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Queens

New York City Historic Districts Council Names ‘Six to Celebrate’

March 17, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Addisleigh ParkThe Historic Districts Council (HDC) has announced its Six to Celebrate, an annual listing of historic New York City neighborhoods that merit preservation attention. Six to Celebrate is New York’s only citywide list of preservation priorities. [Read more…] about New York City Historic Districts Council Names ‘Six to Celebrate’

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Brooklyn, Historic Districts Council, Historic Preservation, New York City, Queens, The Bronx

Secretariat’s Triple Crown at 50

March 9, 2023 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

Secretariat by Marshall P. Hawkins2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the racehorse Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989) winning the Triple Crown in 1973, a feat that had not been achieved since it was won by Citation in 1948.

Secretariat, also known as Big Red (a nickname shared with Man O’War), was the ninth winner of Triple Crown, setting and still holding record fastest time in all three races – the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes and the Preakness Stakes. He spent much of his career in New York State, and was notably beaten at Saratoga Race Course in 1973, but the only three races he ever lost were in New York State. [Read more…] about Secretariat’s Triple Crown at 50

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, New Exhibits, New York City Tagged With: Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park, Gambling, Hempstead, Horses, Long Island, Nassau County, National Museum of Racing, National Sporting Library & Museum, Pop Culture History, Queens, Saratoga County, Saratoga Race Course, Saratoga Springs, Sports History, Vice

Remembering Historian, Preservationist Jeffrey Kroessler (1952-2023)

February 12, 2023 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Jeffrey KroesslerJeffrey Kroessler, a longtime board member of the Historic Districts Council (HDC) in New York City, preservationist, author, and historian, passed away on Sunday, February 5th at the age of 71.

Kroessler served on HDC’s boards of directors and advisers for 36 years, helping to craft the organization’s advocacy strategies and educational programs on preservation across the city. [Read more…] about Remembering Historian, Preservationist Jeffrey Kroessler (1952-2023)

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Historic Districts Council, Historic Preservation, Long Island City, New York City, Queens, Queensborough Preservation League

Franklin Williams: An Unsung Civil Rights Hero

January 2, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Franklin WilliamsLarger-than-life figures such as Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King and, going back further, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington, functioned as the “celebrities” of the equal rights movement, the public face of the crusade for racial justice.

But outside the spotlight, “bridge figures” such as New Yorker Franklin H. Williams — men and woman unencumbered by the sometimes blinding “star quality” of the Kings and Marshalls while also shunning the divisive tactics of militants such as Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, and Malcolm X — made enormous but often underappreciated contributions. [Read more…] about Franklin Williams: An Unsung Civil Rights Hero

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Civil Rights, Jim Crow Laws, John F. Kennedy, Legal History, Lyndon Johnson, NAACP, New York City, New York State Archives, Peace Corps, Political History, Queens, Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall

Mayonnaise, Hollandaise, Huguenots and Nostalgia: A Culinary History

December 20, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

Advertising piece for Richard Hellmann's Blue Ribbon Mayonnaise, 1926What and where a person eats, suggests togetherness with one community and dis-identification with another and is therefore a factor that affects all migrant communities. Consumption conveys an idea of public identity.

Food can also serve as a psychological stimulus by unlocking emotional childhood reminiscences. Such experiences have frequently been expressed creatively. There are, for example, the uncooked wrinkled French prunes for Tolstoy’s Ivan Il’ich or the famous “petites madeleines” for Marcel Proust’s Swann that recapture vivid images of early years. [Read more…] about Mayonnaise, Hollandaise, Huguenots and Nostalgia: A Culinary History

Filed Under: Food, History, New York City Tagged With: Culinary History, French History, German-American History, Huguenots, Immigration, Long Island City, Manhattan, Netherlands, New York City, Queens

Marjorie Sewell Cautley: Renowned Landscape Architect

December 14, 2022 by Anthony F. Hall Leave a Comment

aerial view of Bolton Landing’s Rogers ParkMarjorie Sewell Cautley (1891–1954) was the first woman landscape architect to design state parks, the first to plan the landscape of a federally funded housing project, the first to lecture in a university’s city planning department – and the first person to design a plan for D.L. Rogers Memorial Park in Bolton Landing on Lake George. [Read more…] about Marjorie Sewell Cautley: Renowned Landscape Architect

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Brooklyn, Lake George, Landscape Architecture, New Deal, New York City, Queens, Saratoga County, Warren County, womens history

Wilhelm Grosz: The Red Sails of Forced Migration

June 16, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Wilhelm Grosz towards the end of his life courtesy The Wilhelm Grosz EstateOne of the top-grossing American films of 1940 was the western Santa Fe Trail, the seventh Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland collaboration. The story concerns John Brown’s campaign against slavery just before the outbreak of the Civil War. Starting out on an acting career, young Ronald Reagan appeared in the story line as George Armstrong Custer. [Read more…] about Wilhelm Grosz: The Red Sails of Forced Migration

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Art History, Black History, Cultural History, Dance, Film History, German-American History, Jazz, Jewish History, modernism, Music, Musical History, New York City, Opera, Performing Arts, Poetry, Queens, Theatre, Vice

Jack Niflot: Olympic Gold Medal Wrestler

May 11, 2022 by John Conway Leave a Comment

Isidor “Jack” NiflotNew York State’s connection to Olympic wrestling goes all the way back to 1904, the very first year freestyle wrestling was included in the summer games, when Isidor “Jack” Niflot, then of New York City, but later a longtime Sullivan County resident, won a gold medal in the bantamweight division. [Read more…] about Jack Niflot: Olympic Gold Medal Wrestler

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Manhattan, New York City, Olympic History, Queens, Sports History, Sullivan County

The Violin, George Gemünder & The Sound of New York

March 22, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Lion head violin carving by Jacob StainerThomas Jefferson, America’s first Ambassador to France and the nation’s third President, developed a liking for the more genteel aspects of life in Europe. The man who requested that a cellar be constructed at the White House, has been named the first American wine connoisseur. He ordered his supplies directly from the finest French vineyards.

Jefferson also had a passion for music and was a devoted violinist. As part of his early ‘gentlemanly’ education he had been taught to play the instrument. Later in life he compiled a music library at his Monticello estate in Charlottesville that contained works by Vivaldi, Corelli, and Handel, and compositions by contemporaries such as Haydn and others. [Read more…] about The Violin, George Gemünder & The Sound of New York

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Cultural History, Manhattan, Music, Musical History, New York City, Queens

The Downstate-Upstate Life of Marinus Willett

March 11, 2022 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan discusses the life of Marinus Willett. Willett is well known to Upstate New York historians because of the work he did during the American Revolution in the Mohawk Valley. [Read more…] about The Downstate-Upstate Life of Marinus Willett

Filed Under: History, Mohawk Valley, New York City Tagged With: American Revolution, Fort Plain, Fort Stanwix, Marinus Willett, Military History, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Podcasts, Political History, Queens

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