• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Four Nymphs, a Satyr and Manhattan’s Ladies’ Mile

May 8, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Portrait of John David WolfeUntil the mid-1860s the Fifth Avenue area around Madison Square was Manhattan’s “aristocratic” heart. Its brownstone mansions were occupied by the city’s elite. The gradual incursion of commerce into this residential haven started with high-class hotels.

In 1864 Hoffmann House was one of the first to open its doors. Owned by Cassius H. Read, it was located on the corner of 25th Street & Broadway and contained tree hundred rooms with all the latest conveniences. The establishment proudly advertised its lavish furnishings, carefully chosen artworks, and refined French (Parisian) cuisine. At a time that hotel living was becoming a fashionable alternative to owning a family mansion for wealthy New Yorkers, Hoffmann House was recommended as the most comfortable and homelike residence in the metropolis.

During the 1880s the hotel’s “grand salon” became one of New York’s “secretive” attractions for a very specific reason. [Read more…] about Four Nymphs, a Satyr and Manhattan’s Ladies’ Mile

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: American Museum of Natural History, Anthony Comstock, Art History, Crime and Justice, Cultural History, French History, Hudson River Railroad, James Fisk, Manhattan, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, painting, Pop Culture History, Vice

George Deem, Bulldozers and Stalinist Suppression

April 11, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 3 Comments

George DeemManhattan artist George Deem is remembered for referencing the history of painting by re-imagining Old Masters in a contemporary context. He re-configured iconic pictorial images through visual ploys such as repetition and erasure, or through the addition of components of contemporary life and art. [Read more…] about George Deem, Bulldozers and Stalinist Suppression

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Art History, Chicago, Cultural History, Literature, Long Island, Manhattan, Metropolitan Museum of Art, modernism, New York City, painting, Russian History, Writing

Meppel to Manhattan: Duveen, Altman, and the Relocation of European Art

July 19, 2021 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

front of Benjamin Altmans Department StoreMeppel is relatively small Dutch municipality in the north-easterly agricultural province of Drenthe. It is a market town for dairy products, cereals, and pigs. What is the association between this sleepy country place and cosmopolitan New York City? [Read more…] about Meppel to Manhattan: Duveen, Altman, and the Relocation of European Art

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: art, Art History, Cultural History, Jewish History, Manhattan, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Amsterdam, New Netherland, New York City

Ballston’s Hawkwood Estate: Teddy Roosevelt, Guy Baker & The Countess

January 8, 2021 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Hawkwood circa 1900Theodore Roosevelt spent a bit of time in Saratoga County, particularly in the years leading up to and including his time as Governor of New York (1899-1900).

TR would often visit a friend, Guy Baker, who lived in Ballston. He hunted on Baker’s Hawkwood estate and sometimes brought members of his family for short visits with the Bakers. [Read more…] about Ballston’s Hawkwood Estate: Teddy Roosevelt, Guy Baker & The Countess

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Ballston Lake, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Saratoga, Saratoga County, Saratoga County History Center, Saratoga County History Roundtable, Theodore Roosevelt

Utica Area Artist’s Work Acquired by the Met

November 1, 2018 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

A Volcano Pilgrim in Exchange for Fire by Serena PerroneA work by Serena Perrone, Assistant Professor of Printmaking and Drawing at PrattMWP College of Art and Design, Utica, has recently been acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in the City of New York. [Read more…] about Utica Area Artist’s Work Acquired by the Met

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mohawk Valley, Utica

New York Museum Exhibit Catalogues Recognized

May 9, 2014 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

AAMCThe Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) has announced its annual Awards for Excellence in the categories of museum Catalogues, Articles/Essays, and Exhibitions.

Four New York Museums were recognized in the Catalogues category, with first place for museums with an operating budget of $4M going to The Polaroid Years: Instant Photography and Experimentation by Mary-Kay Lombino and Peter Buse, of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York. [Read more…] about New York Museum Exhibit Catalogues Recognized

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Art History, Association of Art Museum Curators, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Hyde Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art

Met Museum of Art Archives Opens Two Collections

April 3, 2014 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

MetThe Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives has announced the availability for research of two collections of records of 20th century museum officials.

These are among 15 collections being arranged, described, and cataloged over 27 months with funding from the Leon Levy Foundation. Work on the approximately 300 linear feet of records by two full-time archivists began in January 2013. Finding aids are now available online for: [Read more…] about Met Museum of Art Archives Opens Two Collections

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Archives, Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Online Resources

Mystery of the Albany Mummies Exhibition, Lectures

September 19, 2013 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

albany mummy_9619 spr 9-21-09 vertIn conjunction with its newest exhibition The Mystery of the Albany Mummies, the Albany Institute of History & Art will host an international lecture series. The first lecture will take place on this Sunday, September 22, 2013, at 2 PM.

Dr. Peter Lacovara, Senior Curator of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern Art at the Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta, and guest curator of the new exhibition, will explore how he helped solve the mystery of the Albany mummies, gathered objects from around the world to tell the story of Ankhefenmut and his coffin, and how the exhibition offers a window into the life in ancient Egypt’s 21st Dynasty. The lecture is free with museum admission. [Read more…] about Mystery of the Albany Mummies Exhibition, Lectures

Filed Under: History, New Exhibits Tagged With: Albany, Albany Institute For History and Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

New Online Resources For New York History

June 12, 2013 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Apple ComputerHere’s a quick look at some of the latest New York History resources to hit the web:

  • The Syracuse University Archives has completed the processing of the George Fisk Comfort Family Collection, dating from 1822 to 1956, which contains a significant amount of material from George Fisk Comfort (1833-1910), the first dean of the (now defunct) College of Fine Arts at Syracuse University, and was involved in the establishment the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as what is now the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse. The collection also includes material associated with Silas Comfort, a Methodist minister and Anna Manning Comfort. Various items, such as letters and family photographs, were digitized and are available in the online finding aid. [Read more…] about New Online Resources For New York History

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Art History, Genealogy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Online Resources, Syracuse, Syracuse University

Coldengham: The Colden Family Seat in Orange County

April 16, 2013 by A. J. Schenkman 3 Comments

Colden_Mansion_Ruins-Daniel CaseJust about any morning, cars as well as trucks race back and forth through the intersection of Stone Castle Road and Route 17K in the Town of Montgomery. Many of these commuters, shoppers, or moms driving their children to school are oblivious to the ruins that stand right off to the side, in a wood lot, of the rather busy part of this Orange County road.

Only while stopping along the road, some years ago, I happened upon the remains of what seemed to have once been a beautiful mansion. A blue New York State Education Department sign alerts people that this skeleton, almost lost in the woods, was the site of “the Colden Mansion built of stone in 1767 by Cadwallader Colden, Jr.” How many families, like the Coldens, can boast about having Royal Surveyors, Lieutenant Governors, Acting Governors of New York, noted scientists, and even one of the first female botanists in the Americas among them? [Read more…] about Coldengham: The Colden Family Seat in Orange County

Filed Under: History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondacks, Architecture, Historic Preservation, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Historical Society, Orange County, Political History, Science History

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Help Support Our Work

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Gordon Mason on NYS Historic Barn Tax Credit Program Informational Session
  • David G Waite on Ellis Corners: Before Saratoga Spa State Park & SPAC
  • Eric braverman on Wall Street History: The Politics of New York’s First Banks
  • N. Couture on Haudenosaunee Creation Story & Sculptures with Emily Kasennisaks Stacey
  • Lee on The Mysterious Death of the Angel of Sing Sing
  • Elisa Nelson on Replica Canal Schooner Lois McClure Being Retired, Dismantled
  • Julie O’Connor on James Eights: An Albany Artist-Scientist Who Explored Antarctica in 1830
  • Bob Meyer on Geo-Musicalities: Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang in Saranac Lake
  • John Tepper Marlin on John and Vida: The Other Milhollands
  • Brandon Braman on The Two Hendricks: A Mohawk Indian Mystery

Recent New York Books

Spaces of Enslavement and Resistance in Dutch New York
ilion cover
Spare Parts
new yorks war of 1812
a prison in the woods cover
Visitors to My Street
Greek Fire
Building THe Ashokan Reservoir
ilion book cover
Bryan Jackson the Titanic Was Dooomed

Secondary Sidebar

preservation league
Protect the Adirondacks Hiking Guide