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Urban History

Gaslight Foster: Old New York Storyteller & Social Geographer

September 6, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

"Prostitution: ‘Hooking a Victim’" engraving from George G. Foster's New York by Gas-Light, 1850.Having spent three weeks in Boston where he enjoyed an enthusiastic reception, Charles Dickens arrived on February 12, 1842, in South Street, Lower Manhattan, on the packet New York from New Haven. The city depressed him.

In his travelogue American Notes, he contrasted sun-filled Broadway with the filth of The Five Points. In the district’s narrow alleys the visitor was confronted with all that is “loathsome, drooping, and decayed.” Dickens described New York as a city of sunshine and gloom. [Read more…] about Gaslight Foster: Old New York Storyteller & Social Geographer

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Charles Dickens, Crime and Justice, Horace Greeley, Journalism, Manhattan, New York City, Newspapers, Opera, poverty, prostitution, Publishing, Social History, The Bowery, Urban History, Vice, Writing

Greenwich Village’s Free and Independent Republic & John Sloan at Jefferson Market’s Night Court

July 10, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

John Sloan's The City from Greenwich Village, 1922 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)Painters such as James McNeill Whistler and Childe Hassam exported the streetscape from Paris to America by creating various impressionistic vistas or bird’s-eye city views. As society became increasingly urbanized, art took a less genteel direction. Members of New York Ashcan movement urged painters to drop orthodoxy and depict the bustling streets of the city.

Although not an “organized” school of painting, the unity of the group consisted in a desire to grasp urban realities. The name ashcan (dustbin) was initially hurled against these artists as a term of derision – it became a banner of distinction.

As committed urbanists, these painters were both observers and participants. John French Sloan, Robert Henri and friends created a dynamic record of metropolitan street culture. Although attacked by their opponents as being “devotees of the ugly,” these artists looked for aesthetic vitality in ordinary life. [Read more…] about Greenwich Village’s Free and Independent Republic & John Sloan at Jefferson Market’s Night Court

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Art History, Crime and Justice, Documentary, Greenwich Village, Labor History, Legal History, modernism, New York City, NYPD, Political History, Socialism, Stanford White, Theatre, Urban History, Vice

The Destruction of Jackson Avenue: A Story of Nyack Urban Renewal

June 21, 2023 by Clare Sheridan 1 Comment

crossroads of rockland historyThe June episode of Crossroads of Rockland History focused on a new documentary, “What Happened to Jackson Avenue: A Story of Urban Renewal.“ Host Clare Sheridan spoke with the filmmakers Hakima Alem and Rudi Gohl. She also heard from members of the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Craig Smith and Elise Stone, who are producing the film, which covers an urban renewal program in Nyack, NY in the 1960s and 1970s that removed 125 families, 79% of whom were Black. [Read more…] about The Destruction of Jackson Avenue: A Story of Nyack Urban Renewal

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Black History, Historic Preservation, Nyack, Podcasts, Rockland County, Urban History

175th Anniversary of the High Bridge Celebration

June 6, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Water Tower, High Bridge courtesy Appletons journal 1872Opened in 1848 as part of the 41-mile Old Croton Aqueduct, High Bridge was deemed an engineering marvel, enabling the delivery of clean water to the city of New York, catalyzing its development and expansion.

Use of the structure to deliver water to Manhattan ceased on December 15, 1949 and was closed to pedestrians in the 1960s. Now a National Historic Landmark, High Bridge is the oldest bridge in New York City and a pedestrian bridge that connects the neighborhoods of Washington Heights in Manhattan and Highbridge in the Bronx. [Read more…] about 175th Anniversary of the High Bridge Celebration

Filed Under: Events, History, Nature, New York City, Recreation Tagged With: Architecture, Environmental History, Harlem River, High Bridge, Manhattan, New York City, Old Croton Aqueduct, Public Health, The Bronx, Transportation, Urban History, Water

A Short History of Spitting: TB, Influenza, Covid and Public Policy in New York City

June 5, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

British poster campaign against spitting in publicOn his tour of America Charles Dickens was disgusted by the “odious practices of chewing and expectorating” tobacco, a “filthy custom” that he had observed in both streets and public buildings. From courts of law to hospitals, spittoons could be seen where men were permitted to “spit incessantly” (American Notes, chapter VIII). [Read more…] about A Short History of Spitting: TB, Influenza, Covid and Public Policy in New York City

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: covid, Environmental History, Influenza, Manhattan, Medical History, New York City, Political History, pollution, Public Health, Science History, Tompkins County, Trumansburg, Urban History, Vice

An English Gambler, A Jewish Butcher & The History of Pastrami on Rye

May 16, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 4 Comments

Otto Frederick RohwedderThe term sandwich bread (loaf) started circulating in the United States during the 1930s. It followed a revolution in the manner the product was presented to customers, no longer homemade but mass produced. After a decade of trial and error, the bread slicing machine was introduced and soon widely used. The sandwich was about to conquer the American and European markets. Grabbing a sandwich came to symbolize the rush of an urban society. [Read more…] about An English Gambler, A Jewish Butcher & The History of Pastrami on Rye

Filed Under: Food, History, New York City Tagged With: baking, Culinary History, Gambling, German-American History, Immigration, Jewish History, Language, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City, Urban History

Vulgarity & Vice: Times Square in the 1920s

May 7, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 3 Comments

The Girl with the Whooping CoughThe 1920s was a decade of change and upheaval. While Europe was recovering from the First World War, the United States saw a period of economic growth and prosperity in which the country’s focus shifted from rural areas to the cities. It was also a time of great creativity in art and entertainment. New York City set the pace. [Read more…] about Vulgarity & Vice: Times Square in the 1920s

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Art History, Crime and Justice, Cultural History, French History, Jewish History, Legal History, Manhattan, New York City, Performing Arts, Theatre, Urban History, Vice

Politics of Trash: Corruption & Clean Cities, 1890–1929

May 2, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

politics of trashThe Politics of Trash: How Governments Used Corruption to Clean Cities, 1890–1929 (Cornell Univ. Press, 2023) by Patricia Strach of the University of Albany and Kathleen Sullivan of Ohio University explains how municipal trash collection solved odorous urban problems using nongovernmental and often unseemly means. [Read more…] about Politics of Trash: Corruption & Clean Cities, 1890–1929

Filed Under: Books, Capital-Saratoga, Events, History, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Cornell University Press, Environmental History, Massachusetts Historical Society, Political History, Social History, solid waste, Urban History

Chuck Connors & Slum Tourism in Chinatown

April 20, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Dating from 1785, Edward Mooney House at 18 Bowery, at the corner of Pell Street in Lower Manhattan’s Chinatown, is one of New York’s oldest surviving brick townhouses. Built shortly after the British evacuated New York and before George Washington became President, its architecture contains elements of both pre-Revolutionary (British) Georgian and the in-coming (American) Federal style. Designated in 1966 as a landmark sample of domestic architecture, Mooney House has three stories, an attic and full basement.

The property itself and the land on which it was built are manifestations of Manhattan’s socio-political emergence. The house harbors a history of various functions that involved a diverse mix of tenants and occupants, reflecting the chaotic rise of the metropolis. [Read more…] about Chuck Connors & Slum Tourism in Chinatown

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Art History, Asian-American, Chinatown, Crime and Justice, Cultural History, Immigration, James De Lancey (Delancey), Jewish History, London, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City, poverty, The Bowery, Tourism, Urban History, Vice

The History and Development of Utica Harbor

April 20, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Aerial View of Utica’s Inner Harbor c. 1940Utica Harbor is a unique feature of the NYS Canal System and was purposely nestled close to Utica’s major textile industries adjacent to the Erie Canal. The Utica Harbor is the only harbor on the Barge Canal with its own lock. It also possesses one of the largest branches leading from the main channel passing through the Mohawk River to its end, only a quarter mile from Utica’s downtown district. [Read more…] about The History and Development of Utica Harbor

Filed Under: Events, History, Mohawk Valley, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: Barge Canal, Erie Canal, Industrial History, Maritime History, Mohawk River, Oneida County, Oneida County History Center, Transportation, Transportation History, Urban History, Utica, Utica Harbor

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