Library Layoffs May Hit Brooklynology.
Many of you may know that New York City's three library systems are currently under threat of crippling budget cuts--so crippling, in fact, that about a third of the library's workforce received provisional pink slips last week, pending the finalization of budget negotiations. Three of the Brooklyn Collection's staff are under the gun, and two of them -- Olivia and Ben--are Brooklynology bloggers. So here today are three of the actual faces of the budget cuts. They represent 50% of the Collection's librarian staff and 33% of our overall staff. Olivia, who has two masters…
Little-Known Brooklyn Residents: Dr. Ida Mellen
In the first half of the 20th century, Brooklyn was home to one of the world's most respected authorities on the ailments of fish. Dr. Ida Mellen, lived most of her life in the borough of Brooklyn, working for many years as chief aquarist and ichthyologist at the New York Aquarium. Dr. Ida Mellen The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that during Dr. Mellen's time at the New York Aquarium, she "nursed penguins with bronchitis, turtles with tumors, and alligators with fungused snouts." Her scientific research caused intense excitement within the marine science world, when she discovered a rare type…
Reflections on Times Past: High School Yearbooks
June is upon us and it brings with it a most important milestone in teenage life: "HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION"! Thinking about my own graduation and all of the people I graduated with led me to the Brooklyn collection morgue and our collection of High School yearbooks. We have yearbooks from a few Brooklyn high schools, for example the Flying Dutchman from Erasmus Hall, The Blue & Gold from Girls High and an almost full run (1901-2006) of the Polyglot from Poly Prep. The Prospect, the yearbook of Manual Training High School, is the one that whetted my appetite…
Little-Known Brooklyn Businesses: The Meyer Saddlery Corporation
Thanks to Tara, we've been having fun learning about "Little Known Brooklyn Residents" lately. So why not a spin-off series about the businesses that kept these residents employed? For example, if it weren't for the Meyer Saddlery Corporation, where would Al Sharp (below) have cultivated his years of experience in the bridle making trade? The Meyer Saddlery Corporation, like so many Brooklyn businesses, was a family affair. It was founded around 1852 by German immigrant George Meyer near Kings Highway. Mr. Meyer had a unique angle that separated …
Celebrating another year of Connections!
This morning, 150 students, teachers and parents filled the Library's Dweck Auditorium for our annual Brooklyn Connections Recognition Ceremony and Celebration. On stage, outstanding students presented their final Brooklyn History projects and received certificates of achievement from the Library. In our lobby, students and their guests enjoyed a catered reception while viewing presentation boards and other materials representing the hard work of students from 10 middle schools across the borough. Although the event has quickly come and gone (without…
Hard Times Revisited by Guest Blogger Rich Reyes-Gavilan
It's been one year since the appearance of the blog post detailing the sorrowful history of budget cuts to Brooklyn Public Library. Sadly, the recurring theme has become a recurring nightmare as we once again find ourselves threatened with deep cuts that will devastate our ability to provide service. This year's proposed budget could result in a $20 million reduction to BPL, meaning the closure of 16 branch libraries, fewer books, fewer programs, fewer computer sessions, and massive layoffs. We continue to ask our supporters to write their elected officials and advocate on behalf of the…
The Brooklyn ???
When the Dodgers left Brooklyn 53 years ago they not only ripped out our hearts and guts they also took away the borough's only major league sports franchise. We all know this sad story, so let's not dwell on it here; better for Brooklyn sports fans to turn their attentions to the hardwood machinations of a spindly Russian billionaire, Mikhail Prokhorov, majority owner of the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets. Or, I should say, the Brooklyn Somethingelses. At a recent press conference Prokhorov hinted that the nickname Nets might stay behind in Newark when the team moves to the Barclays Center…
Little-Known Brooklyn Residents: Elizabeth Hughes
On October 31, 1950, the front page of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle ran an article including a startling action photograph of 65 year-old Mrs. Elizabeth Hughes. "I just went swoooosh!" - Elizabeth Hughes Mrs. Elizabeth Hughes, a B.M.T. subway ticket agent, "scared the daylights out of a husky six-foot-tall bandit who thrust an automatic pistol in her face and sent him packing", the Eagle reported. She re-enacted her quick response for the Eagle photographer, illustrating how she swooshed a nearby pan of water on the would-be-bandit and chased him away from her ticket booth. Elizabeth…
Lost children and leeches.
The recent announcement by Verizon that they will no longer be distributing telephone directories in print form made me think about how the directory has evolved or--some might say--regressed--over the course of the last 200 years. We recently acquired a group of four Brooklyn City Directories, all in wonderful condition, from 1839-1840, 1840-41, 1842-43 and 1844-45. Yes, they all exist on microfilm, but the convenience of a print directory is equaled only by its ability to conjure the atmosphere of an era. Aside from the listed occupations that no longer exist, the addresses that…
Don't Know Why There's No Sun Up In The Sky
This past Sunday, May 9th, legendary singer, actress and activist Lena Horne, passed away. She was born in Brooklyn and as a child lived at 189 Chauncey Street in Bedford Stuyvesant. Lena attended P.S. 35 and then Girls High School on Nostrand Avenue. She only stayed there for a few years, leaving to work at the renowned Cotton Club in Manhattan. She made it into the chorus line there, and the rest, as they say, is history. Hollywood and the world…
Genealogy Group Tonight Wed May 5, 6 p.m.
Come and join our genealogy group with Wilhelmena Kelly tonight at 6 p.m. in the Brooklyn Collection. All welcome.
The Diary of Arthur Lonto Pt 2
At the end of April and the beginning of May, Arthur Lonto repeated rituals taking place all over Brooklyn--he planted his garden, and he enjoyed the beginning of the baseball season with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was never idle. Here are a few more extracts from the busy realtor's journal. "Wednesday, April 30, 1947 Dodgers lose 1st game at Ebbets Field to Chicago. Jerome & I took Jitterbug lesson at 6 p.m.--Miss Young. Thursday, May 1, 1947 New family moves into 1431 E. 7th St from Park Slope. Called Rickerman, man, wife and young daughter Saturday, May 3, 1947 Father & I…
May Queens and Cherry Blossoms
The delicate cherry blossom is so ephemeral! This poor blossom wilted as I walked from the park to my office, and the trees bloom for just a few short weeks in early spring. In my previous post, I wrote about Brooklyn's official flower, the Forsythia. I like to think that the cherry blossom is one of Brooklyn's unofficial flowers because Brooklynites have celebrated this symbol of spring for many, many years. The cherry trees of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden have been celebrated since their planting, some as early as 1912. The garden boasts around 42 varieties of…
Brooklyn Goes to the Movies. A talk by Theater Historian Cezar Del Valle. Wednesday, April 28, 7 PM,
During the Golden Age of cinema, Brooklyn had over 200 movie houses. Many of these theaters, originally used for vaudeville acts, found new lives with the advent of moving pictures. Theater historian Cezar Del Valle willl host a lively lecture about these movie houses of yesteryear. Please come early as seating is limited. Wine and cheese social from 6:30-7:00 and the talk begins promptly at 7:00. The Brooklyn Collection is located at the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza on the second floor. Come and join us for this free and fascinating program! In addition to the program,…
Little Known Brooklyn Residents: Emil Kulik
From his workshop at 240 Bedford Ave in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Emil Kulik spent more than three years and a decade worth of savings to realize his dream -- inventing a diving apparatus like no other, seen in this image below. His invention, completed in 1932, resulted in a 3 1/2 ton device -- a cross between a diving bell and a solo submarine. The chief feature of his invention was that the diving apparatus operator would be able to work inside the diving bell for long periods of time, at normal air pressure with little or no help from the surface. The robot arms protruding from the front…
Julius Wilcox Cyanotypes: Exhibit in the Brooklyn Collection
Readers of this blog will be familiar with the name of Julius Wilcox, one of several late 19th century photographers in our collection. Wilcox was interested in architecture, engineering and celebrations as well as the seamier side of New York Life--the world of Mulberry Bend, the Tombs, and Silver Dollar Smith's Saloon. In this exhibit we have chosen to focus on the compelling social commentary that makes Wilcox's work a worthy counterpoint to that of his better known contemporary, Jacob Riis. These new digital prints from the original cyanotypes will be on display in the…
Found in the Morgue: Six Special Canines
There are many wonderful photographs and stories hiding in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle clippings and photographs morgue, silently waiting to be rediscovered. I've been keeping an eye out for interesting photos and stories on dogs, as a follow up to Olivia's charming post on cats in the Long Island Cat Club. We have two folders filled with images of Dogs at War, from which these first two images were found. Below is an image of Mike, guarding the weapons of Marine Corps recruits in training at Parris Island, S.C. recruit depot. Sinbad, a Coast Guard pup, sailed more than one million miles…
You may not quite recall my name, but certainly you ought to...
On Sundays, beginning sometime around 1895, there began to appear in the pages of the Eagle a column called Tricks and Puzzles. Unlike Sam Loyd's eponymous puzzle column which first appeared in 1896, Tricks and Puzzles was not the work of one riddling mastermind, but rather a column created by Eagle readers for Eagle readers. However, don't think that this column was proof of some conundrum-loving community of puzzle-heads bound by the mysteries of five-letter double diamonds and scriptural enigmas; the motivating factor here was rather simple: cold hard cash. For the contributor offering the…
Brooklyn's Flower
Is there anything better than walking through Grand Army Plaza, around Prospect Park, or down Eastern Parkway in the spring? Our eyes are so ready for some color, and at last the delicate daffodils appear, and tiny buds on the trees float in a green haze above us. And then too there are the skinny branches shooting from the ground covered with buttery flowers swarming the stalks--Forsythia! Seventy years ago Mrs. Florence A. Blum lobbied to make Forsythia Brooklyn's official flower. To her, Forsythia was "a symbol of unity and brotherhood at a time when world…
Mr Lonto and Jackie Robinson
We have recently acquired one volume of the diary of Arthur Lonto, a noted authority on transit and a former President of the Electric Railroaders Association. A World War II veteran, Mr Lonto worked in insurance and real estate until he was hired by the MTA, eventually becoming a transit management analyst. At the time the diary was written, Mr Lonto lived on East 7th Street between Avenues M and N. He notes indefatigably and compulsively every journey taken by public transportation, but more importantly, he abstracts news items of interest and follows the fortunes of the Brooklyn…