New York City

Explorers, Fortunes and Love Letters: A Window on New Netherland

admin

In 1609 the sailors aboard Henry Hudson’s ship the Half Moon laid their eyes upon the entrance to what would come to be known as the Hudson River, and within 15 years the Dutch began to settle the newly discovered land, creating the colony of Explorers, Fortunes and Love Letters: A Window on New Netherland (Mount Ida Press, 2009) is a compilation of new essays that together explore the fascinating story of this diverse and enterprising colony and its enduring cultural impact.

Join contributors to the book at the Museum of the City of New York on Tuesday, July 14, at 6:30 PM for a discussion moderated by Charles Th. Gehring, Ph.D., Director of the New Netherland Project and the translator of the 17th-century Dutch documents that have opened the world of New Netherland to the 21st century. Participants will include Noah L. Gelfand, Peter G. Rose, and David Voorhees, Managing Editor of de Halve Maen and Director of the Papers of Jacob Leisler Project at NYU

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED: $12 Non-Members, $8 Seniors and Students, $6 Museum Members (including NNI members). A two dollar surcharge applies for unreserved, walk-in participants. For reservations and information please call 212.534.1672, ext. 3395.

This event is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson (through September 27). To mark the anniversary of Henry Hudson’s 1609 voyage to the area now called New York , Amsterdam/New Amsterdam investigates the epic journey and the transatlantic links it set in motion. The exhibition explores the colony of New Amsterdam as it evolved under the wing of the dynamic city of Amsterdam during the Dutch Golden Age. It reveals the character of the young settlement’s economy, culture, politics, and built environment through rare 17th-century paintings, maps, navigational instruments, documents, Native American artifacts, household objects,and archaeological remnants of daily life in New Amsterdam .

Presented in partnership with the Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam and the New Netherland Project.

The New Amsterdam Trail, Free Downloadable Audio Tour

admin

The Dutch and the indelible role they played in the formation of the ideas and ideals that shaped New York City and America is being celebrated by National Parks Service, the National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy, and the Henry Hudson 400 Foundation with The New Amsterdam Trail. This free downloadable audio walking tour is the first of three in a series featuring the iconic National Park Service Rangers and an expert cast of historians, scientists, and other great storytellers.

Using a backdrop of period music and special sound effects, the audio with map can be downloaded from the Harbor Conservancy’s website or on the Henry Hudson 400 website. Visitors travel through the streets of downtown Manhattan to 10 historically significant locations, cueing commentary from their mobile phone, mp3 player or ipod. As they stand at the tip of the Battery, they can visualize Manhattan in the hours before Henry Hudson arrived and when he first navigated our waters and then listen to the stories of the life and times of New Amsterdam’s most famous and infamous settlers.

The New Amsterdam Trail features Steve Laise, Chief of Cultural Resources for Manhattan’s National Parks- Eric Sanderson, author of Mannahatta, Natural History of New York City- Andrew Smith, editor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, and Russell Shorto, author of Island at the Center of the World.

The family-friendly walking tour takes about 90-minutes&#8211 however, you can walk the trail at your own pace during lunchtime and pause the recorded commentary at any point. For more details and to download the free tour, visit www.nyharborparks.org or www.henryhudson400.com.

The Harbor Conservancy is the official partner of the National Parks of New York Harbor and together they champion the 22 National Park sites that call New York Harbor home by helping to preserve the environment, promote economic development and create the finest urban waterfront recreation and educational park system in the world.

Henry Hudson 400 New York is a foundation created to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s legendary voyage for the Dutch to the Hudson River and New York. The unique character of New York City, originally New Amsterdam, has been shaped by the legacy of the multiethnic and tolerant culture of 17th century Amsterdam. Henry Hudson 400 is producing a series of special events in 2009 to celebrate the spirit of freedom, enterprise, and diversity shared by Amsterdam and New York.

The Mannahatta Project Uncovers NYC in 1609

admin

A new web site (now in Beta) sponsored by the Wildlife Conservation Society shows viewers what New York City looked like before it was a city. After nearly a decade of research the The Mannahatta Project uncovers online the original ecology of Manhattan circa 1609. According to the site:

&#8220That’s right, the center of one of the world’s largest and most built-up cities was once a natural landscape of hills, valleys, forests, fields, freshwater wetlands, salt marshes, beaches, springs, ponds and streams, supporting a rich and abundant community of wildlife and sustaining people for perhaps 5000 years before Europeans arrived on the scene in 1609. It turns out that the concrete jungle of New York City was once a vast deciduous forest, home to bears, wolves, songbirds, and salamanders, with clear, clean waters jumping with fish. In fact, with over 55 different ecological communities, Mannahatta’s biodiversity per acre rivaled that of national parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Great Smoky Mountains!&#8221

The goal of the Mannahatta Project is no less than &#8220to re-start the natural history of New York City.&#8221 The site includes a virtual Mannahatta map that allows you to see Mannahatta from any location, block-by-block species information, lessons on the science and technology used to create the site, hundreds of layers of digital data, place-based lesson plans for elementary and high school students that meet New York State standards, an online discussion page, and event listing.

Recent updates to Mannahatta include the ability click on a city block to find out what type of plants and animals called it home, whether the Lenape people lived or worked there, and what kind of landscape features appeared on that block. You can also use the slider bar to fade from Mannahatta to modern day to see how the island has changed in the last 400 years.

Last week a related multimedia exhibit &#8220Mannahatta/Manhattan: A Natural History of New York City&#8221 also opened at the Museum of the City of New York.

NYPL Exhibits Gay Liberation History in June

admin

June 28, 2009 will mark the 40th anniversary of the historic Stonewall Riots that occurred in Greenwich Village, New York. Many cite the riots as the birth of the Gay Rights Movement in the United States. From June 1969 until June 1970, gays and lesbians in New York City radicalized in an unprecedented way founding several activist groups that created a new vision for Gay Liberation. The exhibition 1969: The Year of Gay Liberation charts the emergence and evolution of this new vision from the Stonewall Riots to the first LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) pride march on Christopher Street in June 1970.

All of the materials for this exhibition were drawn from the LGBT collection in the Manuscripts and Archives Division of The New York Public Library. 1969: The Year of Gay Liberation will be on display at The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street from June 1, 2009 to June 30, 2009. Additionally three related public events will be presented in June. Admission to the exhibition and programs is free.

The exhibition features original photographs, pamphlets, police reports, newspapers, and letters. Included are materials relating to activist groups formed between 1969-1970 such as Gay Liberation Front, the Radicalesbians, Gay Activists Alliance, and Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries. Other materials that can be found in the exhibition include a letter to Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller by Jim Owles, President of the Gay Activists Alliance, asking to meet to discuss Gay rights. Many of the photographs featured were taken by activist Diana Davies who captures events such as a march by the Gay Liberation Front in Times Square and protests by gay NYU students for equal rights. The exhibition shows that while each activist group fought for Gay Rights differently, with some more radical than others, they all shared the unified goal of equal treatment in society.

“This exhibition charts a historic and pivotal moment in history for gays and lesbians that goes beyond New York City,” says Jason Baumann, Curator and Coordinator of Collection Assessment and LGBT Collections at The New York Public Library. “The year 1969 marks the first time homosexuals united, demanded, and were willing to fight for full inclusion within American society. As a result of the actions taken during this time gays and lesbians marked a paradigmatic shift in the ways that not only they saw themselves but also how the world would see them.”

The LGBT collection at The New York Public Library continues to be one of the largest and most thorough in the country. The collections include the archives of pioneering LGBT activists, such as Morty Manford, and Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen- the papers of scholars, such as Martin Duberman, Jonathan Ned Katz, and Karla Jay- organizational archives of pivotal civil rights groups, such as the Mattachine Society of New York and Gay Activist Alliance- and the papers of LGBT writers, such as W.H. Auden, Virginia Woolf, and Joseph Beam. The Library’s collections also include major archives in the history of the AIDS crisis, extensive holdings in the history of LGBT theatre, and the Black Gay and Lesbian archive.

1969: The Year of Gay Liberation will be on view from June 1, 2009 through June 30, 2009 in the Stokes Gallery (third floor) at The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, located at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan. An accompanying online version of the exhibition will be launching in June and can be viewed at www.nypl.org. There will also be a travelling panel exhibition throughout the branches in June. Exhibition hours are Monday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.- Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.- Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.- Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call 917-ASK-NYPL or visit www.nypl.org

Free Public Events Related to the exhibition, at The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building:

Saturday, June 13, 2009, 2:00 p.m., South Court Classrooms
LGBT Studies Research Class
A workshop on how to do research on LGBT history using the NYPL’s resources.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 6:00 p.m., Berger Forum
David Carter Lecture on the Stonewall Riots
Historian David Carter, author of Stonewall, will discuss myths and facts pertaining to the incident.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 6:00 p.m., South Court Auditorium
Gay Liberation Front Reunion Panel
Surviving members of Gay Liberation Front will reunite to reminisce on their experiences in the movement and its historical purposes.

Photo: Diana Davies. “Ida,” member of the Gay Liberation Front and the Lavender Menace, 1970.

Outstanding New York Newspaper Source Now Online

admin

The Library of Congress has launched the beta version of a new online searchable newspaper collection, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/. The site currently contains newspapers from 1880 to 1910 (more are coming) plus a directory for newspapers published in the United States since 1690 (a look there turns up over 11,000 New York newspapers). Results from Essex County include 85 newspapers once published there.

Research Buzz has all the tips on searching, but suffice it to say that along with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle online, and Northern New York Library Network’s vast online collection of Northern New York newspapers, online New York history research just got a whole lot better. The Library of Congress site includes papers that have heretofore been unavailable for free. These include New York City / National papers The Evening World, Horace Greeley’s The New York Tribune, and the The Sun, plus other major dailies from across the nation.

I took a look at some one of my favorite historical topics, the Adirondacks. The collection includes reports from Adirondack travelers, social notes from local resorts, and hundreds of advertisements like the one above by the Delaware & Hudson Railroad from 1908. Genealogists are going to find a lot of great stuff here, as well as political historians, and folks interested in the creation of the Adirondack Park, the 1903 and 1908 fires, and a lot more like a long report on the 1900 New York Sportsman Show, including the Adirondack Guide exhibit photo shown here.

2009 Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards

admin

Iconic quarterback Joe Namath- Nobel laureate Dr. Eric R. Kandel- comedian and producer Jerry Seinfeld- and music superstars Gloria and Emilio Estefan are this year’s distinguished honorees who will be recognized during the Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards to be held at 11 a.m. on tomorrow (Tuesday), May 19, 2009 in the Great Hall at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Candice Bergen, Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress, will serve as Host.

In its eighth year, the Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards are presented by The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. to celebrate exemplary Ellis Island/Port of New York immigrants or their descendents who have made a major contribution to the American experience. The B.C. Forbes Peopling of America Award, sponsored by the Forbes Family, honors the lives of immigrants who arrived at another time or through another port of entry. The Foundation’s database of ship’s passenger arrivals available at the American Family Immigration History Center® and online at www.ellisisland.org documents the arrivals of 25 million immigrants, travelers and crew members who came through America’s Golden Door and the Port of New York between 1892-1924. For more information on the Awards, visit http://www.ellisisland.org/genealogy/2009_recipients_intro.asp.

Getting there:

From NYC: Check-in 9:45 a.m. Statue Cruises Event boat departs 10:20 a.m.

From NJ: Take Statue Cruises ferry from Liberty State Park. For schedule, call (877-523-9849) or visit www.statuecruises.com.

NYCs Audubon Park Named New Historic District

admin

Yesterday afternoon the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission named Audubon Park, in Washington Heights, Manhattan, the city’s newest historic district. Located between 158th and 155th streets between Riverside Drive and Edward M. Morgan Place, and adjoining the Audubon Terrace Historic District to the southeast, the Audubon Park Historic District consists of 19 grand, architecturally distinctive apartment houses and one Spanish Revival-style duplex house that were constructed between 1905 and 1932 on the former 20-acre estate of the famed wildlife artist John James Audubon.

The apartment houses, which range in height from 5 to 13 stories, were constructed in the tradition of the elegant residential buildings to the south in Morningside
Heights and on the Upper West Side following the extension of the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue subway line to the neighborhood in 1904.

Most of the buildings were given names that recalled the neighborhood’s past, and evoked glamour and prestige, such as the Grinnell, a massive Mission Revival style apartment house at 800 Riverside Drive that was named for the family who once owned most of Audubon’s estate following his death- Hispania Hall at 601 W. 156th St., a reference to the nearby Hispanic Society of America- and the Riviera at 790 Riverside Drive, both of which are designed in the Renaissance Revival style.

“These buildings are not only highly intact, but also retain the vibrant details and character that attracted residents to them a century ago,” said Chairman Tierney. “The curving streets and dramatic vistas formed by the area’s hilly topography continue to define the neighborhood to this day, and create a powerful sense of place.”

Mindfulwalker, A Site About NY History and Architecture

admin

Before the IRT Powerhouse’s last remaining original smokestack is possibly lost, civic and preservation groups such as the Municipal Art Society are seeking landmark status for this magnificent 1904 building on New York City’s West Side. Its station once powered the city’s first subway lines. But according to Mindfulwalker.com, Con Ed (the current owner) has objected to such an effort in the past.

Susan DeMark’s new New York-based blog explores architecture, preservation, history, and nature. Recently, DeMark has focused on AIG’s possible sale of its Art Deco headquarters building, the Irish Hunger Memorial in Lower Manhattan, and the current skirmishes over the best plan to rejuvenate Coney Island.

The site offers readers an opportunity to explore such topics primarily through a walking, up-close, firsthand experience. Also, a portion of the site called Mindful Activist promotes action and awareness about current issues in preservation and history. DeMark’s primary areas of focus are New York City and the Hudson Valley.

The 220th Anniversary of Washington’s Inauguration

admin

Today marks the 220th anniversary of George Washington’s inauguration as America’s first president a reminder that as our nation’s first capital, New York City is rich in historical gems that commemorate Washington and his era’s achievements. One of them is presented by The National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy, which offers a series of tours that explore these sites.

&#8220George Washington’s New York&#8221 is a new self-guided tour that recounts “a day in the life” of America’s first President when New York was the capital of the United States. Learn about the colonial New York our founding fathers called home. Follow Washington’s daily horseback ride through the Battery to Federal Hall- first home of the fledging country’s congress. The tour departs from 26 Wall Street and last approximately 90 minutes. Visitors can also visit free exhibits at Federal Hall following the tour.

You can download the tour booklet and map here.

NYC: Douglas Brinkley on Roosevelt, Wilderness Warrior

admin

In his new book, The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, Douglas Brinkley (Professor of History and Baker Institute Fellow, Rice University) looks at the pioneering environmental policies of President Theodore Roosevelt, an avid bird-watcher and naturalist with Adirondack ties at the American Museum of Natural History’s Linder Theater in New York City tomorrow, Tuesday, April 28, 6:30 pm. Admission will be $15 ($13.50 Members, students, senior citizens).

Roosevelt was a pioneer of the conservation movement and was involved with the American Museum of Natural History from childhood. As a matter of fact, the original charter creating the Museum was signed in his family home in 1869, and the Museum has a permanent hall in tribute to Theodore Roosevelt and the contributions he made to city, state, and nation throughout his life. A book signing will follow this program.

Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History and Baker Institute Fellow, Rice University, is the author of several books, including The Unfinished Presidency, The Boys of Pointe du Hoc, and The Great Deluge (which won him the 2007 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award)- he is also a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and an in-house historian for CBS News. He has earned several honorary doctorates for his contributions to American letters and was once called the “the best of the new generation of American historians” by the late historian Stephen E. Ambrose.

For questions regarding this event, please contact Antonia Santangelo at 212-769-5310 or [email protected].