History, Natural History & the Arts
Martin V. Melosi’s new book Fresh Kills: A History of Consuming and Discarding in New York City (Columbia University Press, 2020) tells the story of Fresh Kills ― a monumental 2,200-acre site on Staten Island ― that was once the world’s largest landfill.
From 1948 to 2001, it was the main receptacle for New York City’s refuse. [Read more…] about Fresh Kills: A History of Consuming and Discarding
Bill Miller, knwon as “Mr. Ocean Liner,” is set to give a talk, Floating Palaces: The Great Atlantic Liners, on Thursday, January 30th, from 6 to 8 pm, at the National Lighthouse Museum in Staten Island.
Ocean Liners were the mechanic marvels of their time, with their top deck suites and salons to lower-deck steerage, the race for speed, the lavish interiors and soldiers onboard during wartime. [Read more…] about Great Atlantic Liners Talk in Staten Island
This episode of the podcast Someone Lived Here explores Sailors’ Snug Harbor on Staten Island, for more than a century a charity operated retirement home for sailors.
It was established from the estate of Robert Richard Randall, a noted sea captain, on 160 acres on Staten Island. About 1,000 seafarers lived here at its peak. [Read more…] about Someone Lived Here: Sailors’ Snug Harbor, Staten Island
The National Lighthouse Museum’s Great Staten Island Lighthouse Boat Tour has been set for Sunday, September 15th, from 11 am to 2 pm. The tour will encircle Staten Island, looking at critical points of maritime interest and the historically rich Shooters, Prall, Hoffman and Swineburn Islands. [Read more…] about Great Staten Island Lighthouse History Boat Tour
The National Lighthouse Museum in Staten Island has announced their yearly Lighthouse Week is set to begin on August 2nd, with the 9th Annual Light Keepers’ Gala.
Before the United States was a nation, individual colonies and municipalities constructed lighthouses on their shores to guide mariners into harbors. But since operation of these lighthouses was not governed by a centralized body, the lights lacked uniformity in their operation, impacting the safety of the mariners they were trying to protect.
[Read more…] about Lighthouse Weekend at National Lighthouse Museum, Staten Island
Someone Lived Here is a non-fiction podcast that tells the stories of New York’s most interesting people, by touring through their homes. Host Kendra Gaylord walks listeners through homes, lighthouses, and mansions while telling of the complicated lives of the women and men who lived there. [Read more…] about New Podcast Tells Stories of New York’s Historic Houses
Twenty-five teenagers from United Community Centers youth groups in East New York, Brooklyn were amazed to learn that not only was there slavery in Brooklyn during the Revolutionary era, but that the New Lots African burial ground was now covered over by a park across the street from their community center, a park named after the Schenk slave holding family.
Inconvenient history had been erased, but it might be rewritten thanks to local community groups and the efforts of City Councilwoman Inez Barron and New York State Assemblyman Charles Barron. Community residents are discussing rebuilding the New Lots Library on part of the site and adding a museum honoring enslaved African people who helped build Kings County and then were written out of history. [Read more…] about 5 Boros to Freedom Educates On NY Slavery
The National Lighthouse Museum has announced “The Great Staten Island Father’s Day Lighthouse Boat Tour,” set for Sunday, June 16, from 11 am to 2 pm.
Attendees will start at Pier 1 adjacent to the National Lighthouse Museum, 200 The Promenade at Lighthouse Point, St. George, Staten Island, and journey up the Kill Van Kull and the Arthur Kill waterways, over to Raritan Bay and Princes’s Bay Staten Island’s southern shore. [Read more…] about Unique Staten Island Lighthouse Boat Tour Planned
The National Lighthouse Museum on Staten Island, NY is continuing its educational lecture series with “The Lost Lighthouses of Staten Island” on Thursday, April 4, 2019, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Museum.
Historian, librarian and sailor Andrew Wilson will lead an armchair cruise around the harbor visiting the vanished lighthouses and aids to navigation that made the old port of New York the greatest in the World. [Read more…] about Old Port of New York Lighthouses, Navigation Aids Lecture
Emmy Award winner Dolores N. Morris is set to speak at the National Lighthouse Museum on Staten Island about her book, The Soldier That Wagged Her Tail – A Black Veteran’s Story of WWII, which chronicles her father William A. Morris Jr.’s wartime experiences with his dog, Trixie, by his side. The event takes place on Sunday, January 20, 2019 from 3 to 5 pm. [Read more…] about ‘The Soldier That Wagged Her Tail’ Presentation On Staten Island