This week on The Historians Podcast, Bob Gumson discusses his memoir, In Blind Sight: From Canarsie, Brooklyn with Love, Music and Mischief (Troy Book Makers, 2020). [Read more…] about In Blind Sight: From Canarsie, Brooklyn
New York City
Artists Reflect On the Impact of Great Migration in New Exhibit
Between 1915 and 1970, in the wake of racial terror during the post-Reconstruction period, millions of Black Americans fled from their homes to other areas within the South and to other parts of the country. This movement of people caused a radical shift in the demographic, economic, and sociopolitical makeup of the United States.
For instance, New York City — and particularly Manhattan — became home to hundreds of thousands of Black Americans during this time, catalyzing the start of the artistic and cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. [Read more…] about Artists Reflect On the Impact of Great Migration in New Exhibit
A New Archaeological History of New York City
The new book Buried Beneath the City: An Archaeological History of New York (Columbia University Press, 2022) by Nan A. Rothschild, Amanda Sutphin, H. Arthur Bankoff, and Jessica Striebel MacLean uses urban archaeology to retell the history of New York, from the deeper layers of the past to the topsoil of recent events. [Read more…] about A New Archaeological History of New York City
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Cantata Performance Sunday
The Museum at Eldridge Street, in the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue in Chinatown, Manhattan, will host “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire,” a cantata performance on Sunday, November 20th, at 3 pm. [Read more…] about Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Cantata Performance Sunday
Robert Moses: The Man New Yorkers Love to Hate
Robert 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
Death By Fire And Ice: The Steamboat Lexington Calamity
In 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
Records Reveal an Overlooked Hero of the Culper Spy Ring
In 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
The Fulton Fish Market: A History
The Fulton Fish Market stands out as an iconic New York institution. At first a neighborhood retail market for many different kinds of food, it became the nation’s largest fish and seafood wholesaling center by the late nineteenth century.
Waves of immigrants worked at the Fulton Fish Market and then introduced the rest of the city to their seafood traditions. In popular culture, the market — celebrated by Joseph Mitchell in The New Yorker — conjures up images of the bustling East River waterfront, late-night fishmongering, organized crime, and a vanished working-class New York. [Read more…] about The Fulton Fish Market: A History
Mansions, Monuments, and Marvels of Riverside Park
The new book Heaven on the Hudson: Mansions, Monuments, and Marvels of Riverside Park (Empire State Editions, 2022) by Stephanie Azzarone with photographs by Robert F. Rodriguez is a colorful tale of a singular New York City neighborhood and the personalities who make it special.
To outsiders or East Siders, Riverside Park and Riverside Drive may not have the star status of Fifth Avenue or Central Park West. But at the city’s westernmost edge, there is a quiet and beauty like few other places in all of New York. There are miles of mansions and monuments, acres of flora, and a breadth of wildlife ranging from Peregrine falcons to goats. [Read more…] about Mansions, Monuments, and Marvels of Riverside Park
Why Not? The Return of Lafayette’s Hermoine in 2024
In 1992, the shipyard at Rochefort France where the Hermione – the ship that brought Lafayette to America – had been constructed in 1780 was apparently in decline.
Several local entrepreneurs conceived of the idea that a replica of the Hermione should be built and sailed to the United States as a goodwill gesture. It was hoped that the project would perhaps improve the local economy and also remind Americans of the important historical ties between the United States and France. [Read more…] about Why Not? The Return of Lafayette’s Hermoine in 2024