History, Natural History & the Arts
Curiosity about Hollywood’s take on Steve Brodie’s claim that he jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge on July 23, 1886 drew viewers to FX Movie Channel’s recent broadcast of the seldom-shown 1933 movie The Bowery.
Produced by Darryl Zanuck and directed by Raoul Walsh, the movie also promised to show how the bare-knuckle boxer, John L. Sullivan, and the saloon-smashing reformer, Carrie Nation, fit into Brodie’s life. [Read more…] about 1930s Film: The Bowery, Social Sensibility and Change
On June 12, 1909, New York City began an eight-day celebration of the connection of the East Side of Manhattan with Long Island City in Queens with the Queensboro Bridge, designed by Henry Hornbostel.
Though it officially opened to traffic on March 30, 1909, the June festivities drew over 300,000 people (larger than the population of Queens at the time) to see the bridge lit up with electricity, and hear 1,500 children sing the “Star-Spangled Banner” in its honor. It meant that crossing the East River was no longer an obstacle to the development of the borough of Queens. [Read more…] about When The City Celebrated The Queensboro Bridge
The Committee to Save the New York Public Library will hold a vigil in opposition to the plans for the NYPL’s 42nd Street and Mid Manhattan Libraries on Monday, June 3rd, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM at the 5th Avenue entrance to the 42nd Street Library.
The vigil will coincide with the New York Public Library Spring fundraising gala. The event is co-sponsored by Citizens Defending Libraries, and will feature an appearance by Rev. Billy and his choir. [Read more…] about Opposition Vigil Planned at NYPL Fundraising Gala
The Committee to Save the New York Public Library has just released a point-by-point rebuttal of claims made by the New York Public Library (NYPL) administration over a controversial plan for the library’s 42nd Street branch.
Previously, the Committee issued a document entitled “The Truth About the Central Library Plan,” which it calls an “analysis of the NYPL’s plan to gut the 42nd Street Library and sell the Mid-Manhattan Library and Science, Industry and Business Library.” The latest volley in the battle over the library is a response to NYPL’s recent “Setting the Record Straight,” an attempt to counter critics. [Read more…] about Advocates Respond To New York Public Library Claims
The High Bridge is scheduled to reopen. This bridge is not to be confused with the High Line in Manhattan which is not a bridge. The High Bridge is a closed pedestrian crossing connecting the Bronx and Manhattan. The 1200 foot span was built in 1848 and is the oldest bridge in the city. It was constructed as part of the Croton Aqueduct system which carried water from Westchester to New York City.
The Croton Aqueduct still functions in Westchester not as a water-carrying system but as an elongated trail somewhat paralleling the Hudson River from Croton to Yonkers. The Aqueduct has devoted followers and a friends group and always is being used by hikers, strollers, runners, and families. It forms a living thread uniting the communities of the county. [Read more…] about New York’s Historic ‘Bridges Over Troubled Waters’
It now seems hard to believe that for most of the latter part of the 19th century, New York City was the cigar making capital of the United States.
New York State as a whole had 364 cities and towns with 4,495 cigar factories and 1,875 (41%) of these were operating in mid and lower Manhattan. The island which then comprised the City, made 10 times the number of cigars as Havana, Cuba.
At the city’s peak before WWI and the beginning of the Machine-Age, approximately 3,000 factories, including many of America’s largest, rolled cigars in Manhattan. [Read more…] about Torcedores: Gotham’s Hispanic Cigar Rollers at Work
On April 3, 1783 Writer and satirist Washington Irving was born in New York City. He best known for his short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” but I will always love him best for coining the name of New York’s basketball team!
In 1809, Irving published his first major book, A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker. Through the Knickerbocker pseudonym, Irving poked fun at the city’s self-important Dutch elite, in which Knickerbocker was a fairly common last name. He also pulled an elaborate prank in anticipation of the book’s release, posting “missing person” adverts in city newspapers, claiming Knickerbocker, a Dutch historian, had gone missing from his hotel room. [Read more…] about Happy Birthday Washington Irving!
Many New Yorkers say the reason you can’t get a good bagel anywhere else is because of New York City’s tap water, and indeed, we have some of the best in the country.
But that wasn’t always the case. Early 18th century inhabitants rarely had clean drinking water (in fact, beer was a more trusted drink than water), but that all changed in 1799 with the founding of the Manhattan Water Company and pipes like this. [Read more…] about A Short History of Manhattan’s Water Supply
Manhattanites are agitating on behalf of the home of one of the city’s leading 19th Century agitators–Abigail Hopper Gibbons. She and her husband James S. Gibbons ran a strongly documented Underground Railroad site in Manhattan, at what is now 339 West 29th St., near 8th Avenue.
A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 12, at the Bureau of Standards and Appeals, over a developer’s decision to add fifth floor to the four-story building, in violation of historic preservation rules.
[Read more…] about Preservation Fight At Manhattan Underground RR Site
Manhattan’s Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden is hosting a series of lectures this month. The Mount Vernon Hotel Museum building was constructed in 1799 as a carriage house and converted into a “day hotel” in 1826. Today the museum transports visitors back to that Mount Vernon Hotel, a 19th-century country resort for New Yorkers escaping the crowded city below 14th Street. These lectures are made possible in part by the support of the New York Council for the Humanities. Tickets are $10 for adults per lecture but free for students and seniors.
MARKET AND MEMORY: THE WAR OF 1812 IN COMMODITY AND SONG
On three consecutive Wednesdays participants can discover how the War of 1812 was remembered and celebrated in objects and song.
May 2nd at 6pm
Musicians Frank Hendricks and Linda Pratt examine the War’s long legacy in song.
May 9th at 6pm
Ronald W. Fuchs, Curator, Reeves Collection, Washington & Lee University, discusses the New York market for commemorative ceramics made in the UK after the War.
May 16th at 6pm
David Jaffee, Professor, Bard Graduate Center, looks at commemorations, parades, and newspaper accounts that celebrated heroes and battles.
THEY KEPT THEIR WORD
Thursday, May 10th, at 6pm
Hear about the important contributions of African-American women in literary societies in early 19th-century America. Women learned crucial writing, oration, and reasoning skills at literary societies that prepared them to claim the right of citizenship. Storytellers Debra Johnson and Sharon Holley combine their original research in Buffalo’s African-American Community with material from the Buffalo-Erie Historical Society.