Kosher for Passover
During the 1960s and 70s, amateur photographer Irving I. Herzberg spent his Sundays among the Hasidim of Williamsburg becoming a familiar and trusted figure in the community. While his interests were varied, ranging from subway scenes to the Coney Island boardwalk, Herzberg's Williamsburg photographs are among the most cherished in our collection, attracting ongoing interest among the descendants and friends of many of the subjects. To celebrate the season, here is a selection of Herzberg's Passover photographs. To see almost all the Herzbergs in the Brooklyn Collection, click…
Introducing Gertrude Hoffman
Ladies and gentleman, we are pleased to present to you, appearing for the first time on this stage, with athletic abilities that will amaze you and natural grace that will charm you, the internationally famous, world renowned and much beloved... ...Gertrude Hoffman! Here at the Brooklyn Collection, we are fortunate to house the personal papers, photographs and scrapbooks of the early 20th-century dancer, Gertrude Hoffman. Her name may not roll as readily off the tongue as that of Ruth St. Denis or Isadora Duncan in a discussion of modern dance pioneers, but she was…
From the annals of Brooklyn's musical history: The Tollefsens.
Carl Tollefsen and his wife, Augusta Schnabel-Tollefsen residing at 946 President Street, stood at the center of Brooklyn's musical life for upwards of four decades in the first half of the 20th century. Tollefsen was born--to my utmost surprise-- in my home town of Hull, UK, in 1882, immigrating to the U.S. at the age of 6. Founder of the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, an active music school and the Tollefsen Trio, Carl Tollefsen was also a storied collector of musical instruments and manuscripts. His manuscript finds included early versions of one of Schumann's best-known…
Summers of Fear
Summertime--the name alone conjures up images of days filled with fun and freedom. Warm lazy days spent at the beach, or by the pool eating ice cream, going to the amusement park, or catching fireflies. The daily pace slows down just a little and childhood takes on a more carefree feeling. But as a new decade began, summertime in the 1950's was anything but carefree for Brooklyn families. Something had stolen the "joie de vivre." It was the continuing threat of infantile paralysis, or polio. Polio slowly…
A VERY QUIET FURY
Very few photos exist of the little-known anarchist, vegetarian, and amateur photographer Heinrich Bollinger. Unlike his more celebrated comrades -- Johann Most, Alexander Berkman, and Emma Goldman, who all lived in Manhattan and with whom he consorted -- Bollinger spent his entire Brooklyn life living in an old stone house near Coney Island. His life, oddly enough for a self-professed anarchist, was a quiet one: he earned his daily bread selling sand worms and renting boats. Bollinger collected the stones for his house just off the shores of Coney Island, enlisting the help of local…
The Loneliness of the Skyscraper Window-Washer
"He was strapped to a window frame just a few feet under the huge clock. The cold of a November morning swept away from the gilded dome of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank above him. He shifted his weight. The wind snapped at the chamois strung around his neck. Below, toy-like cars and tiny figures wove a crazy pattern in front of the Long Island Rail Road station." This vivid, poetic storyline from the November 16, 1952 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle describes not the antics of some real-life Spiderman, but rather the daily grind of one humble 34-year-old…
Is it un-American for mothers to work?
There is no question that World War II had a major impact on the role of women in the work place. Brooklyn's female task force was no exception to this trend--particularly given the amount of labor needed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard "to make the weapons to beat the Axis." For many, the choice to seek employment meant sacrifice--particularly when children were involved. Enter the Mayor's Committee on Wartime Care of Children. It was the duty of the committee to provide support, advice and childcare options for "temporary widows" (i.e. wives of soldiers)…
Gentrifiers and Nannies: two new books, two upcoming author talks
The intermittent stream of new books with significant content relating to Brooklyn has recently delivered to our desks two substantial volumes that will be of interest to our readers. Suleiman Osman's The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn: Gentrification and the Search for Authenticity in Postwar New York (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) offers a history of Brownstone Brooklyn's transformation from the run-down slums of the 1940s and 1950s to the current landscape of beautifully renovated houses and apartments selling for millions of dollars. The "…
Una Furtiva Lagrima
Enrico Caruso's golden chord, which kept the world so enthralled, first began to fade at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn on December 11th 1920. There, in the first act of Donizetti's opera, L'Elisir d'Amore, leaning on the shoulder of whichever chorus member happened to be closest to him, Caruso filled handkerchief after handkerchief with blood as he struggled to sing through the pain of a hemorrhaged vessel in his throat. During a prolonged 45 minute intermission Caruso was examined by his physician and forbidden from continuing with his performance. As the intermission dragged on, the…
Brooklyn's Vitaphone Studios
Jack Benny about 1930. The woman on the right may be Mary Livingstone, Jack Benny's wife and comedy partner. The photograph collections of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle are stored in two locations in the library: the 30,000 or so showing Brooklyn scenes are maintained for convenience in file cabinets in a small room close to the Brooklyn Collection reading room. These are the images that are most in demand with our patrons, and it is these that we have made available online where copyright issues permitted. At some time in the distant past these photographs must have been separated…
The Joy of Processing: a peek into the Bernard Green Collection
Composer, writer, and fan of mothers everywhere, Bernard Green (bottom, with telephone) and associate. In our Brooklynology articles, we often draw from several sources to flesh out each story about Brooklyn history, including our prints collection, our ephemera files, reference books, and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs and clippings. These are the same materials that we are most often serving to the researching public that visits the Brooklyn Collection. A feedback loop begins to emerge -- a researcher requests Eagle photographs, for…
How photos get from the archives to the web site by Micah Vandegrift
The Brooklyn Collection is a goldmine of resources for teaching and learning the history of our borough. As you probably know, we have extensive collections of documents, ephemera and photographs that are housed here at the Central Library and made available for research. What you may not know is that there are ongoing efforts to digitize our materials in order to make them more widely accessible through our website and across the internet. So how does it all happen? Previous digitization projects--using LSTA funds to digitize 18,000 photographs, or the IMLS project to scan…
The Duke
The Yankees had Mickey Mantle, the Giants had Willie Mays, and dem Bums had the Duke. From 1947 to 1957 New York City experienced a golden age of baseball, and the play of these three centerfielders made for some of the headiest rivalries the sport has ever seen. For ten out of those eleven years, at least one New York team made the World Series, with the Yankees and Dodgers meeting six times. On each of those Dodgers teams, Duke Snider was as valuable as his cross-river counterparts, usually leading the club in base hits, runs, home runs, and RBIs. On Sunday February 27th, this titan of…
Presidents Don't Use Rain Delays
On October 21, 1944, as heavy rain and autumn winds pelted the five boroughs, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, approaching an election for an historic fourth term, toured through fifty-one miles of New York City streets in a large motorcade. With his wife Eleanor at his side, the aging President defied terrible weather to greet his fellow Americans from an open car (and sometimes without a hat). "There was no doubt," the Times wrote, "that he wanted to be seen by as many New Yorkers as possible." For Brooklyn, considered one of FDR's…
Days of Wine and Onions: Garrett & Co and Virginia Dare
Original Virginia Dare Extract Company invoice for flavorings dated Apr 15, 1936. Brooklyn Public Library--Brooklyn Collection. One of the more interesting companies to have occupied premises in Bush Terminal is Garrett & Co, makers of Virginia Dare wine and flavoring extracts. Long-time readers of Brooklynology may remember a post called the Grapes of Brooklyn in which I drew attention to early efforts at viticulture and wine-making in Brooklyn. Garrett & Co kept the flag of Kings County oenology flying for 45 years, from its quarters in Building 10 in the…
Dodger Babies
Here at the Brooklyn Collection, we have a large collection of photographs of Brooklyn's much-missed local baseball team, the Dodgers. These are mostly images snapped by Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographers, depicting the players on the field, at training camps, and in locker rooms -- their faces flushed and euphoric with victory, or grim with defeat. Though these images are fascinating -- especially for a Brooklyn transplant like me, who never knew the borough's glory days of hometeam baseball -- I've become more engrossed by the photographs of the players'…
From the Ephemera Files: an Imperfect Paradise in Brooklyn
Walking into work today, I overheard the plaintive cry of a cabin-fevered fellow Brooklynite, "Ah, why can't it be just be warm outside?!" Grimly, inwardly, I had to agree with her helpless complaint. Facing the icy depths of February, the mind can't help but wonder if there's a happier place. A warm, welcoming place, with bright sunshine, sandy beaches, luxury accommodations, and maybe even world-class entertainment to round out a glorious day in paradise. A place like... Manhattan Beach! Browsing through our ephemera files, I found this…
The Many Faces of Henry Ward Beecher
In the pages of the nineteenth century illustrated magazines, certain Brooklyn-related subjects seem to have been of perennial interest. One was the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a huge source of prestige and employment for the city (as it was until consolidation with New York City 1898.) Another was the controversial figure of Henry Ward Beecher. A thoroughly respectful engraving depicting the young HWB. From the Drawing Room Gallery of Eminent Personages, [c.1860] From his early days as a slim young preacher, to his more corpulent middle-aged presence as a master of oratory and Pastor of Plymouth…
White Wings and Dream Stuff
In the summer of 1951 New York City was a marijuana jungle. From underpasses in the Bronx to empty lots on Avenue X, the razor-toothed fronds of 10 foot tall Cannabis sativa plants could be seen all around the city happily waving in the wind like any other innocuous and legal weed. But for all their persistence in invading the city's forgotten horticultural corners, these plants were likely waving farewell: New York was no friend to pot. Over the course of the summer about 41,000 pounds of marijuana were uprooted and destroyed during a campaign to eradicate the psychotropic stuff from…
The Demon Barber of Brooklyn
He struck without warning, descending quickly upon unsuspecting adolescent girls and committing his dastardly deed with one efficient stroke. Before the victims even had a chance to cry out, his evil work was finished, and the bandit disappeared deftly into the bustling Brooklyn street crowds with his prize in hand... a fistful of hair. In the late 19th century, the man who would be known as "Jack the Snipper" allegedly lopped off the braids and pigtails of nearly a dozen young girls in Brooklyn and Manhattan. His bizarre crimes sparked a minor hysteria among the teenagers…