Queens

NYC Triboro Hospital: Photographs and Impressions

May 2, 2017 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Roosevelt Island Historical Society will host a free lecture by Charles Giraudet, entitled Triboro Hospital: Photographs and Impressions on Thursday, May 4, 2017 at 6:30 pm at the New York Public Library Branch on Roosevelt Island.

Triboro Hospital, located in Jamaica, Queens, was built to specialize in the treatment of tuberculosis. The facility, which was designed in 1937 and opened in 1941, was constructed during the same era as Welfare (now Roosevelt) Island’s Goldwater Hospital. [Read more…] about NYC Triboro Hospital: Photographs and Impressions

History and Commerce in the Old and New Netherlands

January 24, 2017 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce (GFCC) and the Queens Historical Society (QHS) are co-hosting a presentation at the Queens Historical Society in Flushing, on Wednesday, January 25th, at 7 pm, “History and Commerce in the Old and the New Netherlands” by Dr. Jack Eichenbaum. [Read more…] about History and Commerce in the Old and New Netherlands

Paul Simon Biographer Peter Ames Carlin

December 23, 2016 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

This week on The Historians Podcast, Peter Ames Carlin, author of Homeward Bound: The Life of Paul Simon. (Henry Holt, 2016) Born in New Jersey, Simon grew up in Queens, New York. Carlin sees Simon’s upbringing in the context of the Jewish immigrant experience in America. You can listen to the podcast here. [Read more…] about Paul Simon Biographer Peter Ames Carlin

‘No One Helped’: The Myth of Urban Apathy

March 6, 2016 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Marcia M. Gallo takes a look at one of America’s most infamous crime stories, in No One Helped (2015 Cornell University). This new book examines the 1964 rape and murder of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese, in a middle-class neighborhood of Queens.

Front-page reports in the New York Times incorrectly identified thirty-eight indifferent witnesses to the crime, fueling fears of apathy and urban decay. Genovese’s life, including her lesbian relationship, was also obscured in media accounts of the crime.

Fifty years later, the story of Kitty Genovese continues to circulate in popular culture. Although it is now known that there were far fewer witnesses to the crime than was reported in 1964, the moral of the story continues to be urban apathy. No One Helped traces the Genovese story’s development and resilience while challenging the myth it created. [Read more…] about ‘No One Helped’: The Myth of Urban Apathy

Modern Ruin: A World’s Fair Pavilion

May 21, 2015 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

A film screening of “Modern Ruin: A World’s Fair Pavilion,” Matthew Silva’s documentary about an abandoned structure designed by modernist icon Philip Johnson for the 1964 World’s Fair.The film tells the story of the Pavilion from the glory days of the fair, through the years of neglect, up to present day advocacy.

The filmmakers hope this project will be the first step in engaging and informing people about the building in new and exciting ways. This whimsical, futuristic, and soaring structure, constructed for the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, has been left abandoned for the greater part of 50 years. [Read more…] about Modern Ruin: A World’s Fair Pavilion

New York City 1964: A Cultural History

April 6, 2014 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Lawrence R. Samuel’s New York City 1964: A Cultural History (McFarland, 2014), connects the events of a single year in the city to the cultural threads of American life in the 1960s and beyond.

Five seminal events occurred in New York City in the pivotal year 1964: the “British Invasion” arrival of the Beatles in February; the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens in March; the World’s Fair in Queens between April and October; the “race riots” in Brooklyn and Harlem in July; and the World Series in the Bronx between the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals. [Read more…] about New York City 1964: A Cultural History

Peter Feinman: The Queens State of History

March 25, 2014 by Peter Feinman 4 Comments

Where is the U.S. (Tennis) Open played? The tournament is located in the borough of Queens but people are more likely to think Flushing. The Brooklyn Dodgers and the Bronx Bombers are named or nicknamed for their borough, the Mets and the Jets (when they were in New York) are not. Letters to New York have borough names in the mailing address except for Queens. They are addressed to Forest Hills where the U.S. Open used to be played or to Astoria, Bayside, Long Island City and so on.

At a recent conference on Quintessential Queens held at Queens College, former Queens resident Nicole Steinberg, in a talk entitled “Many a Neighborhood – Astoria to the Rockways”, identified 74 different neighborhoods in the borough. While all of them might not have their own postal address, the large number highlights the problems: people in the borough may identify with their neighborhood the same way someone outside New York City identifies with a village, town or city and not with their county. In other words, Queens has an identity problem. [Read more…] about Peter Feinman: The Queens State of History

Celebrate Black History Month in New York State

January 28, 2014 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

New York State offers a special window into African American history and American culture. It was a center for 19th century anti-slavery organizations, and home to Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and many other Abolitionist and Underground Railroad leaders.

Nevertheless, anti-black discrimination remained an issue well into the 20th century, and the National Association of Colored People (NAACP) actually has its roots in the Niagara Movement, whose first meeting in 1905 took place on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls because members were turned away from hotels on the U.S. side. [Read more…] about Celebrate Black History Month in New York State

NYC Preservation: 2014 Six to Celebrate Announced

January 22, 2014 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

New York City’s Historic Districts Council (HDC) has announced its 2014 Six to Celebrate, an annual listing of historic New York City neighborhoods and institutions that merit preservation attention.

This is New York’s only citywide list of preservation priorities coming directly from the neighborhoods. [Read more…] about NYC Preservation: 2014 Six to Celebrate Announced

Documentary On Early New York Filmmaker Seeks Funding

August 21, 2013 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Director Pamela Green and Co-Director Jarik Van Sluijs, nominated for an Emmy as co-producers for the 2010 documentary Bhutto, are in the last week of a Kickstarter campaign to raise financing for their documentary-in-the-making about an early New York film director, Be Natural: The untold story of Alice Guy-Blaché.

In 1895, 23-year-old Alice Guy was invited to the Lumière Brothers’ screening. In 1896, at the age of 23 she made one of the first narrative films in history. A year later, she became the first head of production at Gaumont’s studios. Alice went on to to start her own studio in Flushing, New York in 1910, Solax. She wrote, directed, or produced more than a 1,000 films over her 20-year-long career, but is little remembered today. [Read more…] about Documentary On Early New York Filmmaker Seeks Funding