Artist Talk-Jesus in Brooklyn: Four Good Fridays with Larry Racioppo
Larry Racioppo has been photographing Good Friday on the streets of Brooklyn for over 40 years. Join us on March 25th at 7:00 p.m. as this celebrated street photographer talks about his work documenting the public processions, and celebrations of faith of four neighobrhood churches. Greater Zion Shiloh Baptist Church St. John the…
Cheers!
We hope that you'll join us next Wednesday, February 25th to hear Peter Thomas Fornatale and Chris Wertz as they present their new book, "Brooklyn Spirits and Cocktails: Craft Distilling from the World's Hippest Borough". They'll be discussing the history of distilled spirits in Brooklyn, and the new ways that restaurants, entrepreneurs, and bars are bringing back old recipes and methods, while adding their own twist to the enjoyment of cocktails. The talk begins at 7:00 p.m, and there will be a cocktail receiption at 6:30…
A School for Girls and One for Boys
It's doubtful that you've heard of James W. Naughton but very likely you have walked passed one of his magnificent buildings. Naughton, an Irish immigrant, moved to Brooklyn when he was eight years old. He became an architect after apprenticing in Milwaukee at the age of fifteen and upon his return to New York, he studied at the Cooper Union. In 1879 he became Superintendent of Buildings for Brooklyn's Board of Education and designed more than one hundred buildings, including Brooklyn's first high school. Before Brooklyn had any high schools, it had grammar schools.…
Film Screening and Discussion: "Battle for Brooklyn" -- Wednesday, January 28th, 7pm
As part of Brooklyn Transitions, a series of programs and events about neighborhood change in our borough, the Brooklyn Collection presents the film "Battle for Brooklyn". This documentary is an intensely intimate look at the very public and passionate fight waged by owners and residents facing condemnation of their property to make way for the controversial Atlantic Yards project, the development plan that created the Barclay's Center (home of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team) and the Pacific Park apartment towers that are currently under construction. Shot over seven years and…
The Mystery of PS 125
Looking at Google Maps, it is plain to see that PS 125 in Brownsville has been abandoned for quite some time. When did the oldest school in the neighborhood close, and why? This researcher started this blog assuming that these would be easy questions to answer. It turns out there is no clear answer to either one. From its creation in 1900, PS 125 was ill-equipped to handle the influx of Jewish, mostly Russian and Polish, immigrants streaming over the newly opened Williamsburg Bridge from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Four new schools opened in Brownsville between 1905 and…
The Mermen of Brownsville
The Brooklyn Collection has rotating exhibits all year round showcasing gems from the Collection (including an annual exhibit of student work). Currently, we're exhibiting items relating to "The Education of Kings: A History of Brooklyn Schools!" It will be up in the collection until February 13th, so please stop by and check out the yearbooks, photos, and other rare and unique Collection items we have on display. In honor of our current exhibition, the Brooklyn Connections team has set out to detail the history of three Brooklyn Schools over the next three weeks. With that,…
Teddy Bears from Brooklyn
The teddy bear has been a perennial gift favorite for at least a century. You may be surprised to learn that the invention of teddy bears is squarely rooted in Brooklyn. The holiday season is a good time to review the story of this adorable stuffed toy with which so many of us have a deep emotional connection. An early 20th century family photograph of Brooklyn-born sculptor Frederick MacMonnies' daughters Betty and Marjorie, flanked by their governess and their good friend, the teddy bear.My research was spurred, oddly enough, by a work of fiction. Karen Hesse’s…
Free From Freakish Ideas
Parties, man. The worst. Who do you invite? Or more specifically, how do you invite everyone except for that guy? New Year's Eve parties? The worst of the worst. A day already filled with expectations, topped with anticipation, with a dash of nostalgia and/or regret. Thank goodness there are people who are paid to tell us what to do and what not to do to avoid garish social faux pas. Marie Manning, writing under the pseudonym Beatrice Fairfax, wrote the first newspaper advice column in the New York Evening Journal in 1898. The format proved an instant success, with other…
They'll Say 'Aww, Topsy!' At My Autopsy!
Sometimes, all it takes is an episode of Bob's Burgers to ignite a historical research adventure! In the episode aptly named "Topsy," Louise devises a scheme to take revenge on an obnoxious science teacher who is obsessed with Thomas Edison. While researching for her science project at the local library, Louise and her siblings stumble across a video of an elephant being electrocuted by the Edison Electric Company. Louise cackles with delight at the idea of smearing the reputation of her teacher's beloved hero in front of the entire class, "I'm going to tell everyone the truth about Thomas…
Manure Freely: The Floral Stylings of Julius J. Heinrich
The Brooklyn Collection's ephemera files are pretty expansive, filled with an array of amazing (and sometimes random) documents tucked away into acid-free manila folders: programs, community newsletters, membership cards, and the like. We have a fair amount of newspapers and periodicals as well, including one well-loved booklet from 1889 entitled Henirch's Floral Instructor. I was drawn to the book due to the filigree on the cover and the floral-themed typeface. It is pretty, yes? As I started to gently flip through the pages I began to get some scents (Pun! Bad pun!) of late 19th…
Brooklyn Connections Professional Developments
We are pleased to announce the Brooklyn Connections 2014/ 2015 teacher professional development schedule. To register for any of the workshops, please email connections@bklynlibrary.org or visit our website. ------ Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson--a great topic for this year's NHD theme: Leadership and Legacy What: Creating a National History Day Project with the Brooklyn Collection and the Museum of the City of New York When: Monday, December 1, 2014 from 5pm-7pm Who should attend: Teachers and parents who have students or children participating in National History Day or those who…
The Brooklyn Hellfighters
The day was November 11th, 1919. At exactly 11:00am, on the one year anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting between the Allies and Germany, all school children in Brooklyn were asked to place their pencils on their desks for a ten minute silence so that they could "realize vividly the significance which that moment had for America's embattled armies." Brooklyn Daily Eagle 11 Nov. 1919. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on the events of the newly elected day of remembrance (not a national holiday until 1938 and not called Veteran's Day until 1954): parades, dinners, and…
Golden City USA
When New Yorkers dream of summer fun at an amusement park by the sea, most turn their thoughts to Coney Island. However, 100 years ago they might have been dreaming about Canarsie’s Golden City Park. The popular yet often forgotten amusement park opened in the summer of 1907 to a crowd of 25,000. Built on Jamaica Bay by Warner’s Canarsie Amusement Company, the park relied on the recently extended railroad system to deliver daytrippers from all over the city. An undated rendering of the park in its heyday.Golden City delighted attendees with amusement park staples such as a…
Dirt for Dirt's Sake: the trials of Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer"
In observance of Banned Books Week, the Brooklyn Collection offers this tale taken straight from the institutional archives of Brooklyn Public Library. On July 11, 1963 a stern memo was distributed to every library throughout the borough of Brooklyn: "TO: ALL SERVICE AGENCIES FROM: THE ASSISTANT CHIEF LIBRARIAN RE: MILLER, HENRY - TROPIC OF CANCER The New York State Court of Appeals ruled on July 10, 1963 that TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller is obscene under the New York State obscenity law. The following action must be taken immediately: No copy is to be loaned to…
Williamsburg: Then & Now
Our collection of photographs by Anders Goldfarb are some of the most contemporary images in our holdings aside from those taken by Jamel Shabazz. However, unlike Shabazz who captures the personalities of Brooklynites, Goldfarb mostly captures the personalities of the borough's dilapidated buildings. In a 2012 interview with Goldfarb, Peter Mattei asked: "What emotion do you feel when you see these buildings? What makes you want to photograph them?" "It's a form of compassion I think I have for the building," Goldfarb replied, "because they're old and the old as a rule tend to perish and…
A Look at the Year Ahead: Brooklyn Connections
We at Brooklyn Connections are gearing up for our 8th year reaching out to local schools, teaching research skills and learning about local history. With an exciting two-year, $400,000 grant from the New York Life Foundation and additional generous funding from The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, David and Paula Weiner Memorial Grant, The Hearst Foundation, Inc., Tiger Baron Foundation, and Epstein Teicher Philanthropies, we can continue our efforts of teaching authentic historical research to students around Brooklyn! Students at PS/ IS 163 learned about transit history. They…
A Digest of a Different Sort
Last week I was looking for a piece of ephemera for a project packet I was creating on Brownsville when I stumbled across something different: a digest, if you will. This digest then went on to change the entire course of my day. How did one small magazine change the entire course of my day, you ask? Well, I immediately stopped looking for information on Brownsville, that's how. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading about sports, history, restaurants, and women in "The Magazine For Brooklyn, About Brooklyn, In Brooklyn." Brooklyn Digest Magazine was a small monthly magazine…
The Quiet, Colorful Moments of Irving Herzberg
Irving Herzberg (1915-1991) is perhaps best known for capturing personal, candid moments. The Brooklyn Collection houses Herzberg's life's work; over 2,300 images of day-to-day Brooklynites: a woman with her tired baby, a man looking at totem poles, and children stuffing their faces with cotton candy. The Brooklyn Collection also has some amazingly terrifying photos of the plane crash that shook up Park Slope in the winter of 1960 and a wealth of photos that he took of Brooklyn's traditionally closed Hasidic community. Herzberg spent 10 years, Sunday after Sunday,…
Before "organic" was even a notion...
In an unusual confluence of the World War I centennial observation and the height of harvesting season, a small, curious cache of photographic images found its way to the Brooklyn Collection. Twenty six lantern slides and seven photographic prints, presumably from 1919, depict a group of Brooklyn youngsters and their teachers tending vegetable plots. A couple of them feature the Park Commissioner John N. Harman as well. It was not only a tree that grew in Brooklyn, apparently, but also carrots, kohlrabi, beans, beets, radishes and corn. The pictures were taken at the Betsy Park…
Summing Up a School Year with Brooklyn Connections
The 2013-2014 school year has proven to be a truly banner year for Brooklyn Connections. We're pleased to have partnered with over 2,000 students in 70 classes from 30 schools in Queens, Manhattan and of course, Brooklyn. Students from PS 131 before their visit to the Brooklyn Collection in January Throughout the year, Connections staff supported students by teaching Common Core-aligned research skills, including note-taking, text and photographic analysis, outlining, and writing a research question or thesis statement. All partner schools visited the Brooklyn…