New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Massachusetts Historical Society

Hidden in Plain Sight: Remembering Queer Nightlife

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hidden in plane sightThroughout history rarely have LGBTQ+ clubs, meeting places, and social areas been landmarked or turned into a museum. House museums that were once homes to Queer residents can pose difficult questions about the interpretation if the former residents were not public about their identity in their lifetime.

Many important sites in Queer history don’t exist anymore; clubs have closed, publications have shut down, buildings have been razed or radically altered, but these are still spaces that exist in the history and memory of the Queer community. [Read more…] about Hidden in Plain Sight: Remembering Queer Nightlife

A Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement

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Public Faces Secret Lives by Wendy RouseIn the new book Public Faces, Secret Lives: A Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement (NYU Press, 2022) Wendy L. Rouse of San Jose State University reveals that the suffrage movement included individuals who represented a range of genders and sexualities. However, owing to the constant pressure to present a “respectable” public image, suffrage leaders publicly conformed to gendered views of ideal womanhood in order to make women’s suffrage more palatable to the public. [Read more…] about A Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement

A Decent Home: The 1950s Suburban Boom on Long Island

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Aerial view of Levittown, Long Island in the 1950sThe Housing Act of 1949 was passed to help address the decline of urban housing following the exodus to the suburbs. The legislation provided governance over how federal financial resources would shape the growth of American cities.

The landmark legislation ushered in a sweeping expansion of the federal role in mortgage insurance and issuance and the construction of public housing. It was part of President Harry Truman’s program of domestic legislation, the Fair Deal. [Read more…] about A Decent Home: The 1950s Suburban Boom on Long Island

Queer Abby: Newspaper Advice Columnists as Allies for Gays and Lesbians, 1960-1980

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Queer Abby eventFrom the early 1960s onward, columnists like Abigail Van Buren, Ann Landers, and Helen Bottel elevated queer voices to millions of readers. Within the context of the nascent homophile movement, nationally syndicated columnists created alternative platforms for mediated discussions about queer sexualities. They proliferated information that could be otherwise difficult to obtain, and occasionally provided counsel intended to destigmatize queer desire.

Advice columns, by their interactive nature, provided queer people a forum to discuss their identities, articulate their desires, and contradict misconceptions about homosexuality before mainstream audiences. [Read more…] about Queer Abby: Newspaper Advice Columnists as Allies for Gays and Lesbians, 1960-1980

Hated Cage: American Tragedy in Britain’s Dartmoor Prison

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Dartmoor Prison, as it appeared in 1812After the War of 1812, more than five thousand American sailors were marooned in Dartmoor Prison on a barren English plain; the conflict was over but they had been left to rot by their government.

Although they shared a common nationality, the men were divided by race: nearly a thousand were Black, and at the behest of the White prisoners, Dartmoor became a racially segregated prison. [Read more…] about Hated Cage: American Tragedy in Britain’s Dartmoor Prison

Repercussions of COVID-19 Cultural Institutions

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Massachusetts Historical SocietyThe Massachusetts Historical Society will host “Reflecting on Repercussions of COVID-19 Cultural Institutions,” a program on the difficulties experienced by cultural institutions of varying sizes and purposes throughout COVID-19, set for Thursday, March 24th. [Read more…] about Repercussions of COVID-19 Cultural Institutions

George Washington’s Hair: Early Americans Remember the Founders

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George Washington's HairMostly hidden from public view, scores of putative locks of George Washington’s hair are held, more than two centuries after his death, in the collections of America’s historical societies, public and academic archives, and museums. Excavating the origins of these bodily artifacts, Keith Beutler looks at a forgotten strand of early American memory practices and emerging patriotic identity, as exemplified by the craze for collecting locks of Washington’s hair. [Read more…] about George Washington’s Hair: Early Americans Remember the Founders

Medical Racism: The Case of Juliette Derricotte

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Juliette Derricotte, graduation from Talladega University, 1918On November 6th, 1931, Juliette Derricotte was killed in a car accident just outside of Dalton, Georgia. Although the thirty-four-old social reformer survived the initial collision, she later succumbed to her injuries because the local hospital did not treat African Americans.

An outpouring of anger and sadness followed, but hers was not an isolated incident. Several organizations used her tragic example to draw attention to the frequent denial of emergency medical care to injured and sick Black people during the Jim Crow Era. [Read more…] about Medical Racism: The Case of Juliette Derricotte