Decadance and Fashion: Costume Treasures
Theatre is a space that grants opportunity for collaboration, inviting artists of different medias to join together to create something much larger than themselves. It is an opportunity to take an any … Continue reading
Happy Birthday to Berenice Abbott
Thursday, July 17th, is the 116th anniversary of Berenice Abbott’s birth (1898-1991). The Museum of the City of New York holds over 2500 works in the collection by Abbott, who … Continue reading
Jack Stewart and the documentation of early graffiti writing
When graffiti first began to appear on subway cars in New York City in the late 1960s, Jack Stewart (1926-2005) became one of the first, along with Jon Naar, to photograph … Continue reading
Revolutionary sisters: Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin
If you’ve never heard of Victoria Woodhull or her younger sister Tennessee “Tennie” Claflin, you’re not alone. When I first came across them in the Museum’s Portrait Archive, I was … Continue reading
Up on the roof, entertainment en plein air
Spring in New York City is glorious. Allergy issues aside, the season of rebirth is especially welcome after this winter’s polar vortex shenanigans. And though I celebrate the sunny days … Continue reading
Mel Rosenthal in the South Bronx
Mel Rosenthal (born 1940) grew up in the South Bronx. When he returned to the area 20 years later, after receiving a Ph.D. in English Literature and American Studies from … Continue reading
Inside the Glamour – Baumgarten Interiors
For a span of a few weeks last winter, I lived in two worlds. My real world consisted of a Brooklyn apartment filled with IKEA furniture, roommates, and the usual … Continue reading
William Auerbach-Levy, Artist and Neighborhood Preservationist
William Auerbach-Levy was born in 1889 in Brest-Litovsk, then part of the Russian Empire. He immigrated with his parents to the United States around 1894 and grew up on the … Continue reading
Books and the City
New Yorkers love to read. Whether it’s just for a stolen moment at work… or enjoying (or hoping that whatever we’re reading will distract us from) our subway commute… or … Continue reading
The World’s Richest Boy – the Life of William B. Leeds
Let’s face it: we all have baby albums, those pictures documenting our progression from newborns into children that we pray our parents don’t show anyone. When I came across a … Continue reading
Happy 25th Birthday to the Internet
Last week the Internet turned a quarter of a century old. On March 12, 1989, a British computer scientist named Sir Tim Berners-Lee proposed what he called an “information management” … Continue reading
Forgotten villages and neighborhoods of Manhattan
Hints about long vanished and forgotten aspects of New York surround us if we know where to look. The etymology of neighborhood names reveal long lost geographical quirks and the … Continue reading
Myths surrounding the origin of the Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty, designed by Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), was a gift from France as a symbol of American freedom, and has watched over New York Harbor since its dedication … Continue reading
