New York City

Seaport Museum NY Hosts Alfred Stieglitz New York

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For the first time in nearly 80 years, legendary early twentieth century photographer Alfred Stieglitz’s iconic New York City photographs will be displayed together as part of the groundbreaking, new exhibition “Alfred Stieglitz New York,” at Seaport Museum New York in Manhattan. The exhibition opened September 15th and runs through January 10, 2011.

Stieglitz – a central figure in the history of photography and modern art and husband of artist Georgia O’Keefe – lived in New York City for most of his life and chronicled its dramatic transformation into the archetypal metropolis of soaring skyscrapers, subways and electric lights. These works have not been displayed together since 1932, when Stieglitz featured them at his own gallery, An American Place.

“Alfred Stieglitz New York,” featuring 39 vintage Stieglitz photographs, is organized into three galleries. The first evokes the spirit of 291, Stieglitz’s pioneering gallery, which cemented his reputation as an impresario of European modern art. It will include a facsimile of a lantern slide show, the first time Stieglitz’s lantern slides have ever been exhibited – and prints from 1893 to 1916. The second gallery presents portraits taken from the windows of his midtown Manhattan apartment and gallery in the 1930s, when Stieglitz re-engaged New York as a subject for his photography. The third and final gallery examines the explosion of imagery of New York in popular culture and fine arts, including works by renowned photographers Paul Strand, Lewis Hine and Berenice Abbott.

“Stieglitz is one of the most distinguished American photographers, and Seaport Museum New York is thrilled to be the first cultural institution to bring these beautiful and important images together under one roof,” said Mary Ellen Pelzer, president and CEO of Seaport Museum New York. “This exhibition will give everyone, from lifelong New Yorkers to visitors, a unique look at the emergence of the modern city through the eyes of a masterful observer. It exemplifies our commitment to telling the ongoing story of New York in bold and unexpected ways.”

“Alfred Stieglitz New York” is curated by Dr. Bonnie Yochelson, former curator of prints and photographs at the Museum of the City of New York, who also authored the exhibition’s catalogue. The photographs were brought together from several leading national art institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as from private collectors.

“Georgia O’Keefe famously remarked, ‘Stieglitz was always photographing himself.’ Indeed, he never went far from his home or place of work to photograph,” stated Yochelson. “During Stieglitz’s lifetime, New York became a symbol of the modern city, and this show provides the rare opportunity not only to better understand how Stieglitz saw New York, but to compare his personal vision with the idea of New York in popular culture and among other photographers with different points of view.”

Photo: The Terminal, Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Preservation League to Present Awards

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On November 9, 2010, the Preservation League will present its most prestigious tribute, the Pillar of New York Award, to two honorees whose commitment to historic preservation is reflected across New York State.

Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP of New York City will be celebrated for the firm’s role as one of America’s premier authorities on historic preservation, and for their work on some of New York State’s most iconic and best-loved historic buildings and important historic areas. Matthew Bender IV’s name is virtually synonymous with philanthropy and leadership in historic preservation, particularly in upstate New York, where has served on the New York State Commission on the Restoration of the Capitol since its creation in 1979.

Each year the League presents The Pillar of New York Award to those who have demonstrated a keen understanding of the value of New York’s historic resources by taking extraordinary actions to protect, preserve, and promote those assets.

The Pillar of New York Gala will be held on November 9, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. at the Hilton and Empire Rooms of the Waldorf=Astoria in New York. Tickets start at $600 for individuals, and tables of 10 are available starting at $10,000.

For more information or to purchase tickets, contact the Preservation League at 518-462-5658 x11.

Exhibition: The Ground Beneath Our Feet

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On the occasion of The Grinnell’s 100th birthday, members of the Grinnell Centennial Planning Team have mounted an exhibition of more than 50 photos, prints, maps, and documents that tell the story of the half-acre triangle of land numbered 800 Riverside Drive, from the Native American Lenape people who inhabited northern Manhattan when Dutch settlers arrived in the early 17th Century through The Grinnell’s co-oping in the late 20th Century. The exhibition explores the individuals who have owned this unique half-acre during the last three centuries, and examines the political and economic events that inserted a triangle in the midst of the rectangular grid pattern that dominates New York’s street plan.

A slide presentation accompanying the exhibition highlights newsmakers who have lived at The Grinnell during its hundred year history, including operetta prima donna Christie MacDonald (a favorite of Victor Herbert who wrote “Sweethearts” for her)- actress, playwright, and novelist Alice Childress- architect Max Bond- artist Ademola Olugebefola- Lucy McDannel, the first woman to graduate Yale Law School- and Catherine Phelan, a housekeeper who earned The Grinnell unwanted national publicity in 1934 when she murdered her employer Douglas Sheridan in his Grinnell apartment.

“The Ground Beneath Our Feet” is open to the public free of charge. There are three dates left:

Sunday, October 10th: 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Tuesday, October 12th: 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, October 17th: 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Photo: The Grinnell in 1950 when it appeared on the cover of Grace Magazine. At the time, the evangelist Sweet Daddy Grace owned 800 Riverside Drive.

Archives Month: NYC Archivists Round Table

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has joined the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc., along with hundreds of organizations in the archives community across New York State, to celebrate New York Archives Week, October 10-16, 2010. With special commemorative activities across all five boroughs, New York Archives Week is an annual celebration aimed at informing the general public of the diverse array of archival materials available in the Metropolitan New York City region.

Among the many activities free and open to the public will be open houses, exhibitions, lectures, workshops and behind-the-scenes tours of archives throughout the city. These special events are designed to celebrate the importance of historical records and to familiarize interested organizations and the public with a wealth of fascinating archival materials illuminating three centuries of New York City history and culture.

Among those participating in the event are local government agencies, historical societies, universities, libraries, and cultural organizations. Highlights include tours of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum Archives, the New York Transit Museum Archives, and the Trinity Church Archives- instruction in conducting genealogical research at the National Archives at New York City- and a presentation on the literary treasures of famous authors such as Herman Melville and Edgar Allen Poe at the New York Public Library. Over twenty New York City archives are opening their doors to the public for this city-wide event.

A complete list of Archives Week events and schedules can be found on the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc.’s website. Note that pre-registration for some events
is required. For further information, contact: [email protected]

Harlem Vice: Playing the Numbers

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In New York City during the 1920s, an employee of the New York Clearing House, an august downtown financial institution composed of the city’s elite banks, would descend every day and mark three numbers on a chalkboard, each of which was meant as a general economic indicator to be used by the financial industry. Two of these numbers were immediately copied down by a different sort of employee and phoned uptown to a different sort of bank, one whose doings possessed a good deal more relevance for the hundreds of thousands of African Americans who had recently transformed the sleepy neighborhood of Harlem into a budding “black metropolis.”

The uptown bankers, known colloquially as “kings” and “queens,” dealt not in stocks and bonds but in millions of paper slips, each one marked in pencil and each one representing a one, five, or maybe a ten-cent bet placed by a resident on the outcome of a three-digit number derived via a set formula from that day’s Clearing House results. “Playing the numbers” was a cultural institution in Harlem, one that about half the neighborhood’s population seems to have engaged in each day, one that tied them in strange ways to the city’s licit economy, but one that has been strangely understudied by scholars, who in the past have trained their focus largely on the high-cultural manifestations of Harlem’s remarkable flowering.

Playing the Numbers: Gambling in Harlem Between the Wars takes a different tack, utilizing the authors’ remarkable research to tell a story that illuminates the lives of the ordinary Harlemites who most often form little more than a colorful backdrop to accounts of the Harlem Renaissance. For a dozen years the “numbers game” was one of America’s rare black-owned businesses, turning over tens of millions of dollars every year. The astronomical success of “bankers” like Stephanie St. Clair and Casper Holstein attracted Dutch Schultz, Lucky Luciano, and organized crime, fresh off Prohibition and in need of a new hustle, to the game. By the late 1930s, most of the profits were being siphoned out of Harlem. All in all, Playing the Numbers reveals a unique dimension of African American culture that made not only Harlem but New York City itself the vibrant and energizing metropolis it was.

Interestingly, the authors of Playing the Numbers are four Australian academics who received a grant from their government to research this remarkable phenomenon. You can get a taste of the data itself on an innovative website they’ve produced called Digital Harlem: Everyday Life, 1915-1930, which won the Roy Rosenzweig Fellowship for Innovation in Digital History this year from the American Historical Association.

Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers. Purchases made through this Amazon link help support this site.

Whither Wall Street: Architecture of Wall Street Event

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Organized by The Skyscraper Museum in partnership with the Museum of American Finance, “Whither Wall Street” will address the changing fortunes of Wall Street –– not the forecast of financial markets, but the architectural assets and liabilities of the physical place. The panel discussion, part of the American Museum of Finance’s 2010 Henry Kaufman Lecture/Symposia Series, will take place Wednesday, October 13, 2010 from 6 to 7:30 PM.

A diverse panel of experts will discuss the recent history and possible futures of one of America’s most famous streets. Key topics include the widespread conversion of office buildings to residential, hotel and retail uses and the new demands on the design of the public realm that need to serve the conflicting needs of both access and security of a post-9/11 world.

Panelists will include:

Carol Willis, Director, The Skyscraper Museum (Introduction and moderator)

Elizabeth H. Berger, President, Downtown Alliance

Rob Rogers, Principal, Rogers Marvel Architects- streetscape designers of Wall Street for the NYC Department of City Planning

Kent Swig, President of Swig Equities, LLC- owner of a portfolio of properties on Wall Street and in the financial district

Alexandros Washburn, Chief Urban Designer, NYC Department of City Planning

The panel discussion will be followed by a question and answer session and reception. Reservations required. Admission is free for students and members of the Museum of American Finance and the Skyscraper Museum, or $15 for non-members. For additional information, contact Lindsay Seeger at 212-908-4110 or [email protected].

New York Photography by James Maher

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I recently learned about a New York City street photographer that’s a big fan of New York history. New York Photography by James Maher focuses on both the architecture and the people on the streets of the city, but Maher also writes historical photo articles on some of the more interesting aspects of the city, such as the construction of the brooklyn bridge, the old Atlantic Avenue Tunnel and the old City Hall subway station.

Photo: Housing for patients, Ellis Island. Courtesy James Maher.

HDC Inaugurates Six to Celebrate Program

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The Historic Districts Council, the advocate for New York City’s historic neighborhoods, is inaugurating a new advocacy program called “Six to Celebrate.” Every year HDC will solicit submissions from neighborhood groups, large and small, that feel their areas’ architectural significance, special character and historic qualities are worthy of preservation. The purpose of this initiative is to provide strategic help to the chosen neighborhood groups at a critical moment so that they reach their preservation goals. The program will help local residents learn to use the tools at their disposal to put in place a preservation strategy — documentation, research, zoning, landmarking, public awareness campaigns, publications.

In recent years HDC’s concentrated advocacy has resulted in the designation of Sunnyside Gardens, Queens and Midwood Park/Fiske Terrace, Brooklyn, to name just a few. Six to Celebrate builds on this history, formalizing and publicizing this process. For the period of a year the chosen areas will receive HDC’s hands-on help making their case with public officials, strategizing and implementing all aspects of a process leading to statutory protection of their neighborhood. HDC will continue to assist neighborhoods that have not been selected this year (and they may apply next year).

From its long experience helping neighborhoods campaign for landmark status and zoning consistent with their special character, HDC will coach neighborhood leaders on:

* how to establish, for their district, boundaries that recognize its special character

* how to involve other community members

* how to formulate an argument for preservation and present their case convincingly

* how to create goals and make plans to meet them

* how to develop education programming and public outreach, and

* how to secure the support of elected officials and other key players in the equation

A copy of the application form can be found here. The neighborhoods submitted for consideration must be distinct areas &#8211 not individual parks or structures. They must be located in New York City, and be architecturally and/or socially and historically significant.

Ellis Island Museum Celebrates 20 Years

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September marks the 20th anniversary of the historic restoration of Ellis Island and the opening of its Immigration Museum on September 10, 1990, which was funded by the American people through The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. This world class museum has quickly become one of the most popular tourist destinations in New York City, welcoming over 35 million visitors to date.

Just half a mile from the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, the museum’s exhibits highlight the growth of America during the peak immigration years of 1880-1924. The galleries illustrate the Ellis Island immigrant reception process, the immigrants’ arrival and settlement throughout the United States and feature their “Treasures From Home” – the cherished personal objects, photographs and papers they brought with them from their homelands. And the American Immigrant Wall of Honor celebrates the immigrant experience with the inscription of the names of over 700,000 individuals and families who have been honored by their descendants.

The Ellis Island Oral History Archive, created by the Foundation, contains the reminiscences of over 1700 individuals who either immigrated through or worked at Ellis Island during its heyday as the country’s largest immigration processing center. Excerpts from these oral histories are incorporated throughout the museum’s popular audio tour, which allows visitors to vividly relive the immigrant experience as if they were the &#8220new arrival.&#8221

The American Family Immigration History Center, which opened in 2001, offers easy access to the arrival records of more than 25 million immigrants, travelers and crewmembers who entered through the Port of New York and Ellis Island between 1892-1924, and is also available online at www.ellisisland.org.

The restoration of Ellis Island—the largest in U. S. history—began in 1984 as the second part of a multi-million dollar project by the Foundation, in partnership with the National Park Service/U.S. Department of the Interior, which included the Centennial restoration of the Statue of Liberty in 1986. All funds came from private donations, with more than 20 million Americans contributing to the cause.

The Museum is currently undergoing a $20 million expansion to be called The Peopling of America Center. Designed by ESI Design, this exciting new Center will enlarge the story currently told of the Ellis Island Era (1892-1954) to include the entire panorama of the American immigration experience, with exhibits dedicated to those who arrived before Ellis as well as those who arrived after it closed, right up to the present. “The Foundation is proud of what it has accomplished over the last 28 years with the support of the American people in raising over $550 million for the ongoing restoration and preservation of these two most beloved monuments to freedom and opportunity,” said Stephen A. Briganti, President and CEO of The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. “With the Peopling of America Center scheduled to open in 2012, we will bring the ever-growing story of the populating of America to life, making the Ellis Island Museum both more relevant and a truly living testament to this Nation of Immigrants.”

For more information on the Ellis Island Immigration Museum visit www.ellisisland.org.

Brooklyn Museum Announces Major Change in Hours

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Beginning Wednesday, October 6, the Brooklyn Museum will open to the public eight additional hours a week, including remaining open until 10 p.m. every Thursday and Friday. When the new schedule goes into effect, the Brooklyn Museum will have a greater number of evening hours than almost any other New York City museum. Despite the challenging economic climate, the enhanced public hours will be implemented following an exhaustive year-long analysis of how the Museum’s public hours might be reorganized to more effectively meet the current needs of its audience.

Chairman of the Museum Board of Trustees Norman M. Feinberg states, &#8220The Board believes that the previous hours did not appropriately address the changing needs of its community. We are delighted, through this reorganization, to far better serve our visitors.&#8221

In announcing the expanded hours, Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman comments, &#8220This important and positive change is an institutional priority that will enable us to better serve a twenty-first century audience by providing greater access for visitors who work during the day, for families, as well as for those who prefer to visit weekday evenings.&#8221

Under the new plan, the Brooklyn Museum will open each day at 11 a.m. On Wednesdays, it will remain open until 6 p.m. and on Thursdays and Fridays until 10 p.m. Weekend hours, from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m., remain the same. The Museum will continue to present Target First Saturdays, its popular free evening of art and entertainment, when it remains open until 11 p.m. the first Saturday of each month except September. School groups will continue to be admitted at 10 a.m. on weekdays for guided visits by reservation.

Admission during the new hours, with the exception of Target First Saturdays, will remain at a suggested admission price of $10 and $6 for older adults and students with valid I. D. Members and children under 12 continue to receive free admission.

Existing staff hours, particularly those of the security team, have been rescheduled. The Museum Cafe, which is managed by Restaurant Associates, will offer dinner options as well as light snacks and beverages, including wine and beer, in the Rubin Pavilion.