Island Sound, Manhattan, Maritime History, New York City, Steamboating, Transportation History

Records Reveal an Overlooked Hero of the Culper Spy Ring

November 7, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Selah StrongIn late 1777, Patriot and Long Island-native Selah Strong was arrested for what in present-day terms would be regarded as spying. While Selah’s spouse, Anna “Nancy” Strong, and his close friends would be considered part of George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring, only a few historians have included Selah as a member.

This network of spies operated during the Revolutionary War and smuggled information out of the British headquarters in New York City via British-occupied Long Island and across the Long Island Sound, eventually to the Commander-in-Chief himself. By re-examining primary sources for the first time in hundreds of years, Selah’s heroic role in the Culper Spy Ring finally comes to light. [Read more…] about Records Reveal an Overlooked Hero of the Culper Spy Ring

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: American Revolution, Culper Spy Ring, Long Island, Long Island Sound, Military History, New York City, New York State Archives, Port Jefferson, Setauket, Suffolk County

Culper Spy Ring At Drowned Meadow, Long Island

November 6, 2022 by Chris Kretz Leave a Comment

long island history project logoToday we dive back into a discussion of the Culper Spy Ring, turning our attention to the area of Port Jefferson, Long Island or, more appropriately, its original incarnation of Drowned Meadow. The village of Port Jefferson is opening the Drowned Meadow Cottage Museum inside the 18th century home of Culper ring member Phillips Roe. [Read more…] about Culper Spy Ring At Drowned Meadow, Long Island

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: American Revolution, Culper Spy Ring, Drowned Meadow Cottage Museum, Long Island, Military History, Podcasts, Port Jefferson, Setauket, Suffolk County

Ferguson Brothers Lynchings on Long Island: A Civil Rights Catalyst

October 30, 2022 by Alan J. Singer 4 Comments

Charles Ferguson’s enlistment picture into the Army Air Corps, 1941.In a book dedicated to Wilfred Ferguson, the son of Charles Ferguson, teacher and historian Christopher Verga resurrects the story of two Roosevelt, New York brothers killed by a Freeport police officer in 1946.

Verga opens The Ferguson Brothers Lynchings on Long Island: A Civil Rights Catalyst (History Press, 2022) with an account of the long history of racism on Long Island and in the Freeport area including Ku Klux Klan activity. The background to the 1946 killings takes up the first third of the book. The book is well researched and referenced with extended quotes from official court documents and newspaper accounts. [Read more…] about Ferguson Brothers Lynchings on Long Island: A Civil Rights Catalyst

Filed Under: Books, History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Civil Rights, Crime and Justice, Freeport, Ku Klux Klan, Legal History, Long Island, Nassau County, Political History, Thomas Dewey

Long Island’s Barrier Beaches: Gilgo Culture & History

October 17, 2022 by Chris Kretz Leave a Comment

long island history project logoLong Island’s barrier beaches are fascinating places. Stretched along the south shore of the island, they persist through much of Long Island history as wild natural landscapes constantly shifting and remolded by the Atlantic Ocean. And despite the storms and shipwrecks and isolation, people have persisted in thinking “I want to live there.” [Read more…] about Long Island’s Barrier Beaches: Gilgo Culture & History

Filed Under: History, Nature, New York City Tagged With: Atlantic Ocean, Babylon, Great South Bay, Long Island, nature, Podcasts, Robert Moses

Cranberry Bogs of Long Island: Some History & Natural History

October 15, 2022 by Tim Huss 2 Comments

A Suffolk County Cranberry Bog in the early 20th century (courtesy Suffolk County HIstorical Society)Nearly everyone has enjoyed the several products derived from the fruit of the cranberry, but few people are familiar with the ecology of this interesting plant or the role it has played in many local economies and histories.

Today the cranberry industry is an important. part of the agricultural economy only in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. But many other parts of the country were at one time in­volved in cranberry production. [Read more…] about Cranberry Bogs of Long Island: Some History & Natural History

Filed Under: Food, History, Nature, New York City Tagged With: Agricultural History, Christmas, Culinary History, Fruit, Islip, local farms, Long Island, Native Plants, Peconic River, Riverhead, Thanksgiving

Revelations From William Sidney Mount’s Long Island Paintings

October 7, 2022 by Chris Kretz Leave a Comment

long island history project logoWilliam Sidney Mount was known for his keenly-observed portraits and scenes of everyday life on Long Island during the first half of the 19th century. He portrayed farmers, fiddlers, tradesmen, and workers in their natural haunts, laughing, singing, and enjoying life. [Read more…] about Revelations From William Sidney Mount’s Long Island Paintings

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Art History, Long Island, Old Field, painting, Podcasts, Setauket, Stony Brook, Suffolk County

Hempstead Plains Environmental & Cultural History

October 2, 2022 by Chris Kretz Leave a Comment

long island history project logoThe Hempstead Plains were once a defining feature of Long Island. Covering some 40,000 acres, the Plains stretched from the Queens border in the west to the Suffolk border in the east, creating a sea of waist-high grass in the middle of what is now Nassau County.

Remnants of the Plains still remain, most notably in a 17-acre segment on the campus of Nassau Community College preserved by the Friends of Hempstead Plains. [Read more…] about Hempstead Plains Environmental & Cultural History

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Aviation History, Cultural History, Environmental History, Hempstead Plains, Horses, Long Island, Nassau County, Podcasts, Spanish-American War

Despite Statewide Decline, DEC Expands Wild Turkey Hunting on Long Island

September 18, 2022 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

Turkey by Gordon EllmersNew York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced changes to wild turkey hunting regulations that will provide hunters additional hunting opportunities on Long Island.

This despite the fact that turkey populations in New York State peaked in the late 1990s and early 2000s and over the past decade, turkey productivity has consistently been below average, leading to lower populations. [Read more…] about Despite Statewide Decline, DEC Expands Wild Turkey Hunting on Long Island

Filed Under: Nature, New York City, Recreation Tagged With: DEC, Environmental History, hunting, Long Island, nature, Suffolk County, Turkeys, Wildlife

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